I didn't know what to expect going into A Darker Mischief, but I was pleasantly surprised to find an atmospheric dark academia novel with twists that kept me guessing until the end.

Cal was sent from his home in Mississippi to a boarding school in Connecticut following an "incident" that is slowly revealed through the course of the book. In this new boarding school, Cal meets Luke, a fellow student whose charm and mystery are as compelling as the secret society Cal and Luke both find themselves eager to join. The rest of the book unfolds with twists and revelations that force Cal to consider what he is willing to accept from the status quo. A gripping plot is enhanced by sharp dialogue and polished pacing that propels the plot toward a bittersweet conclusion. Recommended for readers who are comfortable reading books with dark themes and who like dark academia, complicated relationships, and mysterious societies.

Summary: Beautiful dark academia. A boarding school thriller about a queer teen from Mississippi who finds himself swept into a world of old money, privilege, and the secret society at the heart of it all.

Review: You had me at secret societies. This book is so amazingly crafted and the writer presents the universe piece by piece. Hooks you from the start and you can't stop wanting more! While we've all read about "secret societies at college", this still feels fresh, fun and a bit creepy. Author plays with the dark academia setting so well. I feel it's inspired by the best, and made a great new story.

#ADarkerMischief #NetGalley

829/10 or 4.5/5

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Characters-8

The characters in this book were enjoyable. I like how they all interacted. When I read stories of this genre, I need the characters to have some kind of darkness, or mood, as that sets the tone for the rest of the story. Cal, Luke, and the other members of the society brought the dark humor, and dark undertones to the story. The only thing was that I wanted to see Luke on the field, we were told he played sports, but the reader never saw him during a game, or at practice. Cal was sweet, and he just wanted to help people which I loved.

Writing-9

A big part of Dark Academia and Mysteries for me is the writing style. I loved how this story was written. There was a mixture of darker humor which was funny, and an overall atmosphere that wasn’t necessarily scary, but it was eerie because the reader didn’t know all of what was going on behind the scenes. I loved how the clues of the story were unraveling like a puzzle for the reader as the story progressed thanks to the writing.

Plot-8

This story was interesting. I was wondering where the story was going to go. I was intrigued because there were events that were unfolding, and I was wondering how they were going to wrap up. A Darker Mischief was also a story about finding yourself, and finding where you belong. When we first meet Cal, he’s a transfer student as a sophomore, so he missed the freshman bonding experience. The Society gave him friends, and a group of people that cared about him, and would fight for him. I enjoyed both the mystery and the journey for Cal.

Enjoyment-8

I enjoyed this story. I thought it had a great premise, and the characters were well done. The story was interesting and had a lot of heart.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Scholastic for providing me with an eARC of A Darker Mischief in exchange for my honest review!

I'm always up for the atmosphere, suspense, and secrets of dark academia, so I'm glad to enjoy these things in A Darker Mischief. It creates an interesting and complicated relationship between Cal and Luke that helps me understand why Cal is becoming so lured in by him, even when Luke is throwing up red flags all over the place. That being said, there are still points in which I have to really suspend my disbelief over Cal not being just a little more plausibly wary under these foreboding circumstances. The dark academia and secret society cliches also hit me as being formulaic. Yes, I get it; the powerful and the wealthy excel at using their tools and connections to unfairly get ahead in life, but that's executed in a bit too much of a tropey fashion for me here. The overtly tidy nature of the epilogue is irksome, too. Considering how grim the tale was willing to get beforehand, it feels strange to wrap it all up with such a relatively clean conclusion.

Overall, I'm officially rating A Darker Mischief 3.25 out of 5 stars. It may get weighed down by some shortcomings, but I still admire what it has to offer.

Cal is a transfer student to the prestigious New England boarding school Essex Academy. All he wants is to belong, especially after The Incident, and once he discovers a Secret Society on campus he thinks he might finally find what he's been searching for. As things start getting more mysterious and nefarious, how far will Cal go to protect what he cares for most?

This was such a unique book. A YA thriller with dark academia vibes, mystery, puzzles, gay romance, and so many imperfect, unreliable characters.

