The World Cannot Give

Within the genre that calls itself "dark academia", there's a certain self-flagelating tendency I've noticed, a Very Special Episode tone in which the authors puts the brakes on the whole thing and all but turns to the audience to say, Don't worry! I know elitism is bad actually! It's definitely totally fascist and not cool at all! I'm not like one of those asshole Donna Tartt enjoyers who don't constantly disclaim that it's totally definitely a satire and that's it!!

I find it, frankly, bizarre, not to mention narratively counter-productive. Burton makes it clear from the jump that Virginia and Co. are uncool, hypocritical, proto-fash losers—despite the fact that our narrator Laura supposedly idolizes them. I can't tell if it's a show more sincere distaste for her own characters bleeding through despite her best efforts or if it's out of fear of being accused of endorsing the very thing she's criticizing, but if your plot entails a gradual disillusionment with a person or a group or an idea, it simply does not make any sense to show that person or group or idea as obviously distasteful the whole time.

This is an authorial tendency that has always bothered me. But it's especially tragic here, because Burton does create complex and interesting characters — or at least potentially complex and interesting. But Burton takes the position that, actually, all of them are straight-up unambiguously bad people but do all things for bad reasons. It's a morally pedantic position, an easy way out, and it undermines the few gems of good writing this book has to offer. show less

Since I enter so many giveaways I don't get a chance to read all of them - but my friend Jodi did and wrote this wonderful review!:

Released on March 8th, 2022, Tara Isabella Burton's heady exploration of adolescence, toxic friendships, first love, obsession, and tragedy is an unforgettable tour-de-force. The novel follows the sheltered 16-year-old Laura Stearns into her junior year at St. Dunstan's Academy, the hallowed alma mater of her beloved Romantic writer Sebastian Webster, who died tragically - if, as she finds out, not so heroically - in the Spanish Civil War. Her lofty vision of the school is both challenged by the school's very real students and conflicts, and deepened by her infatuation with the mysterious, show more gothically-perfect Virginia Strauss, who leads Laura into her world of asceticism and artistic rigor in the name of a Websterian godliness.

Burton prods at the veneration that boarding school stories often hold for old money and tragic figures, and warns against interpreting the past in ways that downplay its bloody, ugly parts; doing so will only resurrect that ugliness in the present. We see her masterfully illustrate how Laura's and the other characters' descent into Virginia's irresistible orbit brings about those very consequences, and turns the St. Dunstan campus from idyllic to dangerous and, eventually, deadly. No player in this misty teen drama is left to uncomplicated stereotype, even through the eyes of a narrator that is prone to thinking in absolutes.

Fans of Donna Tartt, the Brontes, and the "dark academia" aesthetic are sure to be lured by such a premise, and left shaken by its powerful conclusion. (This review was written for the Advance Reader Copy of The World Cannot Give; all opinions are my own, and are not sponsored by the author, publisher, or others involved in the book's production.) show less

This had a lot of promise, an academic setting, themes of obsession, idealism, transcendence. Wanting more from the world than it has to give. It was just too pretentious and also somehow earnest and messy though. The Secret History did it best, and anything comparing itself to that is doing itself a disservice.

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 boarding school book.

With a mix of lighter YA themes and some serious topics that make you think, this book has a bit of something for everything. I will note that the characters do not seem real so if thats something you're searching for you might show more want to pass this one up but if, like me, you know the magic that is the boarding school with dark twists this is definitely something to pick up!

Thank you to netgalley for providing an e-copy for me to read and leave my honest opinion. I'm so grateful I was able to read this book and I honestly urge everyone to pick it up as soon as possible. show less

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 boarding school book.

With a mix of lighter YA themes and some serious topics that make you think, this book has a bit of something for everything. I will note that the characters do not seem real so if thats something you're searching for you might show more want to pass this one up but if, like me, you know the magic that is the boarding school with dark twists this is definitely something to pick up!

Thank you to netgalley for providing an e-copy for me to read and leave my honest opinion. I'm so grateful I was able to read this book and I honestly urge everyone to pick it up as soon as possible. show less