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3.5/5
Non-Fiction
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(Finally) read from Ada's copy, on recommendation from both Ada and Amelia.
Rating: 4/5
Pages: 416
Started: 4 December 2022
Finished: 10 December 2022
Summary:
Every decade, six of the most talented medians--magic wielders--are chosen as initiates to the Alexandrian Society which remains from the great Library of Alexandria. Libby and Nico, rival manipulators of physical elements. Tristan, the righteously-intentioned son of a criminal. Parisa, who can read minds and has learned to use her beauty to find openings. Callum, able to feel others' feelings but who has no empathy. And Bianca, resentful of the plants that draw energy from her very life. Brought together to live within the library and provide protection to the volumes while studying them, the group is unaware that their positions are not all guaranteed, and that their initiation may be more dangerous than expected.
Thoughts:
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Nearly all of its events were unexpected, and all my (many) predictions but two were completely wrong. The characters were all fascinating, and their dynamic together was even more interesting. Dark academia is a pretty specific genre, and so it's hard not to fall into cliches, yet Blake avoided almost all of them. There were no compulsory romances, but there was a set-up for a great romance or two in the next book. Nico and Libby's dynamic, and Nico and Gideon's dynamic, were the most fun. Blake also used the principle of Chekhov's gun with all her characters, which I was not expecting but very much enjoyed. There were some turns of phrase used that felt plain weird to me, like "." but most of the writing was lovely, and I liked all of the philosophizing; in that it felt a lot like The Secret History. The ending of the book was startlingly anticlimactic--there wasn't really a big action--but there was an unexpected reveal that made me very excited for the next book.
Quotes:
"Ravenously avoiding each other" - I hated this. It seemed so random.
"In their little seed language" - the way the plants talked to Reina made my brain happy in way I can't explain
"You're good. I wouldn't bother hating you if you weren't" - Nico to Libby; I adore this
Words:
Ardently (adv) very enthusiastically or passionately
Despotism (n) the excercise of absolute power, especially in a cruel or oppressive way
Incensed (adj) enraged
Mutable (adj) liable to change
Indomitable (adj) impossible to subdue or defeat
Incendiary (adj) designed to cause fires