A review by whimsyful
The Incandescent by Emily Tesh

medium-paced

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

4.0

Magical boarding school but from the perspective of the teachers. Liked a lot of what it was doing: the minutiae of being a teacher and running a school, how Walden is very much a flawed protagonist who thinks she's too old and experienced to fuck up like her teenage students, only to turn around and cause an even bigger mess. But it didn't quite gel together for me and I'm still chewing over why. Part of it is how the social commentary about the privileges of Chetwood doesn't really resolve, and part of it is the whole Mark subplot, which dragged the pacing down because he was so obviously bad news. Overall I found it interesting but flawed, and as an entry in the "former teacher writes their Thoughts About Teaching filtered through a genre lens" not as brilliant as Kanae Minato's Confessions.