Unhallowed Halls

Unhallowed Halls

Lili Wilkinson

Enjoyment: 2.5Quality: 2.5Characters: 3.0Plot: 2.0
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A teen girl travels to an exclusive boarding school located deep within the Scottish moorlands after a deadly incident at her old school, but the wood-paneled halls of Agathion are built over centuries of secrets—including an ancient society which may have ties to demonic magic—in this dark academia fantasy perfect for fans of Curious Tides. Page Whittaker has always been an outcast. And after the deadly incident that destroyed her single friendship at her old school, she needs a fresh start. Which is why when she receives a scholarship offer from Agathion College, an elite boarding school folded deep within the moors of Scotland, she doesn’t even consider turning it down. Agathion is everything Page has ever wanted: a safe haven full of dusty books, steaming cups of tea and rigorous intellectual debate. And for the first time in her life, Page has even managed to become part of a close group of friends. Cyrus, Ren, Gideon, Lacey and Oak help her feel at home in Agathion's halls--the only problem is, they're all keeping secrets from her. Page doesn't know it yet, but her perfect new school has dark roots--roots that stretch back to its crooked foundation, and an ancient clandestine society with rumored ties to demonic magic. Soon, Page will be forced to learn that not everyone at Agathion is who they say they are. Least of all, her friends. Agathion claims to teach its students history…but some histories should stay buried.


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  • Thoughts from 11% (page 47)

    i do love the way she sets the atmosphere in her books. i get a very clear picture of my surroundings and you can FEEL them come through the pages. i've read deep is the fen by her as well and both have A+ atmosphere and start off very strong (though i didn't love the way deep is the fen kind of dropped off a little after the middle). digging this so far.

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  • Feb 06, 2025
    Enjoyment: 2.5Quality: 2.5Characters: 3.0Plot: 2.0
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    This one was...okay. It was trying too hard from the outset, but I was willing to roll with it nevertheless, but once it had to start wrapping up plot, it went off the rails - and lost the gothic atmosphere that was most of what it had going for it to begin with. I'm not one to search for plot holes and pick them apart, but I had to work really, really hard not to highlight the whole book in frustrated annotations. And it suffers from what a lot of so-called dark academia suffers from these days - riding on the "these are my best friends, this place feels like home, this all matters so much" vibes without having sufficiently built them. (Not unique to dark academia, but I've definitely been noticing it a lot in this subgenre as it's trendy right now.) In short, it failed to develop enough of a foundation early on to support the plot that ends up crashing down on the reader. Thank you to the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

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