Review: Killing November by Adriana Mather

November Adley’s life changes instantly when she arrives at Academy Absconditi. 1) She has no idea where the school is located. 2) Instead of math and english, she’s enrolled in knife throwing, body language reading and accents. 3) The students are ruthless and competitive to the point where November fears her physical safety. 

November wakes up in a lounge at the school having no idea how she got there. To make this worse, her roommate Layla and Headmaster Blackwood won’t tell her anything about the school and its strange students. Layla thinks November’s playing dumb to get ahead. But seriously, she doesn’t know a thing and is tired of being kept in the dark.

Keep your head down and don’t make enemies, but that’s easier said than done. After only a few days she managed to get punched in the face by a stranger, get threatened by multiple students and receive a few demerits along the way. The longer she’s there, the more apparent it is that somebody is out to get her. 

And how is her family involved in all this craziness? November begins to unravel the fact that it’s more than just a school for gifted students. These kids belong to important families of some kind. Yet, how could November, from small town Connecticut, have anything in common with students who spent their whole lives preparing for Absconditi?

Killing November has been on our TBR for a while and it had us hooked from page one. Imagine being in November’s shoes and questioning everything about your life? 

Without spoiling the reason November went to the school, it’s really interesting how Adler set up this fictional world. It gave us some Conspiracy of Us and Blood For Blood vibes. It’s much more complicated than we thought.

We also enjoyed the friendship between Layla and November. Layla can be hard to get along with, but once you’ve earned her trust, she’s fiercely loyal. Plus, her hot twin brother, Ash, makes for a perfect romance. While Ash and November didn’t get enough alone time, it’s only been a few weeks. We can’t wait to see their relationship grow in book 2.

Warning: This book can get super dark. Academy Absconditi upholds the eye for an eye punishment system. We were surprised how far the Headmaster took this rule.

The ending had us nervous for November because there were a lot of people who wanted to see her dead. Plus, the person behind it all might just be someone she trusted. Remember, November was advised not to trust anyone and never mention anything personal about herself. 

The last couple chapters set up book 2, Hunting November, which we plan on reading ASAP. November and Ash have a lot of work to do if they want to survive.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️