Thanks to Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

DNF'd at 10%

I am truly sorry I could not finish this, but I refuse to feel like I am suffering. I wanted to support this indie author, but I didn't like this. Granted, there could be an improvement to my criticisms if I kept going, so take this DNF review with a grain of salt.

I did not understand Veaer's obsession with Elise. I don't get the appeal. Nothing about her obsession was interesting enough to continue further and find out. I was easily bored. Also, I am not sure if I needed to read Li's debut novel, Tell Me How It Ends, before this because I did not understand the world at all. I think I came across one of the author's Instagram posts saying something about this book was set in the same world as their debut novel. There was not enough explanation for a reader who had never read the debut novel to understand the world.

Unfortunately, this was a big miss for me. Might check it out again when I read their debut.

Chrysalis and Requiem by Quinton Li follows Veaer, a scholarship student at a prestigious boarding college who is planning on breezing through her last year to secure her place at a good university. While following the schools resident "princess" after hours, Veaer witnesses a horrific murder and is thrown into a mystery of angels, rituals and power. It is described as a dark academia, new adult thriller and while I want to love everything this book has to offer, I really had to force myself through the majority of the text.

The criteria this book meets to be considered dark academia is essentially "bad stuff happens on school grounds" with some additional class divide mentioned in pieces throughout. I have very little idea what the world even looks like beyond the school, with magic broadly explained over a few sentences early on, the world building leaves little to be desired.

I can appreciate the authors inclusivity of queer representation, of which identities don't feel forced or "tokenised", but the characters lack development to have let me form any kind of attachment to them. There are some really lovely bits of purple prose throughout the book, but no effort to connect the characters to the actions or feelings playing out on paper. Even as the action picked up in the last 20%, I really could not tell you why anyone was involved or even how it was explained within the books fictional universe. I have no understanding of why our main character has such an obsession with our love interest, nor do I particularly like the characters. Veaer's almost stalking felt more like a plot device to start the story and to keep our MC in places and situations that make no sense whatsoever.

While the premise and how angels were utilised in the narrative was so interesting, I just would have loved to see our love interests fall for each other over the course of the mystery, as opposed to what felt like empty declarations and an obsessive MC.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC I received of Chrysalis and Requiem in exchange for an review.

1.0 star.

Thank you to Victory Editing NetGalley CO-OP for providing me with this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

This one really hurt. I was so stoked to hear about this book and its premise. Unfortunately, it was just so hard to get through. The writing was hard to follow, even after picking it up multiple times. I truly didn't care about the characters. I just ended up annoyed and wasted time.

Chrysalis & Requiem || Quinton Li
★★★★★
TW: ALCOHOL & DRUG USE, DEATH, ABUSE (EMOTIONAL & PHYSICAL), VIOLENCE & GORE, DEATH (MURDER), TRAUMATIC EVENTS, SELF-HARM & SUICIDAL IDEATION

Good News: We are starting off the year with a 5 star read!
Bad News: I am going to be sick

I'm trying so hard to explain the absolute roller coaster that this book took me on, but I don't think I can. I think the closest imma get is:

[on my website, there is an image of discord messages here. I will type what they say]
i'm trying to gather my thoughts for a review right now and i just
my thoughts are
beginning: teeheehee funny murder mystery with MATH? rood
middle: oh oh OH I FUCKING KNEW IT
end: [these are emojis] :bigscream: :horrifiedscream: :sickwtf:

I guess, I should start from the beginning. This is an ARC!! I am on Quinn's ARC team (and hopefully eventually street team if I can spare the time) and I got this review copy in exchange for an honest review!

Because the book doesn't release until March, I will be keeping this spoiler free. Sad for me, as you guys know I love giving the full run down on the book.

When I started this book, I was a wee small child (i started it yesterday). I didn't know what the universe would hold for me, I didn't know the emotional turmoil I would be put through.

The beginning was a bit hard to get into, as most books are for me these days. I'm incredibly sick at the moment and I just graduated from college last month, any story where I have to learn new things is hard. And you do have to learn new things for this book, I mean it is a fantasy novel.

But once I hit like 20% I was hooked. I stopped reading for the night at 24% and thought that I would be able to meter out my consumption (wrong) only to wake up this morning and blast all the way through to the end.

