I love love love dark academia novels and mysteries and sapphic heroines! Victoria Lee did not disappoint with this one. I was scared because I really enjoyed the Feverwake series and didn't know what to expect out of this one, but I was pleasantly surprised.

- Lesbian. Dark. Academia. Need I say more?
- Okay okay, I'll say a little more. I loved falling into the history and mythology of Dalloway with Felicity. A LESSON IN VENGEANCE had me second guessing myself, mistrusting everyone, and watching helplessly as the train jumped the tracks.
- I have some minor quibbles with the pacing, but when things get going, they REALLY get going. There are a couple points where new information is dropped and my jaw dropped along with it.

I’m a fan of this author’s Feverwake series and had the pleasure of meeting her at a local book event a couple years ago. When I saw she had a new release coming up, I jumped to request it on NetGalley.

Dark, twisty atmospheric thriller is a perfect description for this novel, and a centuries old campus is the ultimate setting. The story begins with the MC, Felicity, returning to campus to repeat her senior year after dropping out halfway through it the previous year due to the tragic death of her girlfriend. The house Felicity and four other students reside in is rumored to be haunted by the Dalloway Five – women who were supposedly witches. All died hundreds of years ago on the grounds under mysterious circumstances. The story of these women enthralled Felicity enough that she researched them extensively for her thesis prior to leaving the previous year. She immersed herself in their history and experimented with witchcraft – maybe a little too much – and began seeing a therapist after leaving school. Upon returning, she’s determined to steer clear of anything involving witchcraft and concentrate on her studies. Things change when Ellis, a new student, arrives. Felicity is immediately drawn to her, and Ellis has a way of pulling – or pushing – Felicity into questionable situations using logic that sounds reasonable.

It’s clear early on that Felicity may be an unreliable narrator, and I love that angle in a novel. She’s convinced the ghost of her ex-girlfriend is haunting her, and eerie things happen that may send chills up your spine. After she and her ex used a ouija board to contact one of the dead witches the previous year, Felicity also wonders if she’s cursed. Is she being haunted or is someone trying to manipulate her?

The students at this boarding school are on a different level from your average high school students, and their conversations are intellectual and thought-provoking as they lounge around and drink Old Fashioneds. Honestly, the complexity of their school assignments gave me a headache. The characters read much older than they are. Ellis, at only seventeen-years-old, has just won a Pulitzer Prize for her first novel (some suspension of disbelief is required). She’s working on her second novel and the research she invites Felicity to help her with is morbid and unsettling. Did I mention this book is dark?

The ending is comparable to a strategic chess match, but I’m surprised one character, usually several steps ahead of everyone else, didn’t see it coming. If you’re a fan of dark tales, morally gray characters, and potentially unreliable narrators, find a cozy reading space where you won’t be disturbed and allow yourself to sink into this novel.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel! The character development kept me invested and the spooky ambience was everything I love in my favorite novels! The author did a great job of throwing in some twists and turns to keep me turning pages! I would recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys reading about magic, boarding schools, witches, murder, and sapphic love stories.

Felicity is returning to Dalloway School for a second chance at her senior year. After her best friend and girlfriend, Alex, dies in mysterious circumstances, Felicity blames herself. The story unravels and so does the darkness that surrounds Alex’s death. With the arrival of Ellis Haley, famous young author, Felicity begins to question everything she knows about Alex’s death and even her own sanity. She feels like she’s being haunted by her own past as well as the past of the school, the famous Godwin murders that happened on the grounds of Felicity’s own dormitory. She’s drawn to darkness, to magic and death, finding omens and signs of haunting everywhere she goes. She is drawn to Ellis and Ellis is drawn to her. This attraction becomes all the more sinister as the story moves on.

The characters are high on the list of why this book is so good. They are human and change so much over the course of the book, Felicity in particular. They are incredibly unreliable and new twists and turns are introduced with every chapter. Sometimes, I wasn’t too sure what was happening, if Felicity was dreaming or otherwise impaired in such a way that what she was seeing or experiencing. I had to keep reading to figure out what the heck was going on. Did Felicity kill Alex? Is Ellis messing with Felicity, making her see things that aren’t there? The characters are very snobby, forgoing technology for the most part, even phones and computers, which comes up as a plot device later.

