This was one book that sounded good in the description, but it failed in execution. The short summary: Kidan’s sister disappears, and she sets off to a university that educates vampires and has a haunted/personified house to investigate. When she starts to suspect one of the vampires there, things get complicated.
Perhaps this book would have made more sense if I had read the actual book and not listened to it on audio, or perhaps there is just too much going on, but either way, it didn’t hold my interest and I had to try too hard to figure out who was who and what was going on. The enemies to lovers subplot was too abrupt–I couldn’t figure out why they were all of a sudden making out–and more background information was needed to flush out a lot of the plot in general.

4.5 / 5 stars

Kidan Adane has been holed up in her apartment awaiting her murder trail and leaving only to see whether she has received word from her Aunt Silia. Kidan is desperate to hear news of the whereabouts of her missing twin sister June and hopes her only living relative will have the answers she seeks. Instead, Kidan receives news that Silia has died and now Kidan must return to her ancestral home to prevent the vampire Susenyos Sagad from inheriting her family's legacy.

Kidan agrees to return to House Adane and the arcane society of vampires and human companions from which her parents fled. But not because she has any interest in inheriting a home or a fortune. But because Kidan's murder victim named Susenyos Sagad as June's captor.

I was incredibly impressed with the amount of world-building that was accomplished in this book. Immortal Dark blends familiar tropes of dark academia and vampire lore with elements from African folklore and tradition. The Twelve Houses and their ties to Uxlay was well-established and explained. The concept of the physical house being emotionally tied to Kidan and Susenyos was particularly interesting, and I'm glad that the author was able to use it to such great effect. On top of the vampires and magical houses, there is also the university system and the classwork that Kidan is taking. The elements all blended together so nicely to make a cohesive whole.

The people and vampires that populate the world are also very nicely developed. Morally gray characters are fun when they're well done, and they are well done here. Kidan is not a very likable character, but she does grow over the course of the story. The vampires are ferocious and sensual, and the book has erotic scenes that are tantalizing but not hardcore explicit.

I was so glad to have listened to the audiobook for portions of the book. Jordan Cobb provides excellent character voices and helped me establish proper pronunciation for so many words and names in this book. I never would have known how to pronounce Susenyos Sagad's name correctly, which is a shame because it is a thing of beauty.

I don't usually love vampire books, but I really enjoyed this one! I am looking forward to reading the next book to see how the story progresses! Tigest Girma is an exciting new voice and I'm so glad to have had an opportunity to have read this debut!

Daringly dark, utterly unhinged and incredibly ambitious, this was such an exciting introduction to Tigest Girma’s voice.

What I enjoyed:

• The fact that Tigest was all like ‘what if I made everyone the bad guy?’ and totally pulled it off.
• The way Tigest just said ‘you get to die and you get to die and you? oh yeah, you totally get to die’ without any qualms.
• It was completely unafraid to let the dark be dark.
• The ~vibes~ were vibing and super atmospheric.

What I struggled with:

• The way the world and vampire/human relationships worked. I just couldn’t quite get a grasp on it.
• My brain is far too small to understand what these kids were working on in their philosophy class.
• The romance just didn’t quite work for me. It was so hot and cold in extremes that I didn’t find there was enough time to have groundwork/chemistry.
• The 13th. I think I might have just missed something here but I didn’t get their motives/goals.

Overall, this was a great read and one I really enjoyed my time with. I just wish there has been a little more explanation of certain aspects or my brain was big enough to understand it a little better.

WOW is all I have to say, I loved this book from start to finnish and the only thing I would change is that it comes to an end and I want more. The writing is superb and the characters kept me engaged and interested the entire time I didn't want to put the book down. Again did I say WOW?

The first half of the book was amazing, packed with mystery.. However, as the story progressed, I found it difficult to follow the plot. It felt all over the place, with several plot points seemingly going in different directions. I understand this may be setting the groundwork for the following books in the trilogy, but the pacing in the latter half felt rushed. Many scenes felt like they were thrown in solely to keep readers guessing about what’s next, sacrificing the cohesion of the story.

The violence in Immortal Dark was also a bit overwhelming and underwhelming at the same time. While I appreciated the action and had expected a darker tone, it became repetitive, to the point where it lost its impact. There were instances where it seemed like violence was the only resolution, and at times, it felt like character deaths were used as convenient ways to sidestep potential plot challenges.

Regarding the characters, I struggled to feel any connection with them. They seemed almost like variations on the same character, without enough distinct personalities to make them truly stand out. Even the enemies-to-lovers subplot fell flat for me; the banter lacked the tension and angst I usually enjoy in such tropes, and the relationship felt more like a extremely unnecessary prolonged hate-fueled standoff than the typically enemies to lovers trope that I was used to.

That being said, the lore and the magic system of the houses and vampires are the best aspects of the book. The exploration of family secrets, the dynamics within the sentinel houses, and the supernatural elements had me wanting to know more. It was these elements that kept me turning the pages, despite the issues I had with pacing and character development.

