I’m not one to usually give poor ratings but I sadly had to DNF this one. The beginning was too slow for my taste. And I just had a hard time really getting into the book. I also didn’t care too much for the characters sadly.

I might try to pick this book up again and give it another shot sometime in the future. As I really did like the premise. But for now I’m marking it as a DNF. Sorry.

I really wanted to love this book, but unfortunately, it just wasn't for me. I felt like I couldn't connect with the characters and sometimes I was just plain confused with what was going on. There were too many twists and turns for my personal liking.

I wish I could say this book had it all because that’s exactly what I was expecting from it.
The premise seemed so promising. 7 seniors spend the night in a library and one is murdered. Totally set up for a great whodunnit, except that it just fell so short.
The characters were so obnoxious I wanted them all to die, and the plot felt so random. It’s almost like the writer couldn’t decide what plot to go with so they just tried them all.
I wish I could say this was better and I loved it. It just wasn’t for me.
Thank you netgalley for the AAC!

Anything described as a locked room mystery will get my attention.

A bunch of pretentious college students have a party in the library basement: drugs, sex, ritualistic sacrifices you know… who will make it out and who is doing the killing?

I could not get into this at all. I wanted to but the characters were insufferable and all the same and it just dragged until the end.

Thanks to netgalley and Macmillan audio for an eARC.

This audiobook was made available for me to listen to and review by Eva Jurczyk, RB Media, and NetGalley.

The narrator is Hannah Cabell. Ms. Cabell manages the 7 pov characters with their alternating viewpoints masterfully. With slight changes in tone and pitch each individual character has it's own tone.

Seven college aged folks spend the night at William E. Woodend Rare Book Library at a smallish liberal arts college in Vermont. The plan is to take part in the reenactment of an ancient Greek ritual. Six of the participants are students of the university, five are graduate students, one is an undergrad and another isn't associated with the university or the library.

This ritual is organized primarily by Davy who invited Mary, Faye, Umu , Ro, as well as couple Soraya, and Kip. The ritual is based on the Eleusinian Mysteries. Hallucinogens assist in this spiritual quest based on the Greek myth regarding Demeter, Persephone and Hades. In which Pilgrims walked the sacred road between Athens and Eleusis, retracing Demeter's route looking for her daughter. The ritual is traditionally in September but Davy scheduled it for the night before graduation.
Participants in the ritual are required to fast for 12 hrs. before, speak Greek phonetically, candlelight, food to be eaten upstairs, and the participants need to learn a secret in a physical object they can share at a specific point in the ritual.

The night of everyone has gathered in the basement to hide until Ronald, the head university librarian, leaves for the night. When they hear the alarm beep, they cheer and take hallucinogens. Before they can start the ritual the lights go out, shortly after the lights come back on a participant is found bloody on the floor. In an effort to get this participant help, the remaining participants realize they're locked in the basement until it opens the next day. Also, they're locked in the basement with whomever hurt the bloody participant on the floor.

This has a fairly decent base story concept. However, the story slows down about halfway through the story and the ending is a bit anticlimactic. If this was more tightly written it would've increased the tension and suspense. Still this was mostly medium ok.

Thank you to Eva Jurczyk, RB Media, and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. All opinions and viewpoints expressed in this review are my own.