I requested this book as soon as I saw it as I knew it would be right up my alley. I'm a huge fan of dark academia thrillers and loved that it also included queer romance. Parts of the story lagged, but I enjoyed the book overall. 3.75/5⭐.

This story had a lot of solid ideas but a really poor execution. The premise sounded super interesting with that sort of dark academia feel and the intrigue of a secret society. I really liked the exclusiveness of the society and the roles that riddles and tasks had on the story. There was that sort of risk factor that helped convey how serious it is, and I enjoyed the use of the letters and emails as the main form of communication between the society and the characters.

Although this story had the ingredients for a compelling read, the writing is where the story fell the most flat. It was very structured in telling you a lot of information without any true transitions or integrations to make it feel natural. The writing also wasn’t very thought provoking and didn’t leave much for the reader to try and figure out stuff themselves. In order to become a part of the secret society you have to solve riddles and complete tasks, Cal came to conclusions to these riddles and tasks with barely any sort of struggle. I would have enjoyed it more to see a thought process or the opportunity to see things really click into place without it just being told and solved outright. Towards the end of the story the pacing got a bit weird. For the first 60ish percent the story was following a certain flow and then after that it felt like we were jumping months by for the sake of rushing through the timeline.

The characters also needed quite a bit of work. The motivations of the main character, Cal, wanting to get into this secret society is clear, because he has always felt like an outsider and this was finally a way for him to belong and actually become well respected by others. But, other than that I feel like the rest of the characters lacked any real depth. The relationship that blooms between Cal and Luke felt underdeveloped and lacked a real clear buildup to their relationship resulting in me not really feeling the desire to root for them. Plus Luke ended up being an extremely unlikable character that I started feeling bad for Cal for continuing to go back to him after everything.

Overall, this story can be fun if you think of it as like a wacky storyline you would come up with in The Sims but, as a fleshed out novel it needed more reworking. Thank you to NetGalley and Scholastic for providing me with this ARC.

Derek Milman’s latest title blends familiar YA tropes with edgy teenage realism in a novel described by the publisher as dark academia. That’s a good way to sum up Milman’s cross-genre story, and while there’s something for almost everyone along the way, it’s the contemporary themes that captivate the most.

Cal Ware is the fifteen-year-old protagonist and a fish-out-of-water at Essex Academy in New England. The story begins at the start of his sophomore year as a transfer scholarship student from small town Mississippi. His parents encouraged his move to an elite boarding school due to a scandal back home that left him with a glass eye and traumatic aftershocks (details of the scandal are gradually revealed). Cal is only a few weeks into the year, and he’s already practically given up on surviving at the snobby private school. His classmates have their established cliques, and Cal’s modest, Southern, unathletic background doesn’t match well with any of them. Meanwhile, he feels guilty about leaving behind his mother, who is undergoing treatment for cancer, and his father, who’s in legal trouble.

Then Cal’s social trajectory changes dramatically when he receives an invitation to join a secret society with a centuries-old history. Initiation requires daring missions through eighteenth century abandoned halls with hidden passages and lost treasures of artwork with DaVinci Code-like clues. Joining the society gives Cal a much-needed sense of purpose and belonging. He also meets an intriguing young man, Luke, who likes to tag walls with graffiti and shares a damaged past. Romance blossoms. Cal discovers he’s pretty good at sneaking around campus after dark, and things are looking up for him for a while. But as Cal’s reconnaissance turns up ugly facts about Essex, he begins to wonder about the true purpose of the secret society. Is he being used to help blackmail somebody? The school is full of kids from wealthy, influential families.

