Galaxy “Alex” Stern is the most unlikely member of Yale’s freshman class. Raised in the Los Angeles hinterlands by a hippie mom, Alex dropped out of school early and into a world of shady drug dealer boyfriends, dead-end jobs, and much, much worse. By age twenty, in fact, she is the sole survivor of a horrific, unsolved multiple homicide. Some might say she’s thrown her life away. But at her hospital bed, Alex is offered a second chance: to attend one of the world’s most elite universities on a full ride. What’s the catch, and why her?
Still searching for answers to this herself, Alex arrives in New Haven tasked by her mysterious benefactors with monitoring the activities of Yale’s secret societies. These eight windowless “tombs” are well-known to be haunts of the future rich and powerful, from high-ranking politicos to Wall Street and Hollywood’s biggest players. But their occult activities are revealed to be more sinister and more extraordinary than any paranoid imagination might conceive.
Yes, I did read this and review it for Cannonball a year or so ago when it first came out. And I loved it!
But then the sequel came out and I had to do a reread so I was prepared. So here we are.
Of course once again it was good. I had a lot more appreciation for the way in which Bardugo balances multiple timelines in the book, with revelations playing out satisfyingly in four separate timelines. Somehow she managed not to make it overly confusing. The most frustrating part of the book is that it ends on a cliffhanger, making you DESPERATE for more. And then you have to wait for the next book in agony!
Cliffhangers are the WORST. Why wouldn’t you just give something a full en-
(To be continued in the forthcoming review for Hellbent)