Rating: ★★★★★
Audience: Paranormal Horror
Length: 464 pages
Author: Alexis Henderson
Publisher: Ace
Release Date: September 17th, 2024
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

A student will find that the hardest lessons sometimes come outside the classroom in this stunning dark academia novel from the acclaimed author of The Year of the Witching and House of Hunger.

Lennon Carter’s life is falling apart.

Then she gets a mysterious phone call inviting her to take the entrance exam for Drayton College, a school of magic hidden in a secret pocket of Savannah. Lennon has been chosen because—like everyone else at the school—she has the innate gift of persuasion, the ability to wield her will like a weapon, using it to control others and, in rare cases, matter itself.

After passing the test, Lennon begins to learn how to master her devastating and unsettling power. But despite persuasion’s heavy toll on her body and mind, she is wholly captivated by her studies, by Drayton’s lush, moss-draped campus, and by her brilliant classmates. But even more captivating is her charismatic adviser, Dante, who both intimidates and enthralls her.

As Lennon continues in her studies her control grows, and she starts to uncover more about the secret world she has entered into, including the disquieting history of Drayton College, and the way her mentor’s tragic and violent past intertwines with it. She is increasingly disturbed by what she learns. For it seems that the ultimate test is to embrace absolute power without succumbing to corruption . . . and it’s a test she’s terrified she is going to fail.

Thank you Berkley Pub (Berkley Partner) for the gifted copy.

WHO KNEW?

I was not expecting to love this. Nor was I expecting to hate it either. Horror is a new to me genre that I’ve been trying out here and there so I never know what I’m going to feel, but y’all, this was a win!! I was obsessed with listening to this audiobook and trying to figure out where the story was going to go next.

It is a paranormal/urban fantasy vibe set at a mysterious college in the US. I thought the magic system was explained well and worked within the confines of the plot. I don’t remember having gaping questions about how things were supposed to work. I loved the concept of meditation and persuasive control.

Lennon wasn’t always a reliable narrator and that made the story have this haunting edge quality that fits a fall theme perfectly. I loved the twists and surprises and some hard betrayals. The audiobook is definitely the way to go. It’s haunting and enigmatic and fits the dark academia genre well and is officially a new favorite. I want to read more books by this author now.

Overall audience notes:

• Horror / Urban Fantasy
• Language: moderate
• Romance: brief open door
• Violence: high
• Content Warnings: loss of life, murder, depression, suicide, panic attacks

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