This book has a great premise for a queer, gothic and dark academia book that we can love and binge. This felt flat for me, it was kind of dry and I didn’t enjoy it a lot because at times it was confusing and didn’t make a lot of sense how this was crafted. I recommend you read it for yourself to get the idea on your own because I believe you have to make your own opinions but, it was hard to keep going. I DNF it very early on but, I am so grateful for the approval.

2.5 stars

I’m really disappointed I didn’t like this! I had such high hopes (especially because of the queer and autistic rep), but this just wasn’t for me. I found it difficult to follow - I was very lost for the first half of the book. The second half was slightly better, but not by much. It took me a while to understand the relationships between the characters, and the characters themselves (and the gaslighting) frustrated me constantly. But despite all that, I didn't want to stop reading it (I really wanted to know how the story ended haha).

Content warnings (taken from the author’s website): alcohol/drug use, blood, confrontation to abuser, death, emotional abuse, escalating violence, gaslighting/manipulation, gore, lifechanging injury, murder, corpses, nightmares/visions about traumatic events, panic attacks, paranormal/occult content, PTSD, self-harm, sexual content, suicide ideation, trauma

Thank you to Netgalley for the e-arc!

"Eventually, memories become something of a layered beast. One’s memory was only the last time they remembered an instance."

Thanks to Victory Editing, NetGalley and the author for this eARC in exchange for an honest review. ❤️

bolleras tóxicas y un poquito furras en un internado mágico con una secta. 10/10 no notes (bueno, sí, alguna).

Cuando leí Seis de cuervos sin haber leído la trilogía Grisha me encantó que el mundo ya estuviese establecido y Leigh Bardugo no diera explicaciones de nada que no fuese imprescindible, confiando en la inteligencia de sus lectores. Quinton Li hace exactamente lo mismo. La trama no se aleja mucho de un Dark Academia fantástico, pero el worldbuilding es lo que le da el toque. Es un mundo nuevo, con sus mitos propios, sus personajes históricos propios, su sistema de magia propio, sus razas furras propias… y muy pocas de esas cosas son relevantes para la trama, pero le dan mucha profundidad al mundo.

Me han encantado las protagonistas, Veaer como ladrona artista (y simp), Elise como princesa creepy obsesionada con las mariposas. Y me ha gustado aún más la relación entre ellas, enfermiza, obsesiva y llena de secretos. Veaer obsesionada con Elise, Elise obsesionada con ser querida y las dos todo el rato preguntándose si la otra sabe que la una sabe.

"She had always admired Elise’s passion for knowledge, demonstrated in every assignment she submitted, and every time they did have to present their findings to the class. Insatiable curiosity was a feeling she could understand."

Sí que he echado en falta algo más de la trama de misterio. Si lo que más os interesa es el suspense, este no es vuestro libro. Me habría gustado que se hubiera resuelto todo utilizando todas las pistas que va recopilando Veaer, pero al final da la sensación de que quedan como sin usar y las explicaciones se quedan un poco cortas. Además, hacia el final el libro flojea un poco para mi gusto. Hay varios capítulos en los que la prota tiene alucinaciones y se me hicieron un poco pesados, aunque están maravillosamente escritos.

Quinton Li escribe increíble. No solo tiene barras a lo largo de la novela, sino que emplea las imágenes con mucho ingenio. La simbología de las mariposas me ha tenido tirándome de los pelos medio libro como friki del tarot que soy. La muerte, el amor, la transformación… me vuelvo loca.
Aunque no me pilló en mi mejor momento y me costó terminarlo más de lo que debería, me lo pasé muy bien leyendo este libro y no me lo quito de la cabeza. Ahora mismo lo único que quiero es dedicarme a leer el tarot y a ser mística y misteriosa mientras un montón de mariposas se me posan en el pelo.

"The numbness that came after crying was a reminder of her mistakes."

I want to thank Netgalley and the author Quinton Li for the ark. I will be giving my honest review.

The world is described slowly and we see ourselves in a school environment a dark academia aesthetics. With queer autosm representation and person of color representation, the description of the world and the characters was my absolute favourite, and we find a hierarchy spread out bye the floor your sleeping In the higher the better, the most important.
We have conflicts, murder and thriller.

