Thank you Netgalley for the ARC. I was super excited to read this, but unfortunately, it just didnt hold my attention. The book is pitched as a LGBTQ+ Dark Academia novel, which seemed like it was about to become one of my new favorites, but the characters and plot just did not connect with me. The prologue almost immeditely lost me as I thought it was already straying from it's premise. Honestly, I just *really* did not like the dilogue. The cover was gorgeous though!

Spoilers below!

Meet Cal. He’s your generic dark academia outsider protagonist. Stupid runs in his family (his insurance adjuster father is getting sued for failing to maintain insurance for his haunted house hobby), so he ignores every red flag under the sun about both Luke Kim, the soccer-playing, drug-dealing, street artist/love interest whose most interesting (though oft repeated) quality is that he’s a chimera, and Society, a secret society that hasn’t come up with a better name in their two-hundred-year history (though don’t fret, they have the obligatory Latin motto(s)).

Society is all about exploring the secrets of Essex (an elite New England boarding school founded on the grounds of a Colonial college à la Yale that never made it past the Revolution), and luckily for us all, Cal spent the entire summer before entering Essex reading about its history, so every piece of info dumping is prefaced with “I read about (insert monument name)” or some variation thereof (I counted nine before I got bored).

Don’t worry about remembering which building is where or which alumnus/a/ae did what because we hardly revisit any of them (either structure or graduate). The exclusion of a map in a book about a Society dedicated to exploring its campus is just one of the many mysteries of A Darker Mischief. How Luke loses his arm is another. Seriously, did he meet a monster in the tunnels? Was he burned? For all the buildup about how very, very dangerous the steam tunnel network is, that is not an injury that I saw coming.

There’s a lot going on in A Darker Mischief: in addition to his father’s legal troubles, Cal’s mother has cancer and he himself was the victim of a hate crime when his former hookup blinds him in one eye with acid during a homophobic attack, and that’s just the stuff that happens before the book starts. Cal contracting herpes, staying in touch with his attacker, but it turns out the attacker is actually dead, and Cal’s just been talking to himself, and oh, Society (and Cal) kidnap the Vice-President’s daughter are just some of the things that made it hard for me to care among the chaos. There’s also a highly uncomfortable scene in which Cal walks in on his boyfriend blowing an upperclassman that Cal treats like cheating, but that reads like sexual assault to me, given that we know said upperclassman (the villainously named Pinky Lynch) has some sort of hold over Luke.

The following passage struck me as as potential barometer for how a reader might react to A Darker Mischief:

“One of the hooded adults, wearing a silver masquerade mask and holding a staff unlooses himself from the tenebrous perimeter and steps forward.

‘You are now part of a two-hundred-and-ten-year-old tradition: the creative, through exploration of Essex’s rich history,’ the man says. ‘Society was founded on the idea of brotherhood; working together, forming bonds that will lead to lifelong friendships while uncovering campus secrets.’”

If describing someone stepping from a circle into its center by using “unlooses himself from its tenebrous center” strikes you as poetic rather than pretentious, you may have an easier time with A Darker Mischief than I did. Suffice it to say, I found it to be a major letdown, which was especially sad considering the glorious cover and the fact that it was one of my most anticipated 2024 reads.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

A Darker Mischief follows Cal Ware, whose poor background makes him stand out from the rich elite students of Essex. This isolation he feels leads him to discover a secret society in Essex. As a member of the society, he uncovers the deepest secrets of Essex during his investigations. During his time at Essex, he meets Luke Kim, an unlikely companion who also feels the pull of the mysterious secret society. As they complete the initiation process, the two boys get closer and fall in love. But whether this love can last in the face of the society and the risky investigations is questionable.

I enjoyed this book immensely. I definitely can't do it justice with my summary above, but those have never been my strong suit. Trust me, this book will keep your interest. There are A LOT of secrets and twists in this book. For the last half, I was spinning in circles keeping track of all the different things happening. This didn't hinder my enjoyment at all, I loved that I was always guessing! The secret society was incredibly intriguing. The society is simultaneously menacing, curious, and empowering for both the reader and Cal. The investigations for the society, "explos," were fascinating, and I was getting as lost in them as Cal was. This book was easily 5 stars!

