As I Descended by Robin Talley

Title: As I Descended by Robin Talley

Release Date: September 6, 2016

Publisher: HarperTeen

Pages: 384

Received: Publisher

Star Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Maria Lyon and Lily Boiten are their school’s ultimate power couple—even if no one knows it but them.

Only one thing stands between them and their perfect future: campus superstar Delilah Dufrey.

Golden child Delilah is a legend at the exclusive Acheron Academy, and the presumptive winner of the distinguished Cawdor Kingsley Prize. She runs the school, and if she chose, she could blow up Maria and Lily’s whole world with a pointed look, or a carefully placed word.

But what Delilah doesn’t know is that Lily and Maria are willing to do anything—absolutely anything—to make their dreams come true. And the first step is unseating Delilah for the Kingsley Prize. The full scholarship, awarded to Maria, will lock in her attendance at Stanford―and four more years in a shared dorm room with Lily.

Maria and Lily will stop at nothing to ensure their victory—including harnessing the dark power long rumored to be present on the former plantation that houses their school.


But when feuds turn to fatalities, and madness begins to blur the distinction between what’s real and what is imagined, the girls must decide where they draw the line. [goodreads]

My Thoughts

I'm drawn to this book because it's following two lesbians in high school and it has a similar resemblance to Macbeth. This tagline is such a hook, so if anyone's interested, don't waste any more time. The diversity was refreshing because I've never had the chance to read a premise like this. It's the idea of representation. There was and still is a lack of representation of lgbt and not all books are catered to it, but this one was.

I know the basic ideas of Macbeth, but not the entire behind the scenes. I do feel though lots of nerds would pick at this, but I'd rather enjoy it for what it is. But the small spark that got this going was competition between Maria and Delilah for a scholarship. We all know important scholarships are, they're basically free money. Maria is what they call a well-rounded student and her girlfriend Lily is going to Stanford. So Maria has to follow Lily to Stanford and this scholarship would send that ship sailing. 

But what the girls do so Maria can get the scholarship were a bit crazy to say the least. There were an abundance of ghosts. I think it was in the characters mind almost every page. I understand the author really brought the diversity wagon home because I'm pretty sure everyone was gay. It was a creepy, yet thrilling read.

4/5 STARS