This book took me so long to finish, but holy hell, it was good! I think, however, it did take a while for me to actually warm up to the story, and I still at this point am lukewarm when it comes to Kidan as a main character. Sometimes I am 100% in support of all her wrongs. But other times, I question the decisions she makes, and I guess that's the point of her being such a morally gray antihero.

This book definitely pushes the boundaries between YA and adult really easily. It is hella dark. And the contents, including portions of the romance, were surprisingly risque. I don't know why I was honestly surprised, considering this is a vampire enemies to lovers book, but all the same. And yes, we can definitely say this is the slowest of the slow burns when it comes to enemies to lovers. It is definitely Jude and Cardan, only much more violent and on an initial level of toxicity I'm not quite sure I was behind at times.

I do think that there was a lot of worldbuilding involved, and it was to an impressive amount. I both loved and hated having to immerse myself so much into this world and this academy, only to find myself still glazing over the histories. Honestly I found myself skimming through most of the beginning because there was so much exposition to be had. I guess this is mostly from the fact that I'm not really a dark academia girly, and thinking and talking philosophically through the plot slowed things down for me.

All that said, by the last 30% of this book, I'm here to support all of Kidan's and Susenyos' wrongs. ALL OF IT.