Will contain spoilers!

Genre/s:

Dark Academia, Thriller

Themes:

Murder, Alcoholism, Drugs

Rating:

Description:

Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the humdrum existence of their contemporaries. But when they go beyond the boundaries of normal morality their lives are changed profoundly and for ever.

My thoughts:

I have to say I was expecting something far different from this book. The synopsis mislead me a little bit, I was expecting some really smart thriller about students being influenced by their professor to do something horrendous and this is not it at all. Whilst it was an enjoyable read it wasn’t what I wanted when I picked it up. Although I will say it was a book I found really easy to get immersed in and I had no trouble imagining everything that was happening.

The story follows Richard who has started a new university that specialises in the arts side of things. He wants to study Greek but is told the professor is very particular and doesn’t accept many students. He is turned away the first time and ends up starting work on other classes. The five students he does have are kind of outsiders and all hang around together. Richard watches them all from afar and its clear he wants to be a part of this gang. He gets his opportunity when they are in the library trying to decipher some Greek and he gives them some advice. This time when Richard asks about taking the class he is allowed but he will have to drop all of his other classes and only work with Julian. He is wary at first but decides to go for it.

Richard is invited to lunch by the louder and maybe less intelligent member of the group, Bunny. They end up being out for a long time and spending a lot of money, Richard is not from a rich family but he pretends to be. Bunny said he would pay but then once they get the bill he goes back on that but Richard can’t afford it so they end up calling Henry to pay for them. Henry is mad at Bunny and warns Richard that he has done this to everyone at one point.

It takes a while for him to feel more comfortable around them all but he soon warms to the five of them. Henry is the smart one who can always be found with a book, he also seems to be the teachers pet. Bunny is the loud one, he is from a quite traditional family who are rich but have no money. He has some bad opinions about women and is homophobic. Camilla and Charles are twins, they both seem very nice and Richard is instantly taken by Camilla. Francis is the more dramatic one and everyone knows he is gay but Bunny does not like this fact. When Richard is invited to Francis’ house in the country it seems he is accepted as one of the group but he does notice some weird things about the others. But Richard ignores this and the rest of the semester goes past like a dream.

When winter break comes around, Henry and Bunny are off to Italy and everyone else is going to see their families. Richard does get invited but he will need to work and doesn’t want to ask for help financially. He ends up staying in a really crappy apartment that is freezing cold and has a hole in the roof. As he is from California Richard doesn’t really understand winter and doesn’t even buy a heater to keep warm he just freezes. He spends his time working for a psychology professor but he is slowly getting more and more ill. He thinks he sees Henry around but he is meant to be in Italy so it can’t be. When Richard finally collapses Henry is the one that is there to bring him to the hospital and then lets him stay in his apartment to recover.

Turns out Henry came back from Italy early without Bunny. When school starts again everyone except Bunny and Richard seem to have disappeared and these two haven’t heard from them. Richard left a book at Henry’s so he goes round to get it but there is no one there. Richard does find that Henry has bought one way tickets to Argentina. But then a few days later they all turn up to class and act as if nothing has happened. Henry does bring it up to Richard and we find out what is actually going on. Part of their course has to do with losing oneselves to the primitive nature and they had been experimenting with this to no avail. Bunny was involved too but when they finally succeeded it was without him. The problem is when in this state Henry accidently killed a farmer, they fled the scene as they weren’t in their right minds but they have never been caught.

Bunny found out what happened when in Italy and this is why Henry left early and also why they were all going to flee to Argentina. But they reconsidered and also could not get enough money to do so. It is clear that Bunny is conflicted with this knowledge but the others are giving him whatever he wants to keep him from telling others. Telling Richard seems like a bad move to me but he decides to be on their side, it was an accident after all they don’t deserve to go to jail. Bunny continues to bring it up and it seems he will eventually start to tell people. And he does, he tells Richard when drunk and it seems he was meant to be the alarm. Richard of course tells Henry and the others, leading them to basically start plotting how to kill Bunny.

