amelianotthepilot's reviews
739 reviews

A gothic fantasy full of feminine rage.

It has everything of a classic gothic novel: a female who’s maybe mad or uncovering something, a spooky house with a spooky man, and a mystery to keep her there with a sprinkle of romance.

I overall really enjoyed this story. I loved the characters and the spooky gothic house. The water and drowning imagery was also delicious. I loved the feminine rage and depictions of the female experience. 

The plot was a bit obvious towards the end and the last two chapters of wrap up were boring. There were a lot of quotable lines but also an equal amount of cringey pompous lines. I loved the world building but at the same time for a stand alone novel it seemed unnecessary for a personal success plot. It followed the main character and her struggles not a political or societal change.


It follows Effy who is the first female architecture student at this university. She enters a competition to build a house in memorial for her favorite author who has recently passed away. She is invited to the house to discuss and finalize her plans only to get there and see how truly messed up and spooky the current house is. The house is on the cliff which could be swallowed by the sea at any moment. Will Effy, the creepy man owner of the house, and the other male student researching there survive or succumb to the house? 

This was an amazing return to the series. This is the 4th book to a trilogy but can also be read on it's own or read before the main series Darkers Shades of Magic. As anyone who's ever talked books with me will know Darker Shades is one of the series that I consistently recommend to anyone and everyone. It's such a well-crafted and interesting new fantasy world. It follows multiple characters across a multiverse of Londons each containing varying levels of magic. Black London fell to magic, White London was once extremely strong but is now barely alive, Red London is a vibrant thriving city, and Grey London is basically 1800s reality London with 0 magic. People with magic can control one element or if they're lucky, a few elements, however, there is the rare few who are Antari, a magic that transcends all magic and is able to travel between the Londons as well as other spectacular magic.
This story introduces us to new and old characters. Our old beloved characters, Kell and Antari and heir, Lila an Antari, Rhy the Red London King and brother to Kell, and Alucard the King's partner. And the new characters Tes a magical thread weaver, Kosika the White London Queen, Nadiya the Red London King's other partner.
I'm excited to see where this new story goes. I loved the introduction of Bex, a Lila in different circumstances. I loved seeing my favorite characters 7 years later while still getting a glimpse at what they've been up to. I feel like they grew with me while we've been away. it felt like coming home. I'm excited to see what happens in White London and if we will get a Ned Tuttle cameo in every book somehow (I hope so).
I loved the cartoonish-ness of when Tes practically falls into the main plot it was delicious. The new magic was so interesting and complex but still perfectly fit in with the world. I think Tes is my favorite character, I relate to her the most. 

1000 shapes - Kate Weinberg

A prequel to her novel set at a university following a female student who is having sex with her progress or who stole her writing.

This story was too short and really had no point. It read more like a first chapter for her book that I don’t plan on reading.

Pythia -Olivia Blake

A cult like university believes that their super computer predicts the future, a psychiatrist alongside priests and rabbis and a historical literature researcher are hired to help figure out what has recently gone wrong with the super computer. The story follows a legal interview that is investigating the psychiatrists involvement with the super computer and the deaths of two female students. 

An interesting dark academia story addressing relevant topics of doom scrolling and the anxiety of being alive with the current state of things.

Sabbatical - James Tate Hill

An old retired professor turns up on campus and starts harassing different professors and students. He’s clearly not mentally well and is looking for a professor who went missing. 

I did not like his writing style and the story was not exciting. It has a vaguely dark academia vibe but is more of a depressed middle aged man holden caulfield vibe. There’s only two women in the whole story and their characters serve 0 purpose. The story has no real message and just seems like the ramblings of a pessimistic man who dislikes academia.

The Hare and The Hound - Kelly Andrew

A boy receives a prophecy at coney island as a child saying that he will chase a white rabbit and end up in the clutches of a wolf and that he is a murderer. He is haunted by bunny iconography hai whole life and called Bunny as a nickname by his friends. In high school he gets in a car crash that kills a girl, now in college he meets a girl who shred uncanny similarities with a white rabbit and Bunny feels that he is slowly loosing his mind.

X House - JT Ellison

An exclusive all girls private school on a cliff side has a reputation of mysterious murders. The new professor appointed attempts to find out what is going on and save her charges. I wish it was longer this one was interesting and spooky!

One of the characters was named Amelia!

The Ravages - Layne Fargo

A sapphic story of revenge when one partner finds out the other has been cheating on her they plan a seance in their London workplace’s archives. A spooky fun little story. The namesake of the collection comes from this one.

