This is a "dark academia" book about a down-on-her-luck college dropout Lennon who receives a mysterious phone call congratulating her on being accepted to the interview stage at Drayton College, a place she's never heard of and that she definitely didn't apply to. Drayton is a place where people learn the (magic) art of "persuasion", of forcing other people and sometimes the world into doing whatever you want (at the cost of great physical pain and harm). See also: exlusive school clubs and social hierarchy, an incredibly problematic relationship with mysterious academic advisor Dante, and unspoken mysteries about the school itself and its past.

This book's plot pulled me along via reveals about the world and Dante, but character-wise it was far too light. It felt like plot rather than personality pushed the characters forward; I got to the end and didn't feel like I had a solid sense of who anybody was. There were also a number of worldbuilding details that I wished got built on more, but were only mentioned offhand or for a plot point and then not brought up again. My overall conclusion was that I enjoyed this as I read it, but the more I marinated on it, the more shallow it felt.