Imagine me standing there smoking like Mount Vesuvius, because that's what I like to associate myself with when I'm frustrated and mad. I’m absolutely not saying the latter doesn’t have a place, and clearly it has an appeal to a lot of readers. It’s just that, for me, while I’m definitely up for having fun with dark academia … this isn’t my kind of fun.

Not only that, but the dark academia aesthetic it was apparently striving for was nowhere to be seen beyond needing a reason for all these characters to be in one building. Corvina or Vivi is such an amazing character. She is unique and accepts her uniqueness. She is who she is and she would not lower her standards because some may find her odd. Her journey with fear and mental heath is very interesting. She is not a damsel in distress, she is a badass who will fight for herself. For how much she was warned to stay away from him and how much he pushed her away, she started to look a little pathetic giving in to him so easily I did have some trouble with the first couple of chapters but that was just because the third person's pov takes my mind a little bit to process, but after a few chapters went by I fully was into it! To a castle where none go,” she said, her voice shaking, her face heavily wrinkled, the whites of her eyes staring eerily at Vad, “you will go, boy.”Old Zelda had once been the caretaker of the home little Vad now lived in with other boys. But after she went blind a few years ago from an accident, the admin people let her stay on, which was a mistake in Vad’s opinion. Because she knew stuff, stuff she shouldn’t know, stuff about boys she couldn’t even see. She’d known things long before she lost her sight. She’d known Reed would drown in the pond a week before he did. She knew about Tor and his skin burning from the inside, something he’d never told anyone. And she said his best friend would “eat flames” one day, whatever that meant, and Fury was scared of fires. Holy shit! That scene in the library made my heart palpitate, made it hard to breath. Goddam, he is one sexy mofo!

And is it? Haunted, I mean?” she asked, still curious to know more about the mysterious university. I don't know what I expected from this book exactly, but it definitely wasn't a Zodiac Academy rip-off, which, ironically, manages to sound even more juvenile than the OG series does. I'm obsessed, it kept me on my toes with the little twists and turns, and my jaw was on the damn floor with that plot twist. I truly loved the relationship between vad and her, it was so intriguing! You couldn’t help but love the guy even knowing you shouldn’t, and he was always there, watching her and keeping her safe... entirely in love!Verenmore, a character in it's own right, is the exclusive university where Corvina attends and Vad teaches. It sits atop a secluded mountain, beautiful and terrifying with ghosts of the past haunting the halls and the woods on the castle grounds. This majestic setting and the secrets it holds made the story so much fun and created an ambience both romantic and downright creepy. Before coming to the castle Corvina (ugh, that name) is home schooled by a schizophrenic recluse (her mother) and so well adjusted she makes me look like a psycho. Hell, she makes your sweet grandmother seem like one. Sure, she hears voices, but nobody knows and aside from that she seems like just a normal girl with a weird fashion sense and shudders violet eyes. (again, really?????)

I LOVED the uncertainty that the voices in Corvina's head were real or part of a mental health condition. We still don't really know in the end, but since Corvina truly gives off witchy vibes, I like to believe she's connected to the paranormal. I also lean more toward this because of the old woman's prediction about Vad meeting the girl with purple eyes.also maybe a disclaimer: you know the repetitiveness in The Predator, how for some reason it could never just be Tristan, it was always *deep ominous voice* ᴛʀɪsᴛᴀɴ ᴄᴀɪɴᴇ. yeah, same thing here but Vad is *phantom of the opera music plays* 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖘𝖎𝖑𝖛𝖊𝖗-𝖊𝖞𝖊𝖉 𝖉𝖊𝖛𝖎𝖑. in case you can't read that stupid ass font to catch the stupid ass name, it's THE SILVER-EYED DEVIL ok 😙 he just didn't have the devil qualities to pull that off; still liked him tho A lifelong mystery, Vad Deverell likes to be a closed book but he knows exactly what’s going on at the university. As a part-time professor working on his Ph.D., Vad has been around long enough to understand the dangers the castle poses. And he knows that the moment his paths cross with Corvina, she is dangerous to everything he is.

Overall I found pacing to be poor, the romance was extremely underdeveloped, and while the plot maybe had some interesting potential at its foundation, it all just completely falls apart. It reads like the author didn't know how to finish the book so there's no resolution for anything and it gets a meta ending that was never earned. Props for at least starting with a plot that I wanted to be invested in, but literally none of it was done well. As a series of horrifying events unfold, it soon becomes apparent that Verenmore is hiding a twisted past riddled with dark secrets. After students witness an apparent suicide within the castle grounds, a disturbing century-old mystery steeped in blood starts to unravel and Cornina and Vad find themselves inexplicably tethered to one another in the hope of uncovering the truth.

Gothikana Book Pdf Download

The mystery also started off great and I was excited to read about it but we never get any answers which just made me extremely mad. And obviously--*obviously*--it is not reasonable to expect any book with dark academia theming to be The Secret History or to even *want* to be The Secret History. Gothikana clearly has its own interests, and they’re maxi skirts and men who are eye-wateringly inept at dirty talk. It’s just when you’ve grown up with: DOWNGRADING THIS TO 1 STAR AFTER FURTHER CONTEMPLATION BECAUSE IT RUINED THE TEACHER STUDENT TROPE. high-class techniques for making any hero seem protective vs readers invested in the couple's forbidden relationship. The author is trying way too hard to make the hero mysterious and all, that it made me lose even more interest in him with how forced it is