You can really tell this book was written by someone whose favorite book is THE SECRET HISTORY - and I mean that in the best, most flattering way possible.

This was my second Victoria Lee novel, so I already knew what to expect: flowery, beautiful prose, an emphasis on trauma and mental health, pacing that makes the pages fly by, and a few shocking, stunning twists that throw everything into doubt. You'll find all of that here in A LESSON IN VENGEANCE.

Dark academia as a genre is a very strange, fascinating space. It rides the line between adult and young adult, between absurd and grittily realistic. I think A LESSON IN VENGEANCE's strength lies in the way it goes right back to the roots of what dark academia means, where it came from, and what it's trying to accomplish.

There's something special about the way A LESSON IN VENGEANCE made me feel as I was reading it. It's cold, the characters are frigid and untrustworthy, the plot is a weaving, sprawling map of murder and betrayal. It's the perfect book to curl up with in the fall with a mug of cider - or, indeed, an old-fashioned.

But it also feels like a return to form. Like coming home, even. It's been so long since I read a book that made me feel the way THE SECRET HISTORY felt, and now that I've finished A LESSON IN VENGEANCE, all I can think of is how much I want to linger in this feeling a little longer.

(Special thanks to Delacorte and PRH for the NetGalley ARC!)

This book was a bit of a disappointment, as I was hoping it would blow my mind. I really love dark academia, so I thought this book is gonna be ‘it’.
My main issue with this book is its target. I read tons of YA and I love them, but I feel like dark academia themes and aesthetics work better when the book is an adult, because while reading A Lesson in Vengeance I felt like something was missing. I cannot pinpoint what it was exactly, but that’s the overall feeling I had. I have to say, though, that maybe I read this book at an unfortunate time, because I had just finished If We Were Villains and The Secret History, so maybe I was unconsciously comparing them while reading.

I loved that the two timelines were intertwined in the story and not divided in before and after, as sometimes is the case. I also liked that Felicity was an unreliable narrator, but I wanted *more*.

My favourite thing about this book, however, was how Felicity’s thesis influenced the way the story took place. I cannot say more, but the crossing of plot and academia was really well done.

The plot itself, tho, was a bit lacking, I think. Also the character developing and characterisation wasn’t as good as I was hoping. I really loved characters by Lee in The Fever King, so I was hoping for more.

The style was very dark academia, at least! I love Lee’s writing, so that’s good. I feel that their style is perfect for academia and you can sense they know what they are talking about, which is always nice.

Overall, not a bad book, but not my favourite.

This wasn’t for me, unfortunately.

I was looking forward to sapphic, dark academia vibes and that definitely delivered! This was a super atmospheric and gloomy read.

However, I thought most of the book was too slow for a conclusion that unraveled really quickly.

I didn’t feel attached to any of these characters or care about what happened to them. Oh well! I’m sure others will love this but it was not for me.

When I first heard about this book I was so excited. A sapphic, YA dark academia story filled with magic and witchcraft, set near a mountain range? It had such promise! I wanted to love this book so much, but after slogging through it for the past two and a half weeks, I can't say that I did😫

A LESSON IN VENGEANCE follows Felicity Morrow, who is back at Dalloway School after taking a year off to deal with the loss of her best friend and girlfriend, Alex. Dalloway has a history of witchcraft, which Felicity is obsessed with. So much so, that she believes evil spirits, and the ghost of Alex, are haunting her. She gets caught up in secret societies, covens, and occult history, and other girls at school begin to get involved as well. That is, until things go too far, and we find out who is truly possessed by evil.

The opening of the book was incredibly compelling and engaging. I loved how everything was set up, but found after the first quarter, the plot dragged and was incredibly repetitive and trite. Nothing much happened until the last 60 or so pages, and by that point I was just tired and wanted to finish the book.

I also found the writing style all over the place. Some parts were extremely high-brow, while others were very juvenile. I know this is YA, but I wholeheartedly believe it would have been better as an adult book. The themes and characters could have been built out so much more.

While this book wasn't for me, if you like dark academia, witchcraft, secret societies, or unreliable and unlikable characters, you may enjoy this book.

