A Lesson in Vengeance

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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. It’s Ellis Haley’s first year at Dalloway, and she has already amassed a loyal following. A prodigy novelist at seventeen, Ellis is a so-called method writer. She’s eccentric and brilliant, and Felicity can’t shake the pull she feels to her. So when Ellis asks Felicity to help her research the Dalloway Five for her second book, Felicity can’t say no. Given her history with the arcane, Felicity is the perfect resource. A Lesson in Vengeance is at once dark and mesmerizing, with spine-tingling suspense and mind-bending twists. I loved it.”—Kara Thomas, author of The Cheerleaders and That Weekend

In July 2021, Titan Publishing Group brought the UK and Commonwealth rights for the book. [3] Themes [ edit ]

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Perched in the Catskill mountains, the centuries-old,ivy-covered campuswas homeuntil the tragic death of her girlfriend. Now, after a year away, she’s returned to graduate. She even has her old room in Godwin House, the exclusive dormitory rumored to be haunted by the spirits of five Dalloway students—girls some say were witches. The Dalloway Five all died mysteriously, one after another, right on Godwin grounds. The thing is, this novel is written through Felicity’s point of view in first person and when I started this book, I questioned that choice. Wouldn’t third person add more to the intrigue of the story? 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. I feel like my head is full of marbles, all of them rolling over each other, bumping against the walls of my skull, too many to count. I can’t think straight…”

Cold cases get hot in this unputdownable mystery series from Jennifer Lynn Barnes, #1 New YorkTimes bestselling author of The Inheritance Games trilogy. Witchcraft is woven into Dalloway’s past. The school doesn’t talk about it, but the students do. In secret rooms and shadowy corners, girls convene. And before her girlfriend died, Felicity was drawn to the dark. She’s determined to leave that behind now, but it’s hard when Dalloway’s occult history is everywhere. And when the new girl won’t let her forget. 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? The question isn't whether magic is real. It's whether I can touch it without being consumed by it.” A Lesson in Vengeance is the only book I've read for a while that fully embodies the fundamentals of what makes dark academia dark academia. There's the underlying sense of obsession around people and ideologies, for instance, so clear within ALIV (often missing in other novels called dark academia), and the subliminal homoerotic content evident within dark academia 'staple' novels (i.e. The Secret History, progenitor of it all) is brought to the forefront here and highlighted in the form of a sapphic relationship and two lesbian main characters. And do not get me started on the unreliable narrator - which though isn't a factor exclusive to dark academia, it adds another level of complexity to the fact that you're not supposed to really trust dark academia protagonists.Felicity fell in love with the dark from the moment she enrolled at Dalloway. She had to take a year off from school after the devastating death of her girlfriend and now she has returned to finish her senior year. She is staying in her old room in Godwin House, the most coveted dormitory because everyone thinks it is haunted by the ghosts of the five Dalloway students who died there under mysterious circumstances—many people believed those girls were witches. A Lesson in Vengeance is at once dark and mesmerizing, with spine-tingling suspense and mind-bending twists. I loved it."—Kara Thomas, author of The Cheerleaders and That Weekend

of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria LeeDark academia' has become a marketing buzzword over the last few years, and honestly I do believe that it's often liberally applied to books that don't necessarily fulfil the criteria (sorry). Dark academia is more than dusty libraries and elite institutions and blazers and books, and although that forms part of DA, it is only the surface layer. Update 3: So NetGalley decided to be very homophobic and not approve (or even deny) me for this book. AKA the book of my dreams, but it’s fine I guess because since it’s been published I now have a copy. I am scared to read this because I don’t want to be disappointed, as this is my most anticipated read ever, but we won’t talk about that. Dark Academia (obviously!), Unresolved Sexual Tension, Catskill Mountains, Mental Health Issues, Dubiously Accurate Witchcraft, Ellis Haley Logic, Slow Burn, Bad Relationship Exemplars, Poetry Lesbians, Ill-Advised Decisions Involving Ouija Boards and Skulls, Ghosts, Let’s Pathologize Female Anger No. I won’t let you ruin my life for entertainment. I’m not Melpomene, to inspire your next great and tragic art. You don’t have the right.”