I couldn't like the characters, but that's a normal thing for me, I rarely form any bond with them. For me, Veaer acted weird since the beginning and I had not so positive feelings towards her. The opening scene could have been strong, if I could get some kind of explanation later why is she so obsessed with Elise. Yes, Elise is the princess of the school, looks unapproachable, she do be smart, etc. But I had no idea if Veaer had a personal reason for this behaviour. Because the narration was Veaer's POV, Elise's character arc seemed uneven instead of a progress. I couldn't like the side characters, though I felt that the author loves them strongly.
The writing was good, it was easy to read and kept my attention. My main problem with the book was the logical construction. I didn't get the starting conflict, though there were some tries to explain it, I just couldn't understand the 'why's. The characters' motivation was blurry and the romantic parts weren't that enjoyable either. They felt out of the place, I didn't know where to place this: I'm crushing you from the distance for a while now, we got to speak a few times during this few weeks and now let's get to the I-love-yous!
This book had some good ideas, then a plot structure, but the structure had some misplaced elements which made the book ragged. Oh, and I figured out who Q and R was literally the time they were first mentioned.
I discovered while reading, that this is the author's first published novels continuation (shared characters in mention), but you can enjoy this novel without reading that first.

unfortunately, it seems this book wasn't for me. i in no way enjoyed the characters nor did i like the writing style and how it flowed. it felt very stilted, as if it was holding something back. and the characters?? their characterizations were sooooo messy omds. i was so annoyed every time one of the mcs came on page (all the damn time).

This book was difficult to read. The writing style did not work for me, and the story itself lost me several times.

I really loved the sound of this book but ended up DNFing pretty early in. I just couldn't really follow the prose and kept having to reread passages to try to make sense of them.
I will say I was stoked about the prose at first (it felt kind of reminiscent to some of the '00s dystopian books, and I had a really big nostalgia moment and was very excited for it). I think if the prose had been a little simpler/easier to follow I might have gotten into this book.

1,5⭐️

[Scroll down for the english review]

🇪🇦 Menudo desastre de libro, y peor aún, MENUDA DECEPCIÓN. Cuando vi la portada y leí la sinopsis me enamoré, la premisa es muy interesante y eso es lo que más rabia me da.

La trama es buena pero está horriblemente ejecutada. La mayor parte del libro no sabes lo que está pasando ya que hay escenas sin contexto aparante y la continuidad es horrenda.

Los personajes son súper vacíos, solo leemos desde la perspectiva de Veaer la cual tiene una obsesion enorme con Elise pero a parte de eso no sabría decir nada más sobre ella. Todo esto me enfada muchísimo ya que esta historia está llena de potencial, los moldes para los personajes estaban ahí el problema es que estaban vacíos.

La construcción del mundo y la magia es inexistente. Soy incapaz de comprender lo que quería hacer la autora más alla de las dos divisiones en los humanos, los Caemi y los Senti, y hasta eso es confuso y está poco explicado. Me gustó la relación de los ángeles con llegar a tu "máxima expresion" o ser y me habría gustado verlo explicado ya que tiene que ver con él género de alguna forma y parecía interesante.

Por último, lo peor de todo fue la escritura. Era casi imposible seguir los pensamientos de la protagonista y ya no por las palabras innecesariamente complicadas si no por la forma en la que estaba expresado. Era imposible seguir el hilo de la historia.

En conclusión, le doy 0,5⭐️ por la representación queer ya que es diversa y esta bien hecha.
Seguí leyendo con la esperanza de que mejoraría pero no lo hizo.

｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

🇺🇸This book was a complete mess, and honestly, a big disapointment. When I saw the beutiful cover and I read the premise I thought this book would be a new favourite and I'm so frustrated that it was not.

The plot is really interesting but the exectution is horrible. There were some scenes with little to no context and this affected the continuity greatly.

The characters had no personality. The whole book is narrated from the prespective of Veaer whose obsessed with a girl named Elise. That's the only thing I can say about her because that's her whole personality. The secondary characters are even worse. I'm so frustrated because they had a lot of potential.