Thank you to netgalley and Scholastic | Scholastic Press for allowing me to read this book. This was one of my most anticipated reads of the year and let me tell you this book did not disappoint,

Really loved this upper YA queer dark academia thriller. It was fun but also atmospheric. I flew through it.

“A Darker Mischief,” by Derek Milman

Cal gets a scholarship to an elite New England boarding school, and he hopes he can create a future where he’s not just the queer poor kid. Unfortunately, the kids notice right away that he’s poor and he is made fun of and left out. Until he learns of a secret society on campus and Cal and a boy Luke join up to get accepted into the mysterious and dangerous society that will solidify Cal’s new life.

Good coming-of-age queer story of a non-rich kid in a rich school/ boarding school. I liked the secret society aspect of the book. I liked the two main male characters and their relationship. When I was reading it, I was thinking this book would make a great show. 3 out of 5 stars.

Thank you for the ARC, Netgalley.

**I received an electronic ARC from the publisher through NetGalley.**

Actual rating: 3.5

Derek Milman presents his newest YA thriller, A Darker Mischief. Readers follow Cal, a queer transfer student from small town Mississippi who is starting his sophomore year at an elite boarding school. Cal hopes to be able to reinvent himself in New England after the Incident, but as a poor scholarship student he is far from fitting in. Cal learns about a secret society on campus and begins the rush process, intertwining his fate with the handsome and dangerous Luke Kim. As Cal develops feelings for Luke, the tasks assigned by the secret society get more and more daring and even unethical. Cal must decide how far he is willing to go to protect the people he cares about most.

I will never get tired of queer dark academia. Milman does a solid job at building the atmosphere of the campus and the structure of the secret society. The secrets on secrets layered was something that provided a forward drive for the book, even if the layering was sometimes messy.

Cal and Luke are compelling characters to follow. Both of them have their own tragic back story components and have enough things they want to hide in order to land in the morally grey area. Their relationship is, at best, toxic and, at times, codependent. Everything about the characters in this book tends toward being messy, with valid plot development reasons.

My main reason for not rating this book higher is some strange pacing issues throughout the book. Where the initiation into society originally drives the plot, the movement is very sequential and orderly. Toward the climax of the book, there was an odd devolution of order into a more chaotic process. That chaos was quelled before the plot was resolved and left things tied with some wonky decisions and a tidy bow.

Overall. I enjoyed my time with A Darker Mischief and was pleased to have an opportunity to read it early.

I don't know where to even start. I guess I'll just say thank you to netgalley for giving me an ARC of this book. This book was like nothing I have ever read before. The writing style was so unique. At the beginning I was unsure if I would like it, but after the first few chapters I absolutely loved it. I could not put it down and the relationship between Luke and Cal was so complex I was going through every emotion while reading about them. I loved everything from the beginning to the climax. I have like no words to describe how much I love the story. The only part I wasn't particularly fond of was the ending. I felt like there was so much build up throughout the story just for everything to be vaguely and suddenly ended. I wanted so much more, but I understand why it had to end the way it did. With how self destructive Luke was, I'm not surprised that he died young. I jusy wanted them to hash it out more, get some closure even if they didn't end up together again. I wanted angst, but without death I guess. Overall though, I would definitely recommend this book.

This was a fun queer dark academia YA thriller. I would say this is definitely more upper YA, I don't think I would have understood most of this or it would've been too much at ages 14-16. There's a lot of interesting history/architect information that made it feel dark academia. I really like how this book ended and we saw where everyone sort of ended up.

"A Darker Mischief" dives into the world of Cal Ware, a scholarship student from Mississippi thrust into the elite and unforgiving halls of Essex Academy. Seeking a fresh start, Cal encounters a harsh reality – wealth, privilege, and a ruthless social hierarchy define life at Essex. Bullied and ostracized, Cal is on the verge of leaving when a glimmer of hope emerges: a secret society promising acceptance and power.

Enter Luke Kim, a charismatic classmate who offers Cal a path into this exclusive world. As Cal ventures deeper into the "Rush" process, he grapples with a burgeoning romance with Luke amidst increasingly dangerous initiation rituals. The allure of belonging clashes with the unsettling nature of the society's secrets, forcing Cal to confront a critical question – is this acceptance worth the price of his integrity and safety?

