⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Chrysalis and Requiem is a twisty, captivating dark academia with angels, tarot, and sapphic romance.

I really liked this one. It was dark and sensual, with intriguing and twisty characters. Many parts of the story resonated with me deeply. I loved how the characters and romance descended into darkness as the story progressed, and the dark academia aspect and haunting setting and characters were entertaining to read about! Quite a few parts felt slow, and I feel they could have been shortened. This book will not be for everyone, but I enjoyed it! Highly recommend!

Thank you to the lovely author for the free ARC!

Thrillers aren't really my thing, but I was intrigued by the premise of this one, and, like I'd hoped, it fell into the more speculative fiction side of the thriller genre.

Veaer, the POV character, is interesting to say the least. I think her autism is portrayed well, especially her small mannerisms and things that bother her. However, it is hard at times to understand her way of thinking/rationale. The way she feels she has to protect Elise is not logical or grounded. It is obsessive and confusing and infuriating. I get that the author is exploring themes of obsession and co-dependency, but it wasn't really for me.

Elise, the love interest, I feel I just didn't see enough of. I was left constantly guessing at what or why she is doing things. Given that this book is promoted as a whydunnit, I feel there is very little conclusion/explanation to everything that happens, and it was definitely not satisfying for me.

The writing itself was not very fluent. This added to the jarring nature of the book, but it also meant I found it hard to keep my place on the page and was often rereading sections.

Overall, I would say this book felt more like an idea than a cohesive story. It was all very surreal and chaotic, and I don't feel the book was very grounded, whether that be in the characters or the plot or the writing.

Many of these thoughts may be due to my slight aversion to the genre, I don't know. I probably would recommend reading it if you're intrigued by the premise, because I think this book, and the understanding of it, must be very subjective. Just be prepared for a wild ride!

honestly, the concept and plot is great ! HOWEVER, the plot was kind of confusing at some parts but nonetheless, i liked it ! definitely an interesting story that will keep you wanting more.

for the characters, they weren’t written very good, but they also weren’t bad. i also didn’t like that with every ( not “every” lol but it felt like it ) chapter, the characters were always saying that they have this ‘secret’ over and over again HELP. likeeee i get it ! i also didn’t care much for the characters except for elise ( hehe i love herrrrrr so much AAAAAAAAAAAA )

aside from that, i don’t really have much complaints from this book ! i lowered my rating from 4 stars to 3.5 because it just didn’t stick with me after reading it but i’m going to give this a 4 star because i really want to give quinton li, the author, another chance ! i do believe that their writing and their ideas are so amazingly good !

thank you so much for quinton lee for this book ! i would LOVE to try and read more of the author’s works ! they made me love stories about angels ! thank you also to NetGalley for this ARC ! <3

I enjoyed this book, at some points it was hard for me to connect with the characters but the fact it was about dark twisted lesbians in an academic setting was a big selling point for me.

The overall plot kept me interested, the beginning sucked me in but towards the end it felt like the ending fizzled out.

I am a mood reader so I think this is a book I would like to re-read at some point.

The cover of the book is stunning!! You can feel the dark whimsical vibe it was going for.

I am grateful to have been provided this ARC by NetGalley, and this review will be my honest opinion!

The premise of the book sounded so up my alley! Tragic, sapphic romance with dark academia vibes. I love all the themes and characters. Angels, ghosts, murder and a queer love obsession and the perfect atmosphere.

But, it felt very haphazardly thrown together instead of intentionally crafted. These themes felt like there wasn’t any control. Motivation was definitely lacking, and the stakes were skewed and impractical. The dark academia vibe that was supposed to really set us into this world felt.. again, lacking. Academia wasn’t really anything that was discussed or thought of. Even the fantasy elements felt off and unfocused. The way it was written, it would’ve been better to omit fantasy being part of it, especially being in a connected world.

All in all, I’m a bit disappointed in this book, and it upsets me so much! I had high hopes. Maybe the book can be rewritten, but I hope the author can learn from this and grow!

