Me: Mom, can we get The Secret History?
Mom: No, we have The Secret History at home.
The Secret History at home: (this)

On the outset, Fraternity could've been my dream book. Dark academia? Check. Paranormal themes? Check. 1990s subcultures? Check. Gay characters? CHECK. Endorsed by Bowen Yang?? Look, I couldn't run to this quickly enough. But the problem is there's a lot going on in this book and I don't think Fraternity necessarily has the footing to be a breezy queer coming-of-age story, a paranormal thriller, and a piece of LGBTQ+ historical fiction. I think there's a way to find a meeting place between those three stories, but without a good foothold, Fraternity wavers between ideas, good in places, but never committing to its larger ideals in a way that seems fulfilling.

I didn't truthfully expect this to be spooky gay Donna Tartt, but I also didn't expect the writing voice to be this casual. Right out of the gate, we're hit with a deeply cringe POV that's like —

"I want to be frank, right from the jump, about the elephant in the room (on the page? Christ. I'm already messing this up): There's absolutely nothing remarkable about the story of a shy kid navigating life at an ornate and mysterious old boarding school."

And one page later, the direct address that made me want to bail out:

"Yeah, we're walking, shall we say, well-trod territory. Cliché, one might say. Hell, I would say. If you're still reading, I applaud you. You're damn polite. A saint, really."

GOD. Stop the ride, I want to get off! Yes, the opening is rough but people said press on, keep going, it gets better -- and they weren't wrong. Eventually the voice evens out. When the central plot kicks in, the writing feels more balanced. Suddenly we're seeing teenagers in the throes of dark magic, which is far and away more compelling than shy kids tripping over their sentences. The second act is absolutely bang-up. The characters complement one another wonderfully, the story moves with purpose, and the pacing crescendoes into a corner where there's no escape. The actual mystery of this book is well-constructed. It's the surrounding pieces that don't fit as well as they could.

There are pivots throughout where we leave the paranormal constructions and talk about sexual assault, about a loss of a parent, about conversion therapy, about the AIDS crisis – all important, but never prevalent enough that they feel woven into the core of the novel. This is one of the complications: that we're simultaneously in a magical fiction and an actual historical reality, and it's not easy to jump between the two. Maybe as a middle-grade novel, there's enough realism that it can speak to the reader and (in regards to queer history) encourage further research, but it never felt complete, always on the surface or slightly below, but never so detailed it left a mark.

If you're into the '90s, dark academia, queer fiction, books recommended by SNL cast members, yes, go for it, and push through until it finds its footing. For me, it didn't hit as strongly as it could have. I think if written for an older audience, it could've been darker and more fluidly woven in its queer history. It's worth going along for the ride, because Fraternity is strongest in how Mientus builds rounded characters who are stepping into a new queer generation. I see what Mientus is striving towards in writing equal parts horror and historical fiction. The patchwork isn't all assembled, but it's close.