Lovely Dark and Deep is the perfect recommendation for readers who want just a splash of horror. As a self-proclaimed scaredy cat, I was worried this book would be too spooky for me. After all, there's a dark creepy forest that students keep disappearing in.

Thankfully, every spooky element in Lovely Dark and Deep is well-explained. Even though Faith frequently goes into the aforementioned forest, she rarely does so alone.

The found family element is heavily emphasized through Faith's relationships with her fellow Red Stripes. Not only did I love their dynamic, the constant company made the story feel lighter. They fought their respective battles together.

But, in my opinion, every time the Red Stripes sat down to discuss new developments, the story slowed down. As the reader, I already know what went down. I found the repeated rehashing of events to be grating.

Bottom line: I came for the Filipino rep and stayed to see the mystery through.

This book had a really interesting premise, I really liked the setting and the magic system. That being said I think there were some pacing issues, flash back chapters broke up the overall flow of the first half of the book which had me struggling to stay invested at times. It also felt like the book tried to tackle too many social issues and inclusions making some of them feel out of left field and a bit disingenuous toward the end.

I’m so happy to be able to partake in the book tour hosted by Lonely Pages for Elisa A. Bonnin’s new, upcoming YA fantasy standalone! Thank you to Feiwel & Friends for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. Out 03/25/2025!

I’ve had my eyes set on this book because not only is Elisa A. Bonnin is Filipino, but because the synopsis was so exciting. And it truly did not disappoint! Lovely Dark and Deep is a dark and action-filled novel down to its very last page, with a subtle hint of sapphic romance. It’s such a thrilling addition to the YA genre, with its unique elemental-based magic system that is also woven with Filipino folklore and culture, seeing as our FMC Maria Faith (very Filipino name actually) and her family are immigrants from Iloilo (yes, I’ve been there lots of times I live for four hours away from when I was in the Philippines). Not only that, but she discusses detachment and losing the language, which is honestly unspoken of around immigrant children, a great addition to this novel. Moreover, she is perfectly flawed, impulsive, and stubborn, but we see grow from a girl who still carries guilt from her best friend’s death to one who embraces her fears and moves forward. Furthermore, this book is extremely diverse with powerful people of color, has amazing queer representation, and the autism rep is spot on! Lastly, it has the endearing cliché of the tight-knit found family trope that made this book more engaging to me because of the charming banter. Perfect for fans of Don’t Let The Forest In and The Last Hope School for Magical Delinquents!

Faith, who comes from the mundane, was once a promising student at Ellery West—a hidden school of magic. Now, as she enters her senior year, she’s marked as a Red Stripe. Why? Because at the end of junior year, she and her friend Sydney ventured into the forest together… and only Faith walked out.

At Ellery West, students with red stripes on their uniforms are either rule-breakers or possess magic deemed too dangerous. If they break the rules three times, their magic can be taken away. Faith is determined to keep her magic and lay low until graduation. But whatever she and Sydney unleashed in the forest is now threatening the school, and it’s up to the Red Stripe students to solve the mystery even at the risk of getting expelled.

Lovely Dark and Deep is a YA dark academia novel with a mix of fantasy and mystery, but it also explores deeper themes. It highlights the struggles of immigrant families, the challenges of moving to an unfamiliar country, gender identity, and racial inequality. There’s something about Bonnin’s storytelling that really resonated with me, it made me feel and understand the characters' struggles even more.

I loved the magic system in this book as well. It’s cool, easy to understand, and really well thought out. That said, I wish we got more glimpses of how magic classes work. The little bits we did see were super interesting, and I wanted more! I also really liked how the book used flashbacks to build up to the accident. It gave us a deeper look at Faith and Sydney’s friendship and how it developed over the years.

The relationships among the Red Stripe students were another highlight. They always had each other’s backs, and refused to leave anyone behind.

Overall, Lovely Dark and Deep by Elisa Bonnin is a great read and definitely one to add to your TBR if you love YA dark academia.

Thank you to Netgalley and Elisa A Bonnin for providing me with an ARC of this story.
SPOILERS TO FOLLOW

WOW WOW WOW!!! I yearn for dark academia books that don't just have "the vibes" of dark academia but actually tackle the issues of academia itself. Issues like how BIPOC people are not always welcome in those spaces, especially it seems in this magical community. Rose finding out that Yvonne had been Red Striped from the get-go and realizing how unfair that was for someone who hadn't done anything wrong was a very meaningful scene because I hadn't even thought about that before Elisa brought it up in the story. I hadn't seen Yvonne's powers as dangerous myself so I didn't anticipate why the board of Ellery West might Red Stripe her for more than just her powers. Faith's own inner turmoil of being Red Striped and what that means for her future was especially poignant as the main character. The way she talked about her families reason for leaving the Philippines and how much weight she felt on her shoulders because of it was a very relatable concept. Although it's not something I've gone through, I'd experienced similar feelings before in other aspects of my life.