I loved the setting. Essex Academy made for a perfect set piece, with its seemingly endless abandoned buildings with unexplored locales. All the gothic architecture, tunnels, and secret rooms really set the mood perfectly.

The characters were interesting. I wouldn't say I particularly liked any of them, but I think that was the point. They were 16 year olds trying to act older than their years and keep secrets that no one should keep, of course they're not going to be particularly likeable or trustworthy. It was nice to read about a nuanced gay relationship as well. I wouldn't say it was a healthy one: they were co-dependent, didn't know each other all that well, and were trying to make everything mean so much more than it needed to. But I really enjoyed all that, and was curious to see how it would all turn out.

The plot, although bonkers, was riveting. I loved all the secrets, mysteries, and puzzles, although I thought some could have been dragged out a little longer to make me think on them more. I saw where it was going pretty early on, but that didn't lessen my enjoyment of it. I've seen people complain that the ending was abrupt, but again I think that was intentional and it felt fitting.

My one complaint was that I sometimes felt like the writing wasn't working, especially during dialogue. Sometimes conversations felt like a string of disjointed non-sequiturs and I didn't know what they were talking about. I chalked it up to 16 year olds trying to talk past their years, but I was pretty confused during quite a few of the conversations.

Overall, if you're looking for a thriller full of teenage angst, mysteries, and dark academia, this is the read for you!

Another on that I was very excited for, but the characters fell very flat to me. I wanted to like this book a lot but it was slow and a little tedious to read. Overall, kind of disappointed.

3.5 stars

For the most part, I enjoyed this book. I enjoyed the author's writing style, and the plot twists that came. I love a good dark academia, plus adding that it's queer? Sign me up! The only thing that was a little disappointing to me was the love interest. In my opinion he seemed more abusive and manipulative than anything, and that didn't sit right with me. Especially because I would have loved to see the main character Cal in a budding relationship while going through this secret society. But that's why my rating is as low as it is. I would have also loved to learn more about Cal's past, as I felt we got pieces, not the whole picture. I will also warn, there is more sexual content than usual for a YA book. Not a bad thing, just something to consider.

A Darker Mischief by Derek Milman
⭐️⭐️⭐️

Review:
I'm going to be honest. In my opinion the best part about this was the cover. It's absolutely stunning. It's what drew me in and made me request it. After I learned it was a queer dark academia, I thought wow it couldn't get any better! ... and so was right!

I did not love this. I didn't like the writing style. It felt like a millennial trying to speak in gen z and it didn't sit with me. I didn't like any of the characters and overall I felt like the plot fell a little flat too. It wasn't exciting for me like most dark academia is. These kids are running around writing exposes on the run down and not used portions of their school. It was just kind of weird to me.

The author tried to bring it back at the end with this big wow factor but it didn't hit for me. But it clearly did for a lot of people because this has 4.0 on Goodreads. I was honestly surprised as I had to fight with myself to finish it. But this is just another clear example of books being subjective and even though I didn't love it, others do!

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
Too Emo: 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.

Sexual Content: 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.

Toxic Relationship: 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.


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.

back home in mississippi, cal was the poor, queer kid whose family was hated. when he wins a scholarship to a prestigious boarding school in new england, he takes it as an opportunity to reinvent himself. but he soon finds out that his classmates at essex aren’t much better. they all come from money, and they mock his cheap clothes and southern twang. cal’s at his breaking point when he gets invited to rush a secret society. he’s desperate to find a place in this school, so he takes on the challenge, which leads him to dangerous places.

what originally drew me to this book was the comparison to the honeys and the secret history, two books i loved. i also loved the sound of a dark academia book with a secret society. i think this aspect was really unique; i haven’t read about many secret societies like this one👀

i do wish there had been more exploration into cal’s past. there were mentions but i don’t feel like we necessarily got the full picture.

i’d recommend this to anyone wanting a fresh dark academia book!