Thank you @penguinteenca for sending me a digital ARC of this book. A LESSON IN VENGEANCE came out on August 3 and is available wherever books are sold🖤

This book may have been released in August but it makes for a fantastic fall read. The author manages to pull off the contemporary gothic vibe very well and the whole aesthetic of the book is perfectly creepy and perfect for fall. I really enjoyed the characters and found them compelling and intriguing. The characters all acted in ways that felt true to who they were and I found them to be realistic. Overall the book is dark and mysterious, very well written, and a lovely book to kick off spooky season.

I absolutely loved this book. Perfectly dark academia, perfectly sapphic, perfectly snooty and condescending. This was everything I've ever wanted from a rich prep school meets witches novel. Definitely recommend!

The lesbian dark academia book of my dreams. The perfect balance of spooky and thrilling, leaving me constantly on the edge of my seat. The unreliable narration combined with the mysteries unfolding meant it was utterly unputdownable. Despite loving Victoria Lee since their debut (Feverwake duology), this has really cemented their place in the YA world and they are a queer icon of the ages.

Oh my goodness I cannot express enough how much I adored this book! I feel like Victoria Lee walked into my head and just ripped out the exact story I wanted to tell (or be told). Also, having no men in it? At all? Not even mentioned in passing? REVOLUTIONARY. I did, admittedly, begin to guess a lot of where the story was going--by the halfway point, the book has showed most of its cards, and, though there were twists, they weren't particularly surprising ones. That said, I was more than happy to just be along for the ride, and the setup had payoff. 4-4,5/5 stars, I think.

(I also was so caught up in this that a few really small immersion-breaking details tripped me up much too much--Ellis fences epee, which doesn't use a lame, but Felicity references her lame; Felicity, an English academic, ends up at Imperial, which is functionally the MIT of England; and where did that first edition of the Haunting of Hill House so casually come from and disappear to?)

When starting A Lesson in Vengeance, I expected a mystery and thriller but I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly the mystery sucked me in. The craft in this story is so good that you as a reader become an active participant in the thriller and find yourself questioning what you think you know. Is this a paranormal story too? Or is it all in our heads or somewhere in between?

The setting, an isolated school with a haunted history, is both atmospheric and adds another layer to the mind twisting mystery that centers the main story. The sapphic relationship potential was an initial draw for me and while it didn't disappoint, I appreciated how each character was fully developed independently of a romantic context and how strong the theme of mental health serving as a focal point of the current mystery and as a backdrop for the legends and mythos of the Dalloway school. The prose themselves were beautifully written but written in a manner that added to the story and suspenseful climate rather than distracting from it.

A Lesson in Vengeance is a deceptively short book - the stunning writing and thoughtful construction makes every word pack a strong punch that allows the story to boldly follow multiple characters, shifting information that teases and unsettles the reader, and weave together powerful messaging in a standalone novel that can be read in a day.

A Lesson in Vengeance is a lesson in craft. Victoria Lee has established a new standard when writing gothic, lush, haunting fiction.

The Dalloway School, and specifically Godwin House are the types of settings that are not just places and spaces, but breathing, sentient characters enacting their will upon and through the characters residing within.

The walls are alive with secrets, always secrets.

The prose here is indulgent and entirely delectable. I did not feel the need to rush through this novel because I wanted to savor each page.

In short, I’ll follow Lee anywhere, even to a mountainous peak in the dead of winter.

Felicity Morrow watched her girlfriend die after a party at Dalloway School. After a year away, Felicity is back in her old dorm in Godwin House but is still being tormented by rumors and stories of ghosts from the past. The school, particularly Godwin House, is built on stories of witchcraft, murder, and secrets, and Felicity simply can’t stay away. Ellis Haley, a famous novelist and fellow resident at Godwin House, has come to Dalloway School for her senior year. Ellis is planning to write her next novel on the mysterious witches and their murders and is dying for Felicity’s help with her research. As they dig deeper into the past, history begins to repeat itself. Could it be ghosts and magic? Or is it just a student with sinister intentions? Either way, Felicity is determined to find the truth once and for all. A Lesson in Vengeance is a roller coaster from the first page until the last. The beautifully described scenery, the haunting storyline, and the unstable main characters work together to form a book that will not be easily forgotten.

Deliciously dark and twisty, this romp through dark academia will keep readers riveted. My favorite thus far from Victoria Lee.

