Reviewed:
This is an excellent story of a group of bright young people coming together into a polycule / collective, of the sort that aroslav has done well many times before. I love this aspect, especially how the male MC is for once explicitly not the harem leader. I also really like the art school details, which have the same verisimilitude as his Model Student stories. I have issues though, and they all deal with the ways this work is misframed.
First is the description, which seems to promise something more paranormal than what we actually get. Then there’s the jagged opening chapters, which seem to promise something with more sharp edges than the rest. (Frankly, I wouldn’t blame anyone for not continuing after that opening — it put me off twice before I finally read the rest.) And finally there’s the ending, which is a stopping point (the end of the first year of university) and not a conclusion, with an explicit promise of another installment we have yet to see.
That last is, honestly, the biggest hesitation I have with recommending this, but I hate serials and really, really want the whole story in one swoop thankyouveddymuch. So far as this goes, this is a great story and with an appealing MC and surrounding cast. I can see rereading it, often. And yet. And yet …
Good art, badly framed.