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4.13k reviews for:

A Lesson in Vengeance

Victoria Lee

3.59 AVERAGE

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

the plot was mostly lacking but the vibes were great

complètement timbrées
dark mysterious reflective fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated
dark mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I wish it hadn't been YA as I think the author then could have done more with both the depth of the characters and the plot.  If I was 14 (and had never read better dark academia books), I'm sure I would have liked this. But as an adult, it comes across as very paint by numbers for the genre. Nothing was surprising but the audiobook was well done. I likely won't remember any of it in a month. I recommend you skip this and read Plain Bad Heroines.
mysterious 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

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…
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

DNF. Reads like a Sylvia Plath novel.

what the fuck?