Nicholas McCane
Okay, so I’m going to tell you right now, this book will not be for everyone. I have been seeing a lot of critical reviews and people who have claimed to DNF. I have read all of her books, so let me tell you what I think. My aim is to be as objective as possible. Spoiler free. They marketed this book as an enemy-to-lovers story and a book about Hell. And although this is present, it’s more like a backdrop. This is more of a dark academia that takes place in Hell. So let me make this clear: this is not a romance story.
The main characters are Alice and Peter. They are both PhD students who study analytic magic at Cambridge University. Their advisor dies in a horrible freak magic accident. Instead of mourning like you and I would have done, both Alice and Peter used magic to enter Hell to bring him back. They need his recommendation so they can get good jobs.
Both main characters are a little unlikable, but they will grow on you. And, to be completely honest, the professor is unlikable also; he didn’t grow on me. There were villains in Hell that I liked, and there were some that I didn’t like so much. However, the plot is outstanding; I enjoyed its magic system, and I felt like it was easy to read. And no, you do not need to read Dante’s Inferno (Marcus Sanders), Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll), The Bell Jar (Sylvia Plath), or The Wasteland (T.S. Eliot). So just relax; everything should make sense in context.
I think most people who have an issue with this book probably dislike R.F. Kuang’s version of Hell. I think many people expected it to look different and felt like this Hell was boring. But this is Alice and Peter’s Hell. In this world, Hell looks different to everyone. It depends on who you were and what your life was like. So, this is Hell for nerds. Take that into consideration before jumping into this book. Check your expectations.
There are parts in this book that drag. But if you have read this author’s other books, then you should expect some backstory. Every book in The Poppy War Trilogy dragged at some point, and so did Babel. You should also expect this from Dark Academia. Yellowface didn’t drag, but that was literary fiction. R.F. Kuang did what R.F. Kuang does. Although I predicted the ending, I still enjoyed it. I actually enjoyed it a little more than Babel. With that being said, I’m giving this book 4.25 stars.
Okay, so I’m going to tell you right now, this book will not be for everyone. I have been seeing a lot of critical reviews and people who have claimed to DNF. I have read all of her books, so let me tell you what I think. My aim is to be as objective as possible. Spoiler free. They marketed this book as an enemy-to-lovers story and a book about Hell. And although this is present, it’s more like a backdrop. This is more of a dark academia that takes place in Hell. So let me make this clear: this is not a romance story.
The main characters are Alice and Peter. They are both PhD students who study analytic magic at Cambridge University. Their advisor dies in a horrible freak magic accident. Instead of mourning like you and I would have done, both Alice and Peter used magic to enter Hell to bring him back. They need his recommendation so they can get good jobs.
Both main characters are a little unlikable, but they will grow on you. And, to be completely honest, the professor is unlikable also; he didn’t grow on me. There were villains in Hell that I liked, and there were some that I didn’t like so much. However, the plot is outstanding; I enjoyed its magic system, and I felt like it was easy to read. And no, you do not need to read Dante’s Inferno (Marcus Sanders), Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll), The Bell Jar (Sylvia Plath), or The Wasteland (T.S. Eliot). So just relax; everything should make sense in context.
I think most people who have an issue with this book probably dislike R.F. Kuang’s version of Hell. I think many people expected it to look different and felt like this Hell was boring. But this is Alice and Peter’s Hell. In this world, Hell looks different to everyone. It depends on who you were and what your life was like. So, this is Hell for nerds. Take that into consideration before jumping into this book. Check your expectations.
There are parts in this book that drag. But if you have read this author’s other books, then you should expect some backstory. Every book in The Poppy War Trilogy dragged at some point, and so did Babel. You should also expect this from Dark Academia. Yellowface didn’t drag, but that was literary fiction. R.F. Kuang did what R.F. Kuang does. Although I predicted the ending, I still enjoyed it. I actually enjoyed it a little more than Babel. With that being said, I’m giving this book 4.25 stars.