cherie ^_-★ (semi-ia + comment restriction)'s Reviews > Nocticadia

4.5 stars ⭐️
⤷ spoiler-free review!! ⋆౨ৎ˚⟡˖ ࣪

omg this book was SO. FREAKING. GOOD. I LOVE DARK ACADEMIA AND GOTHIC ROMANCE (this is definitely my alter ego speaking), AND THIS BOOK DELIVERED. i’ve never read anything quite like it, and i kid you not, i was completely hooked from the very first chapter.

that said, i didn’t rate it 5 stars for a few reasons:
1. chapter 25-28 made me kinda uncomfortable and gave me second-hand embarrassment 🤦🏻‍♀️😭
2. the author seemed to lose focus on the plot at one point because lilia and devryck could not stop smashing each other.
3. the last 20% of the book felt underwhelming. while the author masterfully established a slow, suspenseful, and deeply eerie atmosphere along with an intriguing plot, the conclusion felt rushed due to the rapid-fire revelations, leaving me unsatisfied. on top of that, the last chapter and epilogue felt so unnecessary, and i was left with so many unanswered questions.

ᡣ𐭩.ᐟ lilia
lilia is strong and independent, i’ll give her that, but she’s certainly not the wisest 😭

ᡣ𐭩.ᐟ devryck
devryck is hot and all, but i didn’t really swoon over him 👀 i’m sorry but he’s nothing like orion, and no other professor can compare to my man lance. i loved how he shared his backstory as if it were story time though.

ᡣ𐭩.ᐟ lilia and devryck
the tension and slow burn were executed really well, but i honestly couldn’t feel their connection beyond their constant lust for each other. i picked this book up hoping for a good ‘professor x student’ romance, but the plot was so captivating that i ended up not caring much about the romance 🫢

“I both hated and craved the addicting way he’d hooked himself into my veins and fed me with this unbridled and reckless desire. It went against everything I was. Everything I believed. And yet, it was everything.”

“She was the warmth of the sun on a cold and rotting corpse. The first breath after a lifetime of death.”

“After I lost my mother, and Bee went off to school, I kind of spiraled into myself and learned how to find solace in loneliness. It became my home. The only place I felt safe. Then I came here. And I met you. And I learned that loneliness was a choice for me. This place is more than just a school to me. I suppose I could’ve kept to myself, as I always have, and remained another forgettable face in the crowd. And maybe Gilchrist wouldn’t have bothered. Or maybe she would’ve and I’d have just gone back to my old, lonely life, and had all the answers I’ve yearned for. Answers that don’t really matter anymore. The decision was made the moment I met you, though. To stay here. I choose you.”
“I choose you. And believe me when I say, you’re hard to forget, Miss Vespertine.”

“You don’t have to be scared. I will never hurt you, Lilia. In fact, I’ll rain hell on anyone who ever hurts you again.”

“Don’t hide from me, Lilia. You are no less beautiful than that day you walked into my classroom and stole my fucking breath.”

“I have lived a lifetime in death—a cold existence in an endless void. Never feeling. Never knowing the warmth of touch. Every unfulfilling breath a suffocating reminder of how hollow I’d become. It wasn’t until you came along and cast the first ray of light that I felt a pulse of life. A pull that I couldn’t resist. Don’t ever hesitate to touch me, Lilia. You’re the only one who can. It was you who dragged my heart from this insensate slumber. And it’s you for whom it beats for now.”

“I hadn’t come to Dracadia with any notion of falling in love with my professor, or Death, as some had referred to him. Perhaps that was the nature of the world, to take so cruelly, then swoop in and blindside us when we least expected it. There was an implicit truth in the dead teaching the living, though. It was my mother, my refusal to accept her death, to accept what the world had taken from me, that had brought me to Dracadia in the first place. And it was there that I’d faced death head-on. So smitten, I fell in love with him—his abrasive heart and blood-stained hands. The dangerous and erudite professor, with fiery eyes and cold steel flesh. We hid away in shadows, stealing kisses under midnight stars. He taught me passion and courage, and to seize what I wanted by the teeth. And in return, I taught him to feel again.”

overall, i ate this book up, and i had a great time reading and discussing it with kendall. i love how our thoughts and opinions perfectly aligned 🤭


pre-read 💀🦋:

‘professor x student’ is my new favourite trope and i miss bluelance sm but can’t read book 4 of ZA yet so i’m hoping this one will make up for it 😭🤞🏻

update: impromptu br with kendall because she's currently reading it too 🖤