4.5 ⭐️
Immortal Dark is a fascinating debut novel about vampires. In the blurb it is likened to Ninth House and I would say that is a good comparison in terms of mood and narrative. The writing style is descriptive, but not verbose. The world building is well done and the characters are intriguing. I listened to the audiobook version and it was fabulous. The narrator, Jordan Cobb, did a great job of bringing the characters to life with her tone and inflection. I would highly recommend the audiobook version if you enjoy them. The book ends on a cliff-hanger, which I expected knowing this was a trilogy.

~~What I liked~~
-The plot was interesting and the pacing was good. It was a longer book but I didn't feel bored at any time. I really enjoyed the writing style of the book, descriptive and eloquent.
-The background and history of vampires presented in the book was nicely presented. It was unique from other vampire books I've read and detailed enough that I didn't have a bunch of questions. There was a lot of history presented in the book, and much focused around the houses at Uxlay University, the setting for the story. Because I listened to the audiobook version I did struggle a bit with keeping everything strait, but this wouldn't have been a problem if I had a physical or ebook copy.
-All of the story is told from Kidan's POV, so as a reader you really understand her thoughts and motivations. She was a well-written character. The MMC, Susenyos, was harder to understand, but I think that was intended so the reader doesn't know what his end game is.
-The supporting characters were good.

~~What I didn't like~~
-As much as the book focused on vampires, I feel like there weren't that many scenes with actual vampires doing vampire-y things. Most of the book was about Kidan and her house, or her friends, or her sister.
-This is tagged as romance, but I struggled to see the romance. There was one intimate scene and it was tastefully done, but other than that I wouldn't say there was much in terms of romance. Maybe it will come in later books...?

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and look forward to the next books in the series.

IMMORTAL DARK by Tigest Girma was everything I could ask for in a vampire novel. It was absolutely captivating from the beginning to the very end. I shocked that this is Tigest debut novel, her writing is beautiful and lyrical. The representation and thought provoking messages in the read was beautiful. I was completely drawn into the story, each scene felt so real. And the characters, wow!! They were everything. The dynamic between Kidan and Susenyos was perfection, the intensity of their interactions and chemistry exceeded my expectations for an enemies to lovers romance. When they aren’t trying to murder each other they made a beautiful deadly team. The passionate moments between them were unmatched, they connection just felt so organic and natural. It was like they were truly made for each other despite one being a vampire and the other being human. They were one of the same.

Also line that the characters would break to achieve what they want was fascinating, They are all so unhinged, they truly would push they mortal boundaries to obtain their desires, they were all completely flawed yet felt to me I was able to connect with them in different, they just felt so real. I loved Kodak strength along with her vulnerability, I admired her fearlessness and determination. The magic system of the house was so interesting, never seen anything like it before. And all of the twist and turns and secrets revealed left me completely shocked and that rarely happens

Honestly this book was perfection, I loved every moment of it. It was so refreshing and after than ending I’m excited to see what’s going to transpire next in this series

The audiobook was everything and more!!! You could feel the emotion as the narrator spoke the characters works. She truly brought them to life.

I love a good dark academia book and let me tell you, this hit all of the boxes for dark academia with the added bonus of vampires. I found the entire concept of the story fascinating with select families being able to provide blood for vampires to feed on. It was such a unique twist on vampire tales that lent well to the academia setting which created a safe place for vampires and those families that feed them. I also loved the concept that drinking from different locations of the body would change the experience. I really enjoyed the FMC, Kidan, who ended up at the academy in search of her missing sister. The banter, tension, will they/won’t they between Kidan and Susenyos had me fully invested in where their relationship would go. I also love how committed Girma was to the dark, grey nature of the characters. It challenged me in a good way. I also would recommend reading this when you have time dedicated to focus on it without outside detractors as it can be easy to miss things. I read this via audiobook and had to relisten to sections due to missing things, but that could have been a me thing. Overall, I thought Jordan Cobb did a phenomenal job with the narration and evoking the dark academia vampire vibes. It made reading the story an entire experience. I was hooked on this book anyway, but with the way it ended, I can’t wait to see where Girma goes with the series.

Immortal Dark by Tigest Girma is one of the best dark academia enemies to lovers I've read in a very long time! There was just so much to love about this book. The vibes are all here. It's dark and gritty, dangerous and sexy. I loved the varying scales of gray morality that more characters showed. Good and evil were hardly relevant here because of the wide range of morally gray characters. And the characters were all so interesting and unique. I loved getting to know them throughout the story. The writing was atmospheric and flowing without being too flowery. The plot was intriguing and engaging with all sorts of dark twists. And I loved the way this book portrayed vampires! The audiobook narration was great too! The narrator's voice was perfect for bringing the characters and story to life.