Pros
Literary Analysis: Wollstonecraft and Walden: anyone who has spent time in serious academia will sink right into the familiar cadence of this rhetoric. For an English literature major, this book is a lot of fun, and it goes to academic places that aren't usual in this (or any) marketing-age category. I'm not sure I buy this level of intellectual drive for a high school--even an elite preparatory school--but still, it is a lot of fun. It embraces the "academia" in "dark academia."

Twisted Tales: Victoria Lee does a really good job playing with the truth. As a reader, you can't be sure what happened in the past, both near and distant. The stories conflict. The narratives change. Witches and ghosts or gunshots in the forest: what happened to the Dalloway Five? And Alex: was it a climbing accident, a cut rope, or a drowning involving a drunken argument? The pieces are floating and inconsistent--exactly as they're meant to be. One can't be sure what's reality and what's something else entirely.

Self-Awareness: This book is incredibly aware of how it is playing with genre conventions and expectations. The characters, deep in their studies of literary analysis, make remarks within the text that reflect back on their greater narrative. This book is incredibly meta and in the best way possible.


Cons
Academic Scorn: It was bothersome to me how much the academics presented in this book tried to steer Felicity away from what was, at first, a purely academic pursuit of witchcraft in literature. Sure, once she gets too enmeshed--once she has to leave and return to campus--it might be best to dissuade her from the topic. But the first time around, it doesn't seem reasonable to dissuade an academic pursuit, especially one having to do with the history of the campus itself. It just doesn't seem reasonable. That is, I didn't buy that this is how it would go down in reality

Lax Supervision: It's for the story, right? This is always a problem in a boarding school book--when the boarding schools have to act more like college campuses in order for the plot to happen. And Victoria Lee acknowledges this--stating in the text that the parents pay the school for the academics and prestige, not to keep their girls innocent. I get that this is necessary. I get that parties have to happen, that the girls get to sneak out, sneak around, investigate graveyards in the middle of the night--as you do when at boarding school--et cetera. I get that. But what I didn't buy here was the smoking. There's such a negative connotation when it comes to smoking these days, especially when it comes to high schoolers smoking. And in a historic building that is, most likely, extremely flammable? I get that the teachers would turn a blind eye to the partying but not the smoking in the living room. It makes no sense to me.

Pretentious Typists: This book is full of hipsters. What else can I say? They eschew smart phones--and even phones altogether. They prefer to type via typewriter despite the extra hassle it causes in an academic setting. They drink whiskey and discuss literary criticism late into the night. They're like the most pretentious of liberal arts students, and while some of it is fun, at other times, it is just annoying.


Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
9/10

Those who enjoyed the ghostly literary references of Kirsten Miller's Don't Tell a Soul will love this world of dark academia. Fans of Kass Morgan and Danielle Paige's The Ravens will sink into this particularly witchy new campus.

4.5 Stars rounded up. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

A Lesson in Vengeance is the latest in a dark academia theme which is very popular lately. Felicity Marrow is returning to her boarding school for her senior year of high school, haunted and feeling cursed. The house she resides in is said to be haunted with the spirits of five girls who were thought to be witches(The Dalloway five), only now the tale is that there is a sixth girl. Last year, Felicity's secret girlfriend/best friend Alex died under strange circumstances; and now Felicity feels Alex and the leader of the Dalloway Five are haunting her. When a new student whom is an established author comes to Dalloway and asks Felicity to help her research the dead girls for her new book, Felicity begrudgingly accepts hoping to find closure. What will be uncovered as these two(one who believes in magic and one who is looking to disprove it) dig into not only the school's past but their own?

There is alot to unpack with this story so bear with me if I get off track. First, the plot itself is fantastic and the spooky setting of the school only elevates the drama and suspense of this tale. Felicity battles with mental illness as diagnosed by her doctors following her mental break when Alex died. We struggle with her, trying to figure out if she is a reliable narrator or not, as well as what secrets she has buried deep inside of her. In Ellis, our established writer, we find the sane voice Felicity so desperately needs. Ellis does all she can to disprove magic and find logical explanations in order to unravel Felicity's paranormal paranoia. The plot twists were something I was here for and I love that not everything worked out the way it was set up to. The pacing was strong and spooky, it kept me coming back for one more chapter again and again. I truly enjoyed this book and think many others will as well.

I gave this 4.5 rounded up to 5 stars simply because I really enjoyed it but didn't love it. There were many questions I still have but to ask them in this review would do a disservice to anyone who wishes to read this. I recommend this for anyone 14+ as it is a spooky read that deals with some tough issues.

