The Villains of Winter

by Evie Phenix

Perfect for fans of THE SECRET HISTORY and IF WE WERE VILLAINS. A psychosexual novel of betrayal, obsession, and tragedy.

Elliott Archway is deeply attached to upperclassman James Wilde. He would forsake his soft heart for him. He would surrender his life for him.

Their intense passion for each other emerges dangerously when their vile peers volunteer a terminally-ill student for the annual sacrifice in the frozen forest. At Æscwulf College, everyone must deliver their plea for mercy in the hibernal tradition. Every winter, one individual is chosen as a living sacrifice. When a student commits the sacrilegious act of killing the wrong young man on sacred ground, the students are prepared to take their secret to the grave.

However, the winter demands more sacrifices.

Elliott would sacrifice his mortal soul for only James.

James would start a war of carnage for Elliott.

Genres: Horror, Dark Academia, M M Romance, Queer, LGBT, Dark Romance, Gay

436 pages, Kindle Edition

Expected publication January 1, 2027

About the author

Evie Phenix is an American novelist with roots from California. She is a passionate reader of history, mythology, folklore, and dark academia. The Villains of Winter Anthology is a set of dark academia novels she wrote in college. As a postgraduate, she is now pursuing her Doctor of Philosophy.

Follow Evie Phenix on social media @EviePhenix.

Reviews

[Zana]

I was iffy about this novel at first, but the dark academia x death cult vibes were on point and kept me seated.

Unfortunately, the writing prided itself on being verbose that it came off as masturbatory. Judging by the other reviews, I think this will put off potential readers. I'm neither here nor there on purple prose and sprinkling archaic terms all over the place (I just use context clues or straight up ignore the words), so YMMV.

I thought about DNF but I managed to reach the major inciting incident around 33% and it was smooth going from there. There were even thriller genre vibes for a period of time, which was a welcome surprise.

I think the POV switching really needs to be strengthened though. The chapter would start in a specific character's third person POV, which you would assume would be limited, but then it turns out to be omnipresent, which really threw me off and muddled the characterizations. For a while there, it was hard to discern between James and Elliott, but this eventually got better when their personalities and backstories were developed. It became confusing again as other important characters were introduced. But I understood the storyline despite the POV issues.

I wasn't a fan of the author's trad pubbed novel (as in, I hated it), and I'll be honest with you, The Villains of Winter started out as a hate read. But by the end, this actually turned out to be an enjoyable read. Who would've thought?

[Calton · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't know what the author thought they were writing, but a good story definitely isn’t one of those things.

I found The Villains of Winter to be excruciatingly fucking pretentious, with philosophical discussions that serve absolutely no purpose in the plot, phrases in Latin, Greek, Portuguese (?) and other languages that are never given translations and are only there to make the narrative seem more mysterious than it is, the most unnecessarily complex spellings you can imagine, and passive-aggressive explanations of Pagan rituals and Greek mythology. I truly cannot tell you the number of times I rolled my eyes while reading.

Not to even mention that the number of times the author utilised the "If only he could've known what would happen..." and "If he knew that him doing X would lead to Z, he never would've done it.." and "it was the last time Y ever happened..." constructions is just mind-numbing. The only person that knows how to do this effectively is Stephen King, and when it comes to this author, it reads as a poor attempt at suspense. It doesn't work and by the third time begins to grate on the nerves.

Additionally, the story is just too small to be a novel. The actual plot of it would've made for a half-decent 20-page short story. Instead, it spans 400+ pages, but ultimately, nothing happens. There's pretty much zero difference between the character's relationships in the beginning and at the end, if you don't count that Elliot and James begin sleeping together. The sex scenes, by the way, are very poorly written and use words like "nectar", which made me
throw up in my mouth a little. There is no emotional value to any of it. Also, using 50 Shades of Grey's "red/yellow" system during sex is definitely a choice. What happened to literally saying "stop"?

The meta-writing is another cardinal sin that I am never willing to forgive in books. Writing a chapter from James'/ Elliot's perspective and then suddenly chipping in the inner thoughts/motivations/memories of a different character shows a lack of skill. I maybe would've overlooked it if it happened once, but it's a regular thing in this book.

Furthermore, not a single character in this book has any real motivation. They all do the things they do just because.
Things happen within the narrative just because the author wants them to. There is no foreshadowing, there are no real consequences, there are no plot-twists. Things are set up but never mentioned again: Elliot's nightmares that drive him to hurt himself, James' scars (mentioned ONCE though he's supposed to be this image of etherial beauty AND a public figure), Elliot's "artistic talent" that is literally never talked about. What the fuck makes him so good? But then again, it's all forgotten as soon as it's spoken, so I guess it doesn't really matter.

I also feel like the author has some sort of an unhealthy student-teacher fantasy because WHAT was that between James and his mentor. The author goes out of her way to state it's not sexual, but then maybe don't write in kisses on the lips and the bathing? Legit made me feel sick.

Gods.

I should've DNFd this at 30%. Don't know why I wasted my time. I've read plenty of fanfiction written with more thought and detail than this.

[Sammy's Study · Rating 1 out of 5]

Damn, this was a hot mess...

Like what was that writing style? I was extremely bothered by it. And don't get me started on the 'plot'. This could have been a 100 page short story.

Frtc

[Evie Phenix · Rating 5 out of 5]

Important update: The Villains of Winter Re-Publishing & Free ARC copies

The Villains of Winter will be republished on the New Year January 01 2027.

