Review by Booklist Review
Best friends Jo, Saz, Caroline, Finch, and Amrita are painting students at a tiny, prestigious art college. They--and the other seniors--are all feeling the pressure to produce extraordinary work, hoping to win the year's career-launching solo exhibition. So when one of them suggests performing a ritual that will benefit the five of them, hexing an ignominious professor in the process, they give it a try. Afterwards, they all enjoy a creative surge, but that energy slowly curdles. Their paintings get darker and stranger, relationships among them turn waspish and cruel, and Jo stops sleeping, plagued by visions. Another step is called for, but it may take more than the girls have to give. Pearson's lush prose enlivens this creepy tale of friendship, art, and ambition. Recommend to readers who enjoyed Elizabeth Hand's Wydling Hall (2015), Mona Awad's Bunny (2019), or Lee Mandelo's Summer Sons (2021). The relatively light supernatural content also makes it a good choice for fans of novels featuring insular college-friend groups, like Donna Tartt's The Secret History or Tana French's The Likeness (2008).
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In this lush and propulsive gothic outing, Pearson (We Ate the Dark) takes the dark academia aesthetic to art school. At the tiny Indiana college of Rotham, five queer female painters--Jo, Caroline, Finch, Saz, and Amrita, who are also roommates and best friends--vie for a much-coveted solo exhibition, awarded to only one lucky student per year. To produce something worthy, all must reach deeper inside themselves than ever before--and they're hitting their limits. Then Saz finds a mysterious book containing a ritual that promises to fulfill their wildest dreams--if they're willing to curse someone else with all the misfortune they will no longer experience. It's not a hard decision: they decide to target the creepy professor who has been sexually harassing Caroline. The ritual works, and soon all five women are producing the best work of their lives. But then Jo starts being haunted by a strange, gruesome figure that cries out for help. As the consequences of achieving their dreams are revealed to be more horrifying than the friends ever imagined, the formerly unbreakable bond between them fractures. Vivid descriptions, believable emotional stakes, and deeply creepy horror elements keep the pages flying as Pearson probes the experience of queer womanhood and the toll of ambition. This stuns. (Jan.)
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