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A review by agoodgirlsguidetobooks
A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee
dark
mysterious
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
4.0
I had »A Lesson in Vengeance« on my radar for a while now, because doesn't witches and a sapphic main character and a boarding school setting with dark academia vibes sound like the best thing ever?
I think it sounds perfect, honestly.
Which is why I was a bit hesitant to pick it up. My expectations were high, like. Really high.
But I shouldn't have worried because »A Lesson in Vengeance« was maybe not everything I hoped it would be - but that's never the case when you are really excited about a book and have these images in your mind, what it's going to be like. It's just never what you think it will be, never, and that's fine - but I had such a good time reading it. Especially the ending. Oh boy, the ending was... something.
I think one of the reasons why I instantly liked this book was that the setting - Dalloway, it's a boarding school that seems to let its students extremely specialize in some topics like science or literature? - reminded me a bit of the Ellingham Academy in Truly Devious. It felt secluded from the outside world as if it was in the middle of nowhere.
Felicity and four other girls live in a house together, and even though there is a housemistress, she's not very present and the girls had had a lot of room to do whatever they wanted. They all were very interested in literature, and even though most of the authors or works they mentioned I didn't know, it definitely set the vibe. Very academic setting, I loved it.
And I loved the characters for how dark they sometimes were. »A Lesson in Vengeance« is told from Felicity's POV and she's such an unreliable narrator - I never knew if I could trust what she was saying/seeing and that made for a great reading experience. And she just was a bit weird but in a good way. I definitely liked her.
Ellis, on the other hand, was a bit weird as well and I also didn't know if I could trust her but she was also very very different from Felicity. They were an interesting couple to read about, even though the romance was more of a subplot. They were just interesting characters overall.
The ending, as I already said, wasn't necessarily shocking to me, but it did give me chills. I was so anxious while reading the last few chapters, and I don't want to spoil anything, so I'll just say that I really liked the ending. I just wished it would have dragged on a bit longer? The book lost a bit of focus in the middle for me and then the ending felt a bit rushed. For me, the book could have been around 50 pages longer and I would have been even happier with the ending.
So, in conclusion: would absolutely recommend this, I think it was a lot of fun to read about Felicity and Ellis and the setting was just very cool and in a lot of ways, this was exactly what I wanted.
I think it sounds perfect, honestly.
Which is why I was a bit hesitant to pick it up. My expectations were high, like. Really high.
But I shouldn't have worried because »A Lesson in Vengeance« was maybe not everything I hoped it would be - but that's never the case when you are really excited about a book and have these images in your mind, what it's going to be like. It's just never what you think it will be, never, and that's fine - but I had such a good time reading it. Especially the ending. Oh boy, the ending was... something.
I think one of the reasons why I instantly liked this book was that the setting - Dalloway, it's a boarding school that seems to let its students extremely specialize in some topics like science or literature? - reminded me a bit of the Ellingham Academy in Truly Devious. It felt secluded from the outside world as if it was in the middle of nowhere.
Felicity and four other girls live in a house together, and even though there is a housemistress, she's not very present and the girls had had a lot of room to do whatever they wanted. They all were very interested in literature, and even though most of the authors or works they mentioned I didn't know, it definitely set the vibe. Very academic setting, I loved it.
And I loved the characters for how dark they sometimes were. »A Lesson in Vengeance« is told from Felicity's POV and she's such an unreliable narrator - I never knew if I could trust what she was saying/seeing and that made for a great reading experience. And she just was a bit weird but in a good way. I definitely liked her.
Ellis, on the other hand, was a bit weird as well and I also didn't know if I could trust her but she was also very very different from Felicity. They were an interesting couple to read about, even though the romance was more of a subplot. They were just interesting characters overall.
The ending, as I already said, wasn't necessarily shocking to me, but it did give me chills. I was so anxious while reading the last few chapters, and I don't want to spoil anything, so I'll just say that I really liked the ending. I just wished it would have dragged on a bit longer? The book lost a bit of focus in the middle for me and then the ending felt a bit rushed. For me, the book could have been around 50 pages longer and I would have been even happier with the ending.
So, in conclusion: would absolutely recommend this, I think it was a lot of fun to read about Felicity and Ellis and the setting was just very cool and in a lot of ways, this was exactly what I wanted.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death