This book is strong due to how it addresses:

Class and Identity: The novel explores themes of classism, navigating a new social order, and the struggle to fit in.

Self-discovery and Belonging: Cal's journey is one of self-discovery as he seeks acceptance and belonging in a hostile environment.

Dark Academia: The prestigious Essex Academy harbors a dark secret society, adding a layer of suspense and intrigue.

First Love and Moral Dilemmas: Cal's first love story intertwines with moral dilemmas he faces within the society's initiation rituals.

Thank you Scholastic and Netgalley for this eARC, these opinions are my own. Cal Ware is from a small town in the south. Due to the fact that he’s gay and The Incident, as well as things going on with his parents, life isn’t the easiest for him there. Getting into a fancy prep school should be just the chance he needs to reinvent himself. Only there he faces different challenges, like being poor and the fact that he talks differently. One night in his loneliness he stumbles across a group of students in masks. Determined to figure out what’s going on he finds a Secret Society. He thrilled when he gets the chance to rush. Along with that he meets Luke, the mysterious jock, who makes him feel seen. As they dive deeper into Society they may just find things aren’t exactly what they seem. With Luke’s mysterious past and Cal’s struggles with The Incident, can the two learn to trust each other? As Cal learns more about Society and what they do will he find he’s bitten off more than he could chew? After all how dark is too dark? An enjoyable read that will drag you in deeper! Cal and Society’s interest in history was intriguing and fascinating. Luke’s mysterious ways often had me questioning whether he could be trusted but his relationship with Cal is really cute! Also so many of the queer community will be able to relate to Cal’s feelings of isolation and loneliness! Dark, twisted, surprising, and so very queer! Highly recommend checking this one out!

I requested this book as soon as I saw it as I knew it would be right up my alley. I'm a huge fan of dark academia thrillers and loved that it also included queer romance. Parts of the story lagged, but I enjoyed the book overall. 3.75/5⭐.

This story had a lot of solid ideas but a really poor execution. The premise sounded super interesting with that sort of dark academia feel and the intrigue of a secret society. I really liked the exclusiveness of the society and the roles that riddles and tasks had on the story. There was that sort of risk factor that helped convey how serious it is, and I enjoyed the use of the letters and emails as the main form of communication between the society and the characters.

Although this story had the ingredients for a compelling read, the writing is where the story fell the most flat. It was very structured in telling you a lot of information without any true transitions or integrations to make it feel natural. The writing also wasn’t very thought provoking and didn’t leave much for the reader to try and figure out stuff themselves. In order to become a part of the secret society you have to solve riddles and complete tasks, Cal came to conclusions to these riddles and tasks with barely any sort of struggle. I would have enjoyed it more to see a thought process or the opportunity to see things really click into place without it just being told and solved outright. Towards the end of the story the pacing got a bit weird. For the first 60ish percent the story was following a certain flow and then after that it felt like we were jumping months by for the sake of rushing through the timeline.

The characters also needed quite a bit of work. The motivations of the main character, Cal, wanting to get into this secret society is clear, because he has always felt like an outsider and this was finally a way for him to belong and actually become well respected by others. But, other than that I feel like the rest of the characters lacked any real depth. The relationship that blooms between Cal and Luke felt underdeveloped and lacked a real clear buildup to their relationship resulting in me not really feeling the desire to root for them. Plus Luke ended up being an extremely unlikable character that I started feeling bad for Cal for continuing to go back to him after everything.

Overall, this story can be fun if you think of it as like a wacky storyline you would come up with in The Sims but, as a fleshed out novel it needed more reworking. Thank you to NetGalley and Scholastic for providing me with this ARC.

Derek Milman’s latest title blends familiar YA tropes with edgy teenage realism in a novel described by the publisher as dark academia. That’s a good way to sum up Milman’s cross-genre story, and while there’s something for almost everyone along the way, it’s the contemporary themes that captivate the most.

Cal Ware is the fifteen-year-old protagonist and a fish-out-of-water at Essex Academy in New England. The story begins at the start of his sophomore year as a transfer scholarship student from small town Mississippi. His parents encouraged his move to an elite boarding school due to a scandal back home that left him with a glass eye and traumatic aftershocks (details of the scandal are gradually revealed). Cal is only a few weeks into the year, and he’s already practically given up on surviving at the snobby private school. His classmates have their established cliques, and Cal’s modest, Southern, unathletic background doesn’t match well with any of them. Meanwhile, he feels guilty about leaving behind his mother, who is undergoing treatment for cancer, and his father, who’s in legal trouble.

