All the Devils by Catelyn Wilson: Secret Societies, Occult Happenings and Dark Academia

🖤🥀 All the Devils 🥀🖤

• Catelyn Wilson

⭐️⭐️.5

This had SO much promise. It’s everything I love in a book – dark academia, secret societies, an integral mystery at the heart of the story. The opening scene is explosive. We see Andromeda ‘Andy’ Emerson, standing over her elder sister Violet’s open coffin, when she notices something amiss. A matching tattoo, one that the two sisters got together, is missing from Violet’s body.

Six months later, Andy enrols in the prestigious school that Violet was attending when she died, setting out to avenge her sister’s death or disappearance. She quickly discovers that Violet’s former group of friends, all members of an exclusive club, are up to their eyes in dangerous occult.

I LOVED the premise of this. Mysterious deaths, academy setting, teenage investigator – it had everything. Unfortunately, the execution didn’t quite hit for me. The plot was too complicated for me to completely follow. The author attempts to blend all types of mythology and cultural lore in the underworld, and this results in quite a baffling mixture of conflicting legends.

Additionally, I found it difficult to root for Andy. I just… wasn’t too invested. Overall, despite this being a genre I love and usually devour, this one didn’t quite hit for me. Instead, I’d recommend other dark academia thrillers – such as The Society of Soulless Girls by Laura Steven or A Dark Inheritance by H.F. Askwith, both of which are truly excellent!

Do you enjoy dark academia thrillers? Leave all your recs in the comments!