The world building was non-existent. The only thing that's clear is the division in humans, Caemi and Senti and that is still confusing and barerly explained. I liked what the author wanted to do with the angels but like everything else it was all over the place and you couldn't understand a thing. It's a shame because they were related with gender and I thought that would be a cool exploration of it.

However, the worst thing about this book is the writing. There were overlycomplicated words to describe simple actions or emotions and the way everything was expressed was confusing. You couldn't follow the story propretly.

In conclusión, I gave it 0,5⭐️ because of the queer representation, I think it is really well done and diverse.
I kept reading because I thought that it might get better but it didn't.

Well, I wanted to like this more than I did.

To be honest, the thing that mostly didn't let me enjoy it was the worldbuilding/fantasy aspects. Not because it was bad or unlikable, but rather that they weren't explained well or even incorporated into the story. Considering the mystery and the obsession within it, the magic seemed unnecessary. It's a shame, specially since the combination of queer people with angels was so interesting!

Some other things I didn't like or understand:
• Ve's obsession with Elise; I would've liked to see more depth to it.
• The passing was so on and off sometimes.
• I don't think this qualifies as much of a dark academia. I didn't even feel that the academic was remotely significant; it felt more like an excuse for the characters to be together in the same place.

Thank you Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

the writing style really grated on me, and the worldbuilding was a little thin, but the mystery was compelling. Unfortunately, the characters were a little underdeveloped as well.

this was... an experience. the last 12% was definitely interesting, but whether that made up for everything else, I can't really say.

plot - ★★★☆☆
the plot would have been okay if the characters weren't so ridiculous. veaer witnesses the girl she's in love with murder someone and battles with the moral choice of speaking up vs protecting her crush(?) lover? obsession? an interesting premise, and would have worked nicely, in theory, especially without the fantasy aspect. how it was executed, however? repetitive, frustrating, and the fantasy aspect was downright nonsensical.

worldbuilding - ★★☆☆☆
this was actually super interesting but it was so half baked. like i said before, the mystery would have worked just fine without the fantasy aspect. however, if the fantasy part was explained and well incorporated into the story, this could have been a three star book. it's incredibly unique, something to do with angels and queer people (specifically trans and nonbinary people) and i wish that was explored more. i understand there's another book within this universe, which i will be looking into, but this is not part of that series, and it was not said anywhere that the other series should be read before chrysalis. i didn't know there even was another series before personally searching up the author's bio. therefore, if that universe is going to be written into this, i feel like a better explanation into the magic system needs to be offered.

characters - ★☆☆☆☆
i don't think i liked a single character in this book. i absolutely despised the two mains, veaer and elise. elise is vapid and has no personality outside of being pretty, the object of veaer's obsession, and "the princess" (this i don't understand—it's stated that the reason for this title is that her father is... the headmaster? of their school? which would be fine as a pet name, but she is. literally. referred to as a supposed princess. at least 30 times. in this book. full title and all). elise being equivalent to white bread isn't really her fault—she doesn't have a pov and everything we know about her comes from veaer's corniest monologues. she really does have potential, and she's my favorite character, as much as one can have a favorite character in a book like this. now, onto veaer. ve is even more vapid than elise, if you can imagine it. i feel like someone should let you all know, a lesbian being a doormat for a woman is only slightly less embarrassing than a het woman being a doormat for a man, and actually, with the way ve was going, she might have surpassed that too. as for the side characters, they're quite literally nothing. they bring even less to the table than veaer, if you can imagine it. sometimes if the main characters are awful, you can ignore it because of a standout side character. not here. there isn't a single redeeming character at all. perhaps adair?

writing - ★☆☆☆☆
oh god, the writing. the writing was. awful. abhorrent. atrocious. grating. this was so difficult to read, and not because of complexity of the language. veaer's inner monologue, the dialogue, everything was so indescribably bizarre. well no, perhaps the dialogue was salvageable, but everything to do with veaer makes me want to rip my hair out. i've read better writing on ao3.

1.75 ★. because that one scene with adair actually killed me. and because veaer made up for her stupidity in the end. thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy.

