the fact this book is compared to 'the secret history' is CRIMINAL. who gave them the right? the cheek, the nerve, the gall, the audacity and the gumption!virginia is such a "i'm not like the other girls" character lmao also, if i took a shot every time "sclerotic modern world" was written in the book, i'd be dead by alcohol poisoning.

3.5 stars. Let us be clear: this is a heavily fictional boarding school book. One of those books where these characters do not look or talk or act like real people, where the school itself is a setting more than a school, where it is more about the idea of it all than anything resembling reality. This is not the first boarding school book to do this and it won't be the last, it might as well be its own fantasy subgenre.The other thing it's important to know is that I suspect a lot of readers wil...

Much joy in writing a school story comes of creating our own little world, giving it a local habitation and a name, and variegating it with distinctive customs and practices; great English Public Schools such as Eaton and Winchester even speak peculiar dialects. Tara Isabella Burton gives St. Dunstan’s, her co-ed prep school in Maine, many features of the traditional English boarding school that survive the transatlantic crossing, including replacing American-style semesters with terms, Michaelm...

Actual rating: 4.5 stars, rounded up.I received an advance copy of this novel from the publisher, Simon and Schuster, via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.I have a weakness for dark academia novels, though they only work for me roughly half the time. In recent years I’ve read books in this subgenre that have become lifetime favorites, and those that left me so disappointed it veered into anger. More than one of these disappointments came through books I requested via NetGalley, and yet...

DNF in the middle of chapter 2 - couldn’t go on🥲

Like Tara Isabella Burton’s wonderful debut Social Creature, The World Cannot Give is a story about obsession – how it’s an endless vista unfolding and then, eventually, a prison. It’s also a story about faith, and transcendence, and how easy it is to locate the numinous in someone or something you love, and how dangerous that can be.Laura Stearns is obsessed with a writer, Sebastian Webster, and his only book, All Before Them, particularly its setting: St. Dunstan’s, a private school on the win...

I admit to almost passing this book by, being put off by the New Adult label attached to it, the young ages of its characters. Yes, I’m one of those adults who thinks one should read age-appropriate books and YA or NA fiction isn’t it. But then again, this book gathered way too much praise to just casually ignore. There was something about it… Lo and behold, this is that precious unicorn of an adult-appropriate book featuring teenage characters. In fact, in retrospect, this story would have only...

i can't tell if this was supposed to be read as satirical or not but i feel like it becomes better if you read it as at least partially soRep: lesbian mc, lesbian side charactersCWs: sexual assault, revenge porn, lesbophobia, suicide

This Book Could Not Give

ARC received!! Thank you, Simon & Schuster!!This sounds like my kind of story. Can y'all believe the quality of books set to be released in 2022? It's going to be...

This book really captured how obsessive and intense those teen years can be, which I found relatable despite the fact that my own teen years were nowhere near as... unhinged? as this book was. But wanting a better world, and for yourself to be bigger and better within it? The way friendships at that age felt insular, fragile, larger than life? Oof. This story probably isn't for everyone, but comparisons to The Secret History were apt enough - though I liked how this story was set in the relative...

I loved so much about this, but every time I heard the audiobook narrator say World Historical I wanted to jump off a cliff.... where the rocks and the harbor are one 😏

The Secret History, but now with more religion and queerness!I couldn't put this book down.Everyone in the story made me uncomfortable and yet I needed to know what happened to them! I swear I highlighted half the book in quotes.Picture Heathers and Single White Female but at an exclusive reclusive prep school where choir is a cult.That's all I'm saying 😏

| | blog | tumblr | letterboxd | |this is my fault. i should know by now that titles claiming to have dark academia or sapphic vibes should be approached with extreme caution. DISCLAIMER: I did not like this book and my review reflects of that. I will be brutally honest about my thoughts on this novel so if you want to read this or if this book happens to be on your ‘radar’ I recommend you check out more positive reviews. If you loved this book, I am happy for you but please don’t tell me I’m

When I was in undergrad and we were learning about gnosticism, a friend and I got wine drunk and laid on the floor and tried to get our spirits to fly above our bodies so we could exist outside of our physical forms. It didn't work. But what I'm getting at here is that when you're young and vulnerable and open to possibility, the idea of transcendence is a powerful drug. That's what this novel is about. That, and the dangers of misplaced devotion. And longing. And sex, sort of, despite how much

Thank you to Simon and Schuster for sending me this book in exchange for an honest review!❤️Laura Stearns wants nothing more than to experience a “shipwreck of the soul”, just like the protagonist of her favorite book. Unfortunately, this shipwreck extends beyond her character. The World Cannot Give is a mess. It has the makings of a riveting dark academia novel, but is bogged down by the very pretentiousness it seeks to subvert. It is three different novels trying to mesh into one. It is so ide...

Unputdownable. Jennifer’s Body meets The Moth Diaries. Burton’s writing style is so interesting and enrapturing. Also who can say no to sapphic boarding school cult books???? NOT ME

Update 3/8/22: Reposting my review to celebrate that today is publication day!It’s just that when Isobel says things, Laura believes them, and when Virginia says things Laura believes them, too; it’s just that Laura knows she is so soft, soft enough that anyone can shape her, and she knows enough to know this softness makes her weak.Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for sending me an ARC of The World Cannot Give in exchange for an honest review.The Goodreads description for The World Cann...

Finally a book similar to The Secret History, but now with more religion and queerness!Dark academia is one of my favorite subgenres, and I'm loving all the novels coming out recently. Tara Isabella Burton is a theologian as well as an author - who better to write about Christian faith at an insular prep school? This is certainly mostly about the boarding school as if its more than a school but something all its own. Which is the magical in this story. It's really hard to beat a well told boardi...

Find this review and others at Carlene Inspired and on bookstagram.I am a huge fan of novels that are somehow both literary fiction and also total drama. Tara Isabella Burton is so good about writing about the gossip, lust, and popularity contests that come with young womanhood, while also capturing the dark aspects. The World Cannot Give is an atmospheric, dark academia novel about obsession and how it can consume you. Young Laura Stearns believes that author Sebastian Webster's journey in his