I was absolutely floored by how much I loved this book!

Exploring purgatory through a 6 person POV sounded like a tall order and is no small task to complete well. I.V. Marie made it seem effortless. I genuinely liked and cared about the fates of each character through the duration of the book.
Immortal Consequences takes the games and trials trope to another level by raising the stakes and putting them in the afterlife. I found the world building effortlessly built in to the story, never once feeling lost or facing down glaring plot holes in a space which could have been rife with them.

The story was edited perfectly, not leaving things unexplained, nor feeling over indulgent in explanation. Conversations seemed genuine and real and were a delight to read.

Going into this blind, I can honestly say I'll be waiting anxiously to see how the next book goes. Well done!

I loved the set up of this story (kids school in purgatory) and enjoyed the multi POV. However, I kept waiting for the story to get more interesting and it just didn’t. I found the characters hard to connect with and when plot twists happened they felt anticlimactic.

This book had me at "magic school in purgatory". .

In Blackwood Academy, the deceased are trained to become Reapers - or so the story goes.
We have a magical trial, and demons lurking to send everything into chaos.

This setting could have gone either way, but I'm happy to report that it totally worked for me.
Apart from the worldbuilding - which was really intriguing - it was the characters that I came to love, loathe or fear for - or a combination of the three.

It's tragic enough that you have a bunch of 18 or 19 year olds that have found their deaths too early - but the descriptions and tragic backstories really got me hooked.
We have the bickering couple, the ruthless one, a M/M cinnamon roll OTP, and someone you want to put in your pocket and keep safe.
There's also the headmaster, mystery girl and a lurking suspicious one.
Which in combination makes a real great concoction for a story that keeps you on the edge of your seat.

The pacing is great with not a minute of boredom, and there's twists and turns throughout that make you question your loyalties and realize that nothing is as it seems.

We have multiple POV, and they are so distinct and well written that I never got confused. Even more, I liked all of the POVs the same amount, which is a rare thing to find.

And best of all: a real game changer of an ending that desperately makes me want to read the next book.

If you want a story of love, trauma, grief and trust in a really cool dark academia setting, then this is the book for you.

4,5/5 stars and I fully expect it to become a highlight when the series keeps on going as amazing as this book.

Thank you @netgalley and @randomhouse for the eARC!

#ImmortalConsequences #DarkAcademia #Netgalley #Bookstagram

Tension and Rivals to lovers rolled into one book? Sign. Me. Up.
Loved Immortal Consequences and I can't wait for it's release to buy it and reread!

this was an incredibly crafted story that somehow interweaves six POVs with precision! The characters are fully developed with their own arcs and wants. The setting was well crafted with a unique magic system that felt like its own sentient being. Wonderful story, beautiful prose. Will definitely recommend this novel!!

Immortal Consequences || I.V. Marie

"The Decennial will still consist of four trials spanning the next few weeks, but this time... each trial is not merely a moment to showcase your magical abilities, but a chance to outshine the other nominees and eliminate them from the running."

Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC of this book. Out 7/29.

Blackwood Academy is a boarding school, however, all the inhabitants are dead. The dead inhabitants spend time learning magic and skills to hopefully compete in the Decennial to get the chance to become an Ascended, unlocking their full power and potential, or moving on to whatever lies beyond. However, Blackwood Academy isn't forever, if you never compete in the Decennial, you run the risk of one day forgetting who you are and becoming a husk in the ether. And for those who have no other options, there is the Demien Order, consisting of those who have exchanged their souls for shadows and incredible power, becoming a threat to Blackwood Academy.

This book follows six different characters, who are chosen to compete in the Decennial. All six have different goals, and different reasons for wanting to win the competition, and along the way, form a bond as a group. However, there can only be one winner.

This story covers a lot of bases: dark academia, magic, complicated friendships, complicated family relationships, romance, enemies to lovers, friends to lovers, morality, overcoming your past, and the list goes on and on. The format of the competition was a mix between the Triwizard Tournament and Hunger Games, and having six characters reminded me of Six of Crows. There are still a lot of questions I had by the end of the book, namely, why does this place exists, how are its occupants chosen, and why are they all seemingly young adults? I enjoyed how most of the chapters flowed from one character to the next, as the author did this in a clever way. Some plot points needed cleaning up, which is why it's not rated higher, but this was a unique fantasy and I'm curious to what will happen in the next book.

