I liked that the ideas were imaginative, and I liked that there were some deeper meanings that could be explored in the narrative.

However, I thought it was quite slow paced and repetitive for a teen/young adult book (especially considering the short attention spans now) and some of the characters were described quite stereotypically. If these aspects were intentionally maintaining the school-like atmosphere, it may have been beneficial to show additional characteristics that "break the mould" or to possibly see why these characters were this way. For instance, Brooke's appearance is focused on in the earlier scenes and it comes across that she's only a love interest, and Emma's weirdness is touched upon, along with the fact that she possibly self-harms, but this is never raised again and does not seem to provide any advice to teens in the same situation.

Additionally, I felt like some of my exasperation came from the fact that the characters didn't seem motivated to find out what was going on, or how these things suddenly came to be. I understand that they wouldn't have known where to turn, but they do mention someone older and we do suddenly have an extra character later on who could've brought this element in. In the second half, it felt a little pointless to have this extra character when something else is doing the job for them in the first half, and it also felt disconnected when the characters started talking about the importance of relics that hadn't been mentioned either.

I do feel like there's potential here, but unfortunately it also feels unfinished.