I'm pretty into this. Now I have to wait like a month for the next volume to come back, though /o\

Basically what I expect from DH--smart sassy pretentious teenagers, written with cleverness and care. And bonus, great art from Maira Kalman.

HOLY SHIT, VC ANDREWS MUCH?? This book has some BONKERS drama. Like just one shocking reveal after another. But with a lot of swordfight scenes and spying in the middle.

Uhh I don't know. I'm interested in the way these books show female solidarity in the face of sexual violence, but both ultimately resolve with their lady assassins happily in love with dudes who seem way older? (I'm not sure I ever got their ages pinned down, but they seem older.) Like, I'm happy Sybella and Ismae can be lady assassins but also find romantic love, but the way it plays out felt a little weird to me?? I think I was kind of rooting for Sybella to hook up with her maid Tephanie. Tephanie seemed way into her. Oh well, I guess that was just me accidentally writing Dark Triumph fanfiction.

I think maybe overall I would have liked this more than I liked [b:Grave Mercy|9565548|Grave Mercy (His Fair Assassin, #1)|R.L. LaFevers|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1337042881s/9565548.jpg|14452295], but because I read them both close together, by the time I got to the end of this I was just pretty sick of court intrigue and old-timeyness. But those aren't my favorite things in the first place, so readers who like that kind of book will probably want more. (I'm rounding up to 4 stars to account for how much I liked Sybella despite all the stuff I didn't like.)

It's possible that the plot of this doesn't make super much sense but WHATEVER, I LOVE ITTTT

This showed up on several best of 2013 lists, and it especially caught my eye because the titular group of protagonists all meet at a summer camp, and I'm a sucker for a camp story, and also for stories about pretentious young people. I could def see where another person could hate this book for all the reasons I loved it, but, I loved it. I loved how richly developed the characters were, and how honest & flawed & interesting they all were. It was also a bit of a page-turner for me--some of the ups & downs for the characters' lives were shocking and compelling, but even the more mundane moments captivated me for how honestly portrayed they were.

It took me forever to figure out that this book is set in the 60s. I thought it was a contemporary novel for some reason, and the only thing that really got to me was the prices of everything. Anyway. The titular "Dark Dude" is a derogatory nickname for Rico, a light-skinned Cuban-American boy who gets hassled in his school and neighborhood because the black and Latino kids think he's white. He ends up running away to Wisconsin (where an older friend of his has moved to attend college after winning the lottery). It actually feels very plausible in the book, although when I write out that plot point it sounds a little ridiculous. Just go with it. My favorite part of the book was Rico's connection with comic books and Huckleberry Finn.