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3.59 AVERAGE
3.59 AVERAGE
3.5 ***
dark academia lesbians writing a murder mystery it had everything to be so good and it was for the most paet. i didnt like how there was just this token black character and all she rlly brought to the story was a story abt oppression and the non binary sibling ?? who had no like impact on the plot at all i mean im all for rep but when its just there and serves no purpose to the plot at all i was a little hmmm. so half a star down cos of it and also the pacing was a little funny like it went slow and then too fast and then slow and boring again but when it was good it was GOOD. i went into this book knowing nothing and i think thats the best way to do it. oh to have a crazy gf who dedicates her perfect murder to you
dark academia lesbians writing a murder mystery it had everything to be so good and it was for the most paet. i didnt like how there was just this token black character and all she rlly brought to the story was a story abt oppression and the non binary sibling ?? who had no like impact on the plot at all i mean im all for rep but when its just there and serves no purpose to the plot at all i was a little hmmm. so half a star down cos of it and also the pacing was a little funny like it went slow and then too fast and then slow and boring again but when it was good it was GOOD. i went into this book knowing nothing and i think thats the best way to do it. oh to have a crazy gf who dedicates her perfect murder to you
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book was a bit slow for me, and even when the reveals were all revealed, I found most of them unsurprising. (I'm usually not good at figuring out "who dunnit," but I had these characters pegged from the start.)
The setting and time period were also confusing. Had this been a historical novel, rather than the characters just acting like they were from another time, I might have liked it more. As it were, the characters just seemed pretentious.
The setting and time period were also confusing. Had this been a historical novel, rather than the characters just acting like they were from another time, I might have liked it more. As it were, the characters just seemed pretentious.
What a rollercoaster of a story this was! There are so many things I loved about this book. Felicity being a somewhat unreliable narrator is maybe my favorite of all. Every remembrance of Alex’s demise makes it more and more unclear whether it was really an accident/spur-of-the-moment mistake, and not instead very intentional, especially considering the burial. I would have loved to see Felicity’s instability dug into even more, if possible.
Ellis not being innocent just because she’s queer and a love interest for Felicity was also refreshing. This book didn’t play to the expectation that it was all some kind of misunderstanding and then happily ever after.
Also playing with the assumption that magic would be a facet of this story was fascinating. The reader goes in to the story taking it for granted that magic is gonna be real, and the shocking twist is actually that it ISN’T.
Perhaps the coolest detail is that I’m 99% sure there are no men in the entire book? The principal and named teachers, the shop owner in town, the two cops at the end, the school’s founder—all women. Neither Felicity nor Alex’s dads are ever mentioned, and even Ellis has lesbian moms. Maybe I missed someone but I’m pretty confident there’s not a single boy in the book.
However, as many things as I loved about this book, there were plenty of problems with it too. The blurb claims that “history starts repeating” but that doesn’t really happen. Only one girl dies during the course of the book, and it’s only at the very end, and by that point there’s no mystery as to who did it or whether magic was involved.
Additionally, Ellis’s REASON for doing everything was very simple. I had supposed from her earlier comment about not being able to know the head of a psychopath that that was one of her main objectives: drive Felicity crazy and study her behavior intimately. But no, it was all just for the security that she could blame Felicity if she needs to. Seems like a lot of extra work for a crime that most likely never would have been solved in the first place. (Side tangent: didn’t Felicity forge a note from Ellis confessing to Clara’s murder? Why did no one address that? Ellis’s family didn’t seem phased by it, and Kajal and Leoni went to Ellis’s funeral anyway???)
I’m also confused about the title of the book. It’s called “A Lesson In Vengeance”, but who exactly is taking vengeance here? There’s no revenge to be seen. Neither of Felicity’s murders seemed particularly vengeful, and Ellis’s certainly wasn’t.
The book was fairly meandering too. It dragged in several places and Felicity revisited the same thoughts a lot of the time. And there was too much significance put on the Dalloway Five for how little they actually had to do with anything.
Overall, a pretty fun read!
Ellis not being innocent just because she’s queer and a love interest for Felicity was also refreshing. This book didn’t play to the expectation that it was all some kind of misunderstanding and then happily ever after.
Also playing with the assumption that magic would be a facet of this story was fascinating. The reader goes in to the story taking it for granted that magic is gonna be real, and the shocking twist is actually that it ISN’T.
Perhaps the coolest detail is that I’m 99% sure there are no men in the entire book? The principal and named teachers, the shop owner in town, the two cops at the end, the school’s founder—all women. Neither Felicity nor Alex’s dads are ever mentioned, and even Ellis has lesbian moms. Maybe I missed someone but I’m pretty confident there’s not a single boy in the book.
