Emily Tesh

Naomi Novik's Scholomance series meets Plain Bad Heroines in this sapphic dark academia fantasy by instant national and international bestselling author Emily Tesh, winner of the Hugo and World Fantasy Awards.
"Look at you, eating magic like you're one of us."
Doctor Walden is the Director of Magic at Chetwood School and one of the most powerful magicians in England. Her days consist of meetings, teaching A-Level Invocation to four talented, chaotic sixth formers, more meetings, and securing the school's boundaries from demonic incursions.
Walden is good at her job—no, Walden is great at her job. But demons are masters of manipulation. It’s her responsibility to keep her school with its six hundred students and centuries-old legacy safe. And it’s possible the entity Walden most needs to keep her school safe from—is herself.

The Incandescent

Just because a book’s setting is a school, doesn’t mean it’s dark academia. This read more on the cosy fantasy/slice of life side of things, which I enjoy mostly, but i can’t get behind reading about academic tasks. It got very boring very quickly. The writing was beautiful though, kind of wish it was more engaging.

I liked the characters well enough, though the authors choice to describe people as “a such and such black man” or a “a such and such white women” (those are rough examples) was a bit odd. I liked that the main character is a mature teacher, as opposed to the regular dumb teenager we follow usually. I will say I went in expecting way more for the romance, which is on me, and it was barely there. We barely knew anything about the main love interest besides the fact that she was a hot butch with principles. 

There was barely any plot, the pacing was a jumble and it made finishing this book kind of tedious. The ending was also not that satisfying, but it wasn’t awful. It was solid read, I wish it had a bit more substance.

bel 

Just because a book’s setting is a school, doesn’t mean it’s dark academia. This read more on the cosy fantasy/slice of life side of things, which I enjoy mostly, but i can’t get behind reading about academic tasks. It got very boring very quickly. The writing was beautiful though, kind of wish it was more engaging.

I liked the characters well enough, though the authors choice to describe people as “a such and such black man” or a “a such and such white women” (those are rough examples) was a bit odd. I liked that the main character is a mature teacher, as opposed to the regular dumb teenager we follow usually. I will say I went in expecting way more for the romance, which is on me, and it was barely there. We barely knew anything about the main love interest besides the fact that she was a hot butch with principles. 

There was barely any plot, the pacing was a jumble and it made finishing this book kind of tedious. The ending was also not that satisfying, but it wasn’t awful. It was solid read, I wish it had a bit more substance.

The Incandescent

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