The dark academia and gothic feel of Oxford in the mid-1800s were just right as Autumn begins to set in. A contender for lots of people's book of the year.
The dark academia and gothic feel of Oxford in the mid-1800s were just right as Autumn begins to set in. You'll settle into Oxford quickly: the work ethic, the cliques and the other students' lives develop much further into the soup of geopolitics, race, colonialism and covert operations.
At times the book can be hard to read in its nature and the topics it's tackling, the story is of a world which trying to grow and move on, facing a power focusing its efforts on maintaining the status quo. Things begin with a nicely paced slow burn, before fully catching fire around midway, from then on you should write off any plans you had to go elsewhere.
Robin is a superb lead in the story, seeing how his mind and world views develop as he experiences the world around him and culture clashes with those who've lived their lives inside the halls of Oxford. Robin comes to England with nothing, a story that does coming-of-age and explores what relationships mean in a competitive environment.
Exploring a story involving fighting against challenges of gender and race needs to be done with a level of detail which makes it understandable to those who haven't had that experience to anchor to in their lives. I felt like this was done really well and was able to give a look into what this looked like for the characters, but I'm sure also lots of others who will feel a shared experience in the book.