Faith herself was everything I could ask for in a main character. She was stubborn, funny, loyal, brave but most importantly, scared. Faith was constantly calling herself a coward for running away from Sydney, from the forest, but I wouldn't call that cowardice. I think anyone in that situation would have run away and I don't think that's a bad thing. The most important thing is that she went back, faced her fear, and something good came out of it.

The Red Stripes in general were also a great cast of characters. Cari and Nicholas' relationship was so damn cute I could just about die. The reason behind their Red Stripes made me unfathomably angry at the school but I also love that Nicholas cared so much about Cari that he underwent the punishment with her. I wasn't sure how much Yvonne and Alex would interact with Faith in the book, especially when they were both introduced but I was pleased to see that they were part of the main cast for this narrative and didn't just come into the story whenever Faith needed help. Each of the Red Stripes went with Faith into the forest or helped her with something dealing with the forest in one way or another. They all had a role in helping solve the problem and I was so happy to see that.

What I hadn't expected was Alex and Faith to form such a strong emotional connection. Faith is a senior and Alex was a freshman so while I expected them to interact and become friends I didn't anticipate how much they'd have in common and how they would bond over their feelings. So it was almost inevitable when Faith was the first person he came out too. That moment as well was such a heartwarming one, especially after all the turmoil of the forest.

Overall, I love, love, LOVED this story and I'm hoping there can be a future sequel for this characters! Hopefully with Nicholas and Faith (maybe even Rose and Sydney too) solving magical crimes! I think that's such an interesting concept and would be so fun to explore. Or if they were even all in mundane college together I think it'd be cool to see how they balance their magical lives with their ordinary ones.

An intriguing dark academia story about magic, friendships, and claiming identity. This book explores the misdeeds of our forefathers, and how the choices they made in the past can have a lasting impact, even generations later.

Lots of dark vibes and a good amount of mystery. I particularly liked the diversity of characters in this one. The MC is an immigrant from the Philippines. And among the sundry characters, there are racially diverse, queer, autistic, and trans individuals, making this a very inclusive book.

I will say that the pacing of some parts felt slow. There were also a few aspects of the story that felt forced (ie, there was no foreshadowing or natural progression). And the forest, which played such a huge roll in the story, felt rather stifled and underdeveloped.

An enjoyable read with some good potential.

Thank you NetGalley for the eARC.
3/5 stars.
**WARNING** This review contains a very minor spoiler.
The story-line was great. It is a YA dark academia book with a cool magic system and a sentient forest/island. There was great discussion throughout in regards to self-worth, accepting oneself, moving homes, hardships of immigration, familial issues, autism, finding your place in the world, and found family. The big issue that I have is the randomness of one of the characters coming out as trans at the end of the book. It felt completely out of left field and SO forced. There was ZERO foreshadowing or hints of this "revelation" or that this was even something on the character's mind. It felt like the author just wanted to be "relevant" and include a trans character, so wrote literally one scene and stuck it at the end of the book with no ties with the rest of the book/story. Aside from that, the story was a fun read.

Thanks to NetGalley & Feiwel & Friends for the early copy in exchange for an honest review.

What a thrilling book! This is a dark academia book mixed with thriller, mystery, and fantasy. The strange combination works so well!

I will say it's a pretty fast-paced YA book, the protagonist becomes fast friends with the found family of outcast misfits in 5 minutes but I didn't mind it too much because the side characters were very sweet. Especially Alex.

I loved the back-and-forth flashbacks that lead to the drama that led Faith to becoming ostracized from the magic school in the first place.

Though the book cover is really cool and all, but I feel like it doesn't fit very well. I would've gone with a drawing of the Red Stripe "dorm" with vines surrounding it. And Faith in front of the dorm with fire in her hands. I think that would have made it less generic and show that this is a thriller/fantasy book.

I was very satisfied with the ending, too.

Magical school books are a dime a dozen, but for some reason they always start at the beginning. A young person discovering their magic for the first time, and uncovering the complexities of a magical world they're like a fish out of water in.

In Faith's story, we're dropped in in media res. Her senior year after losing her best friend (and maybe more) in a tragic accident she gets the blame for. Plus she's been punished with what's basically magical In-School-Suspension. She's a red stripe, and now she has to learn how to handle being one of the schools pariahs and navigate the horrifying nightmare's she's having about her dead best friend in the forest.

Faith's story captured me from page one. I was invested in what she had to do, what he next move was, and waiting for her to discover things that were totally obvious to me as the reader, but not to her as a character. Overall it was a fun story, and I hope we get dropped into another part of Faith's story again soon.

I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I wanted to. I kept thinking that there was another book that came before this one even though it is a one-off book. That really took me out of the narrative a lot. As a reader I just felt like I was missing a huge chunk of the story, and I don’t personally enjoy that. I did enjoy Faith’s journey in forging new friendships and realizing that labels don’t always mean we are the person associated with them. The ending was okay, but overall, this was a hard book for me.
Thank you to Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this title.

