I have been looking forward to Mothsblood ever since I heard the name. I love the idea of academic rivals! But Mothsblood is about transformation and sacrifice and I couldn’t get enough. Keep reading this book review of Mothsblood for my full thoughts.
Summary
On a rain-soaked night in modern-day Paris, Larkspur Lee and her academic rivals find themselves at the center of an impossible crime-the murder of their university’s headmistress, the immortal Petronelle Flamel.
In the aftermath of Flamel’s death, the school devolves into chaos. The mysterious investigator assigned to the case, Violaine, believes a cult known as the Promethean Genesis is responsible for Flamel’s murder. But Lark, who knows all too well what kind of horrors that the Prometheans commit, will do anything to stay out of the cult’s reach. Matters are complicated when the mentor she crossed an ocean and a continent to escape re-enters her life, enticing her to his side once again while secretly wielding an agenda of his own.
As the Prometheans’ plans come to fruition and the university’s dark history comes to light, Lark has no choice but to decide whether the power she desires is truly worth the price.
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
Dark academia and mysteries from our past, Mothsblood is a story about what we would do to escape. The sacrifice, the ambition, the desire. We want so badly to succeed, entry into this magical world, and we are asked what desperation forces us to do. There’s backstabbing mixed with the heady pull of ambition and the darkness of desperation. Lark is haunted by her past, by the ghosts of mentorship, and sabotage. I enjoyed this mixture of science and magic, alchemy and transformation. In the veins of dark academia, Mothsblood examines the exploitation of hunger, of the idea that we are only pushed so hard because of our brilliance, of our fortitude.
The mentorship, the blurry lines of consent and power, and of what it takes to get ahead. The ultimate sacrifices we have to make. Mothsblood ends up being a story about stakes and the pain of metamorphosis. Who will emerge from the pain, the conflict, and the trials. It explores the price of ambition, of wanting, of desiring those experiences which turn us into greatness or sadness. Mothsblood ends up swirling and whirling into this action story in front of our eyes as it explores the corruption and the price of science.
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Find Mothsblood on Goodreads, Storygraph, Blackwells, & Libro. fm.