Thank you to Hachette Audio and Netgalley for this alc in exchange for an honest review.

First, I went in with high hopes for this book and while some were definitely met, others were not.

One of the biggest let downs for me was the worldbuilding. It was often muddied or thrown at the reader with little explanation, or terms used that don’t quite have meaning yet. I think it may be just because it’s a debut and some of that could use editing. I do feel like the surroundings could have been described better as well. What style house are they in? A LOT of the novel depends on the house and I just felt at a loss as to how to picture it, which removes a reader from the story.

While I did enjoy the morally grey concept, I still need to care about the characters. I liked Kidan’s strength but I found that sometimes I couldn’t care about her plight too much because of how things were portrayed. I kind of wavered a lot with her. As for Susenyos, I just wish we had a bit more description about his looks and some more sensual details because I just found him to be careless and cold — which I guess is the point for how old he was and his past, but I feel like if I’m to believe an E2L story, I need something more to feel like he’s an attractive character.

One thing I absolutely loved was the diversity of characters and rich history of everything. The author clearly has done research and situates the book in a realistic manner. I enjoyed the richness this added to the story. This is the main reason I’ll continue the series as it really sucked me in. I also loved the dark academia setting and wish we got more in depth in terms of the schooling. I was so invested when they had to do their question for the prof.

This book definitely feels a lot more NA than YA. I kind of feel that this would be better marketed to adults than teens since it may not get the same attention. It has similar vibes to Where Sleeping Girls Lie, If We Were Villains, and some of Ninth House.

I received the audio version and I do recommend it! But perhaps it may have led to some of my confusion as I couldn’t backtrack easily to double check facts or words. I did really enjoy the narration and thought they did a truly superb job at bringing these characters to life!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for my honest review!

This was a lot of fun, I binged almost half of the audio in one sitting however my interest in the plotline dwindled a bit for the rest of it. Im not sure if this was a me issue but it kind of felt like it was losing steam in both its romance and mystery of June's dissappearance. I really enjoyed the audiobook, one of the best male impersonations I've heard.

This was such an interesting concept and I thought that it was well done for the most part.

The book is told from the point-of-view of Kidan. She is searching for her sister after she went missing. Her family has been a part of this elite university but it seems that danger follows them and now Kidan is tasked with finding out what is really going on. I thought that Kidan was pretty fearless. She did what she wanted and went into the beast so to speak. She really cares for her sister and would do anything to see her again and I can totally relate because I have sisters of my own. Sometimes her fearlessness felt kind of reckless because she didn’t care to learn the rules of Uxlay and how the humans and vampires coexist which caused a lot of issues and tension between Susenyos but I also understand that because she hated them with a passion and why try to coexist with them.

The romance aspect of the story wasn’t my favorite and I think that is why I didn’t like this book as much. It’s obviously not as dark as some books because this is YA, but I just didn’t see the redeeming qualities in the relationship. It’s very much cat and mouse vibes and I think others will really enjoy it as well as the morally greyness of them.

I do think the pacing could have been a bit better because it was kind of slow in the beginning as it built everything up but once you get to the 50% mark it picks up and goes really well from there.

Overall, this was an interesting vampire read. I liked the narration of the audiobook and going along for the ride as the mystery unfolded.

At the end of the day, the weird shame/pride and hatred/attraction tug of war between Kidan and Susenyos was a major nope from me. Their interactions felt oily and gross and gave me the ick from the very first time we saw Susenyos on page. And with so much of the story focusing on Susenyos and Kidan’s obsession with him, we don’t really get to build the dark academia setting firmly. There are obviously clear rules in this vampire society, but we don’t really understand them in the first half of the book because Kidan doesn’t care to learn them, so we don’t get a sense of how far out of line she is.

This was a five star read for me - but I don't think it should have been published as YA. I agree the world building spectacular and the characters are deliciously unlikeable. Girma does a beautiful job taking dark academia and vampire stories and weaving them into a compelling narrative that will leave fans of both sub-genres satisfied. Full of unlikable characters and toxic relationships - a true enemies to lovers. I think teens will love this.

As for the audiobook, I had already over half of the book when I added the audio in but I really wanted to hear how the audiobook pronounced a lot of the names/words I was unfamiliar with and it definitely enhanced my experience to listen along. The audiobook is well made. I generally liked the narrator though I did not like the voice she used for Susenyos - I realize this may be because I had already assigned him a voice in my head.