Sorry for the late response. Thank you to the readers who reached out to me to make The Villains of Winter simplified and more accessible for readers. I am always, always willing to listen, and please don't apologize for asking me.

Free Copies:

I understand that some readers who received an ARC no longer could finish due to the early archive date. If you are one of the affected ARC readers, please contact eviephenix.com, and I will ensure you receive a free copy.

Thank you everyone.

September 14 2026

Happy The Villains of Winter Eve to all who celebrate! 🌙 BEFORE YOU READ: I am not an academic, intellectual, or an expert, I am only an insomniac with caffeine and a library card!!! PLEASE BE KIND TO ME 😭 Thank you to everyone tagging me on IG/TikTok/Etc on your creative posts!!! I will save them on my highlights so we can all remember the moment. I will see you all in the New Year 2027!



It’s been many solitary years of research and annotations, therefore it’s humbling and heartwarming to have readers understand me. 💛🌙




The Villains of Winter Anthology will follow M/M, M/F, F/F in different books in dark academia as I explore how academia affects men and affects women in race, gender, sexuality, etc. I made my social media accounts in June/July 2026, and while I am focused on my health, I hope to respond to all emails, Substack messages, Instagram messages, and TikTok messages in a timely manner. Thank you all once more.

Stay warm,
Evie.




July 2026:
Dear readers and intellectuals of the arts and the humanities, the autumn trimester for The Villains of Winter has begun...

A bit of housekeeping for those in need of content warnings and tropes of interest to expect. This book contains explicit homoerotic fiction, and it is not suitable for teen audiences such as my other works. Therefore, I have created an adult pen name in order to protect young readers. Further, to prevent my adult work from being misclassified as Young Adult, I ask that you keep my adult and teen work completely separate. Thank you!

Tropes:
Friends to intimate lovers.
Found family.
Intense romantic yearning.
Greek mythology lessons.
Roman mythology lessons.
Platonic and Aristotelian lessons.

Content warnings:
On page: Consensual sex, sexism, classism, elitism, ableism, terminal lung illness, racism, psychological manipulation, violence, character death(s), alcoholism.
Mentioned: Parental deaths, childhood neglect trauma, racial trauma.

A full list of content warnings will be available soon.

No AI was used in the research, writing, book cover art, or publishing of my work.

Have an excellent tenure at Æscwulf College. Stay warm. 🌙

[benjamin kade]

eARC received through Netgalley.
DNFed at roughly 5%. Some of the worst writing I've read in a while unfortunately. I really respect this author for trying to write a dark academia novel, but babes this felt it was written with a thesaurus rather than a human brain. I amount of gibberish this book was spitting is order to appear "sophisticated" (in my opinion) was beyond the limits of my tolerance level. I was actively struggling to understand some of the aspects of this book (like context, character relationships, plot, etc.) because the writing was so overdone. I'm sad about it and I think this one needed a lot more editing before it went out to readers. The cover is so pretty too :(

[Cleverly Chloé · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full RTC. Hundred stars. This book is unhinged in the best way. I sped through this book. The Villains of Winter is hands down the darkest dark academia book I've read. Sensual. Intense. Soooo deeply, deeply romantic.

I was expecting the storyline to have a bit of spice, but it has a LOT of spice once the characters fall in love. I really enjoyed the full-on sex scenes. I highlighted way too much hehe. I want to re-read them. Anyway, I loved how casually immoral many of the characters were and it made me want to visit the college and read in the underground libraries. It made me want to know more about mythology as well and I can't wait to re-read this one. The more I think about it, the more I want.

[J · Rating 1 out of 5]

Initially rated 2 stars, reduced to 1 star upon further reflection.

I signed up for KU for this especially as I was extremely keen for it. I'm a fan of If We Were Villains and a life-long Classics lover, the cover art is stunning, and the Pratchett reference was the cherry on top.

Unfortunately, I think this author desperately needed an editor and a proofreader. I raced through this, but not because I found it gripping or compelling; I just wanted to know what exactly the story was supposed to be after the mid-point. I can't discuss the contents without getting into spoilers, so I want to talk about the writing as the character-work was not a strength anyway.

You can place the exact timing of the inciting incident because the text declares it dramatically for you ahead of time. The same move happens a minimum of five times through the book, always along the lines of "He never could have known that x would happen" or "However, what he didn't know was..." The author either doesn't know how else to build anticipation or introduce dramatic irony, or just doesn't trust the reader at all.

A lot of Latinate words are used, understandable for the genre, just to excess, and frequently incorrectly. It feels like the author wanted to sound cleverer than you and in order to do that, they couldn't just say "dark," they needed to qualify it with "crepuscular". Many examples of this sort of thing. "Stupor" isn't good enough, it has to be "sopor," or else you might not know that this is a book for Adults. The text frequently bombards you with allusions and namedrops and quotations to the point where it at times it felt more like a weird guy at a party cornering you with crypto talk than interesting glimpses into mythology.

On the sex and a spoiler for a late scene: Yes, fluids are referred to as nectar and ambrosia. That's not the worst thing I've ever seen. I could go on about the odd treatment of homosexuality and sexuality in general throughout, but fuck it, we don't have time. There's one weird abrupt scene, after our guys have been been nectar-ing it up in a bro-like way, where James says he's bicurious and Elliott says he's also curious. About three paragraphs later they're talking about fucking and switching. It's not well done (the dialogue in general is weird), and that scene in particular felt like we'd detoured into a different book.

I think there is a compelling cult story and dark romantic thriller in there. There's just too much of everything else. It's a shame in a story that revolves around death that the author seemed unwilling to kill their darlings to trim it into something that works.

[Dana | Rainbow Romance Reader]

I was drawn in by the gorgeous cover and the promising description (psychosexual, obsession, betrayal? Hell yeah), but I couldn’t make it past the first 10% unfortunately.

The author’s writing style is incredibly overwrought, which some might find suits the dark academia vibes, but for me it made the narrative feel disjointed. I found myself being taken out of the story multiple times by their prose, dispelling the atmosphere they were trying to build.

I think this story has a decent opening and strong potential, and I would love to see where it goes, but I just can’t vibe with the writing. When a book feels like a chore to pick up, it’s time to put it down, I guess.

Thank you NetGalley and Evie Phenix for providing me with an arc!

[⋆⁺₊⋆꒰ ͜͡ ➸cait⋆⁺₊⋆]

🚨Kindle Freebie Alert🚨
Active as of: 11/03!
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if you like freebies (sales or arcs): join my group ✨ Freebies, Sales, ARCs ✨ for daily mm - and others when possible - freebies!💖

[eddie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC!

This book's premise really drew my attention when I was browsing Netgalley for my next read, and I do think it had promise. Unfortunately, it was let down by its pacing issues and a writing style that necessitated a harsher editor. When the plot picked up at key moments it was interesting, but I struggled with the slow parts and their wealth of exposition, and I did nearly DNF at about 50% before it started to pick up again. Without spoiling anything, there is one scene in particular which is completely skipped over that, in my opinion, should have been narrated in full. In doing so, Phenix could have made Elliott's sacrifices so much more visceral and leaned further into the horror aspect of the book.

The story felt like it told rather than showed information, particularly around the lore of the college. Despite the flowery writing, the characters lacked interiority and development even though the close third-person voice of the book provided ample opportunity to do this. The perspective often shifted from paragraph to paragraph, making for a somewhat confusing read when trying to understand the characters' emotional states. We are told James and Elliott are best friends, but the beginning of their friendship is barely explained and feels forced and underdeveloped. We are told Elliott has always been obsessed with James, but he somehow doesn't question his sexuality at all until about 2/3 of the way through, despite relentless teasing from his classmates. I also would have liked to see further discussion of Elliott's Blackness - his physical features are often described but I would have liked to see how this impacts him in a college that favours Eurocentrism and is not-so-subtly a cesspool of classism and racism. Considering this is explicitly written in the author's note at the end, this seems like a major oversight.

As for the writing style, it feels like Phenix overwrites the prose to fit conventions of the 'dark academia' genre. She often constructs unnecessarily long sentences full of long words that don't necessarily fit their context, and drops multiple Classical references in the same sentence heavy-handedly. I'm unsure if this is to 'prove' the depth of research conducted for this book, or an attempt to sound more 'academic', but the overcompensation was unfortunately quite immersion-breaking. One egregious example of the former is how often she uses "however" and "therefore" in place of 'but' or 'so', which often feels incredibly clunky and makes no grammatical sense a lot of the time. Most chapters' final sentences serve as an attempt at foreshadowing a major event later in the book, but feel awkward and juvenile.

This plot had a lot of promise, but unfortunately the book was let down by overwritten prose, underdeveloped characters, and pacing issues. With a good editor and a big rewrite, this would tick a lot of my boxes.

[Siavahda · Rating 2 out of 5]

The prose here is very, very purple. I LOVE super-descriptive prose, and lots of my favourite authors have writing that has been called purple, but this is purple to the point of, I can't always make out what the sentence is supposed to mean. In other instances the phrasing is very clumsy. Quotes as examples;

the air ripened of cider.

Pretty sure I get what this is supposed to mean, but...

Elliot had only ever seen a deer killed in the woodlands of snowy Connecticut, he'd never seen someone take a life.

...You have, though. You've seen someone take a life because you've seen deer killed. You've never seen someone take a HUMAN life, presumably, at this point.

nibbling their sips

This is describing how squirrels and rabbits drink. And I just. No.

[Ann · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

DNFed at 10%. I really wanted to like this one, since I love The Secret History, and I love dark rituals on a campus, and the writing style at first was very ornate, but unfortunately the author kept wanting to foreshadow everything in an extremely heavy-handed way before anything dramatic would happen. For example, the narration keeps going on about "if only he had managed to change his class on time, then maybe more people would be alive," or "he had no idea what was coming," etc, etc. It's a lot right off the bat, and the pacing is all off, with a lot of this narration breaking up the suspense and not letting any of the scenes breathe on their own. I personally just didn't want to continue reading anymore. Some people will probably enjoy this a lot since the writing and characters do seem interesting, but I did not want to keep going.

[Kat is Reading · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read. This cured my reading slump! It's not traditional dark romance, my mistake. It's dark academia with a toxic, obsessive love narrative. Dark romance books are very, very different. Dark academia is about aesthetic and obsession, and I was expecting an obsession with the picturesque, Shakespeare, but this was all-consuming obsession in a multitude of ways.

I wanted to read other reviews to see if my reading experience had been the same and it largely was. Similar to Babel, it's annotated, which I enjoy. But the book became deliciously dark and at some points, incredibly terrifying. I need to read a cult book now.

