by Victoria Lee
Felicity Marrow is returning to school after the death of her girlfriend. Dalloway has a dark past steeped in witchcraft that resulted in the death of five young girls in the 1700s. Felicity must cut her ties with the magic of the Dalloway Five. But it’s easier said than done when everything is the same. Everything, except for Ellis Haley. And there’s no way that eccentric and magnetic Ellis will cast her light on Felicity. Let’s find out!
Read if you like: dark academic; witchy vibes; boarding schools; those rich, smart girls; mystery; historical mystery; thrillers; LGBTQ; a wee bit of romance; discussion of mental health; and girls who needed better families…
After the tragic death of Alex, Felicity was urged to finish high school at a different location. But even without Alex, her heart is at Dalloway, and Godwin house. It’s a special place carved out for those literary girls who excel in all things written and it was the place Felicity loved most. But her return has been hard, and her depression worse. Felicity struggles to stay in touch with reality but with the appearance of Ellis Haley, her reality quickly becomes reformed. Ellis is a writer. Shockingly accomplished before her 18th birthday. She’s also quite cold, formally dressed, and completely eclipsing of anyone else in the room. Felicity hates her… but she can’t help but want to draw near. This new Dalloway five decide to look into the history of the murders that happened at or near their campus housing. But what Felicity discovers may be far more chilling… if the magic doesn’t pull her under first.
This book was… interesting. I liked the setting. I liked the history. I liked the mystery. I liked knowing that there was going to be a big twist that would drop my stomach to my toes. I didn’t love the girls. Or rather how they were allowed to do basically whatever they wanted.
I understand that we’re at a fancy boarding schools for wealthy and pretentious girls. But my God, I wanted to smack most of them at the same time asking, “Who is watching you?!” We have a girl with psychotic depression and PTSD and who is checking in with her?! Mainly four of her peers who don’t even like her. The students get in to all sorts of shenanigans that you would expect on a college campus… but they’re high school girls. And yeah, I also get that the staff would be nervous to anger their benefactors but STILL! And because of this manufactured maturity they are all so dang academically purist and pretentious that I can’t take them seriously. I found myself shaking my head so many times.
They all need therapy and lots of hugs or affection in whatever love language they prefer.
But when you get to the witchy, thriller plot its pretty fun and spooky. I think the ending is happy… but its possibly the opposite? I can’t tell. I’m giving this 3.5 stars because I definitely wanted to finish it but it was one story that I was ok with laying to the side for moments I could spend with the girls and their academia nonsense.
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