Book Review: As I Descended by Robin Talley

Title: As I Descended
Author: Robin Talley
Published: September 06, 2016
Publisher: HarperTeen

Maria Lyon and Lily Boiten are their school’s ultimate power couple—even if no one knows it but them.

Only one thing stands between them and their perfect future: campus superstar Delilah Dufrey.

Golden child Delilah is a legend at the exclusive Acheron Academy, and the presumptive winner of the distinguished Cawdor Kingsley Prize. She runs the school, and if she chose, she could blow up Maria and Lily’s whole world with a pointed look, or a carefully placed word.

But what Delilah doesn’t know is that Lily and Maria are willing to do anything—absolutely anything—to make their dreams come true. And the first step is unseating Delilah for the Kingsley Prize. The full scholarship, awarded to Maria, will lock in her attendance at Stanford―and four more years in a shared dorm room with Lily.

Maria and Lily will stop at nothing to ensure their victory—including harnessing the dark power long rumored to be present on the former plantation that houses their school.

But when feuds turn to fatalities, and madness begins to blur the distinction between what’s real and what is imagined, the girls must decide where they draw the line.

From acclaimed author Robin Talley comes a Shakespeare-inspired story of revenge and redemption, where fair is foul, and foul is fair.

*Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book in exchange of an honest review. No payments made between me and the publisher.

This book was a retelling of Macbeth, and if you will ask me if I already read that book? No. I don't know anything about it and that won't affect my review. With all honesty this book actually made me want to read Macbeth, I'm just curious what made the author retell this piece of book. I guess somehow this book pushed me to something I don't do before and reading a Shakespeare book is one. I'm nervous and excited at the same time because I'm not sure if I will enjoy that book or not.

As I Descended scared the hell out of me!!! Told you I did't read Macbeth so I didn't expect the ghosts part, and I didn't read the blurb too! LOL. pardon me. I love it when books surprise me so I don't read the blurb much.

"That was the thing about fate. It was bigger than anyone of them."

I really enjoyed reading this book and it was a bit challenging on my side since I don't want to read it at night in the fear of dreaming the scenes in the book. I could imagine the scary parts and it was like I'm watching a horror movie, so I decided to read it only in the morning. It is challenging because it is not my usual forte as much as possible I avoid reading creepy books but this one is an exception. I enjoyed reading because of my curiosity too, aside from that, I'm so eager to know what will happen at the end of the book, I had a guess but... of course I won't give any spoilers on this review.

Aside from the creepy part which is challenging, the LGBT theme of this book somehow surprised me. It wasn't bad or anything negative, I'm just not used to reading lesbians stories, gay stories, I've read many times, but I think this was the first time for me to read anything lesbian involved. That challenge added more eagerness to continue reading. And like I've said from my first paragraph, this made me want to read Macbeth. Not sure, maybe sometimes it is good to shift genres right?

For people who loves to read this kind of stories I bet you'll enjoy it. The book itself is amazing! and the cover is so catchy! as far as I remember, this is also the first book I've read from Robin Talley and just... wow! I liked the book. It does have hidden lessons in between the pages, which I've been thinking for a while now. I guess reading books will really change the way you think.

"Everybody wants to win, but you don't just turn around and destroy somebody's entire life to get there."

My Ratings

I live in Washington, D.C., with my wife, our baby daughter, an antisocial cat and a goofy hound dog. Whenever the baby's sleeping, I'm probably busy writing young adult fiction about queer characters, reading books, and having in-depth conversations with friends and family about things like whether Jasmine's character motivation was sufficiently established in Aladdin.

AUTHOR LINKS: http://www.robintalley.com | Twitter | Tumblr

Source: Goodreads