To say that V.E. Schwab is a master of her craft in this book would be an understatement. Multiple POVs that are distinct in voice and structure and time, yet also parallel and intertwine. Beautiful and evocative writing. Deeply nuanced and compelling characters. A plot that manages to twist and turn and satisfy despite it being a character-driven book. Layered themes of womanhood and queerness and religion and ambition and desire and power and abuse and humanity and freedom and personal evolution. Completely captivating and deeply thought provoking; this is a book you want to buy hard copy and take a pen to. I could not possibly recommend it more.

thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the e-ARC.

oof, where to start? the main character came off reeeaaallly strong in her hatred for vampires, and it took a bit for her to mellow out. with that being said, she’s not subtle about it. at all ! in a university full of vampires. :| her paranoia started to become my paranoia. the love interest felt like she had very little depth other than being a player and not being educated in her vampire studies.

the story itself was pretty predictable. there wasn’t a moment in time where i thought the main character would suffer from whatever the circumstances were from the situation she found herself in. stakes were attempted, but they meant nothing in the end. and strangely enough, it was the last 30% that felt like such a battle to get through. there were a lot of attempts at different plot points, and they all seemed to be solved as quickly as they were introduced.

i really wanted to like this one after seeing it was butch vampire x femme vampire hunter, but i don’t think i care enough about the story or even the characters to want to read the second book.