As I Descended by Robin Talley Published on September 6, 2016 by HarperCollins, HarperTeen
Genres: Paranormal, Retellings, YA
Pages: 370
Format: eBook, Kindle
Source: Amazon
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“Something wicked this way comes.”
Maria Lyon and Lily Boiten are their school’s ultimate power couple—even if no one knows it but them.
Only one thing stands between them and their perfect future: campus superstar Delilah Dufrey.
Golden child Delilah is a legend at the exclusive Acheron Academy, and the presumptive winner of the distinguished Cawdor Kingsley Prize. She runs the school, and if she chose, she could blow up Maria and Lily’s whole world with a pointed look, or a carefully placed word.
But what Delilah doesn’t know is that Lily and Maria are willing to do anything—absolutely anything—to make their dreams come true. And the first step is unseating Delilah for the Kingsley Prize. The full scholarship, awarded to Maria, will lock in her attendance at Stanford―and four more years in a shared dorm room with Lily.
Maria and Lily will stop at nothing to ensure their victory—including harnessing the dark power long rumored to be present on the former plantation that houses their school.
But when feuds turn to fatalities, and madness begins to blur the distinction between what’s real and what is imagined, the girls must decide where they draw the line.
The Good, The Bad, and The GIF
The Good: Macbeth is my favorite Shakespeare play, so I was really hyped for a modern femslash retelling and As I Descended did not disappoint! I really enjoyed guessing who all the characters were based on as I was reading (I had sparknotes open to Macbeth so I could keep checking), and then guessing who was going to live and who was going to die. I was almost entirely wrong, but that just made it even better! The relationships in this book were well developed, and I liked that it focused as much on the friendships as it did the relationships. The Bad: I think it may have been trying to do too much. The characters were great, the plot was great, the setting was fantastic (I mean, it was a Robin Talley book, so how could it not be), but even though everything was great, it was all …. shallow? I’m not sure if that’s quite the right word, but I just really felt like there could have been more emphasis on certain things and less on others. Then again, I’m trying to come up with specifics and I can’t think of any, so… The GIF:
Judging a Book by its Cover
This cover is gorgeous. The gradient colors, the font, the tagline, the southern moss (I realize this has a real name, but I don’t know what it is and I don’t feel like looking it up) in the silhouette- everything about this cover is perfect. I wish whoever designed it designed like 79% of book covers. 10/10 stars.Read Alikes
For more Shakespearean retellings, read Lady Macbeth’s Daughter by Lisa Klein For more girls in secret relationships, read Georgia Peaches and Other Forbidden Fruit by Jaye Robin Brown For more atmospheric creepiness, read The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Kiersten White (review coming next week!)Let’s Discuss
What’s your favorite fall book? I tend to go with thrillers and witchy fantasy during these months, but maybe you do something different. Tell me in the comments!
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
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