Reviews with content warning for Racism - A Lesson in Vengeance

When Felicity returns to her elite all-girls boarding school for her senior year, she’s eager to put her past of death and witchcraft behind her. But when she meets prodigy novelist Ellis, who needs her help with research for her new book, Felicity finds that her ghosts may be coming back to haunt her …

This book has been on my TBR for a while, but a friend of mine read it recently and then forced her copy into my hands the second she was done with it. So of course, I had to see what entranced her so much!

Five words: queer dark academia with murder! The vibes of this book are absolutely impeccable, and while the story unfolds slowly, the creeping tension really makes it work. Schemes rumble beneath the surface, the protagonist isn’t always the most reliable narrator, and the ending is absolutely WILD.

The characters are extremely pretentious in a way that felt, to me, quite tongue-in-cheek, so luckily I was able to enjoy their exploits without getting annoyed. A fun tidbit about this book is that there are no men mentioned anywhere in the story. All the characters are female or non-binary, and none of the plentiful literary references come from male authors.

Basically, don’t go in expecting a fast-paced thriller, but do expect an eerie slow-burn of a narrative that will keep you on your toes. This is definitely the kind of book you should read at night by the fire with a cup of tea and a storm raging outside. Just keep an eye out for any ghosts that might be lurking in your corners …

CWs: Death, violence, manipulation and emotional abuse, child neglect (past/offscreen), mental health issues, substance abuse, suicide references (no actual suicide), references to racist history at a PWI.

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niccolowilliam's review against another edition

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dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

It was good. Definitely kept my interest as i was reading it. Solid story. I love lesbians so that was nice. (Shout out to lesbians)

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tulilipz's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

wait what????? but i still have so many questions

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crackedspines_'s review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

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roryorrie's review against another edition

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challenging dark fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

A Lesson in Vengeance prides itself on being a dark academia novel, from the language used and the scenery — an all girls boarding school, tweed jackets, novelists, and secret lesbian romances. It hits the aesthetics of it hard and wonderfully at that, but misses the whole appeal of dark academia novels flat. That is, to say, the depth.

This book feels rushed, beautiful as it is, the plot is a mess. There’s so many attempts at little twists and turns that are never set up. The themes fall flat. The witch plot line is never fully wrapped up. It’s just… lackluster. I’m rating this two stars not because it’s so terrible but worse, it could’ve been incredible.

Dark academia is wrought with elitism and privilege. Barely is this seen in the novel besides a few mentions with one of the characters. It’s a bunch of rich girls playing up sorcery and magic for the sake of aesthetics and that’s… it. The protagonist mocks an occult of sorts that forms at the school, yet there’s no self awareness of how she’s doing the same thing. It’s mind numbing to see her preach about people only appropriating the aesthetics of a movement while the novel does the same thing.

The ending was painful to read. Again, it felt rushed. The character arcs were left unfinished, it didn’t make much sense for the tone of the story, etc. The book kept pushing and pushing Felicity’s supposed delusions as well as Ellis’s eccentricities as this acting. To me, at least, it seemed it was leading up to some breaking point of them realizing they were, at the end of the day, just incredibly privileged teenage girls. They had the privilege to ‘play’ murder and slaughter while their classmates fought for their lives for the spots they had at the school. Or something of the sorts, just something, anything, more than the surface level.

But nope. That’s it. That’s the book. Beautifully as its’ written, that’s the main appeal. The writing style itself is gorgeous as are some of the scenes.

Ellis and Felcity’s romance was very enticing to watch. I must compliment how natural the progression of the relationship was.

To throw in the murder plot ruined this. It just. It didn’t make sense to me whatsoever. Ellis did all of these violent things but at the end of the day, she was playing - acting. It was a cheap plot twist for shock value.

I wish I could rate this higher, I wish so dearly that this could’ve been more than it is.

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lizgriffinwords's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Delightfully twisty and saturated with dark academia vibes! The prose had such sensory detail — I could truly feel the crisp snow and the bitter coffee. Felicity is a truly unreliable narrator, sometimes calm & aloof, sometimes plagued by ghosts and creepy happenings, leaving the reader to only guess what is real and what is manipulation… until the moment all is revealed.

Content notes: death, murder, manipulation and emotional abuse, underage use of alcohol/drugs, brief discussions of lesbiphobia, transphobia, & racism.

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itsnotalakeitsanocean's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This book is decent but I don't feel it fully delivers on the themes that it sets up at the beginning of the book. It always felt like I was waiting for something more interesting to happen, which it did on occasion but not enough to warrant a higher rating. I feel that the author unintentionally pointed out in the acknowledgements section of the book when she said she had a notebook of unwritten ideas, and she chose several to string together.

Felicity and Ellis were both strong characters, but I think the supporting cast could have been better utilised. Case in point

the biggest contribution of one of the side characters, a Black girl, was to talk about the school's racist past and how her grandmother was one of the first Black alumna. Since she didn't really get much to do outside of that role, she came across as a bit of a caricature instead of the critique of how white academia is that the author probably intended

.

If it's one thing the book has going for it, it's the atomosphere. Lee manages to perfectly capture the feeling of a gothic boarding school isolated from the rest of the world, and the girls that inhabit it.

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