A promising premise, fresh ideas and intriguing visions linger in Chrysalis and Requiem. The author has a talent for expressing diverse voices and readers are treated with a cast of sapphic, genderqueer and disabled characters. This is a rare gift and I'm glad that Li uses it in her storytelling. Similarly, there is an undeniable charm or aesthetic to incorporating tarot themes in a queer fantasy thriller and I delighted in seeing references to this. That said, as much as I would've liked to give Chrysalis and Requiem a higher review, the story bogs itself down with grammatical and structural errors. I look forward to reading more from Quinton Li after these technical hiccups are ironed out.

DNF at around 55%

I really tried to push through but I found myself skimming more and more so I finally just gave up. The whole thing just rang rather hollow to me.

The characters felt bland and very one-note. The relationships were super confusing because I have no idea why they exist the way they do. Why is Vaear obsessed with Elise? I have not a clue. The writing felt more aesthetic than comprehensive. Many pretty words but not a lot is said. It felt a bit like someone patchworked a novel out of "deep" Pinterest quotes. Writing just for the sake of writing never really appealed to me. The plot would've actually been interesting were it not dampened by the aforementioned factors.

So, that is why I can only give it a rounded up 1.75 stars.

an amazing book filled with stunning storytelling and unforgettable, unhinged characters! brilliant and with lots of LGBTQ representation

DNF at 10%

I am so thankful to the author and to NetGalley for gifting me an eARC of this book! I was super excited to pick it up, both because of the autism and sapphic rep, and because the blurb sounded right up my alley!

Unfortunately, the execution made it impossible for me to enjoy this novel. While the concept is brilliant, the poor grammar and clunky sentence structure just doesn’t work.

I loved the themes and characters in this book, although it was a bit confusing and a little hard to follow at times.
Still, it was a wonderful read and I adore the art especially! 💗

A YA sapphic fantasy academia of a twisted mystery.

The is a wild complex story of crazy characters. I enjoyed the aesthetics and magic but every once in a while I felt a bit lost and a little confused but nothing that took me out of the story. The plot was well done, and the characters are fine but what stole my attention was the themes and magical elements. It's unique with a queer romance that's dealing with murder, angels, ghosts, and more. The writing is ok, but there is some religious imagery, I feel the author knows their world and characters.

If you like weird, confusing, queer romance, and magic then you may have fun when reading this.

⭐⭐⭐✨3.5/5

This book was a wild and bizarre ride! And it is probably not going to be what you expect it to be going in. It is filled with all kinds of morally gray (at best) characters, murder & mayhem, secret underground occult dealings, paranormal mischief, complicated (and often obsessive, codependent, and manipulative) relationships, dark academia and the underpinnings of elitism, teen angst and drama! It is utter chaos at times and exactly as the author has stated, “reads like a fever dream.”

The story is told from Veaer’s point of view, and while she might not be an unreliable narrator, the inner workings of her mind will take you to some interesting places and sometimes it’s hard to know what’s real and what’s not. Elise…well she’s a bit of a loose cannon too, but she is also cunning and manipulative. And let’s just say…there was not a single point in the story where I actually trusted her. Tychon is a ghost for most of the story and he’s probably my favorite - a trans tarot reader studying religion and mythology. He remains somewhat a mystery through the book, being dead and all, but he was a fascinating character and I loved watching his paranormal interactions. Haiwrin seemed to be the most level headed of all of them. And while I really liked Adair…I still have some mixed feelings on that one. Harq intrigued me and I both liked and didn’t like him. Izot I mostly didn’t like, but he may have slightly redeemed himself. He’s still an entitled rich boy though. Long story short - there were no characters that I absolutely LOVED and none that I fully trusted either.

I liked the way that Li shifted between the past and present, filling in pieces of the backstory that led to the sheer madness that the story begins with. I also loved the religious (and maybe somewhat antireligious) themes in the book - angels, idol worship, rebirth, transformation and ascension.

Whatever you expect this book to be…throw it out! There were times I was utterly confused while reading and, not gonna lie, did feel like I was in some kind of fever dream. At the end of the book I was still trying to untangle the complicated web of relationships and figure out exactly what went down and who did what and why. There were so many twists and turns and secrets revealed that it was hard to keep track of it all!

Was this book everything I hoped it would be? Not quite. The writing style was not my favorite and was confusing at times. It’s hard to tell, though, whether the writing itself wasn’t great or if the writing was intentional to give it that “fever dream” quality. I think those vibes could have been achieved other ways, but we were inside Veaer’s mind… All that being said, bizarre and tangled and chaotic as this story was, I did still enjoy reading it.

