Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

One sentence summary: Safia finds herself suddenly attending Apex Academy, a secret college that runs on a point system where losing your points puts you at risk of servitude to a fellow student- or the Academy itself.

I thought the cover was eye-catching and the synopsis was interesting. Apex Academy was mysterious and haunting in a way that I don't think I'll forget anytime soon. The betting system was as fascinating as it was horribly unsettling. I was also very interested in the backstories of most of the side characters introduced throughout the book, especially the Headmistress.

I wish I had more positives to say about the book, but I honestly don't. From the first chapter, I felt the novel read like a Wattpad story. I almost stopped reading less than 20 percent in and refused to pick the book back up again for a while. Ultimately, I decided that I should at least finish the book to leave an honest review of the entire novel.

(Trigger Warnings for novel and the rest of this review: dubious/non-consent, Islamophobia, slavery, abuse involving a minor, homophobia)

There was no hint of this novel being dark fiction anywhere on Goodreads or NetGalley, so I was taken entirely by surprise when Safia arrived at the college to find out that servitude to your fellow students was a thing that could almost be equivalent to sexual slavery. Not only that, but this seems to be a huge issue that the Academy is totally okay with it- in fact the Academy has former students indebted to them as well.
Buying and selling your fellow classmates (or even teachers) was a major plot point that was shown to be highly abusive and rarely entirely consensual. The fact that a minor found themselves under the ownership of a fellow student and suffered various forms of abuse from him for a year made me nauseous. Everyone except the protagonist seemed to be accepting of this, justifying that you always have the option to leave if you really wished- assuming you haven't made a bet that leaves you indebted to someone. "It just depends on what a person is willing to do to stay here, and how evil a person who owns them wants to be."

The way several women (one of which was a minor in a very uneven power dynamic), seemed to fall romantically enamored with Safia in the novel also didn't sit right with me. Especially the line about her being the "lesbian whisperer" because she is a straight woman that other women kept finding themselves drawn to. In fact, two of them kissed Safia suddenly and against her will. Another made a kiss be part of the 'favors' she was owed. As a wlm myself, this made me uncomfortable. I know nothing about the author but it seemed homophobic for this to be included in the novel. There was no real reason for it, plot-wise or character-wise except to add to the overall sex-obsessed atmosphere of the Academy.

My next major issue was the blatant and completely unnecessary Islamophobia from various characters throughout the novel towards Hashmi, a practicing Muslim who wears a Hijab. I was actually shocked at the foul comments made towards her and wondered why it was included at all.

The confusing ending was at least semi-satisying.