Such an excellent blend of dark academia, fantasy, and mystery! The gothic vibes are immaculate. Plus vampires! Amazing.

I was excited to pick this up when I saw it compared to The Raven Boys, and the two books definitely had a similar feel that I enjoyed. This one started off really strong with Marin/Jamie infiltrating Huntsworth Academy, the nearby boarding school where her cousin died, in an attempt to track down those responsible and hold them accountable. I really enjoyed the dark academia vibes and the boarding school setting. The mystery gripped me at the beginning, but I did start to lose interest about halfway. The story became a bit convoluted and it was hard to follow what was going on. Overall, the writing was beautiful, and I was invested enough to finish. I would definitely pick up more from Jenni Howell in the future, I’ll be interested to see what else she writes!

Thank you to Netgalley, Libro.fm, Roaring Press Books, and Macmillan Audio for the advanced copy of this book!

2.5⭐️

I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty sure I saw this book on a few 'Queer Releases for 2025" lists and went into expecting a queer dark academia book with a murder mystery built in. But this book is not LBGTQIA at all unless you squint at a codependent friendship. The writing was mysterious, though, and I liked the mystery as to what happened to Sam and how the paranormal tied into this.

I had a really hard time trying to suspend disbelief that the absolutely chaotic way Marin got into this school was possible. You're telling me a prestigious boarding school with a difficult admissions process just accepted this girls forged documents and check that bounced without questioning any of it? You're also telling me that Marin was able to pull off this plan to enroll under a fake name in less than a week since her cousin died? That was just a lot of absurd things to look past to really enjoy this. I saw someone say that this felt like The Secret History fanfiction and it really gave that vibe.

Thanks Netgalley and Roaring Brook Press for providing this ARC to me!

Boys with Sharp Teeth, is a YA novel with a distinct dark academia atmosphere. The story is filled with mystery and suspense, as it follows a group of rich private school teens. If you're a fan of “We Were Liars” this book is definitely for you. I'm excited to see what else this author has in store!

Sadly it was extremely predictable :(. But I enjoyed the premise and how smooth the plot flowed together. It didn’t fall flat for me, but I don’t think I would read it again.

Thank you @macmillan.audio for the early ALC!

I really think this started out really well, I love the premise and the dark academia setting. I loved the idea of the characters really getting into each other’s heads but overall I felt mostly confused about what was happening. I could never grasp a full idea of what was going on but I also didn’t care enough about midway through.

I wanted to love this one so much more than I did. It just fell flat for me. In the beginning I was very intrigued in finding out who killed her cousin. Her infiltrating the school seemed like a bit of a thin idea especially since she’s saying that she’s met one of them before and saying that they won’t notice. She also has disappeared from home and after coming back her dad is like oh okay and doesn’t care?

That aside, after the car accident scene, that’s where I felt like it all declined. I think leading to that part was really interesting and then after, I felt like the story flat lined.

Audiobook Notes: the narrator is SO GOOD! And mostly the reason why I continued to listen to the rest of the book. They kept me in the story and have the perfect voice for dark academia!! They also switch the accent when she’s talking as Jamie and when she’s herself! That was the coolest part!!

3/5 story
3/5 characters
5/5 audiobook narration

I was unsure where to land with my rating but I think that 4 stars is where I’m sitting!

The prose is delicious, I really enjoyed the writing style but I can see why it is a miss for others. The style is quite heavy, with a lot of tell and not show, but there are some really beautiful quotes.

I was along for the ride and I really enjoyed the mystery element and having to piece together what actually happened at the boarding school. But it felt a touch too unrealistic and there were a lot of instances which were plot conveniences. I had to suspend my disbelief quite a lot which did take me out of the story because the characters felt so real to me.

I picked up this book at exactly the right time and it was a hit for me, but I can see why others found it more difficult to get through and be along for the ride on. That being said, I can see an audience that this will work for and would recommend giving it a go if you like an atmospheric, moody book!

*2.5 stars

Got an ARC from Net Galley and it was interesting enough to see how the ending turned out, but the plot felt extremely rushed and hard to follow at times.

this was a dnf :( i simply couldn’t get past how unrealistic this was and it is DEFINITELY for a YA audience, something i knew going into this but was willing to overlook. unfortunately what seemed like the perfect premise wasn’t orchestrated in a way that made me obsessed and i’m stopping at 52%.

Tropes:
Dark academia
Philosophy
Love triangle (but not really)

Only the last 25% were truly the interesting part of the book and I almost DNF the book 3 separate times. The writing style is amazing and I feel like if I read a different book by the author, I would like it. The premise of the book sounded amazing but, it left me feeling detached from the characters, as I had little insight into their motivations or backgrounds. Marin /Jamie decisions didn’t make sense? I also didn’t understand her and Graves sometimes because I felt like they didn’t have any good moments together?


