Started: 18/12/19
Finsihed: 23/12/19
Spoilers: No
No book is perfect . . . But, fuck me, this one comes mighty close.
This book is stunning and left me utterly speechless.
It's a love letter to Shakespeare and I loved every page of it. It's been written with such care and devotion to Shakespeare's work and it oozes intelligence.
This book has left such a mark on my soul that simply thinking about it bring me to tears. (I'm not being poetic here. Literally, I'm a wreck. It's almost embarrassing!)
Characters
I won't say too much about the characters, cause to describe them would reveal too much if the crux of this story. But there's always that one shit, isn't there? That one fly in the ointment. But to make a comparison to the Secret History, this particular fly is worse than Bunny. Bunny was merely obnoxious and untrustworthy. This person is volatile and dangerous.
The characters are so wonderfully developed and it was a joy to watch them grow. As I said before, I'm speechless, (which is bad for reviewing), so apologies if this review is incoherent cause even as I write this, I'm still crying over how wonderful it is.
But back to the review. The characters have such beautiful chemistry, but none more than Oliver and James. They're best friends and their love for each other transends love. It the kind of love that is more than love, that doesn't need to be described as love because it's not enough. Ugh! these boys. I'm sobbing!
I love every single one of the fourth years. And can I just say that Filippa is the real MVP of this group. She's the Samwise Gamgee and she's an utter gem.
Each character is so real and complex. These are real people, at least that's how it felt to me. Oh god! I can't even talk about it.
Plot
This book combines several elements I love. University setting, dark academia vibes, an ensemble cast, Shakespeare - specifically Julius Caesar and Macbeth, two of my favourites - and dark, ambiguous atmospheres.
I would definitely class this in the same league as The Secret History (I now in fact rate it higher, which is saying a lot giving my love for the Secret History).
If you liked one you'll like the other for sure.
I'd also reccomend this to fans of Vicious (for the out of prison ten years later aspect).
I'm going to say little about the plot cause, again, spoilers. You need to read this book, not knowing too much. But one thing is certain: you need to read this book.
Setting
Dellecher, a prestigious and elusive university of the arts.
In the book, Oliver describes is as less a school, and more like a cult.
That notion, and the atmosphere it brings, lingers through the chapters like something in the air. It's true. Dellecher doesn't feel like a normal university. There's something definitively mysterious, and secretly sinister about it.
It almost feels like the setting is a whole character itself.
And yet despite the unsettling feeling Dellecher brought me, I still felt an unwavering desire to see this place for myself. A need to be there and experience these wonderful plays that happen interactively during parties.
I've never felt such a will to experience a fictional school setting.
Oliver was right. Dellecher is a cult. And I want in.
Writing Style
The writing was utterly gorgeous. Intelligent narrative laced with Shakespeare quote. It flowed like poetry and it was a joy to read. It is the writing that broke me and reduced me to tears for far longer than I care to mention.
I had to shut myself away for a good hour before I could face anybody without dissolving into mess of tears, babbling about how beautiful this book's writing is, and how profoundly it touched me.
And the dialogue was fantastic. I would give this book five stars for the dialogue alone. There is not a single contrivance. Like the rest of the writing, it just flows.
There's something so natural and understated about it.
It's just real.
The only thing about the book I didn't particularly like was the script style dialogue tags. Sometimes, mainly when there was a group all involved in the conversation, it would state the character's name before the line of dialogue, like a script. Although this works well with the context of the story, (and can pretty much be skimmed rather than read) it slowed down an otherwise snappy or witty piece of dialogue and staggered the flow.
But it wasn't consistently written this way so I'm not even really complaining. There we're a lot of characters so I do understand why the author chose to do this.
Final Impression
I loved it. I loved it. I loved it.
What shocks me most is that this is a debut novel.
If the author's writting is this incredible after book one, imagine how good her writing will be after her third or fifth book.
This is an author to watch, people, and I'm very excited to watch her career develop.
Thank you, M.L. Rio. From the bottom of my cold heart. Thank you for giving us this book.
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