However, as many things as I loved about this book, there were plenty of problems with it too. The blurb claims that “history starts repeating” but that doesn’t really happen. Only one girl dies during the course of the book, and it’s only at the very end, and by that point there’s no mystery as to who did it or whether magic was involved.
Additionally, Ellis’s REASON for doing everything was very simple. I had supposed from her earlier comment about not being able to know the head of a psychopath that that was one of her main objectives: drive Felicity crazy and study her behavior intimately. But no, it was all just for the security that she could blame Felicity if she needs to. Seems like a lot of extra work for a crime that most likely never would have been solved in the first place. (Side tangent: didn’t Felicity forge a note from Ellis confessing to Clara’s murder? Why did no one address that? Ellis’s family didn’t seem phased by it, and Kajal and Leoni went to Ellis’s funeral anyway???)
I’m also confused about the title of the book. It’s called “A Lesson In Vengeance”, but who exactly is taking vengeance here? There’s no revenge to be seen. Neither of Felicity’s murders seemed particularly vengeful, and Ellis’s certainly wasn’t.
The book was fairly meandering too. It dragged in several places and Felicity revisited the same thoughts a lot of the time. And there was too much significance put on the Dalloway Five for how little they actually had to do with anything.
Overall, a pretty fun read!
This book chewed me up and spit me back out in the best way. I’m really into twisty, psychological, and dark—thanks background in psych and an unhealthy obsession with serial killers—but add in literature and a fictional school full of lauded and gruesome history and I’m here for it. This novel has it all. Felicity’s grappling with her own reality—her past and her choices—was masterful. I wish I could reread this one for the first time again.
Thanks Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.
Thanks Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.
Most of my most anticipated books this year let me down. Idk if it's because I had too high expectations, or they are just not my taste AT ALL, but I am tired.
First I gave this one star, because for me one star literally means there was nothing I liked about it, but giving it the same rating as my most hated book of all time (Song of Achilles) seemed unfair. Although the more I think about it, the more I dislike it, so I wouldn't be surprised if I changed the rating again soon. (edit: Yeah, it's a 1 star, sorry.)
It started pretty strong, and I was convinced I will like it, but it went downhill very fast. It honestly felt like a feverdream.
Let's start with the fact that at the end it was a totally different book than what it was at the beginning. At first it was this spooky, paranormal-like dark academia, and it turned into a not well executed mystery/thriller.
Not to mention that the few characters we had were one dimensional and they were almost the same. They were needed for the plot, but didn't have enough personality. Not like the mcs were so much better, but at least I had some idea about who they are.
[SPOILER ahead]
I came for the sapphics, but I got red flag after red flag and couldn't root for them. Not when the love interest was manipulative and made the mc kill an animal just because. And I mean she wasn't forced, she did it willingly, so after that I hated her, too. I'm sorry, y'all can torture people all you want, but animal cruelty is where I drawn the line.
And did I hear it correctly? The mc hid the body of her dead girlfriend after she killed her (by accident)? I could swear I heard it, but it was so random I wouldn't put too much money on that.
I told you it felt like a feverdream.
But after it happened (if it happened), I had to take a deep breath and convince myself not to dnf it (which I wanted to do more than I could count). There is one thing I despise more than being in the head of someone I hate and that is when the mc takes a 180, and it turns out she had an information this whole time, but I didn't know about it despite being in their head.
I thought Victoria Lee wil be an autobuy author for me after this, but thanks, no thanks. I'm out.
First I gave this one star, because for me one star literally means there was nothing I liked about it, but giving it the same rating as my most hated book of all time (Song of Achilles) seemed unfair. Although the more I think about it, the more I dislike it, so I wouldn't be surprised if I changed the rating again soon. (edit: Yeah, it's a 1 star, sorry.)
It started pretty strong, and I was convinced I will like it, but it went downhill very fast. It honestly felt like a feverdream.
Let's start with the fact that at the end it was a totally different book than what it was at the beginning. At first it was this spooky, paranormal-like dark academia, and it turned into a not well executed mystery/thriller.
Not to mention that the few characters we had were one dimensional and they were almost the same. They were needed for the plot, but didn't have enough personality. Not like the mcs were so much better, but at least I had some idea about who they are.
[SPOILER ahead]
I came for the sapphics, but I got red flag after red flag and couldn't root for them. Not when the love interest was manipulative and made the mc kill an animal just because. And I mean she wasn't forced, she did it willingly, so after that I hated her, too. I'm sorry, y'all can torture people all you want, but animal cruelty is where I drawn the line.
