Hello, everyone! Today I’m discussing my thoughts on my most recent DNF, Honor & Heresy by Max Francis. I don’t always discuss my DNFs, but this book was such a huge disappointment for me. So, I need to rant a bit to get over the grief I hold for what this book could’ve been.

Instagram sensation Max Francis makes his highly anticipated debut with this atmospheric, gothic, dark academic fantasy of two scholars racing each other to find answers to an invasion in a haunted library, perfect for fans of Katabasis and A Study in Drowning.

Roy Dawnseve cares more for philosophy than battle. But, in a society that shuns literature in favour of their ongoing war, Roy must face a difficult choice: brave the front lines or investigate the identity of their foes in the Orphic Basilica, an ancient, abandoned library.

When Roy chooses to unravel the mystery, it soon becomes clear that the Orphic Basilica isn’t without its own horrors. Strange voices echo down the halls, ghosts roam the bookshelves, and those who stepped foot in the library have either emerged insane or were driven to their own demise.

Roy’s partner in the investigation is Percival Atherton, a manipulative, enigmatic and distractingly charming scholar who has no qualms about belittling Roy. As a fierce snowstorm isolates them from civilisation, Roy and Percival must grapple with their tormented pasts, an unexpected romance, and an age-old conspiracy whose secrets are certain to wipe Northgard from history.

Filled with all the yearning of a rivals-to-lovers romance, the intrigue and fear of a dark academia, and the wonder and discovery of an epic fantasy, Honour & Heresy is ultimately a story of self-discovery amidst the chaos of war and a long, cold winter.

***Thank you to Harper Voyager for providing an advanced copy of the book via NetGalley. My review contains my honest thoughts about my reading experience.***

Honor & Heresy was one of my most anticipated books of the year. I’ve been waiting to read this book for YEARS. I have been a follower of the author on Instagram for a long time now and have been eagerly awaiting his debut book since the first promo he posted. It sounded like a book that was written for me. A mix of dark academia, gothic vibes, a magical library, and a slow burn rivals-to-lovers MM romance? Those are all of my favorite things, which is why I find it baffling that I hated this book so much I couldn’t finish it.

The writing in Honor & Heresy was clunky and difficult to read from the very first page. Unfortunately, it never got better in the third of the book I read. The scenes were often hard to follow, and I found myself going back to re-read parts to make sure it wasn’t just me misremembering things. Nope. There were just lots of things that didn’t line up. For example, at the beginning of a scene it was just after breakfast and already daylight, but later in the scene one of the characters is lit by moonlight. The conversation lasted the whole day? Nope, because the next chapter picked up at lunch. lol. There were other similar timeline issues that just made me frustrated while reading. All of the writing just felt super messy and in need of some serious editing.

The world-building in Honor & Heresy, at least the part I read, was also messy AF. The world was dystopian and anti-intellectual with scholars being persecuted and killed by the government. That could have been cool, but there was no substance to it. There was also a war going on, but the whole thing just felt like a backdrop. So many of the details about the world left me scratching my head in confusion. The one thing about this book that I found intriguing, though, was the library. It seemed to hold so many secrets, and I almost kept reading the book just to find out the answers to its mysteries. The building felt like a character of its own, which was kind of cool. I just wish all of the other world-building and plot setup hadn’t felt like they only existed to get these two people trapped in the library.

As for the characters in Honor & Heresy, they felt a bit too much like caricatures. Roy was the sheltered rich kid with family drama, and Percival was a pretty awful snotty know-it-all. Percival was so mean to Roy when they first met for absolutely no reason. Then they had several heated conversations that seemed to go round and round in circles before finally agreeing to work separately. Percival seemed to need an academic antagonist to stay motivated in his work, as if the world-ending stakes and threat of death weren’t enough. So, he tried to make an enemy out of Roy for no reason, or at least that’s what I got from their first few long-winded arguments. Ugh. It was just all so unnecessarily tedious when they could’ve been exploring this really cool library. The place was huge and full of history and books that had been banned. There was more than enough space for both of their egos and then some, but no. They had to act like children instead of the scholars they supposedly were.

All of this considered, I chose to DNF the book at 29%. I can only hope that this book got some serious editing before it went to print. The story definitely needed a lot more work. I honestly still don’t understand how I didn’t love this book. I usually love dark academia with lots of research/school content and awful characters who spend lots of time pontificating on how smart they are. This story just wasn’t it, though.

There you have it! My rant about Honor & Heresy by Max Francis. Did you give this book at shot? Let me know your thoughts down in the comments!