I am a huge murder mystery person, and when I started this book I thought that might be a detriment. But I can assure you, it isn't. You think that because you saw the murder that you know what's going on. You don't. At all.

I had my theories, about halfway through I had my theories. The group chat will probably never forgive me for reciting the "I've connected two dots" scene from Unsolved but I mean, I'm not the only person reading the book in that chat so I couldn't tell them what my theory actually was because they aren't to that point yet!

Then I hit 60%. And I really started to struggle. This is my fault, the content warnings at the beginning of the book say "This book contains references and themes to alcohol/drug use" and I guess I just didn't realize that meant we would see the POV character being out of her mind drunk for an extended period of time. As someone who really struggles to be around alcohol due to my past, this was nearly enough for me to put the book down. But I'm glad I didn't

Because then, at 72% in:

[more mesages]
72%
1. my theory was right
2. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
3. I FUCKING KNEW IT
4. my theory was at least partially right

And again, not too long after:

[and more messages]
:bigscream:
:horrifiedscream:
i'm tired of this [redacted]
andi SCREM — Today at 6:16 PM
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAa
THE SECOND HALF OF MY THEORY WAS RIGHT

Until finally:

[more discord messages]
omg this book is gonna make me sick (/pos)
i'm so upset right now
i'm crying
(91%)

And honestly, I don't think I can explain anything better than this. I highly recommend this book for y'all, but
please please please be mindful of the content warnings. Actually, imma put them here too

This book contains references and themes to alcohol/drug use, blood, confrontation to abuse, death, emotional abuse, escalating violence, gaslighting/manipulation, gore, lifechanging injury, murder, corpses, visions about traumatic events, panic attacks, paranormal/occult content, self-harm, sexual references, suicide ideation, and trauma.

now for the part some of you are waiting for: some of my favorite quotes!

- Thorns falling away, petals outstretched, bleeding red onto white roses—revelation would be hers and hers only.
- We leave behind love when we die.
- Beautiful, beautiful, so beautiful. They would be beautiful together.
- Girls like you have secrets. I'm going to peel you apart and reveal every part of you. I will consume you.
- To create is to be alive.

and then this one, an epigraph for part four of the book:

Everything is more beautiful because we are doomed. You will never be lovelier than you are now. We will never be here again.
— Homer, The Iliad

Y'all know I'm a sucker for a good Iliad reference and this one. This one wrecked me. I sure wrote a lot for someone at a loss of words, so I'm going to end this here and go curl in a ball and cry and try not to throw up. I am sick and this book is to blame.

Thank you Quinn, truly. I'm so fucking disgusted I love this book so much

(3.5 stars, rounded up)

This book was such an interesting experience. I honestly don’t know how to describe it very well, but I’ll try and start with the good things.

The writing style of this book was so detailed and intricate, and at times it was incredibly gorgeous and poetic. Mostly, I loved it. Sometimes, however, it was a bit much. It got very hard to understand what was actually happening at some points in the story, and I found myself skimming quite a bit. The second half was definitely easier to read and understand than the first half.

Also, the characters’ personalities were… interesting? I really couldn’t get behind Veaer at all. She was so obsessed with Elise that it got annoying. Elise, on the other hand, was pretty well written, especially closer to the end of the book. Adair and Haiwrin were wonderful. Adair’s story might have been my favorite of all.


So overall, I did really enjoy this book. The angelic metaphor for transness was so so beautiful and almost made me cry. Mostly, it was just a beautiful experience to read this book. Sometimes, I felt like it was trying a bit too hard. But I can imagine it’s hard to find that perfect balance. I would recommend this book (with some clarifications of what to expect) but I doubt I’d read it again.

Thank you NetGalley for letting me read this book.
I really liked it, it was my first lgbtq Romance and it will definitely not be my last.
I was constantly thinking what will happen next but every time, i was surprised.
Really good story and great characters.
I can really recommend it.


Review will be posted on Amazon as soon as its released

This book truly captivates the reader with its gothic themes, murder lesbians and the whimsy of the story.
I will say this book wasn’t a perfect five stars due to us as the readers not having an background on the magic system or why half of the things one character does (once you read the book you will understand). I am excited to read more from this author.

