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A review by amelianotthepilot
All the Devils by Catelyn Wilson
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
*Thank you to the author and publisher for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.*
I would’ve eaten this up in 2012. That being said I still really enjoyed it, it was dark academia, egyptian myths, gothic horror, a hot mysterious man. However there were a lot of loose plot threads.
The book follows Andromeda who decides to attend a spooky private school to solve her older sisters death. She believes her sister’s not actually dead and there’s more to it. When she gets to school she immediately realizes she’s right as there’s lots of weird things going on with a school club cult for the elite and student disappearances.
I thought the plot was overall very fun but very tropey and no super new ideas. Elite school occult activity is a classic, dead things appearing in her personal affects to scare her off also a classic but never returned to or explained later on, a corrupt school, mild magic to pursue immortality. None of these aspects were very new or exciting but the fast paced action and looming romance kept the story interesting.
The main character was quite a basic unknowledgeable headstrong hero blundering her way through and I think that was my main problem. The lore was all delivered to her at convenient moments by Jae, another student who also ✨happens✨ to have a similar cult death in his family and ✨happens✨ to know absolutely everything about everything. Our main character trusts him far too easily and willingly even after he betrays her trust. She almost immediately forgives him every time and her trust and forgiveness all seem to be based on the fact that he’s hot and attractive. Their romance isn’t built on much besides physical attraction and the guys protective nature. Meanwhile some other important lore regarding the sister is randomly dropped midway through the book.
I found a lot of details to be randomly added such as cancer and the constant random mentions of Scottish places. I still find it absurd that when mentioning this occult society it was said to be “all over the world” but then only Scotland and this school were ever mentioned. Truly random.
Despite these flaws I still found the book very fun and fast paced with lots of fun drama and despite the relationship not really having a base it was still fun.
I would’ve eaten this up in 2012. That being said I still really enjoyed it, it was dark academia, egyptian myths, gothic horror, a hot mysterious man. However there were a lot of loose plot threads.
The book follows Andromeda who decides to attend a spooky private school to solve her older sisters death. She believes her sister’s not actually dead and there’s more to it. When she gets to school she immediately realizes she’s right as there’s lots of weird things going on with a school club cult for the elite and student disappearances.
I thought the plot was overall very fun but very tropey and no super new ideas. Elite school occult activity is a classic, dead things appearing in her personal affects to scare her off also a classic but never returned to or explained later on, a corrupt school, mild magic to pursue immortality. None of these aspects were very new or exciting but the fast paced action and looming romance kept the story interesting.
The main character was quite a basic unknowledgeable headstrong hero blundering her way through and I think that was my main problem. The lore was all delivered to her at convenient moments by Jae, another student who also ✨happens✨ to have a similar cult death in his family and ✨happens✨ to know absolutely everything about everything. Our main character trusts him far too easily and willingly even after he betrays her trust. She almost immediately forgives him every time and her trust and forgiveness all seem to be based on the fact that he’s hot and attractive. Their romance isn’t built on much besides physical attraction and the guys protective nature. Meanwhile some other important lore regarding the sister is randomly dropped midway through the book.
I found a lot of details to be randomly added such as cancer and the constant random mentions of Scottish places. I still find it absurd that when mentioning this occult society it was said to be “all over the world” but then only Scotland and this school were ever mentioned. Truly random.
Despite these flaws I still found the book very fun and fast paced with lots of fun drama and despite the relationship not really having a base it was still fun.