“But would it have mattered if she’d been someone else? If she’d been a social butterfly, they would have said she liked to drink away her pain. If she’d been a straight-A student, they would have said she’d been eaten alive by her perfectionism. There were always excuses for why girls died.”

No words left to describe this book but only: terrifyingly beautiful.

I have found myself, yet again, lost in a new Leigh Bardugo world. First of all, I don't even understand why I delayed reading this book for months. I have it in my dorm but did not read it. And did I regret it? Yes.

The atmosphere. The mystery. The grotesqueness. And Yale's secret societies. It's just that everything about this book was so well-written it got me hooked from the beginning until its last sentence. Although I don't find myself shelving this as a new favorite—maybe because there is still a lot left unpacked—I can say that this book has a special place in my reader's heart.

Did I think that the activities of Yale's secret societies in this book could be happening in real life? Yes—I'm that hooked!—I might or might not be searching for facts about it in between writing this review.