My favorite aspect was James and Elliott. The POV shift in the middle of the book to follow different characters was more seamless than I expected and I liked that we saw different aspects of characters, and we knew more about the secrecy from one of the characters. Particularly with the cult.

I want to come back to review with spoilers once more people have read it because there are like 5 parts in the book that are very, very well done that I want to gush about, but I realized the date is for Sep 15, and people haven't read it yet.

I highly recommend this if you like dark academia, psychological thrillers, and queer novels.

[litch! (cryptidcasanova) · Rating 1 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley and the author for the opportunity to review!

The cover art, the delicious premise, the yearning…this should have been exactly what I’ve been itching to read. Unfortunately, the authors writing style is so fretfully convoluted, any hope of parsing together a story is lost from the jump.

Sorry to say this was a necessary DNF around the 20% mark. I adore a rich purple prose, but this insists on itself a bit too much.

[anita]

Thank you NetGalley and Victoria Editing for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own

This book had so much potential, from the beautiful cover to the tropes themselves. I really enjoyed the beginning, even though the writing was a little difficult to get into.

Unfortunately, things started to become a bit messy as the story progressed. The povs began to blur together, and at some point,I started to lose track of whose pov I was reading, which made the story a confusing.

I understand that this is a debut novel, and despite my issues with it, I’m still excited to see what the author comes up with next. I’d definitely be interested in reading more of their work!

[Read with T]

Oh well. Got denied for the ARC but I will be sat here because I am excited for it anyway.

[Grace C · Rating 0.25 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book. The premise seemed engaging, and the cover is gorgeous, but unfortunately I had to DNF around 20%.

The writing style was my biggest issue. It felt like the author used a thesaurus for every couple of words to sound more academic, even when the choices didn't make sense in context. The prose was unnecessarily dense and flowery, and I constantly found myself pulled out of the story trying to figure out what a sentence was actually trying to say.

The writing also jumped all over the place, and I honestly struggled to follow what was happening. It desperately needed stronger editing—or, honestly, an editor. I know this is a debut (edit: turns out this isn't a debut, just a new pen name, and they have a publishing deal before apparently), but the writing simply wasn't polished enough for me to overlook the issues.

I know this book has received a lot of five-star reviews, and honestly, I kept wondering if we were reading the same book because I just couldn't understand the hype. Unfortunately, the writing style made it impossible for me to continue.


Also, to note: In the preface, it says there will be a glossary for the ancient Latin, ancient Greek, and other languages in the official publication and on the authors' website in the future. The ebook on KU is the official publication, and still no glossary anywhere on the website.

[Stress Reader]

The Villains of Winter ARC Review

DNF @ ~ 30%

I tried, many times, over the last ~ month, but it just wasn't for me.


“What will the myth of the fox and the swan be in the end?”


📚 Elite academia + 🏺 Greek/Roman mythology + 🩸 ritual sacrifice + 🖤 obsessive M/M romance + 🌲 winter horror + 🧠 philosophy = The Villains of Winter

Let me start off by saying it's obvious that the author put a lot of time and effort into researching before/during the process of writing this. And while it wasn't for me, I'm confident there are others who will get it and absolutely love it. I'm genuinely sad that I'm not one of them because I can see what the author was doing and it looks amazing. I just wasn't able to get into it, connect with the characters, nothing beyond surface level. And I need that deeper connection and immersion to really enjoy a book.

What happens when the pursuit of knowledge, beauty, tradition, and intellectual superiority becomes indistinguishable from cruelty? The Villains of Winter takes the familiar dark-academia fascination with elite institutions and pushes it toward something considerably more sinister: a world where mythology and philosophy aren't merely subjects of study, but frameworks through which characters understand power, morality, sacrifice, and desire. At its heart seems to be an intensely obsessive M/M relationship, but around that romance Evie Phenix constructs a story about institutional rot, secrecy, privilege, and the frightening things people will justify when they believe their traditions, or their love, are worth protecting.

The Villains of Winter is at its most successful when all of its different obsessions collide: academia, mythology, institutional power, psychological horror, and romantic devotion. It isn't simply a story about students committing terrible acts; it's interested in the intellectual and social machinery that allows terrible acts to become tradition—and in what happens when love becomes another justification for crossing moral boundaries.

Its biggest strength is also its biggest potential weakness. Phenix has created an extraordinarily dense, researched, referential, atmosphere-heavy novel, but that density means the book isn't interested in getting out of the reader's way. I found the philosophy, mythology, footnotes, and academic language cumbersome, even pretentious at times. The perspective shits were a struggle for me, too, as it wasn't uncommon for them to shift paragraph to paragraph. That caused me some confusion, having to reread large sections thinking I had missed something and greatly slowing down my pace while also frustrating me. The words spelled in difficult, non traditional ways, added a layer that I didn't enjoy. As did the phrases in other languages without translations. Having to stop to translate them slowed and frustrated me.

But if your ideal dark-academia novel is one where the aesthetic is only the surface and underneath it are obsession, institutional corruption, ritual, violence, mythology, and people discovering just how far they are willing to go for one another, The Villains of Winter has a lot to offer. Unfortunately for me, I couldn't get past the hurdles and really get into the story.

The author describing it as "psychosexual story of betrayal, obsession, and tragedy," alongside the blurb and that gorgeous cover had me convinced me that I would love this and so I requested it. Maybe if I could've powered father into it I would've loved it. And I really did try, multiple times. It started off so strong, but then it quickly turned and I couldn't get into it. Everytime I would kind of start to get into it, shortly after something would change and throw me back off.

