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.

A Darker Mischief by Derek Milman was a fast-paced, queer, dark academia thrill. Everything that happens is connected to another event, another person, or another place on campus. The key to making it through it all is your willingness to test all your limits.
Cal is an outsider. He struggles to find his place on campus and has fallen into hopelessness when all of a sudden, Society extends an invitation to pledge and compete in order to join their ranks.
Along the way he finds Luke. Charming, handsome, erratic Luke. The further they go into the rush process, the closer Cal and Luke become. Luke pushing Cal just a little bit further than Society seems to push him.
Luke calls Cal, Lonely Hearts and for some reason, it was a perfect nickname for Cal. He was lonely and he still is even within Society. People see him, but they see him as a means to achieving more.
It’s very clear how far the physicality of their relationship goes. Even as a YA book there are places it is spelled out to readers what these two boys are up to, but it’s very fade to black at the same time.
I found myself much more focused on each of the ‘explos’ Cal went on and his process of figuring out how to best the rest of the pledge class. I was there rooting for Cal to make it through the end, even when there were moment by heart broke for him and wanted him to just go home.
Things I did not like? For the first 120 pages, I can not tell you how many times Cal said he was from Mississippi, but I swear everyone on Essex campus had to ask him at least twice. It was that much. We got it. No need to bash us over the head with it.
The ending felt a bit abrupt, but I do think that was intentional. Especially, with the last few pages we got. Almost a where are they now update. I was glad to see just how a lot of it played out.
The pacing was spot on. Once I got into it, I did not want to put this book down.

Thank you Scholastic and NetGalley for the eARC. If you’re a fan of twisted mysteries this is for you. This is like a much more dark Natalie D Richard’s novel. Cal and Luke are truly the poet and the painter together. Every time I thought I had something figured out a small detail would add another layer and keep me guessing. I truly wasn’t expecting the ending and thoroughly enjoyed this read.

I will never say no to any dark academia, and this one is no different!

any book set in New England is an automatic yes for me, and to add in a secret society AND a spooky old boarding school, I was sold. The plot twists just kept coming too, holding my interest every chance they got.

Luke, however, gets a no from me. I loved Cal as a main character, but his love interest was not it.

Thank you to Netgalley and Scholastic for the e-arc!

I really enjoyed this book. It took me a little while to get through, but I think that had more to do with me not being in the mood to read, as I enjoyed the story every time I would pick it up.
One of my favorite parts of this book was the dialogue. It was so blunt and there were rarely any dialogue tags. Normally, this would take away from the story, but it really helped add to the growing unease. It also made it harder to figure out other characters'intentions.
Also, while the book never felt slow, the story was definitely more of a slow burn than a fast-passed thriller. Each part gets a little darker and it makes it easy to see how Cal is able to justify his actions.
The ending is... honestly, I don't know how I feel about the ending. It isn't bad by any means and it fits the story, I just can't stop thinking about it.
Anyway, I liked this book a lot and I highly recommend it, especially if you are into dark academia.

A Darker Mischief was an intriguing book with a secret society and uncovering secrets within the school.

Cal was such an amazing and complex character. The heart of the story revolves around Cal feeling like he doesn’t belong anywhere. We see him struggle with identity and sense of belonging throughout the entire book. Society gives him the opportunity to belong, but how far will he go to fit in?

I did not love the pace of this book. Some parts were really slow and hard to get through, while others were so fast that they blended together. I was often confused during this book, which is why I gave this 3 stars. The writing style was great, especially for this type of story!

Thanks NetGalley and Scholastic for the arc. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I don’t have words! I honestly think that this book left me with more questions than answers. I adored the main character; he was complex, and the author portrayed his angst and frustrations well. The mystery aspect of the story was significant, though most of it I didn’t get; I loved it nonetheless as you bonded with the character in his total confusion. The romance in the book was also excellently written. The tension, the nicknames, and the mystery associated with Cal and Luke’s love story made me speed through this book.

Honestly, the atmosphere that the author creates sucks you into the mystique associated with the characters and story. Though the ending didn’t match the rest of the book, it was satisfying, and I’m so happy that I could read this story—another must-read for this year!

Thank you, NetGalley and Scholastic, for allowing me to read such a remarkable story in exchange for my honest review!

First, Thank you so for the chance to read the story.
I love a dark academic ya story. It was a secret society.

I felt like it did fall flat in the end and was a slower pace than I expected but I really did enjoy the book.

I REALLY wanted to love this one - on paper, it has pretty much everything I love in a book: queer YA dark academia! Mystery and intrigue and secret societies! But alas…

Spoilers below!!

I'm not usually this critical in reviews, but this book really got to me for some reason. If you read and loved the book/haven't started it yet and want to go into it with an open mind, skip this review!

