"A school for the dead where rival students compete to win a future."
School stories have been a popular genre ever since Blyton’s Chalet School, via Harry Potter to what is known in YA fantasy circles as Dark Academia and this is a prime example of everything that fans require.
It has rivalries, alliances, romantic relationships and a difficult challenge to win an ultimate prize, where all the main characters must compete against each other. But Blackwood Academy has a unique setting – a boarding school where all the pupils are dead! It is located on the fringes of the afterlife and students are learning magical skills to enable them to fulfil their role in guiding lost souls to The Other Side. Nobody knows how or why they ended up here, but there is no escape other than to be selected for the Decennial Challenge, which grants the winner the choice to Ascend into the elite of Blackwood or pass to The Other Side. All other students over time will gradually fade into the Ether.
The six main characters each have their own narrative, and each have their own reasons for needing to win. The story is told through the multiple points of view of each of these diverse characters, which is a difficult feat for a writer to pull off, but the reader definitely becomes engaged with all of them. The interactions between them are fascinating, with bitter rivals, a girl haunted by past love, a ruthless strategist, and a flirt with surprising depth and, of course, the always enjoyable enemies to lovers trope.
The plot is full of twists and turns and thrills. The world building is very well thought through, but we are left in anticipation of further revelations to come.
Atmospheric, mystical and gripping, this is a cracking start to a very possibly addictive new series.
