this is one of those books that would benefit from not putting the mcs in a relationship. alice and lottie work much better as friends, they don't seem to have that much romantic chemistry, and especially not enough to

say i love yous one second after getting together

. and that line that goes like,

for a moment, just for a moment, the surge of love outshone the feral hatred in my heart

bjsjkdjkdbjkd MADE ME ROLL MY EYES SOOO HARD. very much giving vibes of lesbians moving in together after the second date, however...

there are some confusing cuts. for example, they're

hiding by a store and suddenly lottie is hurt because of the rubies, and she starts to scream

, but we don't get an elaboration on what happens after that. the chapter ends and we are in the car from alice's pov.  or when

they're in the hospital, and alice says she tore through the veil

, and in the next chapter, we're already in the future with a time skip, missing conversations. it would be better to pick it back up in the next chapter from the other pov? it makes no sense. it's supposed to build suspense but it doesn't because we are missing what feels like very important pieces of a puzzle. it's anticlimactic, and makes the pacing weird. 

however, i really enjoyed the atmosphere of this book. it promised dark academia and it delivered. i found myself relating to alice as well, so that was fun.