Overall, Immortal Dark started strong but fell flat for me in the latter half. I hope that Book 2 will address some of the multiple plot points and further explore the lore, as there’s great potential here.

Thank you Hachette Audio for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I really enjoyed this book! If you like dark, academia and vampires, you will definitely enjoy this one! The narration was easy to listen to as well!

This book was great on audio. The narrator was great. The story just felt drawn out and took forever. I could have done without so much descriptive detail. It made it hard to stay involved in the story

This book did not work for me. I love a dark academia university setting, and I was really hopeful this would be a fun read because we have a severe lack of good vampire books. I was also very excited about the representation and the idea that this book would freshen up the genre a bit.

Unfortunately, I just could not connect with the main characters and their struggles. As a result, I was not looking forward to moments when the plot moved forward.

I would also like to note that I switched to ebook after release date because the audiobook experience did not work for me. Half of it was that I found it difficult to pick up on the world building and character relationships in that format, but also the narrator was extremely monotone and did not do a good job with inflections in their voice to carry the story along.

Black vampires + morally gray character + enemies to lovers + slow burn romance = a yes from me! Very enjoyable.

This was a good book but it too me about 30 % before I felt myself getting really invested and then I didn’t want it to end. I can’t wait for the next book. Thanks NetGallery!

Kidan wants to find her sister after she was taken by a vampire. But after her aunt died her family house was left to the vampire Susenyos Sagad. And she could not let that happen. In order to take control of her family’s house so it did not go to the vampire that took her sister she has to attend Uxlay University and pass all the courses. The more she learns the more she realizes there is more at play. The Susenyos is being set up and there is more trouble than what she thought. Enemy now a friend Susenyos and Kidan work together to figure out what is really happing at Uxlay and help protect their home.

Immortal Dark is a YA dark academia story with vampires. And that's all it takes for me to want to read a book!

I was so excited to read this book to kick off spooky season. For about the first 50% I was totally hooked and couldn't wait to see where it was going! It ended up going really dark with a lot of character deaths that I wasn't really expecting for a YA book. I'm notoriously bad at following fantasy plots and I don't super know what happened after about the 50% mark. The vibes were very strong, though, so I was happy to carry on without 100% understanding the plot. I do wish it had been a little more clear, though! I LOVED seeing Black vampire representation and hope we get more books like this! I didn't realize that it was a series when I started it and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens in the future!

I this this book leaned more "dark" than "academia" and I would have liked to learn more about the classes and how the school worked, but I liked what we got. I appreciate that the book "went there" with a dark story as I know a lot of people enjoy that, while not super my cup of tea. I prefer more "academia" than "dark" but very much a personal preference!

I highly recommend the audiobook, the narrator was fantastic and really helped to set the mood for the story.

Definitely recommend giving this book a try! 5 stars for the first half and 4 stars for the second, so I'm going to go with 4 stars. Thank you to Hachette Audio and NetGalley for the eARC of this book, my thoughts are my own!

CW: violence, blood, on page deaths, graphic descriptions of blood and injuries

This was absolutely incredible and I loved every second of this book. The combination of vampires and dark academia was done so so well. It was addicting to read this one.

You know that time Aretha Franklin was asked what she thought of Taylor Swift’s music and she just said “she has beautiful gowns” … I’m kind of having one of those moments. The first edition of this book is beautiful, the premise sounds good on paper, and the racial representation is critical to representation in publishing as a whole, but other than that … there sadly aren't any other highlights that I can point out. This book has so much potential, but where it consistently fell short for me is that it clear wants to be edgy. The romance goes past the normal point of enemies to lovers, and veers into abuse and bullying territory. It doesn't help that I never really sensed any connection or tension between the two main characters. And on the subject of characterization, the characters aren’t morally grey, they're just bad people. They’re impossible to root for. And this character and relationship writing really messes up all attempts at a theme. You can’t tell me that this book is a character study of Kidan or about the grey area of morality when I can’t stand behind a single decision she or Susenyos makes. The prose is simple, which is fine, but again, you can feel the author trying to add some bite, and it just falls flat. Overall, I really wanted to like this, but when I realized about 25% in that the forced snark and cruelty between character’s wasn’t going to fade out, I knew it wasn’t for me. If you like intense enemies-to-lovers, this book may be for you, but personally I couldn’t connect with any of these characters.

This book was so good. The atmosphere, the writing, and the story is just one of my favorites. It makes vampires new, yet familiar. Not many people will like the main character, but I loved how she was messy and chaotic and passionate about finding her sister.

I highly recommend this book especially for the autumn season.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for a copy of the audiobook in exchange for my honest review. I did purchase my own copy of the audiobook 30% into it because I loved it so much.

I'm rather late to providing feedback to this book, but I absolutely adored the entire story. I think the angst was done so well, and the mystery kept me intrigued. The audiobook was narrated AMAZINGLY and it's one of the main things that kept me hooked!

