Deathbringer by Sonia Tagliareni - Dark Academia Romantasy Book Review

A richly imagined dark academia world, with a unique magic system and unforgettable characters.

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Viola discovers at a young age that she has inherited her family’s death magic, something that she never wished for and would rather completely ignore. It’s only when magic causes her sister’s death that Viola is called to take up Olivia’s place at Gorhail, a magical academy where students are taught to harness their magic. But more students keep turning up dead with their relics stolen, and she’s forced to partner with Sylas from a rival house to figure out what’s going on, how her sister died and why she’s been mixed up in it all.

This book took a lot of concentration to read for some reason. The magic system and the world around it was original and a little more complicated than others I’ve read recently. We, as the readers were, learning about the complexities of it alongside Viola, and where some parts were assumed that she knew, so we didn’t always get them fully explained, certain parts had to be kept hidden as they were revealed to her, but it did raise questions for me throughout when we were left in the dark occasionally!

I loved the way that relics were used as magical conduits, particularly the aspiers and their very distinct personalities! While the basic premise of a magical school with distinct houses might seem very Harry Potter-esque, there’s far more to it than that – actually, while it’s a dark academia novel, very little “school life” actually features in it. I’d love to know more about the day-to-day life the characters live in the school, their classes and more! I think the lack of little moments of relief, the more mundane experiences, is why I’ve knocked a star off this book – everything felt like it was crucial to the main storyline rather than building a wider world which I was dying to know more about.

The snippets from letters, books and articles at the beginning of each chapter were a nice touch to bring more context to the story, sometimes hinting at something that was about to happen or clarifying something. These reminded me of the way that Fourth Wing slips in little pieces of info in this way too.

The book is told in alternating chapters between Sylas and Viola which I really enjoyed. You can feel their growing attraction, despite both trying to fight it. This is well done and I definitely got the chemistry between them.

The majority of the story has a creeping then overwhelming sense of danger approaching that those in charge seem to be somewhat ignoring. It’s well done as the danger grows as more and more students are turning up dead but they keep blaming the victims themselves for being out after curfew!

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I’ll definitely pick up the next book when it’s available – this is the only problem with reading ARCs which are series, I’m usually left craving the next one before the first one is even published!

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publishers for an ARC of this book.