I liked the supernatural/paranormal aspect of the book and I felt like that was the saving grace of the book. I 100% did not see the plot twist in the end and that’s mainly why I’m rating it as 3/5 stars

While the blurb had all the makings to be a spectacular read, this unfortunately fell short for me.

At first, I really loved the mystery of all the deaths happening near the school, as well as Jamie’s/Marin’s going undercover to solve her cousin’s death where she thought the police had failed. As the book went on, it was fun to watch her ingratiate herself with the 3 students she thought were responsible for her cousin’s murder. Throughout this process, my thoughts went back and forth on all of them…except one.

The book was beautifully written, but also daunting at times with how much philosophy it tried to bring in and make work to the circumstances at hand. In this way, it felt a little pretentious, which I believe was probably the author’s intent given the setting is a boarding school for the rich. However, this just did not hit right with me regardless.

Ultimately, I didn’t feel the characters shined as much as they could have, and that’s probably why this wasn’t the read for me. Henry was the only character I felt was fully fleshed out and given enough page time to clearly see the kind of person he was. Everyone else kinda just felt like they were there, including the FMC.

Thank you to NetGalley, Roaring Brook Press, and Jenni Howell for the opportunity to read this book. The thoughts and opinions expressed above are honest and my own.

Marin's cousin died suspiciously, so she goes to the local boarding school where he worked to find his killers. Along the way she befriends Henry, Graves, and Baz to get information and find out which one of them killed her cousin.

While the writing was beautiful and dense, the character, setting, and plot development were nonexistent. It was hard for me to connect with the characters. I don't really know much about the setting. The book meandered and was boring at times, I thought with the main character trying to solve a murder in two weeks, it would move faster but didn't. It does give the vibe of Raven Boys and will be good for readers who are seeking a high caliber book in the language aspect.

Creepy and tempting all at once. Sort of like feeling as if you're about to have a hand come down and clasp your shoulder while you know there's nothing behind you. This book is haunting and beautifully written; creepy and frustrating and heart pounding all at the same time. I get so nervous when a character is on the fringe of being discovered and that's the majority of this book--but it's understandable, natural, and makes sense to be on the edge of your seat. It will likely haunt my dreams for a good while and I happily recommend it to anyone who wants something that's dark academia with that quality of death and immortality. (No, there aren't any vampires).

Thank you NetGalley for an eARC.
I saw this all over instagram and loved the cover. I loved the synopsis. It held the promise of a juicy dark academia novel.

However it did not hit the mark for me, and this was a bummer, I was really excited for this book and really wanted to like it. I spent the majority of the book unsure of what was going on. It was easy to get lost in the philosophical conversations referencing the matrix and if you could really trust your senses. Trying to keep up with that, the Shakespeare quotes and the zig zag plot was a lot. It felt like there was always too much going on and personally it was hard to keep up with. I am giving this 2 stars for 2 reasons.

1-The concept with our main character talking to someone unknown through leaving notes in an old book was fun.
2-The truth behind the mirrors was neat! It had so much promise. It’s something I had not seen before
I would have liked more of the ghosts and mirrors.

This book was chaotic,and not in the good way.
I will say it DID feel like a bad 2010 teen horror movie, which could have been so fun if that was the intention. Instead it felt forced to be more serious than that.

I was going to DNF, however my best friend was also reading this to review. I felt like her and I needed to ride this weird confusing ride to the end.

A haunting is in every way the lingering of grief unprocessed. The aftershocks of guilt and love. This book is deeply comfortable within that existence. The emotionalism in that works well for Howell's writing but the rest of the book does not entirely live up to those feelings. There is a level of ambition in a haunting based on childhood trauma and classism paired with the plot of revenge, stolen identity, and a murder chalked up to suicide that while admirable does not quite land in the course of the novel. I enjoyed a majority of the work but I think a touch less of genre elements would have added rather than detracted from the over all vibe rather than detracted.

Thank you NetGalley for an eARC.
I really wanted to love this book, but sadly it let me down so hard. I ended up DNF'ing it.
0.5- Some people love the cover, but honestly I hate it. This however is not the reason for the 1 star rating as it has no bearing on the book itself.
1- The writing is super clunky.
2- The characters feel very flat, not dynamic whatsoever. And the side characters...what side characters?
3- I was expecting a badass FMC who is bent on revenge for her cousin but what I got was not that. I don't even know how to rightly describe the FMC but she is not the strong girl bent on revenge that the blurb made her out to be.
4- Absolutely nothing happens within the first third of the book except she infiltrates the prep school under an assumed identity (and can I point out {5} how ridiculous it is that she is somehow a tech genius to hack into their computer system and then a great con artist to setup her fake identity and get the correct falsified documents as well as a false check for her tuition and the school just accepts everything without any consultation with her parents).
Okay I'll stop here because I think my point has been made.

