Thank you to NetGalley and HarperTeen for access to an eARC in exchange for an honest review!!

The moment I saw this book was a queer ghost story, I was already sold. But the fact that it's also got immaculate gothic horror vibes that only get stronger and spookier the further into the book you read, the found family trope, a dangerous and secretive academic society, and *screams* dark academia dragged me so far into it that I put everything else I was reading on hold for the most part to fly through this one. And I was *not* disappointed.

Tara Boone, having spent most of her life in a backwards town taking care of her mother rather than the other way around, seizes the opportunity to leave her directionless life behind when she's accepted to Corbin College, her eyes set on the full scholarship and promised family-like relations of Magni Viri, the extremely exclusive academic society on campus. But when she isn't accepted into Magni Viri and life at college turns out to be far more difficult than she'd anticipated with no friends or social life to speak of, she finds herself dragging her feet through each day just trying to get by while taking classes, working two campus jobs, and trying in her minimal free time to work on her writing.

But everything changes one night after what she labels a failed reading of one of her short stories, and in the coming days, she finds herself invited to join a suddenly vacant spot in Magni Viri and being ushered into the life she'd wished for so desperately. Suddenly, she has time to work on her writing, she's meeting a host of new friends, and she feels connected with the other Magni Viri students and the society itself, like she's a part of something bigger. Too bad even the good feelings from all of that can't keep her afloat once the nightmares and apparent sleepwalking start, making her feel as though she's getting little to no rest for days at a time. And when it seems like everyone around her understands what's happening to her but won't fill her in or help her, it's up to Tara to solve the mystery and save herself from whatever is slowly consuming her.

This book is without a doubt one of my favorite reads of the year so far. A study in modern gothic horror, the atmosphere was cold and dreary and just the right amount of spooky and haunting even in the lighter moments. Erica Waters has a way of weaving words together that dragged me right into the story alongside Tara and all of her friends, the story kept me guessing almost until the very end on exactly what was going to happen, and the characters were diverse and well rounded and flawed and felt *so real* that I wanted to be friends with them myself. I would also sell my soul for a chance to read the novel being written throughout the book, Cicada, just for the experience of reading those words as well.

But I think what ended up personally drawing me into All That Consumes Us most of all was how much I found myself relating to Tara. A young girl who dreams of being a novelist (with a love of Jane Eyre and other gothic literature) from a small town spending her life taking care of everyone but herself, wishing for something more for her future and distancing herself from her past to get to where she needs to be, struggling constantly with finding a community and with feeling like an imposter in her own skin...it was the first time in a long while that I've connected so deeply with the protagonist of a novel that I could so fully understand the decisions they made.