Book Review - Pretty Girls Make Graves by Steffanie Holmes

Pretty Girls Make Graves by Steffanie Holmes

I am in my dark academia era, and I don't think I can ever get enough. This book had the perfect spooky, gothic, mysterious vibes that I was looking for. I found this book through a Reddit thread recommending dark academia stories. This book did not disappoint. However, absolutely heed the content warnings because this book is NOT for everyone. It features some very toxic and taboo relationships, but I'm a sucker for these kinds of things so I love it. 

Now let's get into the description. George, Georgina, is an American student at Blackfriars University in England, which is one of the most prestigious and pretentious universities in the world and has a rich history. Blackfriars also has some dark secrets. Secrets that George becomes determined to solve when she finds the mutilated corpse of a classmate in a shallow grave in the woods on campus. To uncover the secrets in Blackfriar, George has to become close with a sexy priest and a charming boy who's a member of a secret society. But is George willing to give up her heart in exchange for answers?

Whew, with that out of the way, I need to start talking about the characters. George is such a badass. I love her quirkiness and her determination to find answers. I think the author did a great job of showing how out of place George felt at Blackfriars. It's not unlike how many of us feel in college, just trying to find a place for ourselves. I really loved her love interests, William and Sebastian too. I've never read a romance before with either a bully or a priest, but I think I just found a new interest. I need more...

I really liked the story of this book for the most part. Now there absolutely were some questionable things that happened that definitely should have been a bigger deal to George (being peed on by all the Orphean guys, her "boyfriend" included, for example) but overall, I thought the story was really interesting. I was so intrigued the whole time, and literally couldn't go to sleep until I finished this book. But this book does end on a huge cliffhanger so I ended up starting the second book immediately after. The actual writing of this book was so good. I truly felt as though I was in Europe on a historic mysterious campus. I will absolutely be reading more by Steffanie Holmes because this book was great. 

This book definitely isn't for everyone, but it is for me. The setting, story building, and characters are just perfect and I loved every second of it.