Then Cal’s social trajectory changes dramatically when he receives an invitation to join a secret society with a centuries-old history. Initiation requires daring missions through eighteenth century abandoned halls with hidden passages and lost treasures of artwork with DaVinci Code-like clues. Joining the society gives Cal a much-needed sense of purpose and belonging. He also meets an intriguing young man, Luke, who likes to tag walls with graffiti and shares a damaged past. Romance blossoms. Cal discovers he’s pretty good at sneaking around campus after dark, and things are looking up for him for a while. But as Cal’s reconnaissance turns up ugly facts about Essex, he begins to wonder about the true purpose of the secret society. Is he being used to help blackmail somebody? The school is full of kids from wealthy, influential families.

Milman takes a bold, authentic approach to the romance throughline and Cal and Luke’s traumatic histories. Appropriate for the times, the two boys contend with a measure of homophobia and the resulting fear of being oneself, but the greater substance of their journey is navigating each other’s broken parts that have little to do with being gay. Their connection is raw and heartfelt, and also laced with betrayals, both small and big. They each avow that all they need is to disappear forever into their embrace, but both of them have learned that people who say they love you can’t always be trusted. Still, Cal exposes his deepest vulnerabilities to Luke, not quite knowing his readiness to do so, nor Luke’s ability to respond without falling back on a defensive reaction. It would be conventional to grasp onto a love conquers all trope here, but Milman is more honest than that, and his story is better for it. Extra points awarded for giving their sexual relationship dimension and realness. Those scenes are not gratuitous, but they bring the reader into Cal’s sense of wonder and his deep connection to Luke.

The ancient boarding school setting and secret society give the story a Harry Potter feel. But there are no magic or fantasy elements, just some hypnagogic hallucinations and distorted perceptions related to Cal’s past trauma. The intrigue with the secret society relies on the reader’s capacity to get on board with how fascinating fictional Essex Academy is, and that’s where the story lost me a bit. Histories are explained, but unless one attended a New England boarding school dating back to pre-revolutionary times, it’s hard to muster much interest in the clues Cal is putting together. The fast pace and esoteric material leaves the reader feeling like an outsider, and the truth behind the secret society comes across as muddled and perhaps not as consequential as the author had hoped.

Still, Cal and Luke’s earnest and messy relationship make A Darker Mischief a worthwhile read. It’s also a good pick for fans of boarding school mysteries and New England history.

This title was reviewed for Out in Print.

*Edit* I misclicked so some of my first review...I thought I was reviewing a different book. Here is my correct review.

I loved the concept of this book. I thought it was interesting, and I particularly liked the idea of an MM romance dark academia. However, the book itself just didn't grab me. It's not something that moves well at the store - queer genre fiction is a hard sell in our location unless our booksellers recommend it, so I don't think this will do well at our location. I think it would be something teenage me would have liked, there is definitely an audience for this kind of book, but it's not adult me, and it's not our store's audience, unfortunately.

A tender tale of young love under the duress, dark academia at its finest. A small town kid amongst the high rolling elite, a secret society with a reach into America's elite. The kidnapping of the VP's daughter. Addictive.

2 stars
——————

This book truly has a little bit of everything to appeal to a myriad of readers. Dark academia, secret societies, queer romance. I was truly enthralled by the many aspects of those one. Despite all that, there was perhaps too much happening.

This book intros with such a startling prologue that I was immediately engaged. But that engagement only lasted so long. Within a few chapters, I knew it would be an uphill battle to get to that storyline. There is so much history and background and world building happening all at once. The plot gets lost within all this dense history and I was struggling to keep on top of the purpose of the book and what it was trying to tell me. This book has so much description of events without showing them. There is an excessive use of “I explained” without showing the reader what was learned. I almost DNFed this many times, but needed to see how the prologue tied in. It was pretty disappointing in resolution.

