A Lesson in Vengeance

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I absolutely had issues putting this book down!! It was sooo addictive and I couldn’t wait to see what happened!! I usually don’t enjoy unreliable main characters, but I couldn’t help but like Felicity. She is just broken in a way that tugged at my heart strings and drew me in from the first couple of chapters. Hell, I was drawn in from the blurb on the book!! Then Ellis… oh our dear, dear Ellis… I came for the sapphics, but I got red flag after red flag and couldn't root for them. Not when the love interest was manipulative and made the mc kill an animal just because. And I mean she wasn't forced, she did it willingly, so after that I hated her, too. I'm sorry, y'all can torture people all you want, but animal cruelty is where I drawn the line.

And also I believe that my ongoing need to read everything anyone calls "dark academia," even as this results in pain and disappointment-spiked illness on my end, is the right thing. Sometimes the ending of a book can be a little clue of what was supposed to matter, because you get a Big Reveal, but while we do get a very silly Dramatic Twist, it manages to be irrelevant to every single potential story. this book is a lot of firsts for me. for one, it's my first book with a canonically nonbinary/trans character. as a trans author myself, this feels so validating, to be able to write a character like myself into a mainstream piece of fiction. it's also my first book with a big five publisher, that will be carried in bookstores. and i can't wait to share felicity and ellis' world with you all.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.

Let’s talk for a moment about how well written this is too. The worlds are practically lyrical, they’re put together that well. I love books that have a certain rhythm to them and keep the reader entertained at the same time. I’d have to say that this is the most well written book I’ve read this year thus far. Draws you in and never let’s go, but the voice it’s written in is just perfect. The material "is patently offensive in the description or depiction of nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement, sadomasochistic abuse, or excretion" [15] A dark, twisty thriller about a centuries-old, ivy-covered boarding school haunted by its history of witchcraft and two girls dangerously close to digging up the past. The dangerous romance and atmospheric setting makes it a perfect read for fans of dark academia. There was one big exception to the transparent bit, though. Something I definitely didn't see coming. And I loved it? I don't think many will. Infact, I think the ending in general will be polarizing. You've been warned!The book touches on issues such as gendered depictions of mental illness in fiction and problems with elite boarding school society, such as classism and racism. [4] The book has been described by several commentators as fitting into the dark academia aesthetic. [5] [6] [7] Reception [ edit ] What strikes me most about A Lesson in Vengeance is the atmosphere. It’s vivid and disquieting, full of the occult and a sinister sense of foreboding. Lee has effortlessly combined atmospheric writing with an intense, academic setting to create a dark academia novel for the ages. With elbow patches, thesis topics and poetry readings in the woods at 3am, this novel has taken the cornerstones of dark academia and ran with them. The writing is beautiful and lends itself perfectly to the unsettling, haunting nature of the story.

the characters are so... shallow? even felicity and ellis (who are the main characters...) they're both so boring, so predictable and they shouldn't be! they should be smart and complex and make unexpected moves and be one step ahead of the reader. they're not. maybe this was a metaphor (i doubt it), but ellis feels just as fake to the reader as the persona she presents at school. i don't remember where i saw this, it might have been another review, but someone said how the side characters are just names. i couldn't tell you more than one (1) fact about them, and even then i couldn't really say for sure to whom is that fact attached. A smart, layered, thought-provoking thriller about female desire and the intimacy of violence.”—Ava Reid, author of The Wolf and the Woodsman Maybe skip it if: you don’t like the genre or if you think you’d be triggered by the psychotic depression representation. In 2022, A Lesson in Vengeance was listed among 52 books banned by the Alpine School District following the implementation of Utah law H.B. 374, “Sensitive Materials In Schools," [12] 42% of which “feature LBGTQ+ characters and or themes.” [13] [14] Many of the books were removed because they were considered to contain pornographic material according to the new law, which defines porn using the following criteria: old and rotten tales about missing girls and desolate mountain cliffs, how Felicity Marrow claimed it was an accident, but no one else was there to say for sure."

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This book healed a part of me. It personally really hurt me seeing people trash this rep, but I'm definitely willing to listen to people who have dealt with psychotic depression! Just hit me up! <3

trigger/content warnings: death, violence, manipulation and emotional abuse, child neglect (past/offscreen), mental health issues (specifically psychotic depression), substance abuse, suicide references (no actual suicide), references to racist history. Merlin then visits Tyr in prison and brings him some food to eat. Merlin asks Tyr how he could have done this. Tyr explains that it was not him that caused the King to fall from his horse but someone else. Tyr is hesitant in naming the person who was messing with the saddle, as they promised harm to his mother. Merlin explains that everything will be fine and for him to say who he saw. Without giving away spoilers, is there a scene or character that you’re reallyexcited for readers to experience? So what is A Lesson in Vengeance, then? It’s a dark academia that holds you in a vice-grip until you reach the end. It’s beautifully written and a deep-dive into the occult. There’s candid and at times uncomfortable depictions of mental illness, but still honest to the experiences of the author. Lee writes a nuance in the portrayal of trauma that I don’t typically see offered to female characters in the same way it’s granted to their male counterparts. The exploration of these grayer shades of morality provides depth beyond the more conspicuous aspects of the story.

First I gave this one star, because for me one star literally means there was nothing I liked about it, but giving it the same rating as my most hated book of all time (Song of Achilles) seemed unfair. Although the more I think about it, the more I dislike it, so I wouldn't be surprised if I changed the rating again soon. (edit: Yeah, it's a 1 star, sorry.) I feel like she creates and unravels me in the same moment, a sentence she writes and and erases and rewrites, a product of her want and imagination. I feel like she invented me." Felicity was once drawn to the dark legacy of witchcraft. She's determined to leave that behind her now; but it's hard when Dalloway's occult history is everywhere. And when the new girl won't let her forget it. Whatever you and I expected from this book…it’s entirely different. While I think the synopsis for this book is amazing, I don’t think it would be possible to capture this story in a few paragraphs. The reason? There’s so much it has to it, from the underlying psychology to the representation and from the vibes to the twists. As you can probably tell, I am in awe of how Victoria Lee wove this story together! It exceeded all my expectations. I really loved the constant bringing up of mental health in the past and how women who were not understood (even without mental health struggles) were so easily deemed witches and made them pay for it with their lives. I also just loved how we get to see an unreliable narrator talk about lots of unreliable narrators! Again, the writing in this book is just so well structured and it is so impressive all the building layers.