Celestial Academy: Essence

Author:	Olivia Pharos
Publishing:	May 30, 2024
Genre:	Science-fiction, Romance, New-Adult
Series:	Afterworld #1
Length:	14 hours, 57 minutes
Format:	Audiobook

I thank Netgalley, the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), and Members‘ Audiobooks for providing me with this audio review copy.

Synopsis

In a post-apocalyptic world where Angels, Demons, and other fairy tale creatures made themselves known and took control over world governments, Wen White and her best friend Sarah barely scrape by as indented assistants to the demon lords. Wen is determined to buy them out by selling the only-to-her visible substance she dubs ‘Angelesence’ but when a deal goes awry and she is captured by the alluring and almighty nephilim Godric, she is carted off to celestial academy to determine what kind of being she truly is. Under the private tutelage of Godric and her other angelic teachers, she learns to harness her own strength, discovers millennia-old mysteries, and learns to trust in her ‘friends’.

My Experience

As we are thrown into the story it moves at a good pace and the double pack of humour in the writing told through Wen’s snarky personality had me gripped. To see quite serious situations and terrifying people made fun of was a really nice twist to the usually somber dystopian atmosphere. As soon as the plot progressed to the academic setting though, the humor felt overused.

This was also the point where the plot progression halted for a sizeable portion of the book and only picked up again at the end. Instead, we got overly extensive banter and inner thoughts, that took up so much space, that from time to time I forgot that Wen was in an actual conversation at the moment.

As more characters are introduced you get that the author shoots for the found family vibe that may come in book two, as Wen slowly combats her paranoia with strangers (really slowly though). I could have used more flesh to the secondary characters‘ personalities to get this thought across better so that they also mean something to you by the end.

Godric was an interesting character who would have shone with a little more to him than just protecting Wen.

The story was really intriguing in the beginning but the longer it went and nothing was answered with the simple explanation of ‘I can’t tell you’ or ‘I don’t know yet’ was aggravating.

As the end was in sight though the plot progressed again and gave me enough to be curious about the second book. As many plot points were set up and not addressed in this title I hope those to pass in the next one.