4.13k reviews for:

A Lesson in Vengeance

Victoria Lee

3.59 AVERAGE

chaoskei's review

3.0

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The first lesbian dark academia work that I thought at first had an exposition that was too slow and mellow, but the atmosphere reeled me in. Lee’s narrative style was beautiful; the diction was thought out and there were several lines worth underlining. The MCs are solid enough to be interested in them, but the side characters were uninteresting members of Ellis’s clique and existed for the sake of foreshadowing. This isn’t a horrible plot, but it falls off near the end because the act of vengeance isn’t impactful enough. The twisted perspectives and emotions of the MCs doesn’t escalate to the point of suspense, which is a shame because the pacing beyond the exposition was pretty good. Suspense should also be more than an unreliable first-person narration. Felicity questioning her sanity was a good hook, but then her panic attacks became predictable. The tension between her belief in magic and reality lessened overtime.

Overall, I still fell in love with the setting, the narrative style, and the strange chemistry of the MCs. I do respect that endings are hard, but I would’ve liked a little more thought put into the intensity of the rising action and climax. The MCs could’ve pushed one another to their limits…

rharrison_'s review against another edition

3.0

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

kaseybjohn's review

1.0

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DNF. Reads like a Sylvia Plath novel.

h0llygrace's review

5.0

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what the fuck?

lyriclorelei's review against another edition

3.0

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I really don't have many thoughts about this one, it's fine and other books doing similar things have been both better and worse.

booksarefriends_notfood's review

4.0

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

emkat1997's review

4.0

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

joliebean's review against another edition

3.5

dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Murder, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

gracecb_06's review against another edition

4.75

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

ebb_and_flow's review

5.0

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes