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4/5
“Nothing evil can touch us like this. We’re dryads cavorting in autumn, wood spirits breathing out starlight.”
A Lesson in Vengeance follows Felicity Morrow as she returns to the haunting Dalloway School after the tragic death of her girlfriend; promising student Alex Haywood. But settling back into the creepy school campus is proving tough – especially since Felicity is adamant she’s being haunted and not just by Alex but by supposed witches from the school’s past known as the Dalloway Five.
Enter Ellis Haley, published writer and teen prodigy who forces Felicity to face not only her cursed past but also her sinister nightmares.
📖💀🌙☕️
As a lead Felicity is unpredictable yet relatable, you’re never quite sure what her next move will be and this is all part of her charm. Throughout the novel her choices and thoughts are a string of surprises that you find yourself either agreeing with or gasping at.
The concept of the Dalloway Five is exhilarating and there’s no wonder our protagonist is so fascinated with the occult.
The imagery throughout A Lesson In Vengeance creates the most inviting of dark academic aesthetics; bitter black coffee, dust covered classics, tweed and tartan, fireside talks and ghostly ivy-covered buildings.
At times the inner monologue verges on monotonous if not a little indulgent but nonetheless it fits into the atmosphere of the book wonderfully.
Lee also does well to add just a sprinkle of pretentiousness; be it in the dialogue or the setting but keeps the characters familiar and the plot exciting.
Spooky but not scary, haunting but not a horror; A Lesson in Vengeance is dark academia at its finest. This eerie coming of age novel is filled to the brim with LGBT characters, a supernatural ambience and language reminiscent of the writers the characters obsess over
☠️For fans of Ninth House and Ace of Spades☠️
Emily Vierke 