This was a really nice read.
The book promised sapphic dark academia paired with witches and murder. I mean, come on! And it was all of that and more
It is really well written and I loved the atmosphere. This book glued me to my bed and I couldn’t get away from it. The characters were amazingly well developed and I loved, loved, loved the mental health topics. Like a lot!
It was a fast, suspense and enjoyable read - with some important topics.

A Lesson in Vengeance was a thrilling tale with a boarding school based in the Catskill Mountains that hid it's secrets well. The main character Felicity Morrow was one bad bitch with a scroll of problems and she gets into some bad situations that lead to well... a bit of a maddening story. This book kept me on my toes and was an absolute whirlwind!

This book was exactly what all the hype promised—a twisted exploration of sapphic dark academia with murder and deception. I loved the dynamics between the characters and the way witchcraft was explored, though I do feel like I could have happily read 100 more pages that dove into more of the school atmosphere. While I also love disaster lesbians, I was kind of hoping for some sweeping and twisted romance. Though that was entirely based on my own hopes, and the actual story that unfolded was still absolutely shocking and engaging. Such a wild and fun read overall!

Felicity Morrow is back in Godwin House after a tumultuous year. Losing her best friend, being hospitalized, and having an absent mother would send some people running. But she refuses. As she returns to Dalloway School for her second attempt at her final year, she meets Godwin’s newest resident, Ellis Haley, budding young author who has come to Dalloway to write. As their relationships weave together, and an obsession with what may or may not be magic, Felicity and Ellis form a complicated friendship rooted in the Dalloway Five, the witches that haunt Godwin House.

This book was amazing. I had very high expectations and it blew them out of the water. I never really knew where the plot was going (even when I thought I did) and the ending had me absolutely *screaming*

Lesbian dark academia is all I've ever wanted in the dark academia genre and Victoria Lee DELIVERED. Their combination of magic and ghosts all within this elite boarding school was so good and had me on the edge of my seat from beginning to end.

Highly, highly recommend and I can't wait to read their future books.

Literary Merit: Excellent
Characterization: Excellent
Recommended: Yes
Level: High School

This book was an absolute roller coaster from beginning to end, and I'm still reeling from all the twists and turns it took. After a quick glance at the premise, I knew I had to give this one a shot, and I certainly was not disappointed. While there are a few ends I wish had been tied up in the end, I really appreciate Lee's ability to keep the reader hanging at the end of every single chapter. Seriously; once I hit the halfway point, I literally couldn't put this book down. I'll attempt to keep my thoughts brief, but knowing my track record, that's not likely to happen.

A Lesson in Vengeance follows the story of 17-year-old Felicity Morrow, who has just returned to her elite boarding school after taking a year to focus on her mental health. During her senior year, her best friend (and ex-girlfriend) Alex died in a terrible accident, and Felicity hasn't been able to forgive herself since. Upon her return to the legendary Dalloway school, Felicity sees Alex everywhere, fearing that her former best friend is haunting her out of vengeance.

Felicity then meets the mysterious Ellis Haley, a teen writing prodigy looking for inspiration for her next literary masterpiece. Ellis, like Felicity, is intrigued by the infamous Dalloway Five; five girls who died in brutal and mysterious ways years ago on the school grounds. Many feared the girls to be witches, but Ellis is determined to prove that it was murder - not magic - that led to their demise. Reluctantly, Felicity agrees to help Ellis recreate their "rituals" in an effort to gain inspiration for her novel, roping the other girls into their plot. As the two grow ever closer, painful memories begin to surface for Felicity, forcing her to confront her past while making sense of her chaotic present.

In her author's note, Lee mentions that she wanted to write a book about "lesbian dark academia," and after reading the book, I'd have to say she NAILED IT. This book was a beautifully written nail-biter from beginning to end, filling me with the desire to know more at the turn of every page. The novel begins with Felicity returning to school in a bit of a depressive funk. She still blames herself for her friend's death and has debilitating PTSD, but we don't learn exactly how her friend died until much later (or that they were much closer than just friends). Right off the bat, Lee is handing us a little bit of the info while leaving us with more questions, leading us to keep reading, and I LOVED that. There's nothing like a little suspense to motivate me to keep reading just one more chapter, and Lee handled this beautifully.

