Book Review: ‘Gothikana’ by RuNyx

I went into ‘Gothikana’ expecting a grand ole’ time and for the majority of the book, that’s exactly what I got. I wasn’t expecting a masterpiece or anything prize-worthy, but I anticipated having a fun time - it pretty much delivered!

In case you’ve missed the BookTok hype on this one, here’s what it’s all about:

“If this is madness,” she whispered almost against his lips, “drown me in it.”

Corvina Clemm is a woman with secrets. The last thing she expects to receive is an admission letter from the University of Verenmore, a place just as secretive.

A castle atop a mountain, Verenmore is steeped in shadows, deceit and death, a place where students have been disappearing every five years for over a century. As Corvina becomes caught up in unravelling the clues to solve the mystery, her path collides with Vad Deverell, her enigmatic professor.

Vad, too, is a man with secrets. And he cannot allow Corvina to get close enough to discover what he hides. But whenever she is near, his heart and soul yearn to possess her.

As Corvina and Vad become more and more entangled, their passion for each other could be the very thing to solve the mystery of Verenmore – or it could bring them both down in flames.

Honestly, the synopsis isn’t quite what you get with ‘Gothikana’ - it suggests at a lot more plot than there actually is.

I flew through the first 60% of this book and I was enjoying it immensely - it’s silly and fun, but also dark and a little mysterious. Then I had a few days off, and when I went back to it, I just wanted it to be done. What I found silly and fun initially started to annoy me.

Corvina has zero agency. Her entire existence pivots around Vad. Corvina does nothing out of her own interest, her own motivation, her own anything - she floats around after Vad, entirely at his beck and call. For a relationship to be at the heart of a nearly-500 page novel, it needs to be worthy of that attention and Vad is an absolute creep so it just made me uncomfortable. The power imbalance between them is significant and he is controlling and manipulative, while she naive, innocent and not ready for this world she found herself in. Every interaction and sexual encounter they had was uncomfortable to read - I couldn’t get behind the relationship at all.

Placing the relationship over every other element of plot also meant that so many of the mystery elements in the ‘plot’ were mostly left unresolved, or if they were resolved if was abrupt and unsatisfying. Everything was completely sacrificed in favour of the romance, leaving not much else to hold on to.

While I was initially hoping for a fun read, I got a little caught up in how unsettling the romance felt to me and it pretty much curtailed my enjoyment of everything else.

I can understand why it’s loved, it’s just not for me.

You can listen to the full podcast episode here

Have you read ‘Gothikana’?

Written by Sophie