-YA fantasy
-dark academia
-magic
-romance
-enemies to lovers
-slow burn
-complex friendships
-internal turmoil
-morality
-multi-POV (6 characters)
-third person POV
-~500 pages

Spice 1/5

this scratched the Atlas Six itch in me i didn’t realize i was having. such a unique concept and i loved all six of the characters we got to meet. ending was ??? also AugustWren are soooo NicoLibby-coded, miss them bad

i think the second book will really bring this together. i was left with a lot of questions but im pretty sure that was the point!

this was SOOO good i can’t lie 😭
the premise was super interesting and the blackwood school was an enthralling setting for the book. the concept of the story is also rlly unique and it’s finally sometime outside of the norm that’s been circulating 😭🙏
the world and premise of the school?? IMMACULATE

i LOVED the characters. i don’t think there was one of them that i didn’t like. my favorites probably were august and emilio, and their chapters were always really engaging.
however the rivals to lovers with wren and august was SO good and i was genuinely geeking out whenever they would interact 😭😭

i loved this book so much i WILL be buying it when it comes out even tho i read it 😫🤞 its quickly become one of my favorites that Ive read this year 😍 5 stars all the way 🌟🌟🌟

Immortal Consequences by debut author I.V. Marie surprised me in the best way. It’s outside my usual reading lane—I tend to gravitate toward heavier romance and New Adult titles with more mature themes—but this upper YA paranormal novel delivered an impressively layered, adult-feeling story that pulled me in from the first page.

Set in the haunting purgatory academy of Blackwood, the story follows six ghostly teens vying for the sole (until it’s not) spot in a decennial competition that quickly unravels into something far darker and more complex than they ever imagined. The atmosphere is rich, the stakes are high, and nothing is as it seems. I was captivated by the eerie tension and the slow-burn unraveling of secrets.

Marie handles themes of loss, identity, and the blurred line between life and death with surprising depth, making this feel like far more than just a YA ghost story. The twists kept me guessing, and the emotional weight lingered after I turned the last page.

A compelling and immersive debut—I’m already looking forward to book two. I will be thinking about this book for a while. Huge thanks to the publisher and author for the eARC!

What an interesting and unique book! In this story, an academy sits in the middle of purgatory and six students (all with their own POVs) compete in a series of four trials to either win and ascend status or lose and be forced to eventually lose all their memories and forever reap souls. The world building was pretty easy to understand despite being lengthy and overt in the beginning stages. But once the story progressed to the trials, the plot picked up and never slowed down! And the author really surprised me as there were a lot of plot points that I didn’t see coming at all!

This book also has an incredibly rich and diverse cast of characters. The six competitors, three girls and three boys, come from a variety of backgrounds, races, relationships, personalities, etc. I didn’t really enjoy August and Wren’s relationship as it felt like a bad case of words left unsaid and believing the other hates you based on zero evidence. Emilio and Olivier, on the other hand, I positively loved! They were my favorite POVs and appeared to be the only pairing that were really friends instead of rivals.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading this book! I finished the whole thing in one day! The worst part is that I’ll have to wait so long for the second installment!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with this advanced readers copy in exchange for a fair and honest review!

Not a Fantasy reader (perhaps until now), but the premise grabbed my attention AFTER I saw the beautiful pre-order edition. Absolutely stunning with the sprayed edge. I cannot wait to display it. I am so grateful to Random House Children's and I.V. Marie for the opportunity to read this advance copy. Story follows students at an Afterlife school that each have reasons for wanting to win the once-a-decade competition. Each student is very well developed, the storyline is super interesting without being "too fantasy", the flow works, there is plenty of mystery to keep you guessing and enough action to prompt "just one more chapter".

I truly enjoyed each minute reading this book. Can't wait for future installments. Keep the beautiful collectors editions coming. I freely offer my honest opinion.

4 stars

This book took me a bit to get through but it was really enjoyable. It follows 6 different students at Blackwood Academy, a school on the edge of the afterlife where inhabitants were killed in their previous lives. Throughout the book we get to know the characters their challenges and watch them compete in trials.

The writing, world building and pacing of the book was great, the only downside is how many POVs there are and that they are written i first person. It sometimes felt like it was difficult to truly know the characters in the book.

Let's talk about this book that lives rent free in my head. It was an honest masterpiece and had me sitting on the edge of my seat.

OK WOW!!!!
So official rating I give 4.75⭐️

Absolutely phenomenal. The beginning was a little slow, but to be expected getting to know everyone and figure out what’s up. I SWEAR TO GAWD I NEED BOOK 2 immediately. I need to know what the HELL IS GOING ON WITH AUGUST. THIS MMC IS SO SPECIAL AND NEEDS TO BE PROTECTED AT ALL COST.

