At a magical academy for mage-healers, scholar complete their final exam in a group, solving five cases over the course of five days. Estiene, Alys, Clement, Moyna, and Jehan enter the hall for their first case, only to find the most
accomplished scholar in their cohort dead on the floor. After completing the first case, the group receive a letter from their dead classmate, peeling back their own secrets and starting them on the path to unfurling a great mystery, of which her murder is only the beginning.
This book is like…Pretty Little Liars x House MD x magic school x murder mystery, and if that doesn’t sell you, I don’t know what will. It is no secret that murder mysteries aren’t my thing but I’ve liked some of Freya Marske’s other books and the premise sounded good so I gave it a shot, and I’m glad I did! Sure enough, I didn’t really care about the murder mystery plot and the solution isn’t hard to predict, but there was enough going on besides that for me to really enjoy it. Our five main characters and Ysabel, the dead girl, all have a lot of personality and conflict going on in their own lives, a lot of which ties in satisfyingly with the main mystery plot. There’s also great complexity to the relationships between each of them, and I think a story like this really benefits from strong characters and character relationships. One of my main complaints of mysteries in general is that they tend to be really plot-focused and I just need compelling characters. I like stakes and ,regardless of the plot, if I’m not invested in the fates of the characters then every plot is low stakes.
The structure of the exam and solving the cases was fun, especially if you’re a fan of House MD or Grey’s Anatomy. The world-building is both really enchanting and also pretty brutal. I like the idea that magical healers are a really scarce resource in their world, both because you don’t usually see it in the fantasy books where healers are often dispensable and not very exciting, and also because it more closely parallels the real world. Healthcare workers are chronically overworked and certain specializations are really at the whim of wherever they’re needed most. That part of the world-building feels really real, and it connects to individual character conflicts as Moyna dreads being forced to leave Sieuxerr and Estiene and Jehan face the fact that they’ll be separated after graduation. Freya Marske writes romance really well, and I enjoyed both of the little romance subplots a lot. If anything, I might have liked more of that, but that’s probably just because I’m biased against the mystery aspect of the plot. There is almost no faster way to my heart than queer-normative world-building, so both the inclusion of queer romance and a third gender built into the world really made me happy.
Considering I’m a mystery hater and I still really enjoyed this, if you’re a big fan of mysteries, magical schools, and dark academia, I think this is a must-read! I look forward to seeing what Marske comes out with next!
Thank you to Freya Marske and Tor Books for this ARC in exchange for my full, honest review!
Happy reading!
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