Welcome to New Haven – a place riddled with grays (ghosts) and magic galore. Instead of frat houses, we have magic houses. Instead of basements filled with beer pong, we have tombs and rituals. (Just kidding, beer pong is there too.) Alex is scooped out of her dejecting life and given the oppurtunity to join Yale, thanks to her special gift. A fairy tale ending? Or a bit too much at once?
Personally, this was a rollercoaster read. Every time I was excited about some movement, the pace would slow way down to all this inner dialogue that I didn’t need rehashed. This was a long book, but I tucked in for all 476 pages and made it through alive.
Alex Stern herself felt forced. She is supposed to be this badass with all this trauma. (Yay! Trauma makes you cool!) Yet, she was not the tiger the author wanted us to think. Alex ‘letting her true self out’ to get what she wanted with her empty threats did nothing for me. Her big dark secret one revealed, again, did nothing for me.
The only character I found mildly interesting was Darlington and even he was a let down in the end. The author teased us with a glimpse of this moody guy, living in this old house, libraries, dark walls, stained glass, Oxford… give me more of that.
It wasn’t all bad for me. I’ll most likely read the next in the series.
This is my first book by Bardugo who seems to have a bit of a cult following. I’m curious to learn more about her, her stories and her writing style. The reviews are very mixed with this one but it’s still trending at over 4 stars in Goodreads.
I might have given this 3 stars, but I’d still recommend it to my fellow readers with the caveat that it’s unnecessarily long, but intriguing.
cmacs paperbacks 
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