Welcome to Quills and Pages—where I heroically read books so you can pretend you did too. Today’s lucky book: Nocticadia. Don’t worry, it’s totally spoiler-free... because I like to leave you confused, not betrayed.
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
GENRE
Gothic Fantasy
THEME AND TONE
Dark, Atmospheric
LANGUAGE AND WRITING STYLE
Easy to Read
CHARACTERS
Morally Gray Complex Characters
MY REVIEW
This book had an atmospheric vibe. I loved that dark, mysterious aura surrounding the whole story. The book starts with that eerie scene that gripped my attention and I wanted to know what is going on. There is a secret school conducting secret biomedical research to cure a secret disease.
Our FMC writes a paper on that secret disease, which acts as a ticket, and she gets accepted to Dracadia. She was just trying to cure this disease that unalives her mother, but she stumbles upon decade-old drama, secret societies, a mysterious island with a mysterious virus, a murder mystery, and a forbidden romance with her professor.
On the whole, the story was addictive, and I highly recommend it.
MY RATING
Overall: ★★★★★ | 5 Stars
Plot: ★★★★★| 5 Stars
Romance: ★★★★★ | 5 Star
Characters:★★★★★ | 5 Stars
Pacing: ★★★★★| 5 stars
Mystery: ★★★★★| 5 star
Banter: ★★★★★| 5 star
Ending: ★★★★★| 5 Stars
Spice Level: 🌶| Level 1
Book Cover:★★★★★| 5 Stars
☙ How Lilia blackmails Bramwell to accept her as her lab assistant
☙ The Slow burn between them was peak