This book had me hooked from the start. A haunted boarding school, old witchcraft rumors, tragic girls, and unreliable narrators? Yes, please. The atmosphere was perfectly eerie, and I loved how the lines between past and present, fantasy and reality, kept shifting in ways that made me question everything. Felicity was such an interesting narrator. She was grieving, unstable, and just grounded enough to keep me invested. Ellis, on the other hand, was unsettling in the best way: sharp, manipulative, and impossible to look away from. Their dynamic carried the book. I wouldn’t say this is a fast-paced thriller. It’s more of a slow descent, which I actually enjoyed. It’s heavy on mood, psychology, and that claustrophobic feeling of being trapped in your own mind. Not everything worked perfectly for me, but the overall vibe? Loved it. If you’re in the mood for something dark, queer, and unsettling, this one’s worth the read.

This was genuinely one of the best standalones I've ever read. There was so much hype around it and it lived up to everything!

This book is twisty and turny and confusing and gay. Love some dark academia boarding school stuff. Add in an unreliable narrator reeling from the death of her best friend/first love, and you've got all the ingredients for a stellar book. I felt viscerally uncomfortable throughout much of this book, and I believe that is the intent. You are supposed to feel like you can't trust what the book is telling you, just like Felicity can't always trust her own senses. I don't know that I can say this is a good time, but it is a good book.

Wonderful dark academia for young adults. Creative, thoughtful, and dark in the best ways! I recommend 100%.

There are strange things happening in a girls boarding school in the Catskills.
Opinion
Whatever I thought I was going to read, I did not. This book went down a jagged and twisted path such that I could not even guess at what could happen next. That, to me, made it a fantastic suspense. There were so many parts of this book that my jaw dropped, literally. Great read!
Many thanks to Net Galley and to Random House Children's for providing me with an ARC of this book. Many apologies that it took so long to review.

I enjoyed the beginning two-thirds or so of this book, but the pace was very slow. The last third felt extremely rushed. All of the threads of the plot took extremely abrupt turns and resolved far too quickly to feel satisfying or realistic. This was especially noticeable compared to the snail’s pace of the first parts of the book. Instead of absolutely nothing happening and then cramming everything into the last few chapters, Lee could’ve paced the book a lot better. Some of the scenes just seemed really unrealistic too. The entire “Felicity and Ellis chasing each other down to murder each other” plot was almost comical.

This is a stand alone dark fantasy and thriller. I love that this is a complete witchy and boarding school story all in one book. If you enjoy thrillers and/or fantasy stories, you'll enjoy reading this book. Please read this book. There's a good chance that you'll like it.

I fabulous read that I thoroughly enjoyed! Highly recommend and will purchase several physical and digital copies for library collections. Thank you!!

This started off very strong. I was sucked into the plot and characters, wanting to know more about them immediately. Would recommend for fans of Plain Bad Heroines.

I thought this one was a good mix of dark academia, witchyness and mystery. I was enjoying trying to figure out what happened in the past school years that was affecting our main character so much and it was interesting to see how all the other characters were so wary of them. The ending was not my favorite but the build up did a really good job of getting us to that conclusion. I was hoping for more witch folklore and related stuff to magic but it was still good with what we got. There is a lot of mention of the classics genre and references to them in this one so if you like classics then this might be a fun book for you.

I wanted to like this, but the story was not really focused for me to enjoy it. Lee's writing style is fantastic, and I will definitely pick up other books she has written and will write in the future. This book was marketed as dark academia (it wasn't) with witches (there weren't,) and also an historical mystery (barely touched upon.) For me it was more a psychological thriller with an unreliable narrator - and perhaps if it had been marketed as such I would have enjoyed it better.

I love the premise of this book: boarding schools, dark academia, mysteries with witches, and lesbians! The cover is also stunning. The writing is competent and flows well and the plot is was intriguing in the beginning and propulsive towards the end. It does seem to slow down and drag for parts, though, and I'm wondering if this is an issue with gothic novels for me. The relationships needed to be a bit more fleshed out for me to fully connect to the characters, but overall I think this book has an audience it will be successful with and I will recommend in readers advisory.

Despite the prose being well written, allowing readers to be easily transported to the setting and feel the characters' emotions, the book does tend to drag in some parts due to the inclusion of unnecessary details. Although the beginning may start off a bit slow, the plot does eventually pick up, making for a captivating read.

This was so, so, so scary. I knew how it would end but it was super chilling and it actually triggered me a lot, so please check for any trigger warnings before jumping into this one.

A dark, slow burn. Atmospheric, language to mull over, and a long slow build. I enjoyed this quite a lot.

I went into this book thinking I was just getting another boarding school book. (And there’s nothing wrong with that because that is one of my go to genres/tropes) However what I got was so much more than a boarding school book. We got mystery, the allure of magic (think the idea of Salem witch myth at the center of the story) and so much more this book was just a really fun time. I love that our narrator was unreliable at times due the her traumatic past. There’s LGBTQ+ representation. Honestly the only reason my rating isn’t 4 stars is because the main character never really learned from her past actions and ended up repeating her actions even though she did exactly what I wanted to do for 100 or so pages.

This was an interesting engaging read but I’ve learned that gothic really isn’t my thing. I enjoyed it well enough to push to the end.

This just didn't hold my attention well. I get that it was a play on the style of gothic novels like the girls were studying, but the slow build left me wondering when something was going to happen. I did push through and finished the book and liked it well enough. It could have been the timing of my reading as well as I was distracted with other events.

2.5/5
I wanted to like this book a lot more than I did. It has elements of a potential murder mystery, questionable narrators, a boarding school, and dark academia. But A Lesson In Vengeance fell flat when it takes on spoiled rich kids, method writing, and a lot of philosophy talk. It's the non-English literature student in me that had many references fly over my head, which made this book feel pretentious than not.

The beginning was slow for me, but there are winning parts with WLW relationships and openly speaking about mental health and therapy. Although, the main character Felicity emphasizes that she doesn't recall exactly what happened with her dead girlfriend, and that brings up the unreliable narrator aspect. There were mentions of witches, magic, and haunting spirits, which fit well into the creepy boarding school in the mountains setting.

The secondary major character we're introduced right from the first few chapters, and Felicity's immediate obsession with Ellis wasn't enjoyable to read about. Admittedly, I wanted more substance between them before jumping into a project together about stories of witches and the dead. Felicity and Ellis do come off as shallow and entitled, but somehow they're unique and draw people in. I was hoping for a fun dark academia book, but this one was lacklustre.

so i’m not sure if dark academia is the problem (if i just don’t like the genre), or the book itself. gonna go with the book.

i couldn’t connect with any of the characters. the side characters didn’t feel very fleshed out, and while the main characters were more so, i didn’t care a great deal about ellis or felicity. their friendship began so suddenly that i was sorta confused. the plot wasn’t super exciting, but i was able to read this quickly. i didn’t feel like this was felicity’s story until the ending—she’s mostly strung along on ellis’s quest to write her novel. i also found it weird that none of the other girls had phones? like wtf? you’re in high school and you don’t have a phone?? i also think this should’ve taken place at a college instead of a high school and just been an adult novel. the characters actions and maturity would’ve made more sense.

this would’ve been a 2 star read if it wasn’t for the last 20% or the writing style. the third act was really exciting and twisty, probably my favorite part of the book. and the writing was really gorgeous and descriptive.