Hi friends, as part of the blog tour hosted by TBR & Beyond Tours I’m excited to share my thoughts on Immortal Dark by Tigest Girma. Thanks to the TBR team for having me on tour and to Little, Brown Books for Young Readers for providing a digital ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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TL;DR: Immortal Dark was one of my most anticipated 2024 releases and I’m thrilled to say that Tigest Girma did not let me down. She slayed with this stunning debut! While I’m not a dark academia girlie, I loved exploring the vast history of Uxlay University and the complex relationship between dranaics (vampires) and actis (humans). The writing is lush, the world-building richly detailed, and the characters delightfully wicked, complicated and so very morally grey. Despite the pacing being on the slower side, it allowed me to completely immerse myself in the gothic setting and by the time the action kicked off in the latter half, I was fully invested and wowzer, I did not see some of those surprises coming! Girma leaves readers with a double whammy that has me aching to get my hands on the next book immediately. I feel like this is going to be a hit!

I was equally terrified and excited to start reading this book because let’s just say my track record with anticipated releases and debuts in 2024 has been rather abysmal. I know that this book won’t be for everyone but I’m so happy that I wasn’t disappointed by it! If this is Girma’s debut I honestly can’t wait to see how her writing evolves as she releases more books. 😍

The world-building is vast and complex (this is a word I’ll use a lot in this review but IMHO, it perfectly sums up so much of this book… Sorry, not sorry)! From the history of the university’s establishment to the history of the complicated peace between dranaics and actis spanning millennia, there is so much to uncover about in this world. I will admit that the richness of it, especially establishing the world and its “rules”, meant that the pacing of the story often fell on the slow side but the overall journey made it worth it. I loved how Girma also weaves Ethiopian mythology into the storyline as it’s not something I’ve much about before. I enjoyed learning about the terms of peace between dranaics and actis and the unique element related to their feeding which I don’t think I’ve read in a vampire story before. Depending on where the dranaic drinks from the actis, both parties will experience a different emotion or event about the other, which of course can get tricky. 😉 I thought this was a fascinating element and it played fantastically into upping the tension between our two main characters, Kidan and Susenyos.

I also liked that we learned about all of this alongside Kidan as she studies Dranactis as part of her goal to rescue her missing sister. It was refreshing to read so much of the academic part of the dark academia subgenre and between attending Dranactis classes, the study group sessions, and Kidan’s independent study, there are plenty of these moments to enjoy. I don’t think lovers of this aesthetic will be disappointed! Another element that the author did brilliantly is the way she set the atmosphere. The setting is extremely gothic and that mysteriously dark tone is present not only in the way the setting is described but also in the emotions depicted by our characters. I especially loved how House Adane was given a life of its own. This house that, quite literally, controls your emotions, projects your nightmares, and whose walls are steeped in your greatest fears was deeply unsettling but also, amazing. I would not want to spend a night there though, that’s for sure! 🤭

As much as I loved the setting though, it was the characters and their relationships that made this most enjoyable. Aside from our two main characters, there are several side characters we came to know and who I grew to love as well, which made some of the later scenes particularly heartbreaking! The story is told from one POV, Kidan’s, and we go through quite a journey with her, as she navigates the reality of being surrounded by the “creatures” she passionately loathes. She’s not very easy to like (although she doesn’t have to be likeable to be great!) and she is morally grey and Machiavellian to the extreme, but I came to love her heart, ferocity, strength, and willfulness; even if that willfulness drove me up the wall at the beginning, lol. Honestly, Kidan is unlike any other MC that I’ve read before in both good and bad ways! There’s so much darkness that envelopes her and it feels rather oppressive at times. She’s rough around the edges, emotionally volatile, and has a thirst for blood and death that I found at turns discomfiting and alluring. It’s almost as if she’s obsessed with death and dying, and as if she yearns for its embrace—which she proves time and again when she throws herself into life-or-death situations with little thought or care for the consequences. She certainly won’t be everyone’s cuppa but the complexity of her character steadily grew on me!

Our other main character, who unfortunately doesn’t get a POV, is Susenyos. He’s the dranaic of House Adane and to say Kidan hates him, and vice versa, would be an understatement. Kidan’s relationship with Susenyos was complex, to say the least, and combined with their contrasting personalities, it made for some great tension but also created a deliciously dark and angsty enemies-to-lovers romance. I was disappointed when I realised that Susenyos wouldn’t get a POV as I feel like it would’ve added more dimension to the story (not like it doesn’t already have enough of that, lol) and I think it would’ve also helped speed things along in the initial set up. There’s a lot of mystery surrounding his character and I loved uncovering more of his complex past to better understand what’s happening between him, Kidan and House Adane in the present. Ngl, I still have so many questions but with how book one concludes, I know we’ll be getting many of those answers in the second book.

While they are both very flawed and make messed up decisions, what I loved the most in how the author wrote about their relationship was their opposing natures. While Kidan is an actis obsessed with death, Susenyos is a dranaic who is obsessed with life. As much as it seems like she would do anything to die, he does everything in his power to stay immortal. There is so much delicious tension in their interactions as they fight (sometimes literally) to understand each other’s motives and it just made each scene between them so good because you never know what the other is going to do next!

Now, for all of you readers who came here at the mention of “enemies-to-lovers” romance, buckle up tight because you’re in for an incredibly tense ride! When it comes to this favourite trope, I’m always prepared to be disappointed by the “enemies” aspect but I should’ve known that Girma would not disappoint! This isn’t a miscommunication or misunderstanding between the two. No, Kidan and Susenyos tread a very fine line between “like” and hate, and for the majority of the book they do anything in their power to hurt, humiliate, sabotage, and enrage each other. Some moments had me questioning if a romance even made sense but again, the author does a fantastic job of weaving the emotions and reveals to create a believable connection between them. This is one of the darkest and best enemies-to-lovers romances I’ve read in a very long time and I loved every moment of it! I also wouldn’t say this gets “steamy” (as it’s YA) but there is one bigger intimate scene that is depicted but not in detail. I will also say this tends to read more like New Adult rather than Young Adult or the older end of the YA range.

I could go on gushing about this book but I’m going to stop here. I will just say please read it and then come talk to me about it because this is a story that I would love to talk to other readers about! 😂 I would also say sorry for the long-winded review but I’m not. I do hope that most of it makes sense though because this is full-on word-vom of the thoughts in my brain but it doesn’t even cover all of it! I think it’s safe to say that Immortal Dark is my favourite debut of 2024 so far and it’s making it onto my top reads of the year!

Have you read Immortal Dark or is it on your TBR?

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