Thanks to NetGalley and Victory Editing for providing the ARC of this book.
Overall, this book had a vision, and the premise truly would have made for an interesting character study. The world had potential and things could have been super interesting. As it stands, the book was undirected, the message unclear, and the second half of the book (the part with the angels and the cult) read more like a drug-induced hallucination than anything else. It read very much like someone trying to write a lofty, "intellectual" book but failing. The characters were reprehensible, there were often references to things like "an evening ritual" that were not explained, most of my notes are just me going "huh" or "what" or "why" and the magic system was vague (the only thing I get is that it had something to do with auras).
Thankfully, after the halfway mark it does become more readable, and so I did actually manage to finish it, but I definitely found myself skimming.
However, the queer representation in this book was mostly decent, so that was a positive.

3.75 stars

this feels so different and weird to anything ive read before, and i loved it from the characters the crazy ass culty storyline and the twisted lesbianism of it all. now you couldn't pay me to explain what happened in the first 10% of this book as i genuinely have no idea but once they were over the story and plot pick up to give you a breathtaking light academia (imo) with murder, conflicting feelings, a main character obsessed with beauty and the princess who's the epitome of that beauty that is blinded by needing to be loved and to feel enough that she goes to extremes. some moments had me holding my breath, the romance was chef's kiss, i love me toxic twisted lesbians!!

one thing about me is that im a whore for religious imagery so i was eating all of it up and am all around so glad i got the arc for this book

"Grief shows us our love left behind. And sometimes we won't want to let go, because our grief is proof that this person was in our life and mattered then and matters now."

2.5 rounded up to a 3.

Conceptually, Chrysalis and Requiem is very Youngblood meets Seven Faceless Saints meets Jennifer's Body: a queer, dark academia story in a fantasy world with religious cults and women obsessed with each other to the point of murder. Conceptually, Chrysalis and Requiem had so much potential, and in reading it, you can see exactly the places where this could've been an amazing book.

Unfortunately, where this fell short was in the actual execution: the writing, the characters, the plot, everything in between the grand and wonderful ideas that sparked Chrysalis and Requiem. At every turn that I found something I loved about Chrysalis and Requiem, there was something that absolutely ruined it. I think one of the biggest instances of this for me was that, in the first part, there's a shifting timeline which could've been utilized so differently. You start in Year 3, having no idea what's happening, and then go back to Year 1, hoping to get that back and forth of "this is where we started, and this is where we are." But there's maybe... three, four scenes of Year 1 in this book total, and none of them actually add anything to this book. They're pointless and poorly utilized, and honestly, if Li had kept more of that shifting timeline throughout Chrysalis and Requiem, it would've made this book so much better.

The other thing about Chrysalis and Requiem is that it takes place in a fantasy world, where there are different species and types of magic - and yet, that is talked about so little in this story that the random reminders of it feel out of place. This could've taken place in a normal college in our world, and it wouldn't have made a difference. The magic in Chrysalis and Requiem is so incidental, and it was like the author could neither commit to making this a fantasy book or straight fiction. On top of that, you have the religious cult at the centre of this book, which only makes no sense, but also isn't explained. Is the religion they're serving real? Maybe? No? What's the background? Why are there angels? What's the lore of this universe? Couldn't tell you.

But really, the crux of this book - and I think the major driving force behind Li writing it - is Veaer and Elise's relationship. Obsessive WLW romance? Absolutely, 10/10, sign me up. I love unhinged and possessive queer relationships. But that's not what Li gave us. Instead, it's made completely plain and clear throughout the entire book that Veaer's interest in Elise is completely one-sided, and the big plot twist at the end is just that. Were we supposed to think that Veaer and Elise loved each other equally? For most of this book, it reads like Elise forgets Veaer even exists, let alone tolerates her.

I think part of that is owed to the fact that there isn't a single solidly fleshed-out character in Chrysalis and Requiem, and that includes our main characters. For all of the internal monologue we hear from Veaer, we know so little about her, and even though part of her backstory is supposed to be a big bomb drop, it's just a completely random piece of lore that isn't even brought up until halfway through the book. The rest of the characters seem to do extreme things without any sort of motivation, and in a lot of places, their characterizations are just unrealistic: being called into the headmaster's office to be disciplined by both him and his son, who is also a fellow student of yours? Yeah, that makes zero sense. Every character is just so pigeonholed into a role and a type in this book that they read more like a list of character tropes than real people.