What was good: the architecture/exploration aspect is really unique and interesting, and I think could’ve been even more technical and specific. I'm from Mississippi, and it’s always fun to see a little state representation!! Not a lot of state pride there though with the whole “fleeing a brutal hate crime” plot, but I’ll take what I can get, I guess...

And now for the other stuff. First are the issues with the plot itself: it’s almost nonexistent. Pretty much nothing happens, interesting or otherwise, after the first 50 pages of the book. Even the ending wasn’t compelling or satisfying because the reader is told what will happen on the actual first page (which sometimes works! but here does not).

The secret society is deeply unbelievable - why is it SO niche? Why does it align so perfectly with Cal’s interests and research? Why do so many students care, and why do the students have a seemingly unlimited amount of free time? Also, all the riddles that Cal figures out early on are somewhere between impossible and nonsensical. There are a lot of plot holes and doors that are opened just to never be closed properly (Luke’s childhood, what happened to Brett in juvie, what’s going on with Jeffrey and those kids Cal was friends with at the beginning of the story, Pinky’s entire storyline, etc).

As for characters, Luke is just awful. He’s really, really annoying, and despite Cal insisting that he’s incredible and deep and so easy to fall in love with, all I could think about was how terrifying his angry outbursts are and how manipulative every single thing he does is. I kind of thought something satisfying would come of this in the end, but it just doesn’t, really. The whole confrontation between them seems so random and sad, and uncharacteristically brutal on Cal's part. (And god, the nicknames...)

The writing style is largely bare bones and straightforward, but occasionally I found myself being thrown into an elaborately detailed description of something like Luke’s eyes without having previously known Luke was even in the room. Over and over, things just tend to happen without any indication of how we got there.

The pacing isn’t great, and there's a lot of telling what Cal is learning and doing and VERY little showing. He talks about how he’s learning to see and describe things beautifully and artfully, but we don’t get any of that coming through in his actual point of view despite everyone insisting he’s a “poet". Cal’s thought processes throughout are unexpected and hard to follow - he’ll react to a clearly terrifying situation with nonchalance, or an extremely normal interaction with unwarranted suspicion. “You’re so hot and damaged” is just not a real response to “I punched my dad in the face."

I get that writing Gen Alpha as a Millennial would be hard, but none of the characters use the internet/social media in believable ways at alllll, and the dialogue (both in person and over text) is so bizarre. I’ve been out of high school for a good few years now, but I cannot imagine this is how high schoolers talk to each other. I can’t even come up with a specific example, because every conversation is full of the same kind of disrespect/passive aggressive confrontation/SUDDEN YELLING/hushed apologies/I’M SO RANDOM XD peanut butter and jelly joke????

Basically, nothing about this book makes literally any sense. And yet I finished it! I absolutely didn’t hate it. Despite all its flaws, I think with some restructuring (and if the uncomfortable and random sex were removed), this would actually make a better Middle Grade novel than Young Adult.

As always, thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!! Not my cup of tea, but could totally be someone else's!

I loved this book, it was unique, and addictive. Queer dark academia is now going to be a regular for me!!! I feel in love with Cal from the very beginning. There were quite a few twists I didn’t see coming!

4.5/5
Rounded up

Thank you Netgalley and Scholastic Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

"A Darker Mischief" by Derek Milman is a YA dark academia book that takes you into the secretive world of Essex Academy, where nothing is quite as it seems. Cal Ware goes from being the town misfit to navigating the enigmatic corridors of Essex Academy. This is a book that focuses on secret societies within a private academy, which is something I always love exploring. There is some bullying as well as some thrills demonstrated throughout the book.

I really enjoyed the character development in this book as Cal struggles with identity and belonging, which helps craft a character who resonates with authenticity and depth. While this is a pretty standard character troupe (new student trying to fit in at an exclusive academy), I found the way that Milman depicted this growth felt fresh and unique. If you have ever had the same experiences as Cal (going to an exclusive academy, joining a “secret” society) then you will definitely be able to relate to Cal. The atmospheric setting of Essex Academy was also a highlight of the book as the setting and descriptions that went along with it adds an extra layer of intrigue, drawing you into its shadowy depths from the very beginning of the book. A dark academia book absolutely requires strong descriptions and a specific kind of atmosphere, which Milman definitely accomplished in the book.

There are a lot of thrills and suspense throughout the book; Milman's writing style is engaging and evocative, which kept me interested in the book as the plot progressed. The plot itself was fast-paced, and I was able to finish this book pretty quickly. I did find the ending to be a bit underwhelming compared to the rest of the book. Some of the dialogue was also a bit cliché and unrealistic, which sometimes pulled me away from the story. However, the storyline as well as the compelling characters kept pulling me in.

Overall, fans of dark academia and twisty thrillers will find much to love in “A Darker Mischief.” I definitely can’t wait to read more from Milman.