Thank you to Net Galley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group | Feiwel & Friends for the ARC. I have mixed feelings about this one. On one hand, it was not as dark academia as I expected. But I did like the mystery aspect of figuring out what was going on. However, the pacing was quite awkward with random parts slow and random parts fast. I wanted to like the friendship between the Red Stripes; maybe I'm too cynical, but it felt forced how quickly they bonded together.

2.5

This book took me a little bit to get into but once I did I was hooked! The story itself was incredibly interesting to read about and see where everything was going. But the real star of this book was the characters. I was invested in every single one and didn’t have any that I didn’t really care about. I’m always a huge sucker for found family and this really hit the spot for me. There was quite a bit of representation within the friend circle with queer, trans, neurodivergent, bipoc, etc characters! One character in particular really stole my heart and that’s Alex. I would honestly LOVE a sequel to this focused on Alex!

Overall, I really thoroughly enjoyed this and would highly recommend!

After putting this book down in December because I wasn’t in the right mood for it, I went back in and started it again and absolutely loved it this time around. I can always tell when I’m not loving a book just because of my mood and this was one of those times. I’m so glad I gave this another shot.

You had me at dark academia, as per usual! An extremely poignant novel about the current state of the world mixed with magic and a host of fabulous characters.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced copy!! I adore a good dark academia novel, especially when it includes magic. This is a good dark academia book with a great explanation of how magic works and different types of magic. All the characters are well thought out and fleshed out. Some of the side characters you think will get lost in the shuffle, but Elisa brings them in and gives them their moment. It's also wonderfully emotional. I won't tell you to read this, but you will read this. Yes, that is a threat.

A school story fantasy set in my home state? Sold. I loved the concept of the red stripe, especially considering the scarlet letter reference. Bonnin did a great job leaving readers guessing until the last moments about what actually happened in the forest. Very compelling.

Thanks to Macmillan/Feiwel and Friends for the ARC! While a little predictable, this was an enjoyable read. Definitely has sequel potential!

really loved how atmospheric the writing was. the academy lore was interesting and all the characters were so endearing 🥹

"She would always be the girl who played with fire until the world burned down."
At Ellery West, the school for kids with magic, Faith left her best friend to die. Now, she's spending her senior year marked as a Red Stripe, those who have broken the rules or is deemed too dangerous to attend classes with the normal students. However, something is wrong on Siren Island. Something inside the forest where Faith lost her best friend is coming for the school, and no one cares enough to investigate-- except for the Red Stripes. LOVELY DARK AND DEEP is a YA dark academia novel filled with found family, adventure, and learning when and how to stand your ground.
I love the found family trope and this book FED MY SOUL. Faith, Nicholas, Cari, Yvonne, and especially Alex carried this book so hard, though the plot was also insanely addictive. It's written in flashbacks between chapters set in the current timeline and you were always left with a feeling of almost breaking through to the answer but not being quite there yet. I couldn't put this book down. The magic system was so cool and the little hint of romance in the end was the most adorable, perfect conclusion. Elisa wrapped this book up beautifully and I'm definitely reading more of her works. The way the romance was only a hint, a slow-burn enemies-to-lovers at the very end, is so refreshing in a world where romance is a focus and yet feels forced/rushed. I loved Faith's relationship with Alex, it was so sweet and guiding. I'm so entranced by Elisa's writing.
Specific Rating: 4.5/5

Wow. Every so often I stumble across a truly incredible book that takes me completely off guard, and Lovely Dark and Deep was one of those. There are a lot of magic school books, and a lot of those feature diverse characters, but this story hits exactly right in a way that feels incredibly validating and beautiful instead of lapsing into preachy territory. Perhaps most importantly, this isn’t a book about a magic school for the fun setting; it’s a book about a magic school that dissects the inequity, colonialism, and lies in that same system, and I can’t recommend it highly enough. Hands-down, this will be one of my favorite reads of the year.

The relationships between the characters are superb. Whether it’s the complicated connections between Faith and Sydney and Rose, or the truly caring bonds that develop with the other Red Stripes, every relationship in this book has a special uniqueness that feels wholly guided by the personalities and emotions of the characters at hand. I particularly loved Faith’s relationship with Alex, but I could say that of any of the connections in this book: the vibrant authenticity to each of them makes this book into a web as powerful and unknowable as the forest’s magic.

Bonnin truly tackles so much in this book—ostracization, colonialism, immigration, queer and trans identity, found family, and more—and yet its smooth feel disguises this fantastic complexity so deftly it appears all but effortless. I honestly just feel so lucky that Bonnin wrote a book so beautiful and powerful, and I know I’ll be checking out her previous novels very soon.

Highly recommended!