🏳️‍🌈Rep: Lesbian MC & LI; Gay, Bi/Pan, Trans & Nonbinary SCs; Cane User (SC)

📝Genre/Tropes/Themes: New Adult, Dark Academia, Fantasy, Thriller, Purple Gothic Prose, Morally Gray Characters, Trans Angels, Murder Lesbians, Occult and Rituals, Idol Worship, Paranormal, Secret Societies, Tragedy, Obsessive Relationships

⚠️TW/CW (from the author): alcohol/drug use, blood, confrontation to abuse, death, emotional abuse, escalating violence, gaslighting/manipulation, gore, life changing injury, corpses, visions about traumatic events, panic attacks, paranormal/occult content, self-harm, sexual references, suicide ideation, and trauma

I'm going to be completely honest and say that I had no clue what was happening for the majority of the book. Starting it, it felt like I skipped over the first book in a series and began reading the second book. There are so many confusing, underdeveloped pieces in this book.

I don't understand what kind of school the story is supposed to take place at. It's a school with high school-aged students, dorms, a barrier that removes the magical abilities of the students, "majors," a fencing class, and no math courses. There is a fencing class, but no classes for a core subject in school? Also, why is the fencing class led by the student council president? I'm not familiar with that being a responsibility of a student council member and I wonder if that was a decision solely made with the purpose of Izot interacting with Veaer and Elise.

Trying to remember and figure out what characters were related or friends was a struggle for me, but I don't know if that's due to the book or me.

All of Veaer's internal monologuing felt so annoying. I can tell that the author was trying to depict her as neurodivergent or struggling with anxiety, but it felt very surface-level. It's never discussed enough to have significance to her character or the story, and she is so burdened by everything happening to her and the anxiety it causes her, but what is she doing about it? All the emotional aspects in the book were shallow and didn't feel meaningful. I was reading these words on my phone that Veaer cares about Elise and is struggling with what she should do regarding the situations she's found herself in, but it didn't feel like anything more than words.

I honestly can't figure out how to properly explain the thoughts I have for this book because it all feels so poorly connected. The beginning of the book starts with Veaer stealing a necklace for Elise's attention, but it doesn't have any relevance further in the story. I think a better introduction would've been Veaer watching Elise, starting to become "obsessed" with her from a distance, and having the reader watch the progression for a couple of chapters. That "obsession" could grow to the point that when she notices strange behaviors that Elise is exhibiting, she follows her and ends up witnessing the murder of Tychon and when Veaer is conflicted with what to do in the aftermath, she inserts herself into Elise's life to figure out more information. I think that would've made more sense considering what the book was trying to go for.

I waited a couple of weeks after reading the book to write my review, so my thoughts aren't completely developed and I'm sure I forgot to mention some things.

If you like mystery, dark academia, biblically accurate angels, weird cults and sapphic stories, this is definitely for you! This was not for me thought, i enjoyed some aspects of it, but in general i was really confusing HAHAHA, everything is written so beautiful and like a poem, the protagonist Vaer is absolutely obsessed with Elise, the pace is really great, you don't get bored with long chapters, and all the vibes this book brings is kinda mystical, magic school but is so ambiguous about the magic system that you can't know what is a reality, so, maybe i was having dementia and getting all wrong, overall, is great but not for me, i pushed trough because the way is written is really easy to go along, i just think i didn't get most of it, would recommend but just for a specific type of people!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an ARC of this book for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

This book had all the ingredients to make it a new favorite: sapphic romance, dark academia, biblically accurate angels, cults, nonbinary/trans rep... alas, what it did with those ingredients was a wild ride, but like the kind that you want to get off of as soon as possible.

The two main characters were god-awful. And not in the way where they're so evil that you love to hate them. They were just completely empty vessels filled only with obsession (Veaer) and hunger for love (Elise) Their chemistry was NON-EXISTENT. For the life of me, I cannot understand Veaer's crazy obsession with Elise after seeing her literally murder someone else, and the fact that that element of the novel was not believable made everything else just that much less believable. Veaer is an absolute doormat of a character that seems to just exist to be a love interest for Elise, and that could be excusable in a side character, but she's the MAIN CHARACTER.

