Anne

This book was not really what I expected, I expected dark academia, but it was more of a dark mystery or something, so that might have influenced my experience a bit.. A lot of people seem to love this book, so maybe I was just not in the right headspace or expecting something too different, but it just wasn't for me. I didn't dislike the book, but it was just not quite there for me. I feel like there were a lot of unnecessary elements (the rivalry between the 2 countries and the north and south, also the drowning was mentioned a decent amount, but it didn't really feel like part of the story for me) that kind of distracted from the main themes that I was really interested in. I also did not love the romantic relationship, I did not feel like they had a lot of chemistry and it seemed to move quite quick and sudden, especially considering Effy's traumatic past. I thought the sex scene was kind of out of place as well, like they had been worrying about the storm (and the second drowning?) and having only a small amount of time to get out and then just decided that that was the right time for a quicky and a nap? Really?

This book seemed really cute and fun, but is not for me sadly. I really like the concept, but the writing made it hard for me to enjoy, I'd love to read this book after an editor has gone to town on it. The writing style feels quite juvenile to me for an adult book, everything is spelled out to the extreme. The lack of subtlety by both the writing and the characters themselves is why I stopped reading at this point (22%).

This book seemed really cute and fun, but is not for me sadly. I really like the concept, but the writing made it hard for me to enjoy, I'd love to read this book after an editor has gone to town on it. The writing style feels quite juvenile to me for an adult book, everything is spelled out to the extreme. The lack of subtlety by both the writing and the characters themselves is why I stopped reading at this point (22%).