this is not really a gay book, despite what the "dark academia" crowd on tumblr says, and I was actually extremely relieved that there was more  to the story than what the terrible edits made from desaturated gifs of Dead Poets Society  would suggest.  I will say, it bothered me much more that the characters seemed to be speaking British English (despite being American) than that they frequently spoke in Shakespeare quotes, possibly because that is entirely realistic based on what I've experienced of theatre people. Also, Oliver and James were both just deeply boring, milquetoast people despite their... obvious misgivings, and I was way more invested in Alexander, who was 1. actually gay, 2. entertaining, and 3. so much more morally grey/questionably motivated than the former two;

he, it could be argued, was more culpable of Richard's death than James, since he was the one to verbally suggest/confirm that they leave Richard to drown-- James' blunt force trauma wasn't what killed Richard, it was that he drowned/choked on his own blood. Alexander's suggestion that they let him die without intervening was much more of a directly murderous act than James striking him out of self-defense, though obviously in a court of law that wouldn't hold up because the US has no duty to rescue laws. Yes, I spent way too much time thinking about this. ALSO, why the hell didn't James just toss the boat hook into the water??? Why carry it back to the dorm???? stupid!