I also do not understand much of anything about the world of this story. There are terms thrown around like Senti and Caemi (Caemi gave me heavy furry vibes, so do with that what you will), but the differences between these races (species?) aren't explained at all. I am left with so many questions. Why do people care about the four heirs so much? Why do caemis seemingly have less rights than Senti? Who has magic and who doesn't? How do you know what kind of people have magic? How do the caemi and senti ascend to angels? What kind of education do most people need to thrive in this world (clearly arts/magic but like what about math and shit)? Additionally, the "dark academia" vibe fell very flat because the school just seemed to be a backdrop for the story. I was hoping for more academic rivalry/classics references as I come to expect when that genre is mentioned.

The shifting timeline also didn't make sense. I find myself wondering what the flashbacks to years 1 and 2 add to Veaer's character at all, especially since there weren't many of them at all.

Now despite all that I disliked about this book, it has some points that are its saving grace and that got it to 2 stars instead of just one. Tychon's character and his transness being connected to divinity was incredible. Veaer's visions of Tychon as a biblically accurate angel were very interesting. I really loved the connection this novel made between trans bodies and heavenly/angelic bodies, and if that aspect were more heavily included, I think I would have enjoyed this book a lot more. Alas, this saving grace was a mere spot compared to the rest of the book, so its inclusion was not enough to make me enjoy this book in its entirety.

Publication date: March 16, 2024

2 stars. Thank u netgalley for providing me with this arc.

I wanted to like this so bad.

I see a lot of other reviews having the exact same issues I had with it. Especially the characters. My good they were unlikable. Like why was Veaer genuinely an idiot—I don’t take calling her that lightly. The way she felt about Elise was nothing other but stupid. She fr saw this girl murder her own best friend for seemingly no reason and continues to be like “yeah im obsessed with her”. It was so insta-lovey too. Their whole relationship was just absolutely terrible to read.

I feel like I understand what the plot was going for but the execution was just not it. Elise ruined it. It was so messy and off because of her. If Elise hasn’t been the character she was, I think this story would’ve been a lot better. The blind, intense devotion Veaer had for her was insanity. She was getting on my nerves sooooo bad. Like girl STAND THE FUCK UP. The worst part is I don’t see the appeal of Elise at all. Like she’s our love interest… she’s not interesting, she’s not cool, she’s a cold blooded murderer…

The aesthetic of the book was the best part. I enjoyed the Angel stuff and the dark academia setting, but otherwise this was an absolute drag with very poorly written characters and a mess of a plot.

This book had so much potential, and while it didn't quite meet my high expectations, it was still a good read. The characters were the highlight for me, perfectly fitting the dark academia theme. The shifting timeline added depth to the story, giving us a better understanding of the characters' motivations. However, the fantasy aspect fell flat for me, and I think the book would have been stronger without it. Overall, I enjoyed reading this book and would be interested in reading more from this author in the future. Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with this ARC.

Sadly I never got around to reading this book. I read the first chapter and it sounded interesting so I will definitely keep it on my tbr list for the future!


Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

This book took some time to get going but when it did it was so tense!

So like I said, this book took a while before I felt invested in the world. It made it that it took me very long to reach the 50% mark of the book. When I was past that point though I read that in 1.5 days. I was so curious to see where it would lead and couldn't put it down. From that point I enjoyed the book a lot and was very invested to see where it would lead. This ending half was full of suspense, new discoveries and intense moments and I ate it up.

I loved Veaer as a main character a lot. She is a character who isn't always fully in control of what she does and I do like that in a dark academia book. Sometimes she just can't say no to things, these often relating to Elise and that inner turmoil was amazing to read. She just followed Elise around without being able to do anything about it while sometimes inside she was screaming "Why am I doing this?!"

I also really loved the friendship Veaer had with Hairwin and Adair. This friendship felt like a true chosen family of three. They cared so much for each other and would change the world for them. But at the same time like every family there will be moments you'll clash and that happened in this book too. These clashes were big and eventful and really pulled me into the book. Then the love that flows from that following such conflicts is absolutely the best and warmed my heart. I love them to bits.

Concluding this is a lovely sapphic dark academia for people who love messy queers.

dnf @ 30%

I was really excited to read this book, but I couldn't get involved in the story, I found it very confusing and it became very difficult to continue with it :(

I really wanted to like this. It sounds perfectly up my alley.
It was written in a very confusing manner so it just didn’t grab me. I was trying so hard to continue, but I could really only get a page at a time or so.
So I had to DNF in chapter 2.
I’m giving it a 3 because it SOUNDS like it would be incredible.
I just think don’t think the execution was in a style that I personally enjoyed.