This was such a dark and twisted story, full of mystery that you just cannot help enjoying. Our main character was quite easy to love, I quite honestly just wanted to protect him all the time. Cal certainly had a hard time in high school and when I say hard time I mean dark stuff and trauma. It brought a very interesting side to this story about how he dealt with it all and how he was feeling about himself after all that happened.

The whole secret society activities were quite intriguing and definitely kept me hooked. Right from the first chapter you are just wondering what is going on and honestly it stays that way all throughout your reading until the very end. So many secrets and puzzling things going on, you never know who you can trust and what is everyone hiding.

It is hard to tell what is right or wrong or who's good or bad in this dark academia set-up because quite honestly we all have a bit of a dark side, don't we? Maybe it is because I love dark characters that seem to have demons but I was kind of a fan of Luke, couldn't get enough of him somehow, he was mysterious and I just wanted to know more about him all the time. I would have wished his character was more developed than that because he felt like a very important part of the book, and he was so intriguing but in the end I felt like I didn't get to know him really. It shouldn't be a bad thing I guess, but for me I crave that connection with all characters and I want to understand them fully, that's all.

The story navigates the idea of how much are you really willing to sacrifice to get what you want and also there is this idea of being accepted and having a feeling of finally fitting into something but at what price? I'm still a little confused about the fact that this one is YA because of the subjects it broaches and the language too, but I read adult reads too so it is no problem for me in the end.

My main disappointment was about the ending, but then, I'm not used to reading thrillers, so it might be a "me" problem, but I felt like the ending was quite rushed. I wanted it to go a bit slower, I found myself re-reading parts because it all happened so fast I was feeling like I was missing stuff. Other than that, the book was still super interesting and I read it in no time because I kept wanting to know what would happen next.

Thanks to Colored Pages Book Tours, the publisher and the author for my copy of the book. All opinions are my own.

Dark academia with secret societies will always be my weakness, so I knew off the bat that A DARKER MISCHIEF would be a book I enjoyed. Atmospheric and cloaked in mystery, the setting of the prestigious Essex Academy drew me in from the beginning. I loved the secret society that Cal is desperately trying to join, and the twists and turns throughout had me turning the pages and guessing until the end. ⁣
⁣
The characters were all interesting and well-developed, and I really liked how both Cal and Luke have their own set of issues and personal problems that they’re sort of working through. There are some themes throughout the book that offer plenty of thinking and talking points, especially when it comes to Cal and his journey to finding where he fits in this world. I really enjoyed his relationship with Luke and I was rooting for them all the way to the end. ⁣
⁣
All told, this was my first book from this author but it certainly won’t be my last. I really enjoyed this one and will happily be devouring anything else with this author’s name on it. Some of the things I loved about this one are:⁣
⁣
⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣➽ The academy ⁣
⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣➽ M/M romance/fantastic LGBTQIA+ representation⁣
⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣➽ Atmospheric setting ⁣
⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣➽ Secret societies ⁣
⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣➽ Twists and turns ⁣
⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣➽ Dark academia vibes

A fresh chance to start at an elite New England boarding school turns into something much darker as one boy is pulled into the school's secret society, twisted games, and and a doomed romance. Cal Ware has won a scholarship to an elite boarding school, it's the opportunity that he's been waiting for, to leave behind his past and escape "the incident." Yet he's a fish out of water and compared to all the other wealthy privileged students, he's seen as a hick and an outsider...until he is invited into to join the secret society on campus. if he passes all the tests and manages to win a spot he'll be royalty on campus... but everything has a price and the deeper he gets entangled in the society the more he is beginning to realize that they will ask things of him that might be impossible... and that he might not be an initiate but a sacrifice. All the while he meets Luke, a handsome jock who has his own secrets and reasons for being part of the society... but has begun a relationship with Cal... but when Cal discovers his secrets it might destroy everything. First secret society, first love, and most of all an endless lists of betrayal and devastation await Cal. This book was definitely a book that leaned heavy on the dark academia secret society and queer romance, which is fantastic, however the things that happened and the actual characters were a bit of a miss for me. I really started off enjoying the book but the further we got in it the less I actually liked it. Not to say it wasnt an interesting read overall and that I would definitely recommend it for anyone who likes dark academia queer romance novels with a bit of a thriller aspect to it though. The relationships in the book were twisted and the actual ending left me wanting for more and I just kind of felt meh with it all. However, yes i would say that it is a book for anyone who enjoys dark academia to at least give it a go. I think it should be added onto people's tbr who enjoy dark academia, twisted romances, and queer romances!