As a fan of bigger, less commonly used words, I found the prose too pretentious. It didn't start off that way, but the longer I read the more pretentious the prose got. A number of the philosophical and academic passages were relatively long and those were a real struggle for me. I prefer to learn in a way where I don't feel like I'm actively learning. These passages felt like I was back in school in a required class that I didn't enjoy.

I feel like I have a decent vocabulary but I feel like this kept me disconnected from the story and characters. I appreciate what the author was doing, but unfortunately it didn't work well for me.

After the initial start, which I was so into, it delved deeply into what felt like Greek and Roman mythology education. It felt too much like reading a textbook for me.

“You know how they already regard men with our complexion, Hexley. Keep it together.”

I think there was going to be a discussion of racism in academia, and that was one of the things that I really wanted to finish the book for.

“You love no one and yet you are in constant need to be loved by everyone. That’s the problem.”

This budding romantic exploration was another thing I really wanted to continue the story for.

📓 At the elite Æscwulf College, Elliott Archway’s intense attachment to upperclassman James Wilde becomes dangerously entangled with an ancient winter tradition: every year, the students must offer a living sacrifice in the frozen forest. When a sacrilegious killing threatens to expose their secrets, friendship, obsession, romance, and the college's increasingly sinister rituals collide—with the winter demanding ever more blood.

🫵🏼 Best for readers looking for:
🏛️ Dark academia with a genuinely dark edge
🖤 M/M romance + intense homoerotic yearning
📚 Lots of academic/intellectual discussion and research
🩸 Horror, murder, sacrifice, and psychological darkness
🏺 Greek & Roman mythology, philosophy, and classical studies
🕯️ Secretive elite institutions and ritualistic traditions
🧠 Obsessive, psychologically complicated relationships
🌲 A gothic, wintry atmosphere
⚔️ Characters whose loyalty to one another can become destructive

🚫
• dislike dense, intellectual leaning pretensious prose
• extensive philosophical/classical discussion
• books where atmosphere and ideas sometimes take precedence over conventional plot momentum
• extensive philosophical discussions


⚠️ On-page: consensual sex, sexism, classism, elitism, ableism, terminal lung illness, racism, psychological manipulation, violence, character death(s), alcoholism.
Mentioned: parental deaths, childhood neglect trauma, racial trauma. See author's site for full list.

Thank you to Evie Phenix, Victory editing co-op, and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this eARC.

[Matt Tiu · Rating 5 out of 5]

First and foremost, this was the first ever dark academia book I’ve read so I definitely have no benchmarks whatsoever as to what a good book on this genre looks like. But what I can say is that based on the usual tropes associated with this genre, it ticks all the boxes like unusual character dynamics, pursuit of art and aesthetics, allegory to Greek mythology, Roman culture in the pagan times, and of course, murder within academic grounds.

The Villains of Winter alludes to the normal expectations that could be easily seen based on prominent books in this genre like The Secret History, If We Were Villains, These Violent Delights, but also taking a distinct voice and perspective on how the academe is a microcosm of society and how the rotten system and injustices happening on school grounds also reflect the larger societal dynamics.

By far, I could see how the author intentionally created characters to shed light to this narrative, and how the vast majority of the book lingers more on explaining the dark, psychological aspects of new adults such as obsession, limerence, post-traumatic stress disorder, and the youthful resistance in flipping the unfair practices that were embedded in the system which are very hard to tackle especially from a student’s limited capabilities and machinery.

Without spoiling too much, readers could expect the flow of narration focusing more on the plot development (which I found myself screaming at times especially during the 33% mark) and to be honest, I wasn’t expecting the plot to be such a roller coaster ride. Unhinged at times, and although there might also be too much darkness in the plot, the story also stayed true to the contemporary dynamics on how racial discrimination, power imbalance, and apathy were happening in the academia.

What I’m still struggling to come to terms with were some plot gaps like the Montclair patriarch’s situation after the altercation, unexplained closure about some characters which were introduced at the beginning parts of the book, and how the author’s discretion of limiting the number of villains could’ve been an opportunity to also give some dialogues to characters like the provost, rector, and other upper echelons who wields power within the campus.

I also noticed that the author’s usage of declarative sentences, lack of inflections, usage of hifalutin adjectives, and lack of appositive phrases that are typical literary devices in long-form fiction, both benefitted and yielded an experimental take on the prose that might not work for every reader. Nevertheless, it gave a distinct voice to the author and it adds to the academic style of writing which we normally encounter on published research papers.

Overall, the paganism approach to this novel, combined with Greek mythology, philosophy, Latin, art, and the larger stakes involved in this story (think about the fraternities and how their societal influence carries larger power and how students were normally recruited as proteges of this types of institutions) makes this book unique and an ideal companion piece to the ever-growing list of dark academia books.

Many thanks to the publisher, Evie Phenix, and NetGalley for the ARC.

[Vanessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of all I just want to say I am obsessed with this cover. One of the best ones I've seen in a long time.

This book was described as a queer dark academia book with betrayal, obsession, and tragedy and I immediately had to pick it up!

The creepy pagan vibes hit you right of the bat and while some of the dialogue comes off as pretentious, I found it really fit the characters and their view of themselves. I will say I didn't care that much about the philosophical conversations, but it definitely added to the academia setting helped set the tone of the story.