On this end of it all, after finishing the book, I’m not entirely sure what happened to Alex. The inclusion of Felicity’s various memories as regarding what happened to Alex changes over time. There are new memories and expanded memories included over time, throwaway recollections with little reaction from Felicity about their significance. I was thrown by her lack of reaction several times but maybe that’s the mental illness coming through. I also wish there had been more horror, more magic. Felicity uses tarot cards and magical protections, and the girls of Godwin House form a coven of sorts. Felicity sees ghosts and feels the presence of ‘other’ everywhere she goes. The horror is more factual than I expected, less creepy than anticipated. I was hoping the haunting would have been played up. I needed more creep factor, another visit with an ouija board, more communication from beyond the veil. I expected Samhain to be a big event but it passed in the space of a page. There’s going against expectations and then there’s ignoring great opportunities to further plot.

I also expected more from Ellis. She was researching the Dalloway Five so she could recreate their deaths and write them into her new book. Her obsession with the murders made her motivations obvious almost from the start and it kind of ruined the vibe early on.

In retrospect, I’m wondering why this book was set in modern times. With many of the central characters eschewing technology, I didn’t see much point in it being set when it was. The girls of Godwin House are far too mature at times, with how they speak, how they interact with each other, their likes and dislikes. The other girls of Dalloway seem to act more their age, as we see in the snapshots of a few parties that happen on campus. The setting is appropriately dark and mysterious, the campus dark and creepy. There is little school and class attending to be seen, school taking the back burner in favor of Felicity’s obsessions, but the vibes of a boarding school are still there. It feels more college-like than a high school.

Elements are shared with Kate Brian’s Private series, as well as Pretty Little Liars and the Sweep series by Cate Tiernan. I would have liked the book more if the witchy vibes had been played up a little more, if there had been a little more horror or creep factor. The slow burn romance and intriguing characters in the form of Ellis and Felicity saved the story for me, as did the mystery surrounding Alex’s death.

What a beautiful, haunting, gothic read! Dark academia mixed with ghosts makes this one of the best books I've ever read. The descriptions were so detailed that I could see everything on the school's property and feel every chill that ran down the MC's spine. Definitely pick this up.

Thank you to NetGalley for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. A Lesson In Vengeance presents a strong representation of the dark academia genre. What made this story interesting was the unreliability of the narrator, making the reader constantly question the truth behind the story being told to them. I did feel the first half of the book had a slow start, probably what drives my 3 star rating, but the second half made up for any hesitations I had about liking the book. Another strong point I feel readers may appreciate is the LBGTQ representation! Parts of the story worked for me, other parts didn’t. But I can see this being a big hit with the right audience.

First, I was terrified for Felicity, then I became terrified of her, A Lesson in Vengeance is haunting. This lush, yet darkly imagined Sapphic boarding school thriller will have readers at the edge of their seats from start to finish.

Victoria Lee’s writing is lyrical as it is atmospheric. With a plethora of lines I highlighted throughout that are beautifully written and the intricate detail Lee paints with sharp edges into the atmosphere, this felt like the perfect setting for a dark academia thriller.

At every turn of the page I felt a bit unsettled. Wondering, if we as the readers were going a bit mad. As we dig deeper and deeper into the earth, the soil coating our skin, under our nails, breathing it in, tasting the marrow of this story.

Even the centuries old stories of witches and death seem to reshape the current one, leaving no room for discourse or argument. We sink into the brilliant writing with its lulls of normalcy until we realize we’ve been spun into a cocoon of spider silk, held aloft as a savory delicacy.

Utterly captivating, Felicity and Ellis will haunt my mind for a good while longer.

Happy Reading ̴ Cece

4.75 Stars

Content Warnings at end of review.

Thank you to Delacorte Press and Netgalley for an e-arc of this book!

When Felicity comes back to Dalloway School after a stay in a mental hospital following her girlfriend's death, she is meant to focus on her studies and stay away from witchcraft. But Ellis Haley is in her dorm, and all of the girls are drawn to her, including Felicity. Ellis decides to teach Felicity that witchcraft isn't real by...making them dabble in witchcraft. All the while, Felicity is sure she is being haunted by her ex-girlfriend's ghost...or at least by the ghost of the founders of Dalloway school.

This book! Oh my goodness it was amazing. So so dark and mysterious and everything I wanted it to be. Felicity is such an unreliable narrator and that makes it so you never truly know what will be revealed. I was on the edge of my seat through the whole thing and couldn't wait to see what happened next. I couldn't believe how this story ended, but I loved every minute I spent reading it!

