so this is dark academia in a book amirite ladies??? what a nice little treat for the tortured soul, the suffering poet, or the pedantic intellectual (check, check, and check!).

really enjoyed the author's style and choice of narrator-pov, as well as the pace and intrigue of the first half and of the very last pages. the main characters are insufferable alcoholics but they do evoke a certain mysterious attraction, as experienced by the main character (also an insufferable alcoholic). really enjoyed the embodiment of ancient Greek morality in their professor (vs the hegemonic Judeochristian morality we all know and love) - and how these rich kids' obsession with it ends up rendering them even more alienated from the human experience, and eventually destroying them. i would've even enjoyed more screen time (lol) of the professor and his takes on ancient Greek notions of beauty and virtue (i told you im a pedantic intellectual!)

didn't enjoy the middle part of the book, where they all just drink and argue and what even was the point. didn't enjoy the writing of Camilla, as she was written as, well... The GirlTM. manic pixie dream girl and all that jazz (i guess thats also a product of the pov).

all in all: wonderful (and i cant stress this enough) start, but gets wayyy weaker towards the middle/end.