A Darker Mischief / Derek Milman / Book Review

A DARKER MISCHIEF

A working class kid from Mississippi, Cal Ware isn't exactly in the position to turn down a full-ride scholarship to an elite New England boarding school. And why would he want to? He'd do anything to leave his life in Mississippi behind after what happened. A chance to attend Essex Academy is a chance to reinvent himself.

But as Essex, image is more important than Cal thought, and all his new classmates can see is his thrift store clothes, his several-generations-too-old phone... His accent only helps him to stick out more. His parents don't work in politics, don't run companies, don't own fancy vacation homes on the Cape. If Cal thought he could fresh start here at Essex, well...

But just when Cal's ready to give up on reinventing himself, he learns one Essex secret that might give him a leg up. There's a secret society on this campus, a society that cares more about intelligence than money or legacy. And that, at least, Cal can handle. But the competition is fierce, and the Rush tasks put Cal (and his scholarship) in more than a little bit of peril. He'll have to face just how far he's willing to go to fit in...

THOUGHTS

I liked so much about the set-up of this book, but it really didn't come together for me. The melodrama here was just too much for my taste, and the central relationship--something that this book really does hinge on--just felt... wrong to me. It made my skin crawl, and I don't think it was meant to. So that's, well, unfortunate.

PROS

Southern Kid Rep	There are a lot of parts of this book that I really do appreciate, and the working class Southern rep is one of those things. An elite private school is bound to have its share of scholarship kids, of course, and there's a whole layer of judgement that comes with that. Add in a Southern accent, and of course this kid feels like a fish out of water. Of course he feels like the others are constantly judging him. In fact, they probably are.
Layers of History	A school this old is bound to have it's share of secrets. This is dark academia, after all. And being built on layers of history ups the ante--and the atmosphere of this book. Dark tunnels, abandoned buildings, forgotten passages: these make up the backbone of the school, and there's quite a bit of time spent crawling through these cobwebbed corridors. And that spooky, unsettling layer underneath the posh exterior really nails the aesthetic, right?
Dark Academia	Which brings me to this point. Dark academia is having something of a moment, and I'm not opposed to that. Old libraries, dusty books, hidden secrets for those who study and learn: these are such fun building blocks. And contrasting a wealthy boarding school with a scholarship kid adds to the drama (or the melodrama, as necessary) in a way that I can appreciate.

CONS

This book dedicates a lot of page space to crawling through abandoned tunnels, true, but just as much time is spent building up a central romance. And... it just didn't work for me. Luke as a love interest feels a little too, well, emo and 2000s-style "edgy." He's addicted to graffiti. He's got a sort of masochistic aesthetic that's pretty cringey. And he's got a bad-boy sort of violent side, too. And I don't know. Maybe if I were still a teen reading this I'd be swooning, but something tells me this type just... isn't the type, even for the market audience. He was too much.	Too Emo
This book definitely contains more sexual content than the average YA book. I was kind of shocked by how much made it onto the page here. That's not to say it will be anything particularly scandalous for a real romance reader, but those expecting the sort of safe space that is YA should definitely take note. It's... a bit much.	Sexual Content
Edgy, moody, emo might not be my particular type, but my issues with Luke as a love interest go deeper than that. His interactions, romantic and otherwise, with Cal were manipulative, reckless, and cruel. He was, in fact, scary, and the unfolding of this "romance" was one of the most toxic relationships I've read in a long, long time. And my biggest issue with this is that the book doesn't really address that. I don't think all toxic relationships need to be spelled out that way, but in a book marketed at children, the messaging does need to be clearer than this. In fact, I came away feeling kind of sick because this relationship gets somewhat glorified--immortalized--in the end. And not only was I uncomfortable all throughout, I was definitely uncomfortable with the relationship being valorized in retrospect in the final chapter of this book. It was... not good. Not good.	Toxic Relationship

Rating

⭐⭐⭐
3/10

Fans of Cynthia Murphy's Win Lose Kill Die will like this new, cutthroat secret society. Those who enjoyed Alexa Donne's The Ivies will love this elite student body getting up to no good.

Details Publisher: Scholastic Press Date: July 2, 2024 Series: N/A Add to Goodreads Buy it HERE

Note: I was provided with an ARC by the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions here are my own.