whimsydearest

Laura Stearns is completely obsessed with Byronic writer Sebastian Webster, so much so that she decides to attend the religious boarding school where he is buried. There she meets a fanatical girl named Virginia who shares her same love of the writer, and she finds herself caught up in Virginia’s grand dreams of starting their own cult. The World Cannot Give by Tara Isabella Burton is a coming-of-age dark academia about obsession, religious fervor, and repressed queer desire. From its synopsis, I wanted to love this book so much and the beginning started off so strong. The prose is so gorgeously wrought and Laura’s religious zealously initially felt so vivid and believable to me. However, once Laura joins Virginia's clique, the story meanders and loses focus—devolving into petty relationship drama between dull side characters. I also took issue with Virginia's own character. She feels undeveloped and unconvincing to me. She lacks the charisma to be a cult leader. She mostly pa...

The Latinist by Mark Prins is a clever and addicting dark academia thriller about a respected classics professor who is sabotaging his student Tessa so that no university besides his own would hire her. However, when Tessa makes a landmark discovery behind his back, he begins to feel his control over her slipping ... First off, I think the set-up is brilliant. Tessa is writing her doctorate’s thesis on Greek mythology as her own life loosely parallels the story of Apollo and Daphne, which allows for an interesting meta commentary. I also think the dual perspectives work really well here as the two main characters try to outwit each other in an almost cat and mouse game. However, my main issue is with the story's organization and pacing. Especially towards the beginning, the story jumps back and forth between scenes and timeliness so rapidly that it disrupts the flow of the story and gave me whiplash. I also feel the ending was a bit rushed. All in all, The Latinist is a messy but ...