Book Review: Immortal Dark

I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The Cruel Prince meets Ninth House in this dangerously romantic dark academia fantasy, where a lost heiress must infiltrate an arcane society and live with the vampire she suspects killed her family and kidnapped her sister.

It began long before my time, but something has always hunted our family.

Orphaned heiress Kidan Adane grew up far from the arcane society she was born into, where human bloodlines gain power through vampire companionship. When her sister, June, disappears, Kidan is convinced a vampire stole her—the very vampire bound to their family, the cruel yet captivating Susenyos Sagad.

To find June, Kidan must infiltrate the elite Uxlay University—where students study to ensure peaceful coexistence between humans and vampires and inherit their family legacies. Kidan must survive living with Susenyos—even as he does everything he can to drive her away. It doesn’t matter that Susenyos’s wickedness speaks to Kidan’s own violent nature and tempts her to surrender to a life of darkness. She must find her sister and kill Susenyos at all costs.

When a murder mirroring June’s disappearance shakes Uxlay, Kidan sinks further into the ruthless underworld of vampires, risking her very soul. There she discovers a centuries-old threat—and June could be at the center of it. To save her sister, Kidan must bring Uxlay to its knees and either break free from the horrors of her own actions or embrace the dark entanglements of love—and the blood it requires.

This book is just crazy in a level that it’s dark, full of psychotic people characters (I think calling them morally gray would be an understatement), and something that will make you question yourself whether it’s bad behaviour if you’re trying to be a good person every single day.

Immortal Dark is this irreverent story about an unhinged and psychotic character Kidan Adane. She’s an orphaned heiress of one of the oldest arcane houses in Uxlay University. Before the events of the book, she’s living a normal life with her younger sister, June, and foster mother. Kidan’s life made a 360 degree turn when her sister got kidnapped and evidences led her to a century old vampire bound to her family and their arcane house, Susenyos Sagad.

Kidan’s desperate search for her sister triggered the story’s plot to get moving. It’s also the reason why Kidan woke up one morning as a very changed person because to search for her sister in a world where the powerful arcane houses and their bound vampires control the political climate and whether you live or die, Kidan must transform into someone who’s willing to stoop down to a human’s baser needs.

Throughout the course of the story, I was not successful at telling myself to understand what Kidan is going through because she has really become a hateful character. She talks about killing all evil in the world and being hypocrite about the decadent nature of the vampires and the members of the other arcane house, and yet, she’s not any better. She’s this sanctimonious bitch acting so morally superior about saving this guy/girl for being so kind but she does not hesitate covering up for heinous mistakes or doing evil deeds because she thinks it’s her sole right to right the world. What I’m saying is that if you’re someone who wants to root for the main character for their awesome personality then better stay away from this book because I’m not sure if Kidan will have her redemption ARC in the future books. At this point, Kidan is not guilty for all the things that she did in the name of finding her sister and getting revenge for her friends. In fairness though, she also wants to die because she recognizes that she’s one of the evil fiends in the world.

The other characters are also, at this point, unredeemable but nonetheless, still as interesting as our lovely psycho main character.  So if you’re into reading about unhinged characters who no longer knows the direction of their moral compass, you better pick up this book because you will surely wake up the inner psycho in you.

Setting aside the characters, there are other things in this book that will satisfy your cravings for something debauch and gothic. The plot has lots of surprises but ultimately leads to deaths and more deaths. The romance is not your typical I’m-going-to-die-for-you or me-and-you-against-the-world but rather a perverse kind of love between two characters who have bared their hearts about wanting each other but would not hesitate in murdering the other one, and vice versa.  The lore that involved the sages and vampires is solid and imaginative.  The setting and how the world of the Okti and Drinakti were able to make me feel that I’m also strolling the shadowed grounds of Uxlay.

There are only two things that prohibited me from enjoying from enjoying Immortal Dark to it fullest. One is that I did not really feel the Dark Academia vibes this book is aiming for.  Kidan and her classmates were supposed to be Uxlay University students and should have been interacting with lots of teachers and struggling with different subjects. But I don’t what happened because Kidan and her classmates were only attending one class and as far as my hearing is concerned, they only interacted with two Teachers; Dean Farris and Prof. Andreas. Although it’s mentioned that they are attending other classes like art lessons, it’s only in the background and the story did not really show us how Kidan and students are faring with their other classes as most of their University time is solely focused on passing the Prof. Andreas’ ever difficult class on Drinakti (Í’m not sure if this is the correct spelling as I listened to the Audiobook). Second grip is that the narration requires some getting used to since it took me a while to distinguish one character from another. In fairness to the audiobook’s narrator Jordan Cobb, however, she’s good but she needs to create more nuanced voices for the characters so I’d not confuse them with one from the other. But may be this is just me since I’m still honing my Audiobook listening skills.

To sum it all up, I greatly enjoyed Immortal Dark and looking forward to reading/listening the second installment of the series. This book is a must for fans of uber dark fantasy lovers regardless whether you’re a fan of Cruel Prince and Ninth House.