They decide it is the only way that they can avoid jail time and get to live their lives. It is decided they will make it look like an accident, there is a ravine near the school if they can get him there and he falls off that would clear suspicion. Richard is not meant to be getting involved in the plan. He gets invited to a party, but when someone says Bunny is there it becomes apparent to Richard that their plan will fail if Bunny doesn’t go for a walk. He heads over to the ravine to find them and let them know but then Bunny does turn up and is suspicious about why they are here. Henry ends up being the one to kill him, they check he is actually dead and leave his body to be discovered.

They soon have a problem on their hands however, it starts to snow and no one finds Bunny’s body. They wait a few days but when others start to wonder it becomes clear he will have to be reported missing. One of Bunnys other friends comes to them worried he could have gotten involved with a gang. He buys drugs off of a dodgy group and is worried Bunny has tried to get in as well. So him and Charles break into Bunnys room and find enough to call the police from there. Soon there is police everywhere, Bunnys family come and search parties are organised. Of course Charles ends up taking the brunt of questions but soon the feds arrive and start properly looking into it. It is very tense for everyone and soon Henry is questioned as well as his drug dealer friend. The feds are a little off the scent and seem to think they are all involved in a drug thing.

When the snow finally melts Bunny’s body is found which both makes things easier and harder. Now Henry goes to help his family with funeral arrangements and they all have to get through it knowing they killed him. It is rough for them all especially dealing with this large family and their grief. Charles starts to drink a lot more and they are all just a bit depressed really. It seems killing Bunny may not have been the best choice after all. The rest of the book is really more about them dealing with the consequences of their actions and we do see a lot of cracks forming. It becomes clear that Camilla and Charles relationship might be not appropriate and he is very possessive of her. When she leaves to stay in a hotel Henry is paying for it becomes apparent they might have a romantic relationship. Richard has also fallen in love with her at this point so he ends up more taking Charles side. Charles ends up being arrested for drunken driving and then ends up really sick and in hospital.

Its all falling apart for the group and to make matters worse Julian finds out about what they did. He got a letter from Bunny and at first thinks its a cruel joke and doesn’t believe it. But the paper has the letterhead from the hotel Bunny and Henry stayed at in Italy. Julian decides not to tell anyone but after that he leaves the university. It all comes to a head when they all end up getting into the hotel and being in the same room. It seems Charles is unhappy that Henry is seeing his sister and taking her away from him. A gun ends up being pulled out and Richard gets shot. When it seems everything will crumble down around him Henry makes the decision to shoot himself. After this they don’t really have much to do with each other and get on with their individual lives.

I did feel like this book was much more interesting in the first half, it was more exciting and tense. The aftermath was just a bit dull really and I wanted more from it. Although I managed to read it quickly, it was a long book considering not a whole lot really happened. The story was also not at all what I was expecting, I was expecting something really smart with a lot of focus on Greek and what they were learning. I was expecting their professor to have a much bigger influence and part in what they were doing. I was expecting a slow downfall and then the really bad thing to happen. I think because it was so similar to If We Were Villians at the start I was expecting it to continue that way. They are always compared so I had the idea that this was going to be more like that but with Greek instead of Shakespeare.

I did really like the writing style, it really set the scene and helped me really get immersed in the world. I did like the characters and how they interacted with each other, although I feel as we see Richards point of view we don’t really get to know them well. Richard was always kind of an outsider to the group and he had a different idea of who these people were. I didn’t really get why they all blindly followed Henry and I actually thought Bunny had the most realistic reaction to the murder his friends committed.

Overall I did enjoy reading this book but its not what I was expecting or really what I wanted. I didn’t think it was very smart and the synopsis is very misleading. Its definitely well written but the plot is just not really there.

Favourite quotes:

“Does such a thing as ‘the fatal flaw,’ that showy dark crack running down the middle of a life, exist outside literature? I used to think it didn’t. Now I think it does. And I think that mine is this: a morbid longing for the picturesque at all costs.”

“Beauty is rarely soft or consolatory. Quite the contrary. Genuine beauty is always quite alarming.”

“Love doesn’t conquer everything. And whoever thinks it does is a fool.”

“We think we have many desires, but in fact we have only one. What is it?” “To live,” said Camilla. “To live forever,”

“After all, the appeal to stop being yourself, even for a little while, is very great.”