I also really loved Lee's writing style in general, which really puts the reader into the scene. Her descriptions are so vivid that you almost feel like you're there with the characters, seeing what they see and feeling what they feel. I got the creepy boarding school vibe almost immediately, as the atmosphere was set from the very first page. I can certainly tell that a lot of passion went into this book, which really came out in the writing and the realistic characters.

Lee tackles quite a few dark subjects in this book, from classism and white privilege to mental illness and murder. Each character plays a very important role within the story, whether it is establishing the bonds between the girls or showing the darker side of this elite boarding school. One poignant moment that stood out to me was the moment where Leonie (one of the other girls in Felicity's house) talks about being ostracized by some of the other girls at the school because of her skin color and background.

Leonie explains that she has had to be cautious from the very beginning, as most of the girls at Dalloway school can get away with whatever they want because they're rich and white. Felicity reflects on this later in the book while being interrogated by police, acknowledging that they would never suspect her of a thing because of her skin color and social status, and I thought this was a very important conversation to have in today's political climate. This is one of many moments in which a very serious issue is handled with care and subtlety, and I really appreciated Lee's willingness to tackle tough subjects in her work.

Another thing I really appreciated in this book was the diversity. Not only are there characters of color, but there are also lesbians and a non-binary character as well. Felicity and Ellis form a relationship as the novel progresses, but it is also revealed that Ellis and her non-binary sibling Quinn were raised by two mothers themselves. While Felicity has not felt comfortable outing herself to her housemates or the rest of the school, the LGBTQ+ characters in the book are not sensationalized or used as trauma porn or tokens.

The LGBTQ+ relationships are instead normalized, presented the way any heterosexual relationship might be - flaws and all. As much as I appreciate coming out stories, I appreciate casual representation much more. While Felicity's sexuality is important to her character, it is not the sole focus of the book. Instead, the book focuses far more on her mental health as she struggles to separate fiction from reality and come to terms with her ex-girlfriend's death. When she does finally come out to Leonie, her friend is entirely supportive, telling her she's sure the other girls wouldn't think anything of it either. I appreciated the inclusion of LGBTQ+ characters in this book, and appreciated it even more because it was primarily a mystery/thriller that just happened to include LGBTQ+ characters.

As someone who suffers from a mental illness, I also liked how this book handled mental illness. It is mentioned many times throughout the book that Felicity has seen both a psychiatrist and a therapist for her mental illness, and even takes medication to help her cope. The book also acknowledges, however, that some people do not like taking medication because it alters their personality so drastically. While Felicity does not actively seek help from a therapist during the novel, she is very clearly working towards healing in her own ways.

With the aid of Ellis, Felicity begins to unravel what is real and what isn't, and eventually confronts her own guilt and shame over what happened to Alex. By the end, she isn't completely healed (mental illness is usually far more complicated than this), but it's clear she's in a better place emotionally than she was at the beginning of the novel. Mental illness can be a difficult subject to tackle, but I think Lee handled it with grace and understanding.

My only real gripe with this book is that it left some of the plot threads unfinished, likely on purpose. We meet several characters throughout this book, and many of their stories are left open-ended. For example, we never learn what happens with Clara (I'm purposely leaving out details so as not to spoil the plot twist), and we also never see what becomes of the other girls in the house. The novel also hints that Felicity will likely face scrutiny and backlash for revealing the true nature of her thesis to her professor, and this looming threat is never resolved. We never learn if she was allowed to complete her thesis as she wished, or forced to scrap it in favor of a different topic. These are minor details, of course, but I would have liked to see these plot threads resolved.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I'm not usually a fan of mysteries and thrillers (I much prefer fantasy and light-hearted romance), but this book really hooked me from the very beginning. The twists and turns are incredible, and I truly didn't see the final twist coming at all. I loved not knowing whether Felicity could truly trust Ellis, or what her true motives were throughout the story. Lee truly has a way with words, and the end of almost every chapter had a cliff-hanger that left me wanting to read more.

I think fans or horror, mysteries, and suspense will really enjoy this novel, particularly if they enjoy discussions about the occult or books set in mysterious boarding schools. As an added bonus, the cast of characters is diverse, and none of the characters every feel like a token or caricature of the community they're representing. I look forward to reading more of Lee's work in the future, as I think she's an extremely talented writer with a knack for descriptive storytelling. I can't wait to see what she comes up with next!