A dark, twisty thriller that doesn't disappoint

Beautifully narrated & wonderfully written. I can't wait for the sequel to come out.

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Fully developed story

Loved the story and narration. Good pace and strong characters. Did not feel like a long book. Buying the next instalment soon.

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This book destroyed me!

I loved this book so much!
my favourite quote is still one from Darlington "There is probably a metaphor in all this Stern...I'll figure it out when I'm sober."
I loved every second and the narrors were amazing!!

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beautifully written and read

Characters with a very honest view of themselves, magic that is realistically grim, and people with magic that are just as flawed as anyone... this all make up a sensitive, magical and gory listening and I loved every second of it:)

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Three and a half stars, rounded down.

Mostly, I enjoyed this book. Only less than I expected to based on the rave reviews. A lot was made of the fact that this wasn't a YA novel, including by the author herself, however I felt most of the book that it was a YA novel with an overlay of some sexual violence and a lot of use of the word "f***" so it wasn't quite adult feeling in the sense of it being a mature novel, also given that the protagonist is indeed a teenager, so something didn't add up for me.

Other things I failed to connect with were the police as the good guys (fantasy indeed) and the attempt to critique the unbelievable privilege inherent to most of the people and surroundings. Much like the flat effect of straight people writing LGBT relationships, Bardugo is writing about her own privileged background, and she seems to think that to contrast with it one must be a drug addict of unclear ethnicity and paternity from the slums. And use the word Town a few times.

Along the same lines, there is a well dressed Black cop but everyone else is white, all of them straight. This lack of diversity is much like Bardugo's early work, which is what led her to create the weird hybrid TV series, so that might have been something she learned to do better? The MC has a Ladino speaking Jewish grandmother, but an Ashkenazi last name, and no personal connection to this ethnicity. Much is made of the fact that she might look a little Mexican if she over-tans, but that is about as diverse as it gets, and all invested into the one character who is an outsider anyway, so while it is an interesting aspect of the character it doesn't really make the story very diverse.

Finally, I pretty much saw the ending coming from miles away. Not the particulars, but definitely the whodunit.

I did like the MC, whom Bardugo calls "thorny" in the bonus interview, which again, only shows what a soft background she herself is from. I found her smart and tough and liked her sense of humor. I also liked the representation of friendship between women.

The pacing was good, and the big reveal at the end was pretty original however some of the imagery used was pretty unoriginal including for example the banquet, which seen through a mirror all the participants are old and falling apart and eating rotten food or something like that. It's been done a lot, and there are several elements like that throughout.

Nitpicks: I might have just missed where this was clarified, but the MC seems to have been 15 years old during the events leading up to her coming to Yale as a freshman (and not 15). The male narrator couldn't say New Haven correctly, and while Fortgang is a talented narrator, her accents were terrible, and she probably should have just skipped them.

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Interesting, gripping and fast paced

For fantasy lovers this is such a beautiful tale of magic. The storyline is gripping and the characters are enjoyable and the magic system is interesting and beautiful. While the writing borders between YA and full blown fantasy, the story achieves depth and pace. I really enjoyed this read and am itching for the next book if there is one !

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One of my faves of the year

“That was what magic did. It revealed the heart of who you'd been before life took away your belief in the possible. It gave back the world all lonely children longed for.”

4.5 Stars

I'm am going to borrow a phrase from John Green "There is something to recommend a story that ends" and say "There is something to recommend a story that starts at the beginning" especially when there's a magic system you don't know, all these characters you don't know and you basically have no clue what's going on!'

“What do you want?" Belbalm had asked her. Safety, comfort, to feel unafraid. I want to live to grow old, Alex thought as she pulled the curtains closed. I want to sit on my porch and drink foul-smelling tea and yell at passersby. I want to survive this world that keeps trying to destroy me.”

In this book we meet Alex Stern, who really has no business being at Yale, since she didn't graduate highschool, but she has this gift- or curse - where she can see ghosts, and she is made a deal that she can't refuse - a free ride at Yale, a chance for a normal life, if she helps to police the secret societies, and makes sure that they don't use their magic for ill gains - and then, a dead girl turns up, and nobody seems to bothered about solving the case.

This about jumps around between autumn, where we see Alex acclimating at Yale and her new responsibilities, and meeting her guide, but pretty soon in, we see something go terribly wrong. And you see the fall-out from that in the Winter chapters.

There's just so much going on in this book, it kept me wrong-footed constantly, and kept my interest rapt.

Alex isn't a very likable character maybe, but this book is such an ode to surviving and getting the job done, by whatever means necessary, I actually loved her by the end. It's also about privilege,m and about the kind of people that get away with things, and the kind that don't
I think it's a very universal feeling to want to carve out your own little section of the world, of life where people just let you be, and accept you, as you are, and this book spoke to that feeling so much for me

I really liked the friendship that blossomed in this book, and I also liked our other POV character Darlington,

The way the magic was handled and described was also very cool to me. I just really loved this book. Though, this won't be the book for everyone, if you can't take gore. Not for you. If you can't handle the main character's fuck you- attitude, Not for you. If you can't handle involved stories with a large emphasis on magic, not for you!

I think the only real critism I have is that we could have been eased into the story more gently

I think the individual narrators were great picks who fit their POV character very well

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Wow, what a good book!

For me this book went from interesting to riveting to couldn't stop listening.well written with a very strong main character in Alex. Although she's not always morally upright i found that i was hoping for her to succeed. A couple of her scenes with her friend Hellie were very moving.
The plot moves along very well and there are some surprising twists i thought were very effective. The supernatural elements and the murder mystery aspects worked very well together. Narration is very good.
I'd highly recommend this book and am eagerly awaiting the next in the series.

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Disappointed

cool concept but objectively idk if it was enough

there’s one specific thing in this book that kinda ruins it for me, I won’t spoil it. but I’m not entirely sure if it’s a poorly written part or if it’s just that I didn’t catch it bc I was distracted

both are plausible

(and it might be unfair of me as it also affects my rating? but they could’ve just brought it up again when it turned out to be such a huge part 🤠although basically meaningless it turns out idk🤠 of the plot)

and all in all it felt rushed

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Not My genre

I was recommended this book but unfortunately I didn't enjoy it, difficult to follow the plot

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