Immortal Consequences (The Souls of Blackwood Academy, #1) by I.V. Marie
on July 29, 2025
ISBN: 059389880X
Genres: Fantasy
Format: Young Adult
Goodreads

Immortal Consequences is a dark academia fantasy about a group of students in school at a magical academy in the afterlife. Each of them is responsible for finding souls who can’t pass on for some reason and helping them move on to their afterlife. Every ten years there’s a Decennial where a student is chosen to be the next ascended. Ascended students have special magic and help manage the school. However, as the students start the Decennial, it turns into a competition, and the dark secrets of the school and each of the contestants start to come to light.

This book has a lot of elements that other popular YA novels have: a competition, a magical academy, elements of suspense and mystery, alternating points of view, and young adults realizing that they’re actually living in a dystopia. Though this is fantasy, there are plenty of realistic elements — suspense, mystery, friendship and romance dynamics, feeling good enough, etc.—that would appeal to those who don’t love fantasy. A few of the characters are in love with each other, which will appeal to romantasy lovers, but, since it’s not the main storyline, it also won’t deter those who aren’t looking for romance.

This book was solidly four stars for me: Though it was engaging and fast paced in some parts —and I really appreciated the twists and turns, especially the ones I didn’t see coming—some other parts felt slow and over-explained or overly complicated. On the whole, though, this would be a great purchase for any library that serves young adults, particularly those who like romantasy, dark academia, competitions, or alternating points of view.

Reviewed by Katy Jones, Gardiner Area High School Library, Gardiner