Common Sense Media Review
By Carrie R. Wheadon
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Magic purgatory school has stagnant characters, twisty plot.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 14+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Read
What's the Story?
In IMMORTAL CONSEQUENCES, students at the Blackwood Academy in purgatory look forward to one event every 10 years: the Decennial Festival. That's when one lucky soul competes in four trials for a chance to choose a different fate, either to become an Ascended and be forever tied to the school as an instructor, or to cross to the Other Side. But this Decennial, two students from each of the houses will get to compete, pitting the most talented against each other. The night before they're officially selected, six students—Wren, August, Irene, Masika, Olivier, and Emilio—sneak out to witness the latest arrival into Blackwood. The new student falls from the fake sky just as they did when they arrived, but is attacked by shadows and rescued by the headmaster only just in time. Wren and her fellow competitors are alarmed at what they saw and, as each trial unfolds, they learn more about the hidden dangers lurking at Blackwood Academy.
Is It Any Good?
This darkly alluring purgatory school-set story full of magic will certainly tempt readers, but the characters are hard to root for, and the more you think about the premise, the less it makes sense. Yeah, of course teens inhabiting purgatory come with some serious baggage, that's fine, really interesting even. But getting close to each of the six characters through a rotation of chapters in their points of view feels like a kind of purgatory. They barely evolve, even in a competition that has some serious high stakes. A few times, they try to help each other in the trials, but then it always seems to fall apart. It's only at the twisty finale that there seems to be hope for them to find connection and upend a cruel system.
The system is pretty cruel and a bit bizarre when you think too much about it. Why does just one soul graduate every 10 years? Just one. And the rest of the students are supposed to keep taking classes and living in dorms until one day they get kicked into the Ether. Do they really mentally stay 18, even as they keep going to school and more school for decades? College is great, and magical college probably way cooler, but how many decades before you knew everything? Like the afterlife, these questions can go on and on. Let's hope in Book 2 characters evolve, and this curious school along with it.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about purgatory in Immortal Consequences. What do you learn about each character's journey to purgatory and Blackwood Academy? How do the trials test their courage to face their past? Which characters have the hardest time facing their past?
Some students team up in trials and help each other while some students go it alone. Who is rewarded more: the students who use teamwork, or the ones who work alone?
What do you think is next for Blackwood Academy? What forces are working against it? What forces are trying to save it?
Book Details
- Author :
- Genre : Fantasy
- Topics : Fantasy ( Magic ) , Friendship
- Character Strengths : Courage , Perseverance
- Book type : Fiction
- Publisher : Delacorte Press
- Publication date : July 29, 2025
- Publisher's recommended age(s) : 14 - 17
- Number of pages : 512
- Available on : Audiobook (unabridged), Hardback, Apple Books, Kindle
- Last updated : September 18, 2025
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