#but no. its all libby and nico. and sometimes tristan having daddy issues or parisa being a Sexy Mean Girl.

[six-of-ravens]

honestly I think if Callum was more of a main player I would like this book better. this Dark Academia is missing its Dark part since the sociopathic asshole lead has been shunted to the side to make room for the Libby/Nico completely predictable romance.

like I was comparing this to A Lesson in Vengeance, the last DA I read. It had some issues, and did lean very far into the Aesthetic, but was still far more interesting. why? because the characters are well-developed and intriguing. they're not just copy-paste archetype descriptions. Like. how much of an antihero is Felicity? what is the truth? what has she made up? how far will she let Ellis lead her? what is Ellis leading her to? what actually happened with Alex that Felicity feels so guilty and awful about? is Ellis genuinely evil or just a very eccentric writer?

Nico, Libby, and Tristan are total goody-two-shoes. Reina has no evil designs and very much just wants to be left alone. Parisa is an ass but deep down she's harmless. But Callum, clearly a sociopath with no compunctions about mind-controlling others, gets ignored so much. I haven't counted, but I'm fairly certain he gets the fewest chapters, and he has the least interaction with the others.

So there's nothing interesting going on. No tension, since the characters paired off into friend groups early on and seem to mostly keep to their own circles after that. Just buds being pals, reading books that we don't get to hear about because apparently explaining how magic and spells work would be too much for this author. Sure, Callum has befriended Tristan at this point, but....even that is so benign. He's just like, yeah I'll be buds with this guy because having a friend means you don't get killed, and he's lonely and cockblocked and easy to manipulate, whatever. (I did skip ahead and see that he maybe kills [redacted] but even that is super predictable, bc he clearly thinks they're the weakest of the bunch. would be nice to get some more Evulz leading up to that point tho.)

(note: I haven't even read anything yet today, I just actually thought about what I read yesterday and it annoyed me.)

#its just a love triangle covered with a thin veneer of obliviousness #libbys current BF is the Good Boy and Nico is the Bad Boy and of course shes going to end up with him #was this originally a YA that got aged up?? #also callum gets the least screentime and thats a mistake. give me someone interesting to watch at least #but no. its all libby and nico. and sometimes tristan having daddy issues or parisa being a Sexy Mean Girl. #reina literally has a chapter that's like 'she requested some books from the library and chatted with a random woman' #like what. why. #also apparently libby and nico MADE A WORMHOLE but NO DETAILS ARE GIVEN ABOUT HOW THEY ACCOMPLISHED IT #gotta focus on the romance :/ oh and sometimes that roommate who's half centaur half mermaid #who apparently is a fragile delicate flower who needs saving but we're never told WHY he's so delicate and can't fend for himself #anyway. this book leaves out all the interesting bits or tries to cover them with vague handwavy explanations and it's annoying #steph reads tas