Four Funerals - David Bell

A school shooting occurs in an english class after the student had written about a school shooting. Now the professor feels guilt. 

This one was boring tbh

The Unknowable Pleasures - Susie Yang

This one was utterly bizarre featuring a ?perhaps queer relationship between student and eccentric professor? viewed at a distance and bossed over by a female classmate. It was voyeristic and felt sorta homophobic somehow. It also didn’t really feel dark academia at all, being set in a school does not make a dark academia. The ending felt bizarre as well and was an attempt and an open ended cliff hanger but was sorta just weird.

Weekend at Bertie’s - ML Rio

Two PhD students stumble on the dead body of their professors when they are taking care of her house while she is supposed to be away. A spooky and fun little story.

The Professor of Ontography - Helen Grant 

Two university students discover a mysterious department at school that no one will discuss with them. The boyfriend decides to investigate after a night out and never returns. Spooky and interesting. 

Phobos -Tori Bovalino

A student is in a secret society going through an initiation phase. The last step to join is to kill ‘a lesser scholar’. An interesting set up over to quickly and easily.

Playing - Phoebe Wynne 

A student who plays the organ at the university cathedral is faced with playing at frequent funerals after a series of deaths.

Spooky but not shocking.

Overall I feel like this selection of authors was sort of odd. I’d only classify a few of these stories as dark academia. I’m also realizing that writing a short story must be very difficult and only a few of the authors pulled off writing captivating ones. The beginning stories were rough.

Another  interesting character story from Olivie Blake. This follows two very opposite characters as they fall in love. It uses unique writing techniques including scene direction notes occasionally as if it were a script. One character is a bi privileged girl who comes from a wealth family and doesn’t know what she’s doing with her life but we find out has ended up commuting an art fraud of sorts and is now on probation but volunteers at a museum. The other is an extremely brainy introverted guy studying physics with a focus on time and time travel who can basically only discuss his phd work and his obsession with bees and hexagons (which is connected to time in his opinion). These two quirky people meet by chance in the museum which begins their decision to meet 6 more times just because they’re curious about each other. A truly opposites attract love story. 

the orange poem is one of my all time favorites now. However the rest of these poems were just alright

Honestly surprised with this one. The entire book is copy paste the original except for the last 50 odd pages but those last 50 pages are exactly what I wanted in the original. (no spoilers tho)

Admittedly I think smeyer basically just alt command f the entire book and changed all shes to he’s and all Bella’s to Beau’s but that wasn’t the most ridiculous part. Not only did she gender bend Bella and Edward to Beau and Edythe she genderbent THE ENTIRE CAST. Every Single Character including randos like the school nurse (now a man cause men can be nurses too 🤪😤) The only exception to this was Beau/Bella’s parents, Charlie Swan and Renee. For some reason Smeyer cites the standards of 1980s custody laws for keeping Charlie Swan and Renee as their original genders. This does however allow for a great quote from charlie describing how hot Dr Cullen is 10/10 CharliexCarlisle is canon. Further ridiculousness ensues with smeyer a gender bends which now truly highlight the ridiculousness of gender roles and heterosexuality. We also get some truly great and bizarre names that don’t really fit for characters such as Beaufort=Isabella (Bella), Royal=male rosalie, Archie=male Alice, and Joss=female James. 

Other interesting looks at gender in this book include how with Edwards character now being female, she’s suddenly so less menacing. Her protectiveness comes across as more kindness and attentiveness, her jokes about being strong and fast are true but are constantly downplayed by her ‘petite stature’, and her ability to control herself seems more natural and less intense. We also get great visual gags like her ‘tiny frame’ carrying 6ft Beau piggy back style while she runs. Bella’s female experiences such as being bombarded by flirtatious guys since she is new, dress shopping and dinner with friends, being surrounded and threatened by men in a dark alley, and attending ballet as a child are replicated but slightly changed in this version. Apparently smeyer doesn’t believe men can do ballet or have dinner with friends. There are a lot of male attributes that smeyer didn’t discuss which I thought would make it more relevant and authentic.

its iconic honestly a simple money grab probably took under an hour to make the document and send it off. I would read the rest of this genderswapped series and i’m genuinely curious what else would’ve slightly changed. my favorite part was getting to new genderswapped names it felt like a little present for reading through trash 💕

A fun romcom between a high-society witch and a magical pirate. Having pirates who fly houses instead of ships with their magic was interesting world-building. However, I felt like I didn't fully understand the world but that might be since this is technically the second book. The characters weren't super intriguing but having an uppity witch and a rake pirate was fun. Once they got together the plot was sorta boring though.