Book: An Arcane Inheritance by Kamilah Cole
Reviewed by Rallie X
Rating: 5/5
Book Review: An Arcane Inheritance For Fans Of: GenV, A Study in Drowning, Get Out, Kindred, Deadly Education
Ellory Morgan, a first gen Jamaican immigrant, thought that the most difficult things about being an ivy league student would be an awful roommate, a rude (but hot) academic rival who seems intent on tearing her down for no reason, and having to choose between pursuing a "responsible" major and career over her passion for journalism.
But as Ellory is discovering, there is more to Warren University than first meets the eye - strange occurances that can only be described as supernatural and an ominous sense of deja-vu lead her right into the path of her rival, Hudson Graves. Her gut instinct and need to uncover the truth have her wrapped up in Hudson's life and if she can convince him to help her find answers, she might be able to figure out what is causing her sense of missing memories and to find the root of this insidious magic before she is lost for good.
I love Ellory, Liam, Tai and Cody, and Hudson. Stasie was the nightmare every college student fears - genuinely the worst roommate, I was having flashbacks - and I can begrudgingly respect Boone for who he is (but I have a bunch of annotations calling him a dick). The students at Colt's salon were the perfect representation of self-absorbed, privileged, solipsistic university students whose micro-aggressions are not as over the top as some might like to imagine. Everything Greer had to say to Ellory made me cringe-scream.
What I think Cole does best is coopt expected tropes of "esoteric mysteries at an old university with secret societies" and reframe them within an intersectional lens. Not only is Ellory a queer, working class Black woman at a prestigious institution, she is also an immigrant - combine these together and you have the perfect person to conveniently disappear. That she doesn't have difficulty getting her friends to believe her makes sense, as they are also queer BIPOC students (and at least one is also first-gen); and that she struggles to trust anyone else makes sense as they have every reason to suggest that she doesn't belong there.
Overall I this was a very cool foray into dark academia that embraces the political potential of the genre - as anyone who has spent any time in academia knows, even without dark magic fucking with your head, depending on who you are and where you come from you are already always facing sinister forces at work.