Thank you to NetGalley for the e-ARC!
I don’t know exactly what it was, because the writing of this book was overall very good, especially for a debut novel, but I really struggled with this book. I’m going to try to break it down into three things:
1. Henry Wu - he felt generically rich-boy evil and there was nothing truly compelling about him to me.
2. The supernatural - I’m all for a soft magic system, but it was so ill-explained and nebulous that it didn’t affect me at all emotionally.
3. The setting - I think I actually would have been okay with this if I didn’t grow up in Appalachia near a very expensive private school. Everything in regards to class divides etc. was superficial and nonspecific.

I did think the interactions between Marin/Baz/Graves were very well written, as well as the philosophy class. The love-hate chemistry between Marin and Graves was arresting, and I think the best part of the book. TW for self harm and suicide, and it should be noted that the book verges on romanticizing both of those things, which I was not a fan of.

{Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC}
i think its safe to say this is a literary MASTERPIECE!!! this was truly and genuinely so good, when i say i want a dark academia/fantasy, THIS IS WHAT I MEAN! everyone in this book was insane, from seeking vengeance to obsession and toeing the line between hate and love, this blended together to be such a captivating story and i loved every second of it. the entire time i was reading this i was questioning everything about everyone and wondering where it might lead and the ending absolutely gutted me. marin is such a convoluted character who shows just how much grief can take a toll on someone and drive them to do….things…

This book was difficult for me. I really loved the first half, right up to about the 50% mark. I loved the atmosphere, thought the writing was flowery but not in a bad way because it fit the mood, and adored some of the first-half scenes, like when they ride on the motorcycle and go to the forest. I enjoyed it so much that I got over some rather glaring plot holes (she doesn't pay the school but attends classes? I work at a private school and there is NO WAY a student is attending classes if they haven't paid. They get put on reg. hold. Also, why was no one looking for her? Also, why were the students constantly permitted to just talk through classes? Also, why were the students drunk/high all the time and no one cared? In general it felt more like a college than a boarding school - I did attend boarding school. But again, I liked it so I overlooked these issues).

Unfortunately, the book sort of fell apart in the second half. I really, really wanted to like it and already did, but found myself growing frustrated. The MC's decisions don't make any sense in the second half (literally none at all), and I got so annoyed that she had convinced herself a certain person was the murderer and decided to hate him when CLEARLY there was something else going on. I'm not against an unreliable narrator, but I sort of need to buy their understanding of the world or else it just gets annoying. I did enjoy parts of the romance, but the cover and description implied more of a queer book or at least bi/poly-, and instead this one was pretty straightforwardly heterosexual. While at the start I had high hopes for the characters, who seemed intriguing and mysterious, they ended up being rather flat and one-dimensional. In particular, I felt the treatment of Henry's character was frustrating and reductive in that he became a cartoon villain. I was hoping for something more nuanced than that.

Finally, I don't NEED a happy ending in my books, but I do like to feel that character deaths are justified. After all, we have just been asked to spend hours with these people and get fairly emotionally invested in their lives. Both the deaths in this book felt wildly unnecessary and only there so the ending could have a 'bang,' In particular, why on EARTH would she kill Graves? It makes so little sense to me. She doesn't kill the villain but kills the henchman? Like I said, frustrating.

I would read another book by this author. I liked her premise, most of her writing style, and I did really like the characters/scenes/mood in the first half. It's a testament to how much I enjoyed the beginning how letdown I felt at the end. I hope that in the author's next book, she takes the time to plot out an ending that leaves the reader feeling more satisfied, rather than throwing at it everything and the kitchen sink.
2.5/5

Thank you to Roaring Brook Press for an e-arc of this book!

I love a good dark academia style book, and this one worked so well for me. It is a murder mystery at the core, with the allure of dark academia on top. One thing I will say is that this book is brilliantly written, and I was never sure which way the story or the plot was going to do. She also created so much tension between the characters, both romance and friendship.

Jenni Howell manages to evoke an almost frenzied, impatience feeling in this book. It leaves you breathless, gasping, never quite able to catch your breath as you careen through the book. I will admit, I had to put the book down a few times to take a breather.

I don't like the comparison necessarily, but I do feel like the vibes are somewhat similar to The Raven Boys. Not quite, but I do feel a familiarity with this book. And I can't explain it. This book was intriguing from start to finish, and honestly, this book is definitely best read without knowing too much going in, and that is all I am going to say on the matter.

All the characters in this book are morally grey. There is no "good" person here. I really enjoyed that our FMC was just as vicious as the boys in this one. So rarely do we also get someone who is as vicious as the MMC. This book overall was nothing like I expected, and honestly I'm going to have to chew on it some. Maybe eventually do a reread. I won't call this a The Secret History lite, but it definitely was reminiscent of it in more ways than other dark academia books are. And the thing is, while this is categorized as YA, it definitely has crossover appeal to adults as well.

Definitely recommend this book for gothic/horror/dark academia fans, I think you will eat it up!