The cultish paganism in this book was very well done and it was very interesting how some societal issues were brought to light within even this isolated school. I also loved the chemistry between the two MMCs and their obsession and yearning and the type of chaotic relationship they had. And JAMES, he was such an interesting character.

Overall, this book is perfect if you want something a bit darker and has the perfect gothic vibes.

Thank you Victory Editing Netgalley Co-op for the ARC! All opinions are my own.

[A Girl Called Crow · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cannot overstate how much i loved this book. This is one of the best books I have ever read in my life.

It's extremely clever, well researched, absolutely stunning in every way. I love dark stories, I love dark academia, but this is just a whole other level. I'm used to secret societies having more demonic deities as idols of worship, but Greek philosophy? This felt like a Greek tragedy set in a modern world.

Plots and ulterior motives and more plots and cover ups and rituals and dark state secrets.

Is it weird that I REALLY loved the plethora of footnotes? It feels right at home with a book like this. Not only is it informative, but author anecdotes are really fun. So many quotes from different plays, works, and philosophers, I feel like the footnotes are a boon to the curious mind.

I truly and sincerely hope this gets made into a movie. It feels like Dead Poet Society and Killing of a Sacred Deer with a large helping of Macbeth. I'm sure there are other movies/plays that fit this theme but its 1am and I can't recall them right now.

This is my book of 2026 and yes im aware that Threshing Day and ACOTAR 6 comes out within the next couple of months.

Holy smokes.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received an ARC of this book at no charge. This is my honest, voluntary review. I'm currently at 55% and will update accordingly, but I've reached a point where I'm convinced I wouldn't increase my rating anymore.

The reason why I wanted to read this one was the promise of two characters willing to kill for each other and a college that accepts and expects murder. I was expecting a whole lot of emotions and chaos and being curious as to how it would end.

My expectations quickly dropped almost right after the beginning once I realised that the writing style doesn’t match my taste at all. I find it difficult to read, and frankly, I keep thinking the author wanted to prove she can use a dictionary. There are certain passages in the book that sound very awkward because of the word choices, and in between fancy words I suddenly got hit with some phrases that made me question whether this was edited at all (to a point where I searched both the front and back of the book for any mention of an editor), like “James brooded darkly”.

During the first 30% I got more and more confused by new information that contradicted itself, and things happened in a way that screamed “needs to happen for the plot” instead of feeling logical. Elliott wouldn’t feel all that guilt if he hadn’t handed over the keys, right? So why did they steal them first, in possession of a knife, with Elliott knowing they frequently beat up students? Why include all of that at all, if he gets them back (!!) just to hand them over willingly? What annoyed me the most is the fact that students fear the sacrifice, obviously, and the whole risk of punishment if you run away, but then I learn that you have multiple options to leave? But they don’t use those because getting expelled would suck for your future? There’s so much happening on those pages that doesn’t feel relevant at all, things get dropped and changed, and I would’ve given up if this wasn’t an ARC.

Only once we got to Lucien did it begin to grab my interest, and with the sacrifice and the aftermath there’s actual tension now. I get to watch people commit terrible things they try to hide as they’re all connected to one another, attempting to save their own skin. Unfortunately I still find a lot of passages that make me ask “but why?”, with information getting randomly included that would’ve been relevant in the past or some decisions that don’t help the plot (and we’re not talking about intentional ways).

[swathi · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me only few hours to read this book, and then a few days to process how I felt about it.

This was a confusing read for me, not because of the plot but because of how my feelings on it flip flopped back and forth with every chapter. There were some aspects I Really, really liked, like our main characters and their obsessive relationship, and the set up of the school and the pagan traditions they followed. This was my first time reading a true dark academia and I loved how dark it actually dared to go.

But then there were a lot of aspects I really, really didn’t like. There’s multiple characters and plot points brought up, that I expected to be very important, that were then dropped and never mentioned later. And there were characters and plot points that appeared in the second half of the book and suddenly were vital to the main character’s stories. The pacing of the story felt so slow at some portions, and at others we’d have major time skips during which I wanted to know what our main characters were going through. This all contributed to the main romance feeling so jarring. I don’t think I believe that our main two didn’t even realize their attraction to each other till so far into the book, let alone that they were interested in men at all. I would’ve loved to see more of how their friendship intially developed into this codependency, and have some setup for this romance later on.

I think this was all a result of trying to equally build up a complicated romance and a complex, horrific underbelly to the college that ended up being way more systemic and entrenched in the larger society than I expected. I know this is listed as the first in an anthology series, but I think this book would’ve benefited from being split into a series itself. Regardless of my thoughts, I did enjoy this read and will be waiting for more releases from this author.

Thank you to NetGalley, Victory Editing, and the author for the opportunity to read this advanced copy!

[Continuity]

DNF'd

What immediately drew me to this was the stunning cover. The description then sold me. However, this book was unfortunately not for me. I want to start by saying that the author is very kind and super open to criticism. I saw them mention on socials that they plan on reworking this a bit, and once they do, I will 100% give this story another go. I think the plot is very interesting, and I am always down for queer dark academia.

The part that I struggled with was the writing style. Phenix has an amazing hold on prose, but at times the metaphors can make it hard to follow what is happening. I also struggled with the constant jumping between past and present; I think if it were separated by chapters or some other type of visual marker, it could make the story a bit more accessible.

