A review by liralen
As I Descended by Robin Talley

3.0

I love Talley's books conceptually, but so far I haven't been super enthusiastic about the results. Here, all the elements sound right—boarding school, characters who are non-white, characters with disabilities, multiple queer relationships, a Macbeth retelling, ghosts, an author unafraid to let her characters be unlikable—but it never really connected for me. I suspect a big part of it is that last list item: it's such a great thing to have protagonists who do unlikable things...but you have to be able to sympathise with them as well, and I'm not sure I ever got to know any of the characters well enough to do that. These are characters ready to kill, from quite early on in the book, and yet the motivation boils down to 'eliminate the competition for a scholarship virtually nobody in the book needs'.

I'll keep reading. Talley's premises are too promising for me to stay away. But...I'll do so hoping for just a bit more relatability in the the next book.