My Rating: 3.75

CW: alcohol, drug use, blood, emotional abuse, death, violence, manipulation, gore, injury, murder, panic attacks, self-harm, suidical thoughts

My Thoughts:
I think the general mental state of the MC Veaer is "She's not okay". She starts out obsessed with Elise in a very creepy stalker kind of way and as the book progresses that only gets worse. Additionally she has to deal with grief and guilt, has a ghost following her around and starts to hallucinate.
And all of the other characters were mad too (some more than others).
All of this made the book read like a bit of a fever dream. And while I did have trouble getting into the story I did end up enjoying it.

The writing was very pretty but sometimes the prose was a bit too lengthy for my taste, which also made it confusing to read. (That did add to the fever dream vibes though.)

Overall I think I understood (mostly?) what happened but it was wild.

Fav Quotes:
"I'll prove to her that I'm worthy. I'll show her how much her attention deserves to be on me- I'll split you apart and drink you whole and figure out every secret, every why and how and who and where and what and when."

"I will make you my queen, Elisa Excava. And when I call you mine, I will have every answer I will ever need."


Thoughts on the puzzles:
Disclaimer: don't take this too seriously it just annoyed me lol
Somewhere in beginning/middle of the book there are some "puzzles" the MCs have to solve.
First of all: There was a bit too much emphasis on solving them considering their difficulty/importance.
Secondly: The math "puzzles". No. There was no puzzle there, they were just math problems. Simple math problems. One of them they didn't even figure out. And it didn't even matter for the story.
And then I thought: but I'm good at math, maybe this is difficult. So I asked two of my friends who both aren't very good at maths. And they figured it out pretty much immediatly too.
And again those puzzles don't play that big of a role for the story but they were really dragged out and it just annoyed me because it makes the characters look a lot more stupid then they're supposed to be.
There also was the line "Even though maths wasn't a subject offered at Adraredon [...]" and yes. Obviously.

I really liked this book I think the characters had so much personality and really made you think about them. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The plot was a little slow but once you start it gets more interesting.

Unfortunately, i have to dnf at 38 percent.
At around 30 percent i realized i was only reading this book to finish it while getting no enjoyment out of it.
i read nearly 40 percent and at this point i couldn't tell you what was going on? Now maybe that gets better as one proceeds but i simply did not care enough to know more about anything.
I think what makes a book grab your attention is the character building OR an the plot, the plot sounded interesting enough, i just think it failed to deliver, for me at least. And at 40 percent i could not tell you anything about these characters that made them stand out to me in some way. So i think this book was just unable to grab and hold my attention. Thank you for the arc.

Thank you @netgalley for the advance reader's copy.

4 stars

I really enjoyed Quinton Li's Chrysalis and Requiem, unlike anything I've read. Beautiful writing fitting for a story set in an arts and performance school. I loved the mystery and the paranormal. I loved that all the characters were queer. I loved that everyone seemed a little bit mad. Deadly and decadent. Bizarre and enthralling. Great read for when you're in the mood for something dark and mysterious.

i really tried to like this but i just couldn't. the writing was trying so hard to be smart but it didn't work. also i thought the mc was kind of annoying.

thank you netgalley for the e-ARC

This book.. oh this book. I wanted to love this book so much; it's got dark academia, it's got queerness, it's got magic. So why does it all fall falt?

I'm DNFing this book at 30% I wanted to tough it out all the way but it became apparent very quickly this book was not for me and I'm choosing to not suffer through it. The characters aren't great, the MC is obsessed with the secondary character in a way that's off putting and the whole thing is SO wordy you forget what's actually happening. There's simultaneously too much and not enough detail. It has potential, it just read like a first draft to me.

I think this book has such a strong concept, though I really struggled with the execution and writing style. Though I had issues with it, I know so many will love this so I'm still excited to recommend it.

While attending Adraredon Academy, Veaer witnesses the headmaster’s daughter, Elise, murder another student and grapples with bringing the truth of her peer’s murder to light, and her attraction to Elise.

This book was all over the place and left my head spinning (not in a good way). The concept was compelling—I loved the idea of Veaer being torn between doing the right thing and finding the answers—but while reading the story I was confused about Veaer’s motivations. Although Veaer had friends at Adraredon it didn’t feel like she had personal connections with any of them—she lacked any personality at all. I didn’t know why Veaer was obsessed with Elise in the first place, even before she witnessed the murder. Veaer seemed to just follow Elise around and not make any choices for herself for the entire book.

