NIGHTSHADE a review

Nightshade (Sorrowsong University #1)

By Autum Woods , 2025

I Just love how citing Shakespeare has become the new Indie Cool

I picked this up thinking I had found some secret indie gem of 2025—turns out, I’m late to the dark academia party and the rest of you are already posting annotated quotes and emotionally recovering. So here’s my slightly breathless, slightly unhinged two cents.

First: Read this before the sequel is out at your own risk. I’m not saying I regret it (I don’t—this book is chef’s kiss), but now I’m trying to manifest an ARC like a Disney villain manifesting a curse. If anyone knows a loophole, DM me.

Second: The emotional maturity in this book is genuinely impressive. Alex and Ophelia are layered, flawed, and shockingly self-aware in a way that doesn’t read like therapy speak. They process things. They grieve, lash out, freeze up, and grow. And they do it while navigating murder plots, mafia wars, academic pressure, and the kind of enemies-to-lovers tension that made me want to crawl inside my own hoodie.

Third: Yes, the tropes are loud. A heroine named Ophelia. A castle in Scotland. A dark-haired heir to an empire with an icy exterior and secret softness. But what Nightshade does so brilliantly is wink at those tropes—and then steer away just when you think you’ve fallen into cliché. It’s trope-aware, not trope-dependent.

There’s a broody slow burn. A stalker subplot. Unspoken trauma. Class tension. Murder alibis. Shared projects. Hand brushing. All the good stuff. And yet? It never feels heavy-handed. It just works.

Final thought: Read this mf book.

Just… make sure someone holds your hand at the end.