This is my first book by Melissa de la Cruz. I bought the Beauchamp Family books but have not gotten around to reading them yet. When I saw the gorgeous edition of this book up for preorder, I read the synopsis and decided to give this book a try. For the most part, this book held my attention and I was really liking the development of the story and the characters. I was certain this would be a 4 Star read at least. I had read some of my fellow reader's reviews and was more or less prepared for some specific reveals to come up in the story. I thought in the end, I'd still end up sincerely liking the book. It was the ending that knocked another star off my rating. It was going great until the last 40 pages where things went just a little wonky. I'll also say now that this definitely feels like the start of a series in the sense that this book might feel stronger once the rest of the books are released. That being said, I'll definitely be reading the next book.
Sibylline is about 3 magical teenagers, Raven, Atticus and Dorian. This trio have been friends for years and together, they dreamed of attending Sibylline, a magical ivy league school that would help learn about magic and how to cast it from the best. They each have a unique magical ability and they worked hard on their applications. When they're each rejected from attending the school, they come up with a plan. They decide to apply for jobs on the Sibylline campus and when they can, they'll sneak into lectures and steal texts that would allow them to learn on their own. As they execute their plan, the attractions between the three of them start to grow, further complicating their plans and their friendships. As they work to navigate these new developments, they start to notice things happening on campus. Something is killing students and is starting to destroy an important building. Raven, Atticus and Dorian have to put what they have learned about the school in the present and in its past in order to save the school before its destroyed.
First of all, the book is written very well. De La Cruz has a way with words that invoke the images of a beautiful campus and the yearning of teens desperate to find a place that can keep them together and help them learn. I was pulled in from the start with the connection between Raven, Atticus and Dorian. I thought the scheme they came up with was impulsive but they're kids so it made sense that they thought it would work. I wanted to know WHY they were rejected if they had made themselves into the best candidates to be accepted at the school. I thought their individual powers were interesting and the way they were portrayed kept my attention as they were shown dealing with their everyday lives with magic. Each chapter follows a separate character, showing what they are doing with their jobs on campus, the people that they meet and the parts of the mystery that they get to witness. I will also say that I preferred Atticus and Dorian to Raven. I'm not sure if that was the intent but there were several instances in which Raven was shown to be selfish and spoiled and completely unaware of the difficulties that her friends have without money and yet they just sigh and shake their heads because they love her still and I just rolled my eyes. The way she was written, Raven was just spoiled, end of story, and I wasn't as focused on her chapters compared to the others.
As for the plot, I was more intrigued by the force that seemed to targeting students and the buildings. The storyline about the three teens trying to spy on classes and teach themselves did not have as much importance. It was the reason for getting them to the school but it did not have as much of a driving force to keep them focused on this. Over the course of the book, the three of them read ONE book, and only a few pages from it, and they snuck into ONE lecture. For this being the point of them being on the campus to begin with, it was relegated to a side plot. I wonder if it would have been better that they were accepted on a wait list type of study, to give them opportunity to work on campus to get to know the faculty and then try to listen in on lectures if they can find the time. All for the purpose of proving they should be accepted as students but the no one has managed to get accepted from there. It just felt kind of pointless in the overall plot of the book.
The pacing was also a little confusing. Atticus was working with a team trying to save a historical building from crumbling into ruins. Every time that was the focus, it felt like more had gone wrong than should have been possible with the way time was moving in the story. I got the impression that this team had been in place and had been working on this for a while. But now Atticus is on the page and everything is deteriorating faster and it didn't make sense to me with the way time was moving on the page. I think the course of the book was the entirety of one semester but I couldn't tell if the season's were changing or if they were getting paid for their work at certain intervals, anything that could have helped to show how long they were working and how things were progressing. The main focus that gave any indication of time passing in the book was the way the building seemed to be getting worse. Pair that with the lack of actual spying on class lectures and reading magic books and it was enough to irk me so that I only really liked the book but didn't love it.
Which brings me to that ending. I was all for the development seen, the reveals from the past and the ideas it gave, it all made me invest in the story and how it would end. But then I noticed that I maybe had about 30 or 40 pages to go in the book and I thought, with the pages it took to get HERE, how is it possible to wrap this up? And it barely took anything to wrap up the conflict and then there was that development between the characters that made my eyebrows up and disappear. Maybe I'm too old for this kind of book because I didn't get the appeal, I thought it was something that seemed out of nowhere. A lot of this has to do with the fact that I didn't truly believe the love and attraction between some of the characters. Some of them felt more genuine than others and when that ending hit, my impression was that maybe it should have been left to a future installment to get that right feelings to hit. I believed in the connection between a couple of the characters but one in particular didn't hit the right notes and as a result, that ending made me just stop in my tracks because it felt like an almost easy answer instead of having to make a choice. I didn't believe the emotion so the ending felt flat. Then there were the reveals from the school and I thought what? I'm supposed to believe all of this was because of that? It was all part of the plan kind of ending just make me frustrated because I never can believe that with the way people are, the plot will work out just the way it was meant to without key characters aware of the role they are playing.
So there it is, another star off for what was a good book before that ENDING hit. I've been talking about this book and it always goes, this part was great, but then that ending, I though this was interesting, but then that ending, this could have used a little tweaking but then that ENDING. Maybe I'm not the right audience for this, maybe I'm not aware of how this fits into the current book world. I liked this book, I was REALLY liking this book, I just do not meld with the way it finished, or was left unfinished. I have not found anything about a continuation for the series but I'm not ruling it out as a possible future release. I'm still interested in seeing where this world and its characters go and to see if future books make this one feel stronger. It feels like the start of something that had to end too soon for the story to stand securely on its own. A respectable read for those that like dark academia and magic, with a few caveats to keep in mind.
Rating on my scale: 6.5 Stars. I'm a firm believer that this one just needs more books to be considered great. It had all the right starts, it just needs more time to really prove that it will be awesome.
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