ive been annotating so much that i ran out of ink T^T a solid 60% of my annotations are just me arguing with Winston

tl;dr - I didn't like Poppy War and am not sure if I like dark academia, but this book receives such high praise and covers themes I am interested in. I don't have as much time to read as I used to, so I am trying to be strategic with what I choose to start (I sometimes have a hard time dnf-ing). I am definitely interested in the linguistics and school atmosphere this book provides, as well as the themes, but I hesitate for a couple of reasons: 1. I read Poppy War and did not like it. It may be that I was on a streak of reading about characters motivated by vengeance, or that the main character was too one-dimensional and unambiguous for me (I am not looking to debate this, just my personal opinion). I understand this helps move the plot along, which I enjoyed at first, but I had to force myself through the second half. It was not at all what I was expecting from a book that started YA, and had I known, I wouldn't have picked it up in the first place. 2. The last (and maybe only) dark academia book I read was A Deadly Education. I found the characters flat and the plot seemed to go nowhere. I believe this will be a better book than that: Kuang showed in The Poppy War that she is able to write an interesting story. I want to really like this book. Some people here have called it their favorite book, and with praise like that it tempts me. Apologies for the word-vomit, but I would appreciate any insight y'all might have:)