As someone who hasn't read much historical fiction, I am so pleasantly surprised with all this book had to offer. At the beginning of the novel, I was a bit iffy on the story and, more specifically, the characters but the problems seemed to disappear as the story continued and thankfully, the real jewel of this novel became the focal point: the plot.
The writing style was the first bit that caught my attention. It was so descriptive throughout the story! However, at the beginning, even though it had that description, I couldn't feel like I was actually immersed in the story. But all of that gets better as the novel progresses. Something I think definitely didn't help this feeling, was something small but significant in the long run. A character's appearance is rarely described. I think maybe once or twice but this make it hard to be able to understand which character is which until their looks are hinted at again which doesn't happen until near the end. This is important because, for example, two friends are described and one is clearly the leader but after their names were introduced, they weren't introduced paired with their looks so even after I knew all of the character's names, I didn't know who the 'leader' was and am still only guessing from personality traits not because it was told. I also feel like the writing style was very fitting for the setting. The phrases and dialogue was all very fitting to that century and it didn't feel like a mismatched piece of historical fiction with modern dialogue. It helped make everything a little more realistic and believable for the us as the reader to believe we were actually there with Gemma and the characters.
The characters, though eventually getting better, were one of the downfalls of the book. By characters, I mean Gemma, which is a shame because she's the main character and I think it's so important to like the person we should sympathize with and the person we will be following. I just really found her to be annoying. There were times where I was proud of her because she's not the typical 'think but doesn't speak out' protagonist in that she's realistic with what she gets mad about and defends herself well. Which is really refreshing especially when I've seen so often times when I get mad about something or someone in the story and a protagonist wants to 'be the bigger person' and lets themselves get walked all over. So to see Gemma actually do something about it was incredible! But she lets herself get so blind with anger that I see the cruelty she shows against antagonist even to people close to her, people she should be kind to, and it was uncomfortable to read. A lot of it, I think, stemmed from a sort of superiority complex she had where she thought she was so different and better than the way other girls because of how they're choosing to live their lives or what they like, but in reality, Gemma isn't much different at all. It was really frustrating to see her act like that throughout the book, it wasn't ever something she saw as an issue or something she should fix.
BUT! Not all the characters were bad. In fact, I found the characters to be so dynamic. Every single character had flaws. There was no obviously great character and that's what made them so realistic and lovable - because you could connect with and understand each of them. It was easy to hate them at times and love them at others. I don't think I've ever read an author that masters this quite like Libba Bray. There was great character development! Characters grew from being static to becoming so complex. The relationship dynamics between friends and especially between family were all so unique and so important. The friendships were so realistic because, again, no one in the group was perfect or even extremely likable but everyone had their own struggles and stories.
It is obvious that Libba Bray did a lot of research for the myths and settings described in the book which is what helped make the plot so good! The plot was definitely the best part of the book - much better than the characters which is something I usually don't find myself seeing in books. The world set up by the book was so interesting! The secret groups, the orders, their history and the mystery behind the academy and its teachers was something I loved reading about and it was what kept me reading and picking up the book constantly. I loved the pace, there was no info dump so everything was learned in just the right pacing. The foreshadowing was really good as well because small details are brought back, making them so unexpectedly important. Okay, I'll admit it was a little predictable (and by a little, I mean a lot) but you know the book is good when even that doesn't take away from how good the scenes and the story is. The romance was nice to see blossoming - it was very organic and slow. Meaning, there wasn't much romance but the rest of the story was so good I didn't even care.
The plot was amazing but of course, it had it's downfalls. I feel like the magic system was not explained correctly. I finished the book but I'm still confused as to what the magic really is and what creatures really exist within the world. That and throughout the book, Gemma's power was a mystery and the only part of the mystery that was shown to be uncovered is the history behind that power, not her control of it. Yet suddenly, at the end of the book, she was able to control it and it really felt random, out of no where.
The subplots were amazing as well: Choices, grief, forgiveness, the grayness of life and history repeating itself was so good to see and I think seeing it manifest itself in different ways within different characters was just executed so well.
Overall, this book was just so good with only a couple of big problems that I found. I'm so glad to have started reading back up again with this book and I am so happy with how much I enjoyed it so I think this is a very solid 4 out of 5 stars!
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