Violet Constantino is a scholarship student at Dark Cove Arts Academy. Due to a panic attack on stage last year during the school play, Violet’s scholarship and place at the school are on thin ice. Determined to stay at the school, Violet plans to make friends, keep her head down, and make it through the year. The school seems to have other plans when a guest professor comes to direct the play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Cast in the play, Violet is a reluctant player. Worse, her ex-crush and the beautiful Frankie Lin are cast as love interests. Drawn to the Dark Cove Theatre Society, Violet decides to join. She learns of a rumor of a theatre curse that a female will leave the island forever before opening night. Determined to break the curse she wants figure out how to stop someone from leaving before opening night. Will she succeed? Will Violet make it through the school year?

The plot is engaging, mysterious, and draws the reader into the story. The characters are likable, engaging, and authentic. The world building is engaging and draws the reader into Violet’s world. Readers who like realistic fiction, mystery, and boarding school fiction will want to pick this one up. Recommended for most library collections. Gr 8 to 12, 5 stars.

Violet Constantino is starting a new year at her Island private school. After her panic attack on stage last year, her scholarship and place at the school is on thin ice. This year, she is determined to have a better year, make friends, and make it through the year. The school seems to have other plans. Violet is cast by the guest professor in the Halloween play, Midsummer Night’s Dream. Her ex-crush and the talented Frankie Lin are cast as love interests. Drawn to the Dark Cove Theatre Society, Violet learns there is a curse that a female will leave the island forever before the opening night of the play. It’s up to the society to break the curse before it’s too late. Will Violet find a way to keep her scholarship and stay and the school? Will she make new friends? Will the society find a way to break the curse?

The plot is intriguing, mysterious, and well written. The characters are well rounded, relatable, and draw the readers into the story. Readers who like supernatural fiction, mysteries, and boarding school novels will want to pick this one up. Recommended for most library collections.

I really enjoyed this book. I liked the footnotes and the references to classic literature. I also appreciated the queer and mental health representation. The characters showed growth throughout. I would have appreciated higher stakes, but that is just a personal preference.

4,5 ⭐️
What a fun read! Gotta be honest I wanted to read it because of the beautiful cover but wow the inside is even better
The descriptions of the school and the environment are very rich and detailed, which makes it very easy to imagine where everything is happening.
The characters were very lovable and well constructed (love love love Kay <3)
I really enjoyed this book but it was a bit difficult to read format wise, it has a lot of footnotes and annotations which add a lot of information to the story but it makes a bit hard to read, at least as an epub
Overall I can’t wait to see the finish product in October (perfect montj to publish it btw) and re read it

I did not know what I was getting in to with this book. I applied for the arc specifically because the cover was beautiful and I was blown away.
The story was captivating, the characters were loveable, the mood teetered just on the edge of sad and anxious without completely falling into a pit of despair.
I adored everything about this book. I wish that I could erase this from my memory and read it again for the first time.

I really enjoyed this book! As a lover of theatre, the supernatural, and YA novels, this was right up my alley. Violet and her best friend Kay are returning second year students to the elusive and exclusive Dark Cove Arts Academy. After having a public panic attack last year, Violet is feeling immense pressure from herself and the faculty to prove herself worthy. Outside of academic pressure, there is also pressure within the theatre department and their revered Dark Cove Theatre Society. Surprising herself, Violet gets cast in the Halloween play and, therefore, is admitted to the society. Throughout the school year, Violet and her new found acquaintances-turned-friends face trials on and off the stage.

This is a fun coming of age story with emphasis on friendship and community. I loved the multi-media aspect of this book, but I did find the footnotes unnecessary at times. I also with there was more Kay!! They were such a highlight of the story.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me this ARC.

I will say. I was highly intrigued by this book. I do really enjoy the YA high school exclusive society stories. I was also excited to see that it was a queer story! This was rightfully said to be like that. However, it just did not really hit that spot for me.

I felt that the stakes for this exclusive society and its secrets were not as thrilling or mysterious as they are in some other novels. I didn't really get invested in the main character and what happened to her in the book. There was also not anything really new added to this trope/genre that I hadn't seen before. Getting caught up in the beauty and mystery of these societies is really nothing new.

Another problem, for me, was the semi-love triangle that Violet, our main character, had with Frankie and Hunter. I am not that interested in those types of stories. It's usually a trope I am not a fan of, and I wasn't really here. I did like how it ended with Frankie and Violet being the ones together, because yay sapphic love, but we could have done without Hunter being such a focus.

Thank you again!

4.25⭐️I have so many thoughts running through my head with this one. I’ll start off by saying that I liked this book a lot. I think that the intended YA audience, particularly theatre kids will eat it up once polished and published. On the other hand this was the most difficult ARC I have read due to the formatting and it’s clear that it will sit go through a bunch of changes.

I only mention that because by the time it comes out in the fall of 2025, it may be a very different book. So what does that mean? I am going to definitely read it again once it is published and will amend my review as it has the potential to be a 5⭐️ for me. But until then…

This book combined so many of my favorite tropes and genres all wrapped into one. It is a YA, dark academia, curse filled, queer friendly, babble sapphic crush with good representation all rolled into one. It’s also uniquely written as each page has footnotes to enrich the reading experience. I can’t wait to see how the final product turns out.

I think this book is a great gateway into dark academia for younger YA readers and it is appropriate for middle grade as well. The author does very well with composing the imagery of the environment the school is placed in. You could easily picture what everything looks like as the descriptions were rich and detailed. I love that this book is coming out in October as it is the perfect spooky season read. Also, I am a sucker for crows and I loved their presence throughout the work. My biggest criticism is actually that I felt the crow symbolism was never resolved.

I am thankful to have gotten a complimentary eARC from Annick Press through NetGalley to read which gave me the opportunity to voluntarily leave a review.

My rating system since GoodReads doesn’t have partial stars

⭐️ Hated it
⭐️⭐️ Had a lot of trouble, prose issues, really not my cup of tea (potentially DNF’d or thought about it)
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Meh, it was an ok read but nothing special
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Really enjoyed it! Would recommend to others
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Outstanding! Will circle back and read again

4 stars - YA

Violet Constantine is beginning her second of three years at the famous Dark Cove Arts Academy and she’s already behind. She had a meltdown down during her monologue that was a large part of her grade in her very important introductory acting course and was humiliated in front of students and staff. Her grade point average has dropped so that now she only receives as partial scholarship and she must do work study to make up the rest and the faculty has encoura-forced her to leave acting behind, so she’s changed her focus to playwriting.

Then, however, as a surprise to everyone, a guest director casts her in one of the lead roles in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” along with Frankie Lim, the school’s star and Hunter, her crush. As a result she also becomes a part of the school’s most important club, the Dark Cove Theatre Society. There’s a rumor of a Society curse - one star of the play always drops out just before the show starts and the President of the Society, Magpie, one of Frankie’s best friends believes it will be Vi.

This was a very nicely done YA book. It included some mixed media in the form of newspaper clippings and the like which are always fun, in fact I wish there had been more of that. I wish the other departments of the school had been a little better represented, I found it a bit hard to believe that the theatre department would rule all at such a well known school, but maybe a YA wouldn’t notice that. It was nice to see Violet find her way (along with Kay, the best friend ever.)

Really fabulous story. Excellent characters, setting is perfect. It kept me reading and wondering and wanting more. Truly enjoyable. I would absolutely read another one!

Thank you NetGalley for this arc.
I love to read anything that has to do with a school setting. read this in one sitting.