Bunny – Mona Awad

⭐⭐

Bewertung: 2 von 5.

What the heck did I just read? I am a sucker for dark academia and that was the reason I wanted to read „Bunny“. I can see that Awad is very good with words, she can definitely write. But this was not my cup of tea. After a good start it soon gets very surreal. I really don’t know what happend here.

I will use a quote from the book and use the author’s own words to explain my feelings about the book:

„Whenever I read one of Victoria’s vignettes, I always feel so dumb because I can hardly understand them at all. And then I blame myself. I think, Kira, this must be just too brilliant for you to grasp. Surely you must have missed something. Even though there’s always been this small voice inside of me that says, Um, what the fuck is this, please? This makes no sense. This is coy and this is willfully obscure and no one but Victoria will ever get this.“

Hazard Night – Laura Vaughan

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Bewertung: 4 von 5.

„Hazard Night“ is a murder mystery set in a private boarding school. Eve’s husband Peter went to Cleeve himself. When he is offered a job as a housemaster there they leave their London life behind. But Eve soon feels isolated and even the birth of her son does not make her happy. But then a new teacher arrives at the school with his wife Fen in tow. Fen likes to break the rules, she is free-spirited and artistic and full of mischievous ideas.  Eve is drawn to her and soon they become friends. But Fen has a dark side, too.

The book is told from two POV. Alice, the daughter of the school chaplain is the second narrator and she gives us a bit of an outsider look into the school. The story captivated me right from the beginning. You can feel that something bad is going to happen. It is also a slow burn read. The book takes its time, which is not always something bad. I liked the setting in the boarding school (I do love Dark Academia). The only thing that I would criticize was the ending. It is too nicely wrapped up in a bow and it left me a bit unsatisfied. But overall it is a well-constructed story and the writing is flawless. This is my first book from the author but I will look out for other books from her.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I Have Some Questions For You – Rebecca Makkai

DNF. I forced myself to read up to 37% but I just don’t care anymore. I lost track of all the people and timelines. I so wanted to like this book because I wanted to read something from Rebecca Makkai for a long time. And I have a thing for Dark Academia. But this book is way to slow and I have the feeling nothing happened in those 37%. I did not get used to the weird way it is told. The MC, Bodie, is telling this story to someone and I never got used to it. It felt strange. I also did not like the jumping around between timelines, sometimes several times in one chapter. The story did not capture me and my thoughts began to drift apart while reading and I got even more confused. I also think that I read similar books before which captured the main topics in a better way.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Things We Do To Our Friends – Heather Darwent

⭐⭐

Bewertung: 2 von 5.

I am a sucker for Dark Acedemia books. I can never resist them. This book hits all the criteria. Clare is the awkward outsider when she arrives in Edinburgh to study there. She needs a job to support herself so she starts working in a bar. She is looking for a new start and of course she hopes to find new friends. Clare is not a naïve character. But we soon see that she has a dark side and a big mysterious secret she doesn’t want anyone to know about. She becomes friends with the of course beautiful, rich and mesmerizing Tabitha and her small circle of admirers. She is flattered that this illusive circle of people chooses her as a friend. But they may have had their reasons to approach her.

To be honest, I found that the story took ages to come to the point. For half the book not much is going on and I had no idea what this was all about. I liked the dark atmosphere but I was also bored for most of the time. Towards the end finally something happens but I found it all a very unrealistic. The book did not fulfill my hopes of a good psychological thriller. The characters are flat and unappealing. The story drags and lacks depth and substance. On the plus side I can say that it does try to be a bit different to other books of this genre. The students are not drinking or taking drugs or having sex all the time. They are not bullying Clare because she is not the kind of girl who gets bullied. They are doing not much at all, actually. But that it not enough to make it an entertaining read. If you are into dark stories told in a slow pace, a bit of Dark Academia and a bunch of deeply disturbed individual you may like this book. Or you just can read “The Secret History” (again) instead.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.