And did I hear it correctly? The mc hid the body of her dead girlfriend after she killed her (by accident)? I could swear I heard it, but it was so random I wouldn't put too much money on that.
I told you it felt like a feverdream.
But after it happened (if it happened), I had to take a deep breath and convince myself not to dnf it (which I wanted to do more than I could count). There is one thing I despise more than being in the head of someone I hate and that is when the mc takes a 180, and it turns out she had an information this whole time, but I didn't know about it despite being in their head.
I thought Victoria Lee wil be an autobuy author for me after this, but thanks, no thanks. I'm out.
I feel like I read a different book to everyone else. I don't actually have that much to say about this book because I just didn't care about anything or anyone. I was thinking it would probably be a middle of the road rating because it was easy to read but I realised during the twist that I felt no emotion towards any of the characters at all. I wasn't shocked at the twist, or any of the further twists/drama. When people died I felt nothing. I feel bad for giving this one star but I can't remember ever feeling literally nothing for a book I read.
The writing is fine but I felt like this book didn't really know what to be. It reads young but has mature themes (a sex scene, talk of sexual acts, drugs, drink) which feel out of place in the way the rest of the book is read. It was pitched to me as a witchy thriller but it's not really much of a thriller until the last third and it's not witchy at all. It's not spooky at all, despite what the cover makes it seem like. It has the dark academia aesthetic but it felt like something was missing.
My main gripe, though, is just that, as I've already said, I felt nothing for any of the characters. None of them are meant to be particularly likeable, I think the author always paints them as neither good nor bad. But I also feel like she shies away from making them anything else either. and that's when I realised the reason I felt something was off with the book was that I didn't feel anything at all towards it.
I would not recommend this at all to anyone in particular. I think the majority of this book would be amazing for 11/12 year olds but there is stuff in here that I think is probably not suitable for people that young.
The writing is fine but I felt like this book didn't really know what to be. It reads young but has mature themes (a sex scene, talk of sexual acts, drugs, drink) which feel out of place in the way the rest of the book is read. It was pitched to me as a witchy thriller but it's not really much of a thriller until the last third and it's not witchy at all. It's not spooky at all, despite what the cover makes it seem like. It has the dark academia aesthetic but it felt like something was missing.
My main gripe, though, is just that, as I've already said, I felt nothing for any of the characters. None of them are meant to be particularly likeable, I think the author always paints them as neither good nor bad. But I also feel like she shies away from making them anything else either.
Spoiler
I read the scene where Felicity opens Alex's coffin and sees Clara and felt absolutely no emotion whatsoeverI would not recommend this at all to anyone in particular. I think the majority of this book would be amazing for 11/12 year olds but there is stuff in here that I think is probably not suitable for people that young.
They say when you love something, set it free.
They should also say that when you love a trope, you force yourself to read everything that anyone has ever mentioned in the same sentence as that thing that you love, bringing suffering and disappointment but also just enough joy to keep you going in a toxic cycle, à la when I love a sweet so much that I eat it for every meal and snack until I hate it and then I remember it a year later and it starts again.
Initial reviews say this expression is "way too long" and "very specific" and "also dumb and who cares," but I believe in myself.
And also I believe that my ongoing need to read everything anyone calls "dark academia," even as this results in pain and disappointment-spiked illness on my end, is the right thing.
Because, again, I believe in myself.
This is a book that many people describe as many things. People call it fantasy, even though it doesn't really have any magic in it. People call it YA, even though there's mature content in it. People call it not YA, even though the characters are aggressively teenage and the whole thing has that adolescent je ne sais quoi. People call it a mystery, or a thriller, even though none of the mysteries are solved and no plot event contains even a modicum of the excitement that the word thriller should imply.
And people call it dark academia, when it is actually just unpleasant.
This book is no fun whatsoever.
Why, I imagine - nay, HOPE - you are asking.
I hated this book so much that I took notes while I was reading it. This is roughly on par with me declaring war on someone, or stepping on the back of their shoe so they have to awkwardly hop on one foot to fix it, or offering them a pack of fruit snacks when I have already eaten all of the blues and reds.
In other words, a rare and irrevocable act of permanent disgust.
Let's get into it. (I love to say let's get into it 18 paragraphs into a rant review. Feels like the good ol' days.)
A Lesson in Vengeance follows our protagonist Felicity, a girl who is very rich and very pretty but both of those things are like, so beside the point. Yes, she has about every kind of privilege you can imagine, but she's like, tortured, okay? And like, an intellectual?