The characters were a bit much. The relationship between Luke and Cal was so toxic, it was unbearable to read at times. Despite the purpose of this, it could have been toned down. It seemed to almost romanticize this abuse. I know it’s to show Cal’s inexperience and naivety, but it just was too much. The characters beyond this were really toneless and undeveloped. Our side characters didn’t add much to the story, which was unfortunate given their importance.

This was really a great concept with poor execution.

There is a lot of love in this book. Dark academia. Secret societies. Hidden histories. And queer characters. It is a dark and twisted reminder of the power and corruption of money. And it does a very good job of capturing the isolation, loneliness, and awkwardness of being an outsider trying to fit into the classed structure of wealth and privilege.

Even though I loved the premise of the book, the writing could have been more tidy. The formatting was awkward and confusing at times. And, while this book had a compelling start and a great conclusion, I felt it lagged around the middle.

2 stars

Thank you to Derek Milman and Scholastic Press for this ARC in exchange for my full, honest review!

First and foremost, in terms of sheer entertainment value this book is fantastic, at least for the first half. If you want more YA thrillers with the audacity and horniness of Riverdale, this might be for you! However, for me, it was like watching a convoluted yet hilarious train wreck. This book throws so many random curveballs, many of which are just hardly relevant. I really puzzled over my star rating because I was truly having fun just being along for the mess for a good chunk of the book, but even as a fantasy reader there comes a point when a book is simply too ridiculous.

Other than being wildly entertaining for half the book, there are a few things I enjoyed despite their insanity. Cal and Luke's relationship is the kind of over-dramatic, toxic teenage codependency that I like because I thrive on drama. There are some moments in the writing that are actually really beautiful, though entirely misplaced. I also have to commend the commitment to ridiculousness because genuinely I could not have been prepared for a single plot event in this book.

Now for the unfortunately numerous pitfalls. First, I mentioned that I enjoyed the first half but after that point the story becomes so incredible convoluted and hard to follow that I was totally lost. There were jumps in time and changes in location at points that were not at all indicated and I kept having to look back to figure out how we got where we were. I could list facts we know about most of the characters, Cal and Luke in particular, but I struggle to actually characterize them because they're just kind of...strange. The dialog is insane in a way that is occasionally funny but usually is just cryptic and kind of grating because it adds to nothing. There are a few spoiler-y things that happen and I could not tell you for the life of me why those things happen. They kidnap the vice president's daughter (not a spoiler, it's revealed in the first section), and maybe I just missed it but I still don't really get why. It's mentioned afterward that someone was tryin to prevent the VP from passing some law but I don't really understand why it makes sense for them to exhort him in that way when the society supposedly has so much power otherwise. Most of the big plot events are genuinely shoved into the last thirty pages and I can't say I cared much about any of them at that point. Also, I'm not against sex in YA books but this one is toeing the line with the sheer volume, especially against the backdrop of a toxic relationship. There are a few serious/triggering topics that get brought momentarily for shock value and have no otherwise bearing on the plot, nor are they explored in a way I felt was healthy or interesting. The epilogue was a hot mess, again throwing curveballs with literally no weight to them.

Sorry for being a hater, but I really can only suspend my disbelief so much. I always hesitate to say "don't read this book," especially when there were parts of this one that I really liked, but just go in knowing that this is not to be taken too seriously and that you won't be missing much if you DNF or skip it.

Happy reading!

Thank you to NetGalley and Scholastic publishing for giving me an arc of this book! This was one of those rare books that instantly had me hooked. Usually, it takes me a little bit to get into the book and fully enjoy it, but I was committed to this book right off the bat. It has been a long time since I have been unable to put down a book… and this was one of those books. It captivated me, I just could not stop thinking about it until I finished it! This was also one of those books where I wished it could have gone on for longer.

I do not know much about dark academia as a genre, but I am instantly intrigued. The cover was beautiful and the writing and story were well done. Something I think this book does great with is pacing! The pacing of this story is excellent and keeps you on your toes, I literally could not book this book down. Some of the characters were unlikable, even the characters that you were supposed to like, but I almost feel like that was the point. This novel shows that everybody is flawed in someway, but in the end, people will still try to do the right thing. The book also lives up to its name, it goes get kind of dark (for a YA novel). Lastly, I just want to mention the setting. Old mysterious boarding school with a long history? Loved it. I was very, very impressed with this story.