Milman takes a bold, authentic approach to the romance throughline and Cal and Luke’s traumatic histories. Appropriate for the times, the two boys contend with a measure of homophobia and the resulting fear of being oneself, but the greater substance of their journey is navigating each other’s broken parts that have little to do with being gay. Their connection is raw and heartfelt, and also laced with betrayals, both small and big. They each avow that all they need is to disappear forever into their embrace, but both of them have learned that people who say they love you can’t always be trusted. Still, Cal exposes his deepest vulnerabilities to Luke, not quite knowing his readiness to do so, nor Luke’s ability to respond without falling back on a defensive reaction. It would be conventional to grasp onto a love conquers all trope here, but Milman is more honest than that, and his story is better for it. Extra points awarded for giving their sexual relationship dimension and realness. Those scenes are not gratuitous, but they bring the reader into Cal’s sense of wonder and his deep connection to Luke.

The ancient boarding school setting and secret society give the story a Harry Potter feel. But there are no magic or fantasy elements, just some hypnagogic hallucinations and distorted perceptions related to Cal’s past trauma. The intrigue with the secret society relies on the reader’s capacity to get on board with how fascinating fictional Essex Academy is, and that’s where the story lost me a bit. Histories are explained, but unless one attended a New England boarding school dating back to pre-revolutionary times, it’s hard to muster much interest in the clues Cal is putting together. The fast pace and esoteric material leaves the reader feeling like an outsider, and the truth behind the secret society comes across as muddled and perhaps not as consequential as the author had hoped.

Still, Cal and Luke’s earnest and messy relationship make A Darker Mischief a worthwhile read. It’s also a good pick for fans of boarding school mysteries and New England history.

This title was reviewed for Out in Print.

*Edit* I misclicked so some of my first review...I thought I was reviewing a different book. Here is my correct review.

I loved the concept of this book. I thought it was interesting, and I particularly liked the idea of an MM romance dark academia. However, the book itself just didn't grab me. It's not something that moves well at the store - queer genre fiction is a hard sell in our location unless our booksellers recommend it, so I don't think this will do well at our location. I think it would be something teenage me would have liked, there is definitely an audience for this kind of book, but it's not adult me, and it's not our store's audience, unfortunately.

A tender tale of young love under the duress, dark academia at its finest. A small town kid amongst the high rolling elite, a secret society with a reach into America's elite. The kidnapping of the VP's daughter. Addictive.

2 stars
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This book truly has a little bit of everything to appeal to a myriad of readers. Dark academia, secret societies, queer romance. I was truly enthralled by the many aspects of those one. Despite all that, there was perhaps too much happening.

This book intros with such a startling prologue that I was immediately engaged. But that engagement only lasted so long. Within a few chapters, I knew it would be an uphill battle to get to that storyline. There is so much history and background and world building happening all at once. The plot gets lost within all this dense history and I was struggling to keep on top of the purpose of the book and what it was trying to tell me. This book has so much description of events without showing them. There is an excessive use of “I explained” without showing the reader what was learned. I almost DNFed this many times, but needed to see how the prologue tied in. It was pretty disappointing in resolution.

The characters were a bit much. The relationship between Luke and Cal was so toxic, it was unbearable to read at times. Despite the purpose of this, it could have been toned down. It seemed to almost romanticize this abuse. I know it’s to show Cal’s inexperience and naivety, but it just was too much. The characters beyond this were really toneless and undeveloped. Our side characters didn’t add much to the story, which was unfortunate given their importance.

This was really a great concept with poor execution.

There is a lot of love in this book. Dark academia. Secret societies. Hidden histories. And queer characters. It is a dark and twisted reminder of the power and corruption of money. And it does a very good job of capturing the isolation, loneliness, and awkwardness of being an outsider trying to fit into the classed structure of wealth and privilege.

Even though I loved the premise of the book, the writing could have been more tidy. The formatting was awkward and confusing at times. And, while this book had a compelling start and a great conclusion, I felt it lagged around the middle.

2 stars

Thank you to Derek Milman and Scholastic Press for this ARC in exchange for my full, honest review!

First and foremost, in terms of sheer entertainment value this book is fantastic, at least for the first half. If you want more YA thrillers with the audacity and horniness of Riverdale, this might be for you! However, for me, it was like watching a convoluted yet hilarious train wreck. This book throws so many random curveballs, many of which are just hardly relevant. I really puzzled over my star rating because I was truly having fun just being along for the mess for a good chunk of the book, but even as a fantasy reader there comes a point when a book is simply too ridiculous.