For all of this, though, there are so many parts in Chrysalis and Requiem that were really, really good. My favourite character is Tychon, without a doubt: having his ghost lingering throughout the book is very Shakespearian, and the visions Veaer has of him are so beautifully described. They're absolutely the best parts of the book, and they lend so much not only to the plot, but to Veaer's character. Along with that, Li's descriptions of the trans body as heavenly creation were absolutely beautiful, and left me a little speechless. There are a lot of banger lines in Chrysalis and Requiem, and really, I think Li would make an excellent poet.

Unfortunately, those really amazing parts aren't enough to make up for the rest of this book. Chrysalis and Requiem reads more as a first draft rather than a finished product, and I think with some rearranging and fleshing-out, this book could truly be something spectacular. As it is, however, it's just alright.

Thanks to Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op Netgalley for providing this ARC, in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed the uniqueness of the overall concept, described by the author as "obsessive murder lesbians on a Gothic campus" - this had a magical, ethereal twist however with a cult-like secret society element to it. I picked this up because of the biblically accurate angels and I definitely enjoyed this being incorporated. The LGBTQIA+ and autistic representation was also a plus.

---

I found that most characters (apart from the twins) were not likeable and this was difficult at times. Almost none of them appeared mentally stable...though I suppose what can you expect when you're a teenager, especially with the murder of a classmate.

As a queer and autistic reader I found that I could relate to the characters in some aspects. Though something that confused me was the creepily obsessive nature of Veaer and Elise's relationship - how had Veaer become quite so obsessed with her?

The writing format became irregular at times (dream sequence with butterfly metaphor and "debate scene"), which felt jarring for a first time reader. I see what the intended purpose of this was, but this fell short for me.

While I did finish this, once I got to 3/4 of the way through it felt like it started to fall apart and only become more confusing and convoluted. I see the potential though!

Thanks to Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op Netgalley for providing this ARC, in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed the uniqueness of the overall concept, described by the author as "obsessive murder lesbians on a Gothic campus" - this had a magical, ethereal twist however with a cult-like secret society element to it. I picked this up because of the biblically accurate angels and I definitely enjoyed this being incorporated. The LGBTQIA+ and autistic representation was also a plus.

---

I found that most characters (apart from the twins) were not likeable and this was difficult at times. Almost none of them appeared mentally stable...though I suppose what can you expect when you're a teenager, especially with the murder of a classmate.

As a queer and autistic reader I found that I could relate to the characters in some aspects. Though something that confused me was the creepily obsessive nature of Veaer and Elise's relationship - how had Veaer become quite so obsessed with her?

The writing format became irregular at times (dream sequence with butterfly metaphor and "debate scene"), which felt jarring for a first time reader. I see what the intended purpose of this was, but this fell short for me.

While I did finish this, once I got to 3/4 of the way through it felt like it started to fall apart and only become more confusing and convoluted. I see the potential though!

I really thought I would like this a lot more than I did. The premise sounded super interesting, but the book fell flat for me. Chrysalis & Requiem has a dark academia setting, is mysterious and has great LGBTQIA+ representation, but I felt the execution was lacking. It was confusing and very hard to get through. I also had a lot of trouble connecting to the characters, and therefore I struggled to be engaged with the story.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to net galley for the ARC.

The concept was so good- dark academia, secret societies and murder! The descriptions of the academy and scenery were great at setting the atmosphere and was easy to visualise. I also like how it dealt with grief.

Unfortunately, the magic system, religion and caemi/senti wasn’t described enough so when it was mentioned it was confusing. Over all the writing style was confusing to me, a lot of the time I didn’t understand what was happening. The flashback chapters didn’t add too much to the plot either.

I really wanted to like this book more as it has great queer representation and I loved the concept of angels in the story.

Huge thanks to NetGalley for the e-ARC.

I wanted to love this book so badly. Dark academia with obsession and queer characters? God, it’s everything I’ve ever wanted! Unfortunately it just fell flat, which sucks because it so much potential to be a new favourite.

