THE OBSESSIONS TRIALS: APRIL READING CHALLENGE

This month, I stepped into what Ink and Obsession Bound calls The Obsession Trials—a dark academia reading challenge built around forbidden stories, secretive places, and characters who are, at best, questionable.

I won't be following it perfectly.

I never do.

I read by mood, by instinct, by whatever feels like it might ruin me just enough.

And so far... it's working.

Here is my first week of reading in the challenge and where they stand...

Trial l

Book: Zodiac Academy 4 The Reckoning 

Prompt: Rivalry between students (and very much set in a school)

Academic Status: Breaking academy rules

Mood: Slightly obsessed & emotionally damaged

There is something deeply dangerous about returning to this world.

Not because of the magic,

but because I still don't know who to trust.

The Heirs are the kind of men who make you pause.

Make you question.

Make you hope, which is, honestly, the most reckless thing of all.

They are powerful. Charming.

Infuriatingly hard to resist.

And yet-every time one of them softens, every time they draw closer to the girls—I find myself waiting.

 Bracing for whatever comes next.

Because surely it will.

The push and pull between the girls and the Heirs is relentless-a constant struggle between rivalry and something far more dangerous.

At this point, I should know better.

But here I am-

still choosing to believe, even when I know I probably shouldnt 

Verdict: Would absolutely return to this academy despite the emotional damage.

Trial ll

Book: Gothikana

Prompt: Forbidden romance (with a mysterious death lingering in the background)

Academic Status: Secret society member

Mood: Curious & slightly obsessed

Some places feel wrong the moment you arrive.

Not in an obvious way.

Instead in the quiet, lingering sense that something is watching... waiting.

Gothikana is built on that feeling.

A world of shadows and silence, where every hallway feels like it holds a secret you were never meant to uncover.

And at the center of it all, a man you absolutely should not want.

The professor is distant, controlled, and impossible to fully understand. The kind of mystery that doesn't invite curiosity so much as demand it.

The tension-between what is known and what is not, what is allowed and what is forbidden runs through every page.

Nothing is ever fully given.

And maybe that's what makes it so compelling---

 the constant pull toward something just out of reach.

Verdict: Entered for the mystery... stayed for the professor I absolutely should not trust.

Trial lll

Book: Enigma 

Prompt: Mysterious death (with a heavy side of obsession)

Academic Status: Expelled for dark magic

Mood: Slightly obsessed & emotionally damaged

Some stories don't unfold, they unravel.

Enigma feels like stepping into something already fractured, already shadowed by grief and choosing to go deeper anyway.

Salem is not soft.

She moves with intention, with loss, with questions that refuse to stay buried. Returning to the university to uncover the truth about her sister's death, she brings a quiet intensity that shapes everything around her.

And then there's Caz.

A presence more than a person.

The kind of man who watches. Who seems to exist just slightly outside of everything else.

There's something unsettling about him

and something impossible to ignore.

The connection between them isn't built on comfort.

It's built on tension and curiosity. On the slow understanding that some truths come with consequences.

And threaded through it all— that same signature touch.

The artistry,the atmosphere and the quiet beauty that is  layered over something more dark

Verdict: Came for the mystery, stayed for the man who absolutely should not be watching anyone like that.

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I am three books in and can say

This is what I love about reading 

Not just finishing books, but stepping into them.

Letting them change the rhythm of the day, and the way I think about them long after I've closed the final page.

And if these first three books are any indication

April is going to be a little dangerous.

See you next week with more Dark Academia!