Other than being wildly entertaining for half the book, there are a few things I enjoyed despite their insanity. Cal and Luke's relationship is the kind of over-dramatic, toxic teenage codependency that I like because I thrive on drama. There are some moments in the writing that are actually really beautiful, though entirely misplaced. I also have to commend the commitment to ridiculousness because genuinely I could not have been prepared for a single plot event in this book.

Now for the unfortunately numerous pitfalls. First, I mentioned that I enjoyed the first half but after that point the story becomes so incredible convoluted and hard to follow that I was totally lost. There were jumps in time and changes in location at points that were not at all indicated and I kept having to look back to figure out how we got where we were. I could list facts we know about most of the characters, Cal and Luke in particular, but I struggle to actually characterize them because they're just kind of...strange. The dialog is insane in a way that is occasionally funny but usually is just cryptic and kind of grating because it adds to nothing. There are a few spoiler-y things that happen and I could not tell you for the life of me why those things happen. They kidnap the vice president's daughter (not a spoiler, it's revealed in the first section), and maybe I just missed it but I still don't really get why. It's mentioned afterward that someone was tryin to prevent the VP from passing some law but I don't really understand why it makes sense for them to exhort him in that way when the society supposedly has so much power otherwise. Most of the big plot events are genuinely shoved into the last thirty pages and I can't say I cared much about any of them at that point. Also, I'm not against sex in YA books but this one is toeing the line with the sheer volume, especially against the backdrop of a toxic relationship. There are a few serious/triggering topics that get brought momentarily for shock value and have no otherwise bearing on the plot, nor are they explored in a way I felt was healthy or interesting. The epilogue was a hot mess, again throwing curveballs with literally no weight to them.

Sorry for being a hater, but I really can only suspend my disbelief so much. I always hesitate to say "don't read this book," especially when there were parts of this one that I really liked, but just go in knowing that this is not to be taken too seriously and that you won't be missing much if you DNF or skip it.

Happy reading!

Thank you to NetGalley and Scholastic publishing for giving me an arc of this book! This was one of those rare books that instantly had me hooked. Usually, it takes me a little bit to get into the book and fully enjoy it, but I was committed to this book right off the bat. It has been a long time since I have been unable to put down a book… and this was one of those books. It captivated me, I just could not stop thinking about it until I finished it! This was also one of those books where I wished it could have gone on for longer.

I do not know much about dark academia as a genre, but I am instantly intrigued. The cover was beautiful and the writing and story were well done. Something I think this book does great with is pacing! The pacing of this story is excellent and keeps you on your toes, I literally could not book this book down. Some of the characters were unlikable, even the characters that you were supposed to like, but I almost feel like that was the point. This novel shows that everybody is flawed in someway, but in the end, people will still try to do the right thing. The book also lives up to its name, it goes get kind of dark (for a YA novel). Lastly, I just want to mention the setting. Old mysterious boarding school with a long history? Loved it. I was very, very impressed with this story.

i was intrigued by the beginning but the rest was such a let down. this writing style was not good in my opinion. lots of telling instead of showing, especially with the facts about the school none of that blended into the story or stayed with me. there wasn’t enough world building, have no idea what the school really looks like or even the town that they are in. the dialogue was really bad. it’s like the author was never a teenager and has no idea how people speak. And there were some weird lines, like when cal is talking about the queer clique in the school it’s really icky to me.
This could have been better if the author had a more developed writing style and had some more advice for the plot and character development.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC of this book!

“A Darker Mischief” is a queer, dark academia book. The story follows Cal Ware, a teen from Mississippi, who wins a scholarship to an elite boarding school in New England. However, upon arrival, Cal finds it hard to fit in with the other students. That is until Cal learns of a secret society on campus and meets Luke Kim. But as the initiation becomes more intense, Cal begins to wonder what he will sacrifice and what is true around him.

