4.5/5

For fans of: A Deadly Education, Hogwarts, secret societies, complex magical systems, pining, story-within-a-story, dark academia, trapped gods, phases of the moon

The Big Questions:

• What genre is this in? YA fantasy

• Are there any swoon-worthy characters? Nope, not that kind of story

• Is it spicy? There’s romance, but it is secondary

• Is it violent or gory? Some action rounding up the more dangerous animals, but nothing gory

• Should I buy, borrow, or pass on this book? If you are looking for comfy/cozy fantasy, borrow or buy it!

Synopsis: Ninth House meets A Deadly Education in this gorgeous dark academia fantasy following a teen mage who must unravel the truth behind the secret society that may have been involved in her classmates’ deaths.

Emory might be a student at the prestigious Aldryn College for Lunar Magics, but her healing abilities have always been mediocre at best—until a treacherous night in the Dovermere sea caves leaves a group of her classmates dead and her as the only survivor. Now Emory is plagued by strange, impossible powers that no healer should possess.

Powers that would ruin her life if the wrong person were to discover them.

To gain control of these new abilities, Emory enlists the help of the school’s most reclusive student, Baz—a boy already well-versed in the deadly nature of darker magic, whose sister happened to be one of the drowned students and Emory’s best friend. Determined to find the truth behind the drownings and the cult-like secret society she’s convinced her classmates were involved in, Emory is faced with even more questions when the supposedly drowned students start washing ashore— alive —only for them each immediately to die horrible, magical deaths.

And Emory is not the only one seeking answers. When her new magic captures the society’s attention, she finds herself drawn into their world of privilege and power, all while wondering if the truth she’s searching for might lead her right back to Dovermere…to face the fate she was never meant to escape.

Review: You had me at dark academia. My goodness this was a fun, dark romp into a moon-obsessed world full of twisted turns in ominous caves by treacherous seas. This is the perfect October read for dark, stormy nights. I was enraptured by the setting already, but the world building and magical system here is wonderful and unique. If you loved the houses aspect of Hogwarts and the darker aspects of the Harry Potter world, you will love this.

Now on to the main character, Avery. This character is at times endearing, but mostly frustrating. Mainly because her actions and decisions are both ridiculously naive and all too relatable. As someone who kept her head down in college and never wanted to be involved in drama, I too was naive of the ways of the world. Which is why I couldn’t stand how she treated Baz, the one other person who knew her and cared for her. She was so out of pocket for how she treated Baz when she knew what it was like to not be popular. Speaking of Baz, he’s a sweetheart who did not deserve the treatment he got. I loved his character arc in this book. To me, he is the star of the show along with his roomie, Kai. These two had the much more interesting storyline. Avery, girl get it together.

On to other things I loved about this story. The story-within-the-story was so interesting! These heroes jumping between worlds to find the drowned gods added so much to Avery and Baz’s storylines. The twists towards the end of the book were so good at bringing all the plot points together and had me putting the book down to sit with my thoughts for a minute. Lots of shocked Pikachu faces throughout the whole book. I loved it. I can’t wait for the sequel.

Digital ARC provided by Netgalley for an honest review.