She is returning to the world pretentiousness capital of the world, her former boarding school in New England, which is for all intents and purposes interchangeable with any other except for the fact that it was founded to be a school for witches and a group of friends in the old-time-y nineteenth century was inexplicably murdered one by one in a series of impossible crimes.
Pretty major caveat, no?
She had to leave said boarding school previously due to the fact that her best friend / clandestine lover died in front of her in a fairly gruesome way. Although the act itself would be gruesome regardless, really. Anyway, she's back and better than ever, by which I mean hallucinating, believing in ghosts, and generally being a rainy day on the parade that is being wealthy in the autumn at school.
I'm just saying - if there's a spot up for grabs in the Emily Dickinson building of an elite boarding school, I'm putting my name on the list.
Then Ellis arrives. Ellis is the seventeen year old winner of the Pulitzer Prize, who also somehow is a method writer and goes on grand adventures and gets grants and acclaim for what sounds like some YA genre fiction.
Only in young adult novels can this situation unfold, and we are all expected to be like, "ah yes, the Pulitzer is often awarded to debuts coming out of teenagers who write like John Green."
But whatever.
From like day 1 of meeting Ellis our protagonist develops a crush so huge and defining that she starts describing things as "very Ellis" and "incontrovertibly Ellis" and "so wonderfully characteristically romantically classic for this person we just met" and for a character neither of us (Felicity and the reader) know, it sucks bad.
Sucks extra, I should say.
It's hard to say what the plot of this is, because nothing that anyone does makes sense. This becomes a problem because eventually you are supposed to think some things are confusing, but everything already is.
Essentially, Felicity and Ellis team up (and hook up) to discover the truth behind the old-timey murders that I mentioned above. PLEASE do not make my mistake and get excited about this. You get approximately 10% of the information you want, which is just enough to make you think that that sounds like a better idea for a book.
But I can't stress enough that there is no real build or climax here, so I'm not sure what we're doing.
Sometimes the ending of a book can be a little clue of what was supposed to matter, because you get a Big Reveal, but while we do get a very silly Dramatic Twist, it manages to be irrelevant to every single potential story.
It has nothing to do with the historical mystery. It has nothing to do with the fact that Felicity thinks she's being haunted. It has nothing to do with the presence OR the lack of magic, so we spend this whole so-called fantasy kind of unsure if magic is real in it.
WHAT ARE WE EVEN DOING HERE.
On top of that, characters appear and disappear for no reason except diversity, like Ellis' nonbinary sibling and the two POC roommates who serve as the sole source of nonwhiteness and all of the representation minus Ellis' and Felicity's horrible tangled yucky romance, if you can call it that.
Finally, this is an annoying book with annoying characters.
I will not be speaking further on that claim.
Bottom line: I am going to call my experience with this book Suffering For Character Development and move on.
But not because there is character development in this book. There is not.
-------------------
pre-review
this is a bunch of weird creepy nonsense.
and not in a fun way.
review to come / 1.5 stars
-------------------
currently-reading updates
when i'm anticipating a book before it even comes out and then i wait 5 months before reading it, that's actually a compliment.
-------------------
tbr review
(chanting) sapphic dark academia. sapphic dark academia. sapphic dark academia. sapphic dark academia
They should also say that when you love a trope, you force yourself to read everything that anyone has ever mentioned in the same sentence as that thing that you love, bringing suffering and disappointment but also just enough joy to keep you going in a toxic cycle, à la when I love a sweet so much that I eat it for every meal and snack until I hate it and then I remember it a year later and it starts again.
Initial reviews say this expression is "way too long" and "very specific" and "also dumb and who cares," but I believe in myself.
And also I believe that my ongoing need to read everything anyone calls "dark academia," even as this results in pain and disappointment-spiked illness on my end, is the right thing.
Because, again, I believe in myself.
This is a book that many people describe as many things. People call it fantasy, even though it doesn't really have any magic in it. People call it YA, even though there's mature content in it. People call it not YA, even though the characters are aggressively teenage and the whole thing has that adolescent je ne sais quoi. People call it a mystery, or a thriller, even though none of the mysteries are solved and no plot event contains even a modicum of the excitement that the word thriller should imply.
And people call it dark academia, when it is actually just unpleasant.
This book is no fun whatsoever.
Why, I imagine - nay, HOPE - you are asking.
I hated this book so much that I took notes while I was reading it. This is roughly on par with me declaring war on someone, or stepping on the back of their shoe so they have to awkwardly hop on one foot to fix it, or offering them a pack of fruit snacks when I have already eaten all of the blues and reds.
