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zmurph16's Reviews (619)
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I, admittedly, had a hard time getting through this one. The slow plot, although necessary, was deterring to my reading pace. And with the slowness came descriptive world building. While I love world building, my own personal concentration veers off at it. I prefer lengthy character growth than lengthy world explanations. While this had both it tended to lean towards world building. I have no clue how to rate this because I was stunned by the beginning and end. I’m hovering between 3.5 and 4 so we’ll just have a little bit of a round up since my biases of how great the first book was.
Too much dark, not enough academia.
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My problems were thus. The idea of Agatha Christie scholarship was there. The academic setting was there...at the beginning. For a book that is summarized as it is, there wasn't nearly enough of the scholarly turmoil that I love. In previous books of this genre and of a much higher caliber (When We Were Villains by M.L. Rio, and The Secret History by Donna Tarte), the obsession over the subject, not the obsession over the professor, is what rounded out the communal madness that ultimately leads to a dark academia book's climax. I noticed with this book, more than any other of this genre, the blandness of the main character. I know that they are supposed to be a blank slate so the reader can insert themselves into their shoes, but it read more like Bella from Twilight. Lastly, Nick did not receive enough character growth or love from the author. He was advertised too highly in the book summary and the prelude. He could've been an interesting and well-plotted character if only Weinberg had given him a chance.
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My problems were thus. The idea of Agatha Christie scholarship was there. The academic setting was there...at the beginning. For a book that is summarized as it is, there wasn't nearly enough of the scholarly turmoil that I love. In previous books of this genre and of a much higher caliber (When We Were Villains by M.L. Rio, and The Secret History by Donna Tarte), the obsession over the subject, not the obsession over the professor, is what rounded out the communal madness that ultimately leads to a dark academia book's climax. I noticed with this book, more than any other of this genre, the blandness of the main character. I know that they are supposed to be a blank slate so the reader can insert themselves into their shoes, but it read more like Bella from Twilight. Lastly, Nick did not receive enough character growth or love from the author. He was advertised too highly in the book summary and the prelude. He could've been an interesting and well-plotted character if only Weinberg had given him a chance.