This book is so different bc there are so many emotional levels to it. Like things happen, betrayals occur, but nothing is malicious intent. Everyone is dealing with their own traumas and trying to survive (kind of tonic bc they are in purgatory).

WREN BABY GIRL. WHAT HAVE YOU GOTTEN YOURSELF INTO???

The only thing that irked me about this book is that everyone was too scared to own up to their own feelings and move past trauma to be real with one another. However that’s all part of the character building and kind of makes sense for the way the situation they are all in is. So more so I was frustrated but mainly bc the miscommunication trope kills my soul 😂😂 all in all, I loved this and I need more!!

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for letting me read an early copy of this in exchange for my honest review!

I was so excited to read this dark fantasy book about six student who go to Blackwood Academy which is a elite school at the edge of the afterlife where when competing in a competition to become one of the Ascended or be forced into purgatory. This story is told from the perceptive of each student and talks about their life now and before they died. It goes through what it’s like for the students on campus and how their experiments differ throughout the competition. This book was really exciting to read and ended on a huge cliffhanger! I cannot wait to read more books in this series when they come out!

Wow wow wow I crushed this book! We are being spoiled with dark academia books this year. It’s one of my favorite tropes so with the addition of rivals to lovers, high stakes trials, and slow burn romance I am all in!

From the start I was so invested! Immortal Consequences follows six students at Blackwood Academy, a school located in the afterlife (yes everyone is in fact dead), where they learn magic and how to reap souls. This was such a unique setting and the world building was beautifully done! I thought it was a refreshing and unique take to the afterlife. Especially as you get further in the book and start uncovering all the secrets of Blackwood Academy and The Demion Order!

Now I’m not usually a fan of lots of different pov’s but it worked perfectly in this book. We were able to learn and relate to all of the characters so I never felt like we were missing out on understanding the characters. For me personally there was never a pov I wasn’t looking forward to. Each character is so complex and different that I loved reading about all of them. But my favorite has to be Wren and August. Im pretty sure I highlighted almost all of their interactions. The slow burn cat and mouse game between them was amazing! I could go on and on about them but they have easily become one of my favorite book couples!

The writing and pacing was excellent! This is a very enjoyable and bingeable read. The magic system is interesting to read about and I loved the different houses the students are split into. I loved the twists and turns and after that ending I need the next book! I’m so excited to learn more about this world and its characters!

Never thought the after-life would be so wild, dangerous and cool. Such an interesting premise, keeping you engaged throughout, with bodiless magic in a fantastical world. I thought I would get tired of toggling between the several characters, but I.V. Marie did such a beautiful job developing them to be flawed, still likable, and worthy of being rooted for - every single one. I would absolutely recommend this to any YA fantasy reader and above.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children's Books for the ARC!

Some favorite words:
"Grief isn't the villain. It just wants to help you remember that despite losing someone, despite the sadness and heartache and pain... there was also once love."

I got a chance to read this before the publication date, and I really enjoyed it. It gave a fresh twist to the academia genres.
Its essentially a school for reapers, young adults who died and were chosen to help reap souls in the afterlife. They learn to use their magic to help them reap souls from the ether along with a battle royal/competition taking up 2/3rds of the book.
Its multiple perspectives and there are many twists and turns that will continually keep you guessing what will happen next.
I'm looking forward to the next in the series to see what happens.

This was a wonderful book! I loved the idea of the story from the very start, and it lived up to all my expectations. I didn’t expect it to be told from 6 different points of view, but I really liked that it was. There were a lot of characters, but it was easy to keep track of them, and so easy to want to know more about all of them. I found myself wanting the POV of a few of the other characters as well, especially once the trials started.

I loved the world the author created, and I’m excited to read more!

This book definitely exceeded my expectations. Let me just say I went into this thinking it was a standalone. HAHA was I wrong but so happy to find out it’s a duology. This is my new favorite Dark Academia / Rivals to Lovers and everyone I know is about to be sick of me recommending this to them.

An incredible magical interpretation of the afterlife. Had my eyes locked in with SIX POVS ! The author managed to have me caring for all the main characters. I love them all. This group of “unfortunate acquaintances“ all witnessed something together, are students because they each have something in common, and compete in trials against each other to be relieved of what haunts them the most.

The twists had me realization hollering ! The mystery unfolding had me questioning everything but I was too entertained to theorize I just enjoyed the ride. The ending has me NEEDING more. Incredible debut. I can’t wait for book 2 !