I had to sit with this book for a few days before I was able to decide my thoughts on it.
This may be a chaotic review because my brain feels crazy just thinking about this book.
This was very honestly one of the wildest books I’ve ever read. I was completely sucked in, maybe not always because I loved it but because WHAT THE HECK IS HAPPENING! I won’t say I really understand what was happening or the ending, but I did have a fun time reading it. It’s one thats fun and very confusing to try to explain to my friends who happened to be around while I was reading it. It was nice to read a book the was very queer and the queerness for many of the characters wasn't integral to the story, its just how they are.
I can see myself reading another Quinton Li in the future just to see where they go from here as I think this book had a lot of potential but I think it could have been slightly less chaotic and a little more explained.

<b>ARC provided by publisher— Victory Editing— in exchange for an honest review</b>

This,, was a difficult read. Oh man, that was a close dnf but I pulled through in the end. The last 60ish pages, sick! cool! I love a girl going religiously insane! The rest of the book- girl what are we doing. How did it have so many words and yet,, nothing comprehended in my brain. The characters felt so one trailed and reading about the main characters constant love for the love interested for about 270ish pages despite there being obvious that more important things could be happening was,, a moment for sure. Goodbye few hours of my life that I can never get back. Lots of potential though, don’t get me wrong.

I really wanted to love this book. Like many others I was instantly drawn in by the premise and knew I needed to read it. A queer dark academia is right up my alley. And in a murder mystery in a school. Even better.

While it was a good book, I was underwhelmed and at moments left very confused and bored. The fantasy elements didn't seemed flushed out as well as they could have been. And while the characters themselves seemed to fit perfectly within the story, I personally struggled to connect with them or to even want to root for them.

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

I truly wanted to love this book. The minute I read the premise I knew I wanted to read it. Queer dark academia? That will always get me excited and I was basically foaming at the mouth when I got approved to finally pick this up.

Was it a good book? Yes.

Did I go into this with high expectations and was left a tad disappointed? Also yes.

What I did love was the characters, themselves. They are perfectly written for a book with this theme and atmosphere. I also loved the shifting timeline that gave us more of an insight into the characters.

I honestly think this book would’ve been great if it wasn’t fantasy because in my opinion, it was that aspect of the book that fell flat for me.

However, I had fun with this book and I’m interested to read other works by this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and Victory Editing Netgalley Co-op for providing me with this ARC. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

"At Adraredon Academy, fervent passion, contemporary companionship, and forbidden desires intertwine with tall gothic spires, ancient halls, and centuries of history. Veaer Rosell can't imagine a better place to satiate her craving for beauty, knowledge, and art.

Yet senior year shatters her illusion of tranquillity and civil intellect when she witnesses the headmaster's daughter murder another student and is confronted by an unthinkable choice: avenging her fallen peer or taking this secret to the grave, one way or another.

But fate laughs at Veaer's expense when the headmaster's daughter requests her aid. Driven by an all-consuming thirst for answers, Veaer becomes an untimely partner in solving a murder they both know the answer to, unaware of the intricacies that come with learning the bigger picture and playing with death.

Chrysalis & Requiem is a haunting thriller of tragic obsession and relentless grief, weaving two young, queer women in a spiral of clandestine violence and illicit love."

What would you do if a killer asked you to solve a murder they committed?

Thank you to @netgalley for a copy of this eARC for review.

I wanted to really like this. I thought the story solving a murder in a high school backdrop ( like most others that have come out). The inner monologue of the characters was all over the place and inputted at random times. Neither the main character or the side character brought anything to the story. It took away from the worldbuilding from this book that was actually the best part. Dark academia, sapphic romance, and fantasy should have been a home run blend but unfortunately fell short.

the prose definitely has it's moments, i was basically swooning at some of the lines and still think about them from time to time. my main problem was with the plot, because some of the twists didn't quite make sense to me. i also wasn't as enamoured with Elise as i think i was meant to. i just didn't get the appeal, i guess.

still, i think the idea certainly had a potential, and i did enjoy the toxic lesbianism of it all!

