Review: Nocticadia by Keri Lake

Blurb:

A dark, atmospheric tale of deadly secrets and forbidden love.

Mortui vivos docent.
The dead teach the living.

After watching my mother succumb to a mysterious illness, I promised myself two things. I’d find the cure for what ravaged her. And leave the godforsaken city where she abandoned me.

Four years later, I receive an acceptance letter from Dracadia University, one of the oldest, most prestigious schools in the country. Nestled on a secluded island off the coast of Maine, it’s rumored to be haunted by the souls of the mental patients exiled there centuries before. Those whose bones are said to make up the island’s white sandy shores.

And restless ghosts aren’t even its most daunting peculiarity.

Devryck Bramwell, known on campus as Doctor Death, is a brilliant pathologist in charge of the midnight lab. He’s also my devastatingly handsome professor, who seems to loathe tenacious first-years, like me. Except, his dark and enigmatic gaze tells me all the ways he’d devour me if given the chance, and his stolen kisses burn my lips with forbidden jealousy.

I crave his authority.
He aches for redemption.
Together, we’re toxic. Delicious fodder for the prying eyes hellbent on exhuming the rotted skeletons of our pasts.

For the dead have much to teach, and it’s only a matter of time before Dracadia’s most depraved secret is resurrected.

Nocticadia is a standalone dark academia gothic romance.

Review:

I’ve been diving into more gothic/horror fantasies, and to be honest I wasn’t sure if I would keep reading this one after the first chapter had me squeamish. But, the novel promised some of my liked tropes: forbidden love, a dark academy with a deadly secret, scientific studies of a fictional parasite – so I kept going. In some aspects it felt off, but overall I am glad I picked it up. Because, while I would warn of some triggers and the conclusion felt rushed, the middle portion of this book had me intrigued enough to keep turning pages.

Characters

We are given two perspectives, starting with Lilia – a promising student who lost her mother to an obscure and relatively unknown parasitic disease. No one believes her about what she saw happen and they deemed her mother’s death a suicide. But she knows what she saw. To her own horror, she relives the moment of her mother’s death and it plagues her waking and dreaming life. So much so that she writes a paper on it for one of her community college courses – under the guise of it being something fictitious. This catches the eye of Draconia University, where after a series of events, she ends up studying at. 

Here she meets Professor Bramwell. He’s well-known at the university and among the student population, but not in a good way. His nickname is “Doctor Death” after all. But that doesn’t stop Lilia from forcing her way into his laboratory and into his life. These two are a forbidden combination but that doesn’t stop either of them in pursuing their goals. 

I can’t say I really love either one of these characters. Lilia is a bit standoffish and Bramwell is even worse, but somehow they are attracted to each other like a moth to a flame. This is a trope I like – so I didn’t mind it per se, but I wish some scenes concerning them hadn’t felt so rushed and out-of-place – forced almost. 

Atmosphere

One thing I really did like about this book was the University itself. It’s set on a cursed island that we are introduced to at the beginning of the book in a somewhat odd prologue, but the school itself was built many, many years later and houses some of the most prestigious professors and alumni in the scientific field of parasitology. It’s a school I could see Harry Potter being placed in had he not been sent to Hogwarts. The island itself is also a bit of an enigma, and has a vast history and complicated lore that I wish had been explored more. For an almost 700-page book, I couldn’t really tell if this was more character-driven or more plot-driven when both left me feeling unrealized. But, the atmosphere does make up for the fault. 

Writing Style

Overall, this is something I would recommend to an adult audience. It has a bit of a “Slither” meets dark academia feel that is appealing at the end of the day. 

Plot

Again, some points in the story felt unrealized, but there is a lot going on that still kept me reading on and on. The task set for Professor Bramwell is literally a life or death situation and the curiosity pushing Lilia forward is admirable and true to her scientific nature. She wants answers and will do anything to get them – the same is true (even more so) for Bramwell, and while they make an odd pair, they do complement each other in a way. I only wish that a few aspects of this story were more fleshed out and actually could have really worked as a duology had the author wanted to do so, because some plot lines I was more eager to learn about than others. The beginning and middle had me desperate to find answers, but by the end it did feel like a rush to the finish line. Still, a page-turner nonetheless, especially once Bramwell and Lilia collide. 

Intrigue

Intriguing? Sure. As I said, the tropes in the story are some I like and I overall did find this book interesting. I wouldn’t re-read it to be frank, but it has a really interesting premise.

Excitement

Would I recommend this? All things considered, yes I would still recommend this book to adult readers looking for something in the dark academia/fantasy realm. It has points that redeem the story for me as a reader, even one who is somewhat unfamiliar with the dark academia genre on the whole.