DNF - bailed at p. 219
Other 3-star reviewers summarized the interesting premise, with the weak writing and ungainly info dump. ( )

I was reading this as one of the free reads from SimonTeen in December 2023. Something went wrong with their system, so I couldn’t finish. I thought the story seemed interesting, but I wasn’t so interested that I put it on my list of books I want to eventually read. If I had been able to read the entire book, my rating might have changed by 1/2 star. ( )

Thank you Simon Schuster Canada for giving me an ARC!

Dark, mysterious, dangerous, and all of that with a touch of possible romance.

Emory isn't thrilled about returning to school after the end of the last year left her as the sole survivor of a cave ritual gone wrong. Eight students drowned, and she not only carries guilt but has been left with a strange mark, which packs tons of mystery she doesn't begin to understand. As she tries to deal with the stares and inner-conflicts the beginning of the next school year begins, other dark secrets slowly come to light. There's more to the incident than she thought there was, and that knowledge might be more dangerous than those hours in the cave had been.

This read promises shadows, danger, secret societies, dangerous magic, and more...and it delivers with finesse. At over 500 pages, I was afraid this might drag, and while it does go deep into the characters' heads, it picks up pace each time it teeters on the edge of boredom. Thanks to the use of flashbacks, info-dumps are skirted while the important moments of the past dribble in bit by bit. This is never confusing and allows the background as well as character history to slide in at the right times to keep tension high.

While Emory isn't always the cleverest when it comes to walking head-on into problems, the tale is so well-woven that this character flaw didn't bother me as much as it usually would have. There are so many secrets to uncover and each one holds more behind it. A few aspects are predictable, but others are impossible to see coming. And that mixed with the chilling, dark moments worked well.

This is a solid beginning to a series and had me caught in the pages from beginning to end. Gothic fantasy fans won't be the only ones wanting to take a peek at this dark tale and get lost in the tides of magic as they come and go. I received an ARC and found this to be a gripping and exciting read. ( )