All That Consumes Us

"Sometimes picking up random books can be an amazing way to find hidden gems, "All That Consumers Us" is a perfect example of underrated. Young Adult books fall into two categories a lot of the time for me: incredibly childish, boring, and full of plot holes. Or gems that hold as much value as adult novels. This was thankfully the second kind. Tara, our MC, was a little annoying at times. But she was complicated and well-written. Wren was a total doll, and the rest of the support characters were diverse and made the plot worth reading. This is a rare occasion where I liked a ghost book, I'm not usually a fan. The way it was done was graphic, creepy, and unique. Possession has always been a boogeyman of society. The fear that you can't be in control of your mind is a powerful one. This fear made the gothic and depressing parts of this book flare. I can also FINALLY understand why people join fraternities/sororities I have asked multiple people multiple times and never got an answer that satisfied me. But this book highlighted why they could be positive for mental health, and why they are so appealing to certain types of people. On both ends of the spectrum too, the exuberant partygoers and the introverted geeks looking for friends. Still not the life for me, but I have a better understanding of it now. "

"This book was enjoyable overall, but felt like standard dark academia instead of really doing anything new. There’s the same supernatural elements, villain structure, character traits, and character relationship structures as in all the books I’ve read in this genre. I really wished this would have more new concepts. But it did have its own interpretation of the genre- the backstory between the “dark” parts was really developed to the point of which it could have made a good separate novel. And there were some good twists and surprising moments, although it was definitely more atmospheric than actually gory (especially because it focuses more on ghosts and metaphor than shocking the reader.) The “found family” aspect was also cute, I especially loved the side LGBTQ+ rep, and I really wish we got more of Tara and Penny’s romance, as it just sorta… stopped being mentioned despite both characters being in the story. This was also a little slow, with a bunch of more school related stuff than horrors in the beginning, but I’ll excuse it since this seems to be an issue in every Dark Academia I’ve read. While this book doesn’t truly reinvent the Dark Academia subgenre, it is a fun, haunting read."