The plot seemed to happen TO the characters and the stakes were non-existent and made the entire story feel flat. A lot was happening while also feeling like nothing was going on at the exact same time. Additionally, I found the prose wordy and confusing. The book was a slog to get through because I constantly found myself re-reading pages trying to understand what was happening. It reads as a first draft and lacked the dark-academia aesthetic that was talked about in the blurb.

Despite this being pitched as dark academia, I felt like the school only existed as a backdrop for the world within the story. I also have no idea what the difference is between a Caemi and a Senti, but I think Caemi have animal-like features? A Senti? I have no idea and the book never stopped long enough to clue me in which I found frustrating. It would be brought up occasionally, but had no impact on the plot/the characters? I truly, honestly don’t know.

I wish I liked this book. This appeared to have everything I enjoy in a book, the ending was dramatic and would have been heartbreaking if I cared about the characters. Ultimately, it lacked the depth and intrigue that would have made this a complex, compelling story.

Thank you Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for a free e-galley of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Quinton Li's "Chrysalis and Requiem" offers a mesmerizing plunge into the shadowy corridors of Adraredon Academy, where gothic allure meets a modern tale of passion, mystery, and forbidden desires. Li's novel is a bold exploration of the tumultuous inner lives of its protagonists, set against the backdrop of a prestigious institution steeped in history and secrets.

The narrative centers around Veaer Rosell, whose serene pursuit of beauty and knowledge is violently disrupted in her senior year. Witnessing a murder committed by the headmaster's daughter propels Veaer into a whirlwind of moral ambiguity and emotional turmoil. The story excels in its portrayal of Veaer's inner conflict, caught between the pursuit of justice and the weight of silence. Li navigates this moral maze with a deft hand, offering a nuanced exploration of themes such as obsession, grief, and the elusive nature of truth.

The relationship that develops between Veaer and the headmaster's daughter is one of the novel's most compelling elements, characterized by a blend of attraction and repulsion, intimacy and distance. This complex dynamic serves as a microcosm of the larger narrative, mirroring the intricate and often unsettling dance between truth and deception. Li's writing shines in its ability to portray these layered relationships, blending the thrill of a murder mystery with the depth of a psychological drama.

However, the novel occasionally struggles under the weight of its own ambition. The intricate plot, while intellectually engaging, can at times feel convoluted, leaving the reader yearning for moments of clarity amidst the narrative's complexity. Additionally, while the exploration of LGBTQIAP+ themes is commendable for its depth and sensitivity, it sometimes overshadows other aspects of the story.

In conclusion, "Chrysalis and Requiem" is a novel that defies easy categorization, blending elements of a thriller, a romantic drama, and a gothic novel. Quinton Li has crafted a story that is as haunting as it is beautiful, capturing the reader's imagination with its rich atmosphere and complex characters. This book will appeal to those who appreciate a narrative that challenges as much as it entertains, offering a fresh perspective on the intersections of love, morality, and identity.

I was lucky enough to read an arc of this book on netgalley. Honestly, I really enjoyed it. The premise was really interesting, the execution was quite good and it held my interest really well. The descriptions of everything were pretty amazing but sometimes overly dense/thick. The ending was unexpected but in a good way, I really enjoyed how it all came to a head.
I think the book as a whole was very descriptive in a good way but I think the last 80-100 pages went further away from descriptive and more towards too wordy? Like I feel like the amount of description could've been simplified, I found myself getting bored of/wanting to skim more than read the last 80-100 pages because of how packed and full it was.
Overall, great book and would 100% love to read more from the author in the future.

3.5 ⭐️.
I found this an enjoyable book to read.

I don’t have much critique about this book other than feeling heartbroken, but it was a lovely journey to experience with the characters.

Thank you Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Even thoughh I'm probably not in the age range for Dark academia, it was my jam for a good portion of the year. This book was no exception. I little slow at times but came around at the end. Enjoyable read.

Thank you to Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op and NetGalley for providing an eARC for a honest review.