Pub date: August 3, 2021

Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Mental illness, Blood, Grief, Murder, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, and Body horror
Minor: Vomit

A Lesson in Vengeance was one of my most anticipated reads of 2021 — after all, sapphic dark academia? What more could a girl ask for?

A Lesson in Vengeance follows Felicity, after she’s taken a year off from school. When she returns to boarding school, she’s given her old room back in Godwin House; one of the most elite dormitories, and one that’s rumored to be haunted by the spirits of the Dalloway Five. The Dalloway Five were students, or witches, who all mysteriously died on Dalloway grounds. While Felicity used to be fascinated with the Dalloway Five, she’s now determined to leave it all behind. After all, the curse of the Dalloway Five is the reason why her girlfriend died — she’s sure of it. But when prodigy novelist and method writer Ellis Haley asks Felicity for help with researching the Dalloway Five, Felicity can’t help but say yes.

My mind is honestly still spinning from A Lesson in Vengeance. It’s everything that one would want from a YA mystery thriller, filled with twists and turns that will leave you reeling. While I did have some weird gut feelings about certain characters, and certain situations, I don’t think I could’ve predicted how this book ended at all. I think I spent a good half of A Lesson in Vengeance wondering if the narration was reliable — or if there were any characters I could trust too.

A Lesson in Vengeance is absolutely thrilling, with beautiful writing. I loved how descriptive Lee’s writing was, even if at times it felt more about the aesthetic and the vibes than the actual plot, and the fast-pace made it impossible to put down. I think the ending is definitely polarizing, and people will either love it or hate it. I personally really didn’t love it – especially the epilogue, although I do appreciate most of the loose ends being wrapped up. The characters were all messy, and I found myself quite invested early on. While Felicity wasn’t my favorite character, I was eagerly following along her emotional and mental journey, and I truly hoped that she received closure, and got the help she needed.

I think there was something missing for me, personally. One of my main issues with A Lesson in Vengeance is that there isn’t really any form of repercussion or reform, whether that’s about an individual character, or with the system as a whole. I think at this point in time, I just want and expect more from dark academia — I want more nuanced conversations on how racism and classism intertwine, how unhealthy academia can be, and more importantly, how academia has always been a system of oppression, and while Lee gets at that in some places, I just wanted more from it. Perhaps that’s on me, expecting that from a YA novel, but I really just have a hard time wanting to read about white, rich characters in dark academia. I will also acknowledge that the mental health representation is largely derived from Lee’s own experiences.

While there is more diversity in our side characters, I do think most of them simply existed as caricatures. At times, I had a hard time separating them all from one another, and found them to feel very two-dimensional. I think Felicity and Ellis simply just take up so much space that there isn’t much room to devote to the side characters.

Overall, there were a couple things that bothered me about A Lesson in Vengeance, and some things that I loved about it, so I would recommend it with caution!

This book chewed me up and spit me back out in the best way. I’m really into twisty, psychological, and dark—thanks background in psych and an unhealthy obsession with serial killers—but add in literature and a fictional school full of lauded and gruesome history and I’m here for it. This novel has it all. Felicity’s grappling with her own reality—her past and her choices—was masterful. I wish I could reread this one for the first time again.

Thanks Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

It's been a long, long time since I've read a book that actually scared me. I love soft horror, the incremental build-up, the panic in your chest, but nothing overly gruesome or devastating enough that you're a little sure you should maybe put the book down. A Lesson in Vengeance was close to the point of me having to put it down as it left my safe world of soft horror behind, bursting gladly with smiles and spinning blades into the realm of full horror. I found myself reading faster and faster, as the intensity built up and rose into a brilliant crescendo. If that isn't enough to sell you, I'll let you know it's a stand out novel for the year.

While not something I'd actively promote in a classroom setting, for fans of horror or anyone who just wants to be spooked, A Lesson in Vengeance is something new and brilliant. Felicity Morrow decides to come back to the Dalloway School a year after the death of her best friend and her personal departure from the school. Her friends are gone and graduated, but she's determined to finish her senior thesis and graduate, not letting anything get the best of her. Until she meets Ellis Haley who seems absolutely set on getting Felicity to relive everything that almost ruined her life, all for the purpose of writing her sophomore novel. And then Felicity begins to see ghosts and feels like she may have been possessed by