3.75 stars
There is a secret society at Essex Academy boarding school. It's called Society of Seven Eyes (SoSE) and the members are dedicated to exploring the school. They don't damage and they don't steal. But they do enter/break into lost and forbidden areas of the school with the goal of unearthing secrets that will be passed down through the generations. This society has a very deep and very dark influence, and it's the place where Cal Ware feels most at home. He's a sophomore transfer from Mississippi hoping to reinvent himself.

Those first few pages had me hooked!
I love the dark academia vibe and the secret society on campus. A club that teaches you how to sneak into buildings so you can explore? Yeah, that sounds really cool to me. This whole story was a wild ride, sometimes to the point of edging on ridiculous, but I still enjoyed the entire thing.
Unfortunately Luke and Pinky were not my favorites and they both played large roles in the story.


*Because I was reading an eARC, the formatting was very very off. It made for a difficult reading experience. There were many instances when I had to reread pages to figure out what was happening, and I do think this was due to the formatting and not a fault of the author

ARC REVIEW: A Darker Mischief by Derek Milman

Genre: YA Thriller/Dark Academia
Format: eBook
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Book # for 2024: #59

I received an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

SYNOPSIS: A boarding school thriller about a queer teen, Cal Ware, from Mississippi, who finds himself swept up into a world of old money, privilege, and a secret society.

MY THOUGHTS: This was a wild ride. I absolutely loved this book for the first 100 pages or so. Then it sort of went off the rails. This book includes a glass eye, an arm amputation, a lot of mysterious deaths and kidnappings, a flood, ghosts, and the kidnapping of the Vice President’s daughter. And the secret society is at the center of almost all of it.

This book was one I preordered months before I was approved for the ARC. It appealed to me because the cover is gorgeous, the main character is from Mississippi, and it involves a secret society. I was extremely excited to read this ARC. It just wasn’t exactly what I expected, but I still enjoyed it. If you’re looking for something super realistic, this is not the book for you. If you’re looking for a fun book about a sketchy secret society, this is for you. There’s also a love story thrown in between Cal and Luke, another boy who is rushing the secret society.

Side note: There were A LOT of exclamation points and all capital letters that felt unnecessary and were distracting to me.

Top 5 Reasons to Read
1.
It's Derek Milman! There aren't many authors whose every single work I've read (just for lack of time!), but Derek is one of the few I have. I did a blog tour for his first book and never looked back. His writing is magical, truly special in a way that's hard to quantify, and his focus on LGBTQ+ kids will help readers feel seen.

2. It's dark academia! There's just something about YA dark academia that has me hooked, despite the fact that I finished all of my own academic pursuits almost two and a half decades ago.

3. There's a secret society! "Society of the Seven Eyes" -- just sounds creepy and magical, right?? But would Cal do absolutely *anything* to fit in and gain entry into this elite society?

4. The campus of Essex Academy is so cool! It's got a lot of gothic architecture, which reminded me of Duke, where I went to school. Also, something like half of its buildings are abandoned, having sprung up as part of and around a college from the 1700s that didn't last very long. And the tasks to get into the society require explorations of the unused buildings on campus, which is fun to read about.

5. It's got first love! I can't quite describe how reading this made me feel, other than to say "tender"...like I wanted to just gather Cal into my arms and hug him, to mother him (and Luke, too). Cal has experienced multiple traumas in his short life, and his move to Essex Academy from small town Mississippi may allow him not only to reinvent himself but to find that first love. But is Luke truly what he seems?

I highly recommend this book, as with all of Derek's incredible works. If you're at all a fan of dark academia, secret societies, and reading about LGBTQ+ characters, I hope you'll pick this one up!