In other words, a rare and irrevocable act of permanent disgust.
Let's get into it. (I love to say let's get into it 18 paragraphs into a rant review. Feels like the good ol' days.)
A Lesson in Vengeance follows our protagonist Felicity, a girl who is very rich and very pretty but both of those things are like, so beside the point. Yes, she has about every kind of privilege you can imagine, but she's like, tortured, okay? And like, an intellectual?
She is returning to the world pretentiousness capital of the world, her former boarding school in New England, which is for all intents and purposes interchangeable with any other except for the fact that it was founded to be a school for witches and a group of friends in the old-time-y nineteenth century was inexplicably murdered one by one in a series of impossible crimes.
Pretty major caveat, no?
She had to leave said boarding school previously due to the fact that her best friend / clandestine lover died in front of her in a fairly gruesome way. Although the act itself would be gruesome regardless, really. Anyway, she's back and better than ever, by which I mean hallucinating, believing in ghosts, and generally being a rainy day on the parade that is being wealthy in the autumn at school.
I'm just saying - if there's a spot up for grabs in the Emily Dickinson building of an elite boarding school, I'm putting my name on the list.
Then Ellis arrives. Ellis is the seventeen year old winner of the Pulitzer Prize, who also somehow is a method writer and goes on grand adventures and gets grants and acclaim for what sounds like some YA genre fiction.
Only in young adult novels can this situation unfold, and we are all expected to be like, "ah yes, the Pulitzer is often awarded to debuts coming out of teenagers who write like John Green."
But whatever.
From like day 1 of meeting Ellis our protagonist develops a crush so huge and defining that she starts describing things as "very Ellis" and "incontrovertibly Ellis" and "so wonderfully characteristically romantically classic for this person we just met" and for a character neither of us (Felicity and the reader) know, it sucks bad.
Sucks extra, I should say.
It's hard to say what the plot of this is, because nothing that anyone does makes sense. This becomes a problem because eventually you are supposed to think some things are confusing, but everything already is.
Essentially, Felicity and Ellis team up (and hook up) to discover the truth behind the old-timey murders that I mentioned above. PLEASE do not make my mistake and get excited about this. You get approximately 10% of the information you want, which is just enough to make you think that that sounds like a better idea for a book.
But I can't stress enough that there is no real build or climax here, so I'm not sure what we're doing.
Sometimes the ending of a book can be a little clue of what was supposed to matter, because you get a Big Reveal, but while we do get a very silly Dramatic Twist, it manages to be irrelevant to every single potential story.
It has nothing to do with the historical mystery. It has nothing to do with the fact that Felicity thinks she's being haunted. It has nothing to do with the presence OR the lack of magic, so we spend this whole so-called fantasy kind of unsure if magic is real in it.
WHAT ARE WE EVEN DOING HERE.
On top of that, characters appear and disappear for no reason except diversity, like Ellis' nonbinary sibling and the two POC roommates who serve as the sole source of nonwhiteness and all of the representation minus Ellis' and Felicity's horrible tangled yucky romance, if you can call it that.
Finally, this is an annoying book with annoying characters.
I will not be speaking further on that claim.
Bottom line: I am going to call my experience with this book Suffering For Character Development and move on.
But not because there is character development in this book. There is not.
-------------------
pre-review
this is a bunch of weird creepy nonsense.
and not in a fun way.
review to come / 1.5 stars
-------------------
currently-reading updates
when i'm anticipating a book before it even comes out and then i wait 5 months before reading it, that's actually a compliment.
-------------------
tbr review
(chanting) sapphic dark academia. sapphic dark academia. sapphic dark academia. sapphic dark academia
2.5/5
I wanted to love this more than I did. The beginning was so promising and the atmosphere was so wonderful, but by the end I was asking myself if this was the same book and how we got to the finale. No spoilers, but character motivations were all over the place, and i ranted about that fact to multiple people. However, I do give it props for the first part of the book being so compelling.
I wanted to love this more than I did. The beginning was so promising and the atmosphere was so wonderful, but by the end I was asking myself if this was the same book and how we got to the finale. No spoilers, but character motivations were all over the place, and i ranted about that fact to multiple people. However, I do give it props for the first part of the book being so compelling.
If you are looking for a sapphic, dark academia, novel about murder and witches (and let’s be honest, who is not looking for this?) this is for you!
I listened to this one on audio and absolutely flew through it. There were some fun twists and I loved the ending!
I listened to this one on audio and absolutely flew through it. There were some fun twists and I loved the ending!