I had a lot of fun reading this book. There were so many twists and turns. Everything that happened was so unexpected. My jaw was on the floor!

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes YA horror/mystery!

A Darker Mischief is a suspenseful and thrilling experience with a queer romance that is as sweet as it is heartbreaking. Perfect for fans of The Secret History and The Magnus Archives!

I really didn't care for this book. I didn't think it was well-written, and the plot was incredibly strange. The cover is gorgeous and the premise is very intriguing but the execution was really lacking.

I really wanted to like this, but quickly found that this book had hollow characters, a rushed yet boring plot, and a very distanced, awkward portrayal of teenagers. The best part of this book is the opening section, which grabs your attention and sucks you in. To have such a good opening, and such an immediate plummet in quality, was wholly disappointed. Often it would include crazy plot points in the attempt to get more excitement going, but it just served to confuse me and leave me with a bad taste in my mouth. Not my favorite YA arc of this year, to say the least.

DNF at about 50% of the way through. The pacing was off for me, and I found that I couldn't connect to any of the characters because of that. I wanted so badly to like this, but I couldn't bring myself to continue reading it when I was struggling to keep up with the plot.

This one wasn't for me sadly, but I will definitely be recommending to any YA readers who are interested in a queer dark academia thriller!

This one started out so well. It has a wonderful dark academia vibe with the loner student who is just looking to find a way to fit in at his new boarding school. Unfortunately for him, he is struggling to find people who truly understand him. That is until he comes across a secret society he can pledge. They might be exactly what he is looking for, or they could continue his downfall. This book has great queer representation and it gives great YA dark academia vibes but the story got way too off track for me about midway through. The decisions being made by the characters seemed to get weirder and weirder without necessity. I wanted to love this one and I think for someone looking for a darker vibe read, this might be for them.

Overall I really enjoyed the story. The pacing was mostly good though the ending felt rushed. I feel like parts of the ending weren’t really necessary and didn’t add anything overall to the story and could maybe have been left out.

I will say that the formatting was a bit wonky especially when it came to dialogue making it a bit difficult to decipher who was speaking. Hopefully that issue is fixed with the official release.

I love dark academia and especially a gay dark academia book, so I was so excited to read this and I was not disappointed. Add in a secret society and this was so fun! This was an atmospheric read, made me feel like it was a foggy day in October as we follow our main characters in a New England boarding school.

This book feels a bit like Heathers meets A Separate Peace, but make it queer and dark academia.
I really liked the premise of this secret society that is deep rooted within the fabric of the school. There was enough mystery to keep me interested to find out Essex's secrets, just as Cal strove to. His frantic desperation to fit in was the perfect catalyst for driving the plot forward as well as having him face the consequences of getting in too deep.

I liked the beginning of Cal's romantic relationship. I did have trouble believing the romance as things continued to develop between them. I think it felt too much too fast for me. However, I really liked seeing the characters unravel, and I feel like the author did a good job of exploring that.

I also think that the author developed the villain nicely. He was just suave enough to make you sort of like him, but then you can see the darker side. I think it was a subtle villainization that worked really well.

I think Gretchen needed to be a little more prominent. I feel like she was featured consistently in the beginning of the book, but I practically forgot about her when the action began to rise. However, I do think that the latter half of the book is stronger than the beginning. It wasn't until a certain twist was revealed that I really couldn't put the book down.

The setting is really rich and is described well. You can really tell that the author knows it front and back. I did find myself getting a bit lost with all of the building names as well as the deep history of the school. I had to reread lines over and over again to understand the various structures and persons that were being written about. I also found that there were moments where it was hard to gauge who was speaking which also caused me to reread several sections that took me out of the flow of the book. I think my biggest complaint is that I did have to keep rereading sections to gain understanding.

I will say, the ending was done well. It was poignant and it did tug at my heartstrings.
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All in all, I did enjoy reading the book. I think it is one I would have purchased upon reading the premise and seeing the cover, but it is not one that I would keep to read again.