I received an e-arc of this book from NetGalley. I really wanted to like this book. The cover is beautiful and stories with diverse representation are important. Albeit, I found the story hard to follow and uneventful. I felt the characters were flat and hard to relate to. I wish there was also more time spent on the world building. Dnf at 65%

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a free earc in exchange for an honest review.

I felt like this title had all the makings of a 5 star - dark academia, angels, obsessive love, murder…. - yet nothing really materialised from the title.

The characters aren’t enjoyable or, a lot of the time, understandable. And not in a ‘I can’t connect with the MC’ way, in a ‘this makes absolutely no sense and there must be a reason for doing this….except there isn’t’ way.

Ultimately this book was a struggle.

DNF at 29%

Unfortunately I just couldn’t connect with this story at all - I felt like I was dragging myself through it, and still felt confused about multiple aspects of the story. The writing is…almost cluttered, and the story too hectic to read enjoyably.

I hate not finishing review copies, but alas.

I will say the dark academia vibes were really good, but I just disliked all the characters, and couldn’t grasp what was going on.

Thank you to the publishers, and Netgalley, for the copy to review.

DNF at 20% - I am just so confused that I cannot keep going.

We're jumping time a lot and jumped into what feels like the middle of a story. Usually I don't mind rushing right into action, but because this world is so complicated I'm just left confused by characters motivations and actions.

I really, really wanted to love this book. The description and the cover drew me right in, and I was so excited to see all the queer rep. But I ultimately had to DNF at 46%; I give this book 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3.

When I first picked this up, I was intrigued by the first few chapters. I wanted to see where things were going and was interested in learning more about the characters and their motivations, what made them tick. There are also some really beautiful and poetic bouts of writing, sprinkled throughout, but, I otherwise found the witting merely okay (and sometimes kind of jarring). And I just could not get into the story and characters.

I think the flashback chapters could have been really helpful for shaping the plot and characters and giving us a better sense of their motivations, but I didn't see that happen here. We get some background on Veaer, her place in the school's social hierarchy, and her relationships with her friends, but it wasn't enough for me personally to really "get" her. Even at 46% I'm still not really sure why she's so invested in Elise or why she's keeping this huge secret.

Ultimately, I realized I was forcing myself to keep reading this. I can definitely see others liking this book. If the character's and their motivations were clearer to me, I think I would have wanted to finish this one. And while I am still curious to know what is up with Elise, it's not worth trudging through another 54% of this one to find out.

Thank you to Net Galley for providing me with an advanced reader's copy to review.

Funny enough, I started to read this one and then sort of hit a wall, and put it down. When I returned, I skipped to the end (epilogue) and was so intrigued by what I read there that I then read half the book backwards one chapter at a time. It was a great experience and seemed to solve the issues I was having reading the proper way,, namely vague sense of stakes, confusing plot, and slow pacing due to early worldbuilding. So, I’m rating this high because there’s definitely a story here!

3.5/5.
It’s very hard for me to rate this one because I adored the first 2/3 of this book, but then, in the last part, it completely fell apart for me and I just couldn’t connect with any of the characters anymore or believe and accept how the mystery was unraveling.
I thoroughly enjoyed the gothic atmosphere and the toxic obsessive relationship that Veaer and Elise have with each other, though the writing sometimes was too much for me and I’d get lost in the prose. Overall, I feel like this book has a very specific audience and I wouldn’t recommend it to everyone, but I hope it finds its people so it can be cherished how it should be. I will keep following and reading more from the author.
A big thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for providing this arc.

I'm struggling to articulate my thoughts for this book.

Overall I see why some people found the way it was structured very confusing, but I found that worked for me, and I absolutely loved the twins and Tychon, I found their characters incredibly interesting.

I went from hating Elise to just feeling sorry for her.

Certain aspects of Veaer's character were quite endearing at times, but mostly I was just concerned for her welfare.

This all in all isn't a book I'd recommend to everyone, but I certainly know people who would quite enjoy it!