As many other reviewers pointed out; the beginning of this book (basically the first 1/4) was a torturous amount of exposition and world building. Don’t get me wrong, I love world building, but this was done a bit gracelessly and was sort of difficult to follow at first. Still, I fell in love with the characters and once the plot got moving, I was pretty invested. 

It follows a magical “school” where young wizards are sent; although the school is incredibly dangerous and full of “mal” (aka demons), they still somehow have a better chance of surviving there than on the outside. Normally I don’t like books about schools (even magical ones) but this was so different than others I’m used to (no teachers / adults at all, “classes” are self led basically, very combat and future focused). I liked it! And I LOVED the main character, El. She was perfectly bratty yet deep down vulnerable, and I can’t wait to see her journey through the rest of the series.