What I liked about the book: the richness of the language and the complicated system of roles and reversals that kept me reading. What I disliked: literally everything else. The attempt at Holocaust imagery is absurd, the love story completely overshadows the setting and the threats, and the characters are completely forgettable and ordinary. The author is also a TERF and you can see it in the way that the final reveal is played out. Honestly want my money back.

The premise of this sounded like I book I would find ideal, but while I was intrigued, I was constantly frustrated, sometimes to the point of anger, at this book. The big plot reveal at the 80% mark made me literally get up from my chair and yell, it was so oddly placed and confusing. This book goes between a “present time” 1930s in an unnamed European country (meant to be France? Somewhere French-speaking? Somewhere where French culture was just copied and borrowed from?) and flashbacks to when the main character was attending the school, told with diary entries. I most looked forward to the diary entries, but I had to keep reminding myself that the narrator was 19-20 at the time of writing and not somewhere between 14 and 17, which is how I personally think the students seemed to act. The side plot with the Rat seemed like such a random addition that it almost felt out of place for most of the story. Also, maybe it’s because I hadn’t read the book this one is based on, but it was so frustrating to me how the Grand Jeu is never properly explained. I didn’t know it had something to do with music until like 20% in, but there’s also some kind of dance involved? Also math?? They say it’s meant to be worship, but they’re never clear on WHAT they are worshipping with the game. I’m good with a sense of mystery, but the whole time I had no grasp on this main piece of the plot.

My main issue, though, is the allusion to Holocaust-style religious prejudice, complete with having to have a symbol on your clothes to indicate you belong to a certain “other” religion — for the most part, this was Christianity. That subplot and its necessity makes NO sense to me and was uncomfortable, especially with it being set just a decade before WWII began (even though there is no confirmation that this story takes place in a universe where that war happens). I was here for the slow burn enemies-to-lovers romance, and the rest of the time I was left reeling about the plot points and character decisions.