This book was very transporative and I loved the world building and the African lore that set the stage for the plot. Everyone was morally grey and I enjoyed the viciousness in which they lived their lives. The trauma that every character went through was what shaped them and nobody left unscathed. It was definitely an interesting take on vampires and I cannot wait for the next book.

On the narrator, however, is where it fell flat. The writing and plot are so strong and so passionate which is what propelled this book into a 5 star for me. The narrator did not bring the book to life enough and did not change her voice enough to differentiate between who was speaking and I sometimes found myself confused. If I could choose, I would choose to read this book with my eyes instead of listen to it.

Oh. My. Gosh this book was absolutely perfect! It was the perfect spooky season read, and really has me dying to read more dark academia. It was witty, thrilling, captivating, and just ultimately an all around amazing book!

The premise had me hooked… but. This book has vampires, dark academia, secret societies. The beginning of this book is great and the pacing starts out great, but didn’t finish as strong as I was hoping it would. This is a good debut and I’m excited to see what else this author brings us.

Rating: No Rating // DNF on audio
4.25 stars for reading physical

Great narration by Jordan Cobb! Truly great work showcasing each characters in the story.

This novel does seem interesting to me! I never read a black vampire novel! So much hype and excitement has been done around this book and I legit have been counting down for the official release! With much anticipation, I am left feeling a little bit confused and super disconnected with the story. It starts on an extremely strong foot in the prologue and first beginning chapters, but then around 18-25% mark, some parts made me feel as if I was missing something which lead to me feeling disconnected for the entire first 30% of the book. This may be a novel where things are fully revealed as time goes on, but me not connecting strong enough with the characters in the 1/3rd of the book made it difficult for me to be invested in the outcome. I was definitely interested in the story but not invested — especially character wise. I have read ninth house so I was super excited to read this one as well. It took me a bit to chomp through that one (I assumed bc it was an adult dark academia fantasy) and I hoped that immortal dark being YA would be more my speed.

Since Kidan seems to be a morally grey main character, this could add to why it’s hard to connect. Yes, we must find her sister — but she is also a murder. I liked hearing about the tapes (?) and I wish that continued a little more by this point to show more of June. To show more of their true relationship as sisters and maybe even more stakes to finding the truth about June’s disappearance. We know Kidan had to find her sister, but why? Yes it’s her sister but what else? What was their relationship truly like? How did we get to this point? I think touching on that aspect *more* in the first 3rd, would then let me feel the true stakes of not finding the truth of her sister would be. Learning about the university seemed choppy for me. I yearned for more character development and understanding their why behind their actions. Other than that, I enjoyed the prose throughout— it was just missing some elements that truly connected me to keep me going. Definitely give the reader something in the first 25-30% that grabs them and don’t let go. Connect the reader to the characters first, and then everything after that will have more intensity & meaning.

I would consider this a medium/slow burn. My assumption is the pay off will come towards the end. I may give this another shot through ebook/physical copy to see if that enhances my understanding and experience. I have listened to and enjoyed other audiobooks in the past and I loved the narration but some formats work better than others depending on the book as well.


I would say for other readers out there, definitely read the reviews of those who made it to 100% and see what their take on it is. As always, if you are the tiniest bit interested in reading this novel PLEASE DO!! 🫶🏾

Thank you NetGalley, Tigest Girma, and Hatchette Audio for allowing me to listen to the ARC and providing my genuine feedback.




Updated review on physical book:
Wow.

This book is something else!


🩸What I really enjoyed —
I loved how moody and dark the main characters were. Absolutely set the vibe for the fall/halloween vibes I was looking for.
These characters are dark and not innocent. I loved it! Get me into the “villain era”.

I have highlighted sooo many quotes. I loved how we do see a peek of something different with Kidan as the story goes on and there are parts of her and Sesunyos’ relationship that I did enjoy. Oh and the TENSION between these two are unmatched and made their story just that much better.

🔥what I didn’t like/what’s missing? —
I felt as if this was a chaotic, tornado storm where I have been gripped, dragged, thrown, and then TOLD what was going on in the book. Meaning, I wasn’t being LEAD anywhere. It feels as if since Kidan doesn’t consider anything and seems impulsive, that’s why the story itself feels that way and choppy. It often feels like we are a ragdoll thrown around by a dog or throw on the dryer.

BUT it feels intentional. Kidan is spiraling and that’s probably why we feel the same as we read the book.


The ending SHOOK me. I had to shut my kindle and process wtf just happened and what will happen in the next novel.

I hope we get more character development w/Kidan and less spiraling. I hope we get lead thru a beautiful, challenging, and complex story next.

It was so hard to give this novel a rating. I will settle on a 4 (4.25 on Storygraph — I see the intentionality of the flaws but still impacted the reading experience that kept it from 5 star personally)