Rating: 5 stars!

Thank you to NetGalley and Scholastic for providing me with an ARC of this novel.

In the kindest way possible, this was an incredibly rough read. The plot felt like it was happening at a breakneck speed, but the plot was sandwiched in-between passages that felt like Wikipedia entries about the school. This made passages in the book feel very jarring. The idea of the secret society is hard to describe to other people and I honestly don’t understand what the draw would be to busy, overworked teenagers. Cal makes sense as someone who would join because he is ferociously lonely and looking for something in which he can succeed. However, I struggle to understand the rationale for other people to be interested. For instance, the society emphasized the importance of knowing and cataloging the art and architecture of all the different buildings on campus. Why would a secret society exist around cataloging the style of beams and buttresses in a building, especially when the secret society has been around for over 200 years? One would presume that these topics had already been covered, or that the society was around during the time the buildings were built so that this information would be redundant at best. The “secret” society on campus has actual ties into actual money and power, but many of the members are in the dark about this. So, then what is the draw to join this society? To break into buildings at night and talk about their history? To learn how to lockpick? Get practice in their breaking-and-entering careers? To get access to alcohol at their random get-togethers?

The romance plot was also strange, and I hated the epilogue’s resolution. What a lackluster way to deal with a complex relationship. I feel like the story did not delve into Cal’s trauma or resolve it either, which feels like a missed opportunity. I think that there was more that could have been addressed about young love, the complexities of being closeted in a homophobic environment, and the ways that reinforcing heteronormativity can be extremely violent. Instead, the relationship between Cal and Brent felt underdeveloped.

That is the crux of my issues with A Darker Mischief; it is underdeveloped. A lot of the story feel very juvenile, regardless of the setting, because of how over-the-top it is. The plot feels insane. The dialogue is wacky. By the end of the story, I still don’t understand the character motivations, or the plot in general for that matter. I don’t understand the resolution or the epilogue. All I am is frustrated and confused. My problems are certainly not helped by the book’s formatting. I don’t know if the copy I was given ended up messed up somehow from file formatting, but the text was barely readable with odd paragraph breaks throughout. It was difficult to figure out who was speaking in a conversation and gave the book an even sloppier feeling. Hopefully the published copy received more intense editing, but I wouldn’t recommend other people to read the edition I was given.

I loved the start of this book. Reading about Cal finding his place in the school was interesting but at around halfway through the book things start to shift. As the story progressed it felt less and less realistic. By the end I had a hard time believing anything that was happening. I just couldn’t wrap my mind around kids in any school having that much power. The writing was good but that ending made the story sorta fall flat. 3 stars.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc.

This personally wasn't really for me. I find that I love the idea of dark academia, but I struggle with the execution of it in book form. I find that I am far more successful when I watch a t.v. show or a movie with it. That being said, I found that this book did it quite well. Well then why wasn't this for me? I didn't find myself as attached to the characters and their relationships as I wanted to be. I wanted to feel things that I just didn't. Also, I found the pacing and where the author chose to place importance wasn't maybe always in the right place. I appreciate the explanations of the tasks and their answers, but as I don't know all that much about the school to begin with I feel like some of that time would have been better spent on character development. I did find this to be interesting in flashes, but ultimately struggled to get all the way through it. However, I think that I am probably just not the right reader for it.

Holy mackerel. I knew Derek Milman was good, having read Scream All Night and Swipe Right for Murder. How do you get darker for abusive parents and grooming behind closed doors?

With preppy teens being monsters.

Cal is a sophomore transfer to Essex, an East Coast prep school. He stands out like a sore thumb, being from the South and not rich. His friend group makes fun of him behind his back, but similar parties at home also made him feel unwelcome.

An invite to a secret society provides hope of a different year. It means time with a boy that likes Cal the person while drawing inside and outside the lines, literally since he's a tagger. He'll have friends that actually like him. Or so he thinks, as the society's demands of its members may become more harrowing for innocent parties.

I was hooked reading this story, and wincing at the familiarities. Some things never change about going to private school.