Overall, I am down to try this story again later down the line. From the numerous five- and four-star reviews, it's clear that my critiques are purely subjective, and many others didn't struggle as I did. Thank you, NetGalley, Victory Editing, and the author for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Melissa]

Lemme tell you I preordered this so fast. You are speaking my language with this book, Ms. Phenix. The Secret History is one of my favorite books of all time, and I am always up for reading the spiritual successors to it.

[vampire · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overwritten and redundant

[⚡eli⚡]

I had to double take - thought I saw a mix of some fanfic Draco with Eren's titan traits character illustration :D and I have glasses. I'm intrigued by the description, gotta wait for more reviews

[Maé · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me this ARC.

I stumbled upon The Villains of Winter while scrolling on Netgalley, as I had never heard about it before. The cover was beyond gorgeous, and the themes of codependant relationship, dark academia and cult had me applying for the ARC right away. This story is about Elliott and James, two best friends who grew close because of their accidental participation in the murder of their teacher. Years later, they’re studying at a pagan college, where they have a yearly ritual that one student will be sacrificed. Some students are also participating in a secret cult, where the members will grow to be the politicians of tomorrow. Elliott and James will have to survive in this environment, where the only refuge they have is each other.

“What happens to everything beautiful on this earth, Elliott? It returns to where it came. When it’s my end, I pray I can gaze up at you for the rest of time.”

The potential the plot had was tremendous. I genuinely went into the book thinking it would be a 5 stars read. I absolutely adored the setting, and the dark ambiance the rituals and cult built. Every page felt really intense, and I genuinely could never guess where the plot would take me. Sadly, to truly appreciate the plot, you have to be ready to be turned around over and over again. The pacing is absolutely inconsistent, speeding through or even ignoring life changing scenes for our characters, and then retelling unnecessary events from both point of views.

The ending was really disappointing to me. During the entire book, we have this buildup of James becoming more and more evil, as the truth behind the cult is slowly coming out. It builds a lot of anticipation for the big finale, and ESPECIALLY how Elliott will react once he learns what James did during all these years. Sadly… It never happens. I usually love open endings, but this one was so open I had to check multiple times if there was a second book planned for these two. It was beyond frustrating. It feels like the plot stopped midway through the book, and one entire chunk is missing.

James rested his head against Elliott’s inner shoulder for a minute longer in want. A yearning that felt akin to dying. It feels like I’m dying, atom by atom, neuron by neuron, without you. However, every time James took more, he lost everything. Every time he took less, he felt the ache of desiring more.

The narration itself was an absolute mess. It is omniscient from the 3rd person, but the author kept using more subjective narration, going to Elliott from James and so on again and again. I wouldn’t have minded it if it was truly a dual POV situation, but they kept switching narration subject from paragraph to paragraph, to the point everything would get confusing.

The writing only added to the confusion. Sometimes, the author wove words like poems, and they used genuinely breathtaking sentences. During most of the book, they used very complex words or sentences in foreign languages—which I wouldn’t have minded, but it added a layer of pretence the rest of the book genuinely couldn’t hold.Especially when, during some parts, the writing felt absolutely robotic. I’m thinking, for example, when Elliott and James discuss about their sexuality, or when they decide on a “green yellow red” code during their sex scene. The sentences felt so cold, without feeling, the phrasing was so out of context, it completely threw me out of the book.

In that moment, if he had to choose between madness and sanity, then he would’ve happily fallen into madness for Elliott. Madness was preferable to sanity, he decided, as the lessons extolled. For what was love other than a taste of divine madness?

The ONE thing that annoyed me the most in this book was the overuse of the “if X knew what would happen, maybe he wouldn’t have done it”. I usually love when the narrator spoils the reader a little bit, when it’s subtle and at key moments (the best use of it was, for example, in The Book Thief). But the author used this writing device EVERY CHAPTER. I started counting how often it was used, but I lost count around a dozen of “Elliott didn’t know this event would have tragic consequences”. It was infuriating, and I couldn’t help but genuinely groan everytime it was used.

Maybe I’m just dumb, but all of this only confused me. I genuinely do not understand anything about how this university works. At one point, everything was mixing up in my mind, the pagan rituals, the cults, the politics, and I genuinely couldn’t understand what was the point of anything. Elliott keeps switching course (at three different times in the book), and it doesn’t impact anything in his studies. Maybe I missed the point of it, but it was just entirely too complicated for me. Also, once again I may have misunderstood, but it’s mentioned multiple times James’ cult has people killed to study their body, yet, during the entirety of the book, no one ever goes missing except for the one ritual the whole college knows about.

“I’m terrified that I’ve ruined you.”
“You could never ruin me, Elliott.” James lowered his voice beneath his breath. “You’re the only reason I’m not more ruined than I already am.”

James had the potential to be one the best written characters I’ve read about all year. He’s very, very complex, in a way that reminded me a lot of Eren Jaeger from Shingeki no Kyojin. His drive to become a politician in order to stop the pagan rituals only highlighted the dichotomy of him actually participating in the cult that would actually help him in becoming a politician. He protects Elliott with everything he has, but cannot utter the words “I love you”. He criticizes everyone that approaches Elliott, yet never tells him the truth about what he does, even if it means putting him in danger. He kills people cold-blooded, yet wants to stop the pagan rituals. He’s a genuinely good character, but sadly the narration prevents him from being actually well written.