The worldbuilding was pretty nonexistent, but the school was described in great detail. Things such as the magic are barely explained, only mentioned in passing, and waved away in favour of aesthetics. Veaer had the abilities of a wolf but without any of the physical attributes — oh yeah, apart from the ‘brilliantly coloured hair’ and dog ears and a tail, that are conveniently hidden with magic because….the school doesn’t like how they look? Hm. Okay. On top of that, the two “races”? Species? Aren’t explained at all. There’s sentikind and caemi, with one being animal hybrids and the other being God-knows-what.
The inconsistent pacing extended to the writing style as a whole, with many instances of flowery, over the top melancholic language and an equal amount of blunt narrative. It was jarring, to be honest.
I don’t usually criticise names, especially in fantasy books, but in this one it’s just too much. Veaer? Seriously? You gonna tell me how to pronounce that or am I going to have to call her Vi for the entire book. Every name from characters to species is plucked from fake-Latin or a random name generator. There’s a quote at the start of Part IV that claims to be from the Iliad. It starts with ‘Everything is more beautiful because we are doomed’ and it sounds perfect, yes, but it’s not from The Iliad. It’s from the movie Troy, spoken by Brad Pitt as Achilles. It’s just another moment where the book tries to sound pretentious and lean into the dark academia theme, but it fails so laughably.

Veaer is a protagonist I couldn’t root for from the start, when she breaks into her love interest’s room and does….absolutely nothing? Elise isn’t even scared or surprised. How much of a creepy stalker is Veaer for Elise to barely care? The scene is never really mentioned again, which sucks because I was hoping it was some kind of dramatic prologue to introduce the obsessiveness of Veaer, but no. It’s just brushed over.

I DNFed at about 30%. I want to come back to it in the future and give it another go, but it was so painful to get through I just had to stop. Sorry.

A massive thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book.

To start off, I really wanted to love this book, it had everything I love to read: dark academia, queer rep and obsessive/crazed characters. However, it unfortunately fell flat for me. There is a real lack of world building and development to these characters and the world. I definitely see a lot of potential with this story after some reworking, but I really struggled to finish it as it is.

I do not understand the main character's reasons for the way she acts, and struggled to care about her and what she was doing. Since the book is written in Veaer's POV, there was very little done to make me like the love interest Elise, and she was incredibly one dimensional throughout. A lot of times scenes felt overly melodramatic, and I found it hard to keep focused on what was happening due to the excessive flowery language. The pacing also felt weird, with some aspects being overly explained and others not explained at all, I often felt very confused over what the author was trying to draw my attention to.

I think with some work this could be an excellent story, but as it stands right now, it was not my favourite.

This is a great, albeit difficult, dark academia novel, with lots of weirdness and very 'extra' flourishes from time to time. It's a fascinating dive into trauma and grief and obsession, and it touches on so many zeitgeisty tropes and themes.

I wanted to love this one so badly, however I just don't think it was for me. Or maybe I wasn't in the right mind set for it? I always felt like I was missing something, (which may have been the intention, I am not sure as I had to DNF for now) and I just couldn't sympathize with the characters at all, but again, I think I was just missing something crucial to the understanding of the novel. All that aside, the setting evoked all the right dark academia vibes I was hoping it would, and the characters (while I couldn't understand their motivations and intentions), were exactly what I was expecting in the best of ways - very Secret History-esque. I hope I will come back to this book later, maybe when I have more mental space to dive into such an intricate and theme heavy story, but being the holiday season I find myself only able to get through books with lighter tones right now.

Thank you so much to Netgalley for this ARC and my apologies to the author for not having the mental capacity to be able to fully appreciate this story right now. I will come back to this one, I promise!

One Star for the queer representation.

This was absolutly crazy, but in a bad way. This should've been a dnf but apparently I like to suffer.
My biggest problem with this were the characters, especially the main character Veaer.
Veaer is so absolutely obsessed with Elise, basically stalks her, calls her her Queen and until the end I couldn't understand why. The way she glorified and worshipped Elise for no reason was highly questionable. And thats basically her whole personality.
The worldbuilding is barely there, concepts that make this book fantasy are not really explained, some chapters lacked context and the writing is unnecessarily complex.
The mystery had much potential but just fell flat for me.

Hey all! This one was pretty good, a gorgeous dark academia filled with LGBTQ people and with a very interesting magic system to do with angels! Our main chats weren’t very nice mostly but that worked well here. Thanks for the ARC, and cheers!