Elliott, on the contrary, is a bit infuriating. He’s supposed to be smart (at least, to my understand, everyone in this college is), but he’s genuinely too naive to take seriously. He lets himself be manipulated multiple times, by people known to be manipulators, and is surprised when it backfires. He has a genuinely good heart, but he never does anything with it. It felt like the entire book just passed him by, without him doing anything about it even if he’s the actual main character.

“I envy your soul. It feels everything. I care deeply for it,” James told him softly in comfort, and it was so close to hearing the words ‘I love you’ that Elliott’s tears willed themselves back. “I care deeply for that soul of yours, Elliott. Anima tua anima est mea. Your soul is my soul. It is mine. You understand that I will protect it?”

Their relationship was actually very interesting to read about. I like how it started in a completely platonic manner, even if they were already so codependant it felt like they were sharing one body (showering together, sleeping together, living together). The toxicity of their relationship only heightened when they introduced attraction, and then romantic feelings, to each other. They’re absolutely not good for each other, yet it’s almost impossible to see them without the other. I like that, during the ending, it shows Elliott slowly reaching for something beyond James, with James only grasping him even tighter. Once again, I wish the ending wasn’t so open and we actually witnessed how their relationship could evolve beyond these horrifying events that pushed them together (and especially how it could have develop after Elliott learned the truth).

The book is so frustrating to me: on the paper, it could have been one of my favorite reads of the year. But everything in the execution completely failed the story it was trying to told. The author mentioned it would be part of a series centered around different couples, and even if the universe is actually really interesting, I absolutely could not bear to read another one of their books.

[Vendea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanks publisher and the author for providing me an arc via Netgalley in exchange of the honest review.

The Villains of Winter had a lot of elements that I would normally enjoy: dark academia, morally grey characters, obsession, tragedy, and a beautifully atmospheric setting. The story is undoubtedly ambitious, and I can see why many readers have rated it highly.

That said, this book simply wasn’t for me.

My biggest issue was the writing style. While it is undeniably lyrical and literary, I found it too flowery at times. Descriptions often felt drawn out, and I occasionally lost track of what was happening. I also noticed a large amount of advanced and academic vocabulary throughout the novel. As English is my second language, I struggled more than usual with the text (and I am pretty good with harder texts after so many years of reading in it). There were passages I had to reread multiple times, and in some cases I wasn’t completely sure I understood what the author was trying to say. Readers who enjoy dense, literary prose will probably appreciate this aspect much more than I did.

I also struggled to connect with the characters. While they were certainly complex and intentionally flawed, I never became emotionally invested in their journeys. Their relationships and motivations felt distant to me, and I found myself observing them rather than truly caring about what happened to them. The murder aspect was another area where my expectations didn’t quite align with the execution. The murders themselves created an intriguing premise and added tension to the story, but I often felt that they took a back seat to the atmosphere, themes, and character dynamics.

The atmosphere was probably the strongest part of the book. It was immersive, melancholic, and dripping with literary ambition. However, it also reminded me a lot of Call Me by Your Name and Don’t Let the Forest In, two books that unfortunately didn’t work for me either. There is a similar emphasis on mood, introspection, and beautifully crafted prose over plot progression. I can absolutely see the appeal, but it confirmed once again that this particular style of storytelling is simply not my preference.

On the positive side, the setting was memorable and the themes of obsession, devotion, grief, and sacrifice were woven throughout the story in a thoughtful way. There is a clear artistic vision behind the novel, and I admire the author’s commitment to it.

Overall, I can recognize the quality and ambition behind The Villains of Winter, but the writing style and lack of emotional connection prevented me from fully enjoying the experience. If you love highly literary prose and don’t mind taking your time with a book, this may be a fantastic read for you. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the right fit for me. Unfortunately, this was one of those books that I respected more than I enjoyed, and by the end I felt relieved to finish it rather than eager to keep reading.

3 out of 5 stars

[Loz✨ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

I requested this e-arc because the cover was beautiful and was giving tortured, pretty, smart and snarky blonde mmc which is my all time favourite but it also happened to fit my dark academia reading vibe for this autumn perfectly.

Think ‘The Secret History’ or ‘The Maidens’ but make it a horror. We get classical references, philosophy and latin. But we also get pagan rituals, murder and the most isolated, eery academic setting that I’ve ever read. Oh, and add a side of mm romance with heaps of yearning.

I am going to be thinking about the two main characters for a long time. I loved them both but for very different reasons and the author somehow managed to make them feel and sound so different from eachother even when the pov would switch mid-chapter which is as impressive as it was jarring for the first 25% of the book.

I would say that this is not a book for anyone who doesn’t revel in academic references and the most purple of prose. There were many times when the writing felt overly self indulgent and took away from moving the plot forward but it felt more like it needed an editor rather than not enjoying the writing style. And I’ll admit that I found the ending of the story either unsatisfying or complicated and confusing… I’m still not sure which.

Ultimately though, this book knew exactly what atmosphere it wanted to create and absolutely committed to it. It was pretentious, indulgent, unsettling and deeply weird in a way that felt completely at home in its setting. I can forgive a book for being a little too in love with its own prose when I’m equally in love with its characters, and unfortunately these two have lodged themselves firmly in my brain.

If you like your dark academia heavy on the academia, your horror creeping and atmospheric, and your romance full of yearning, obsession and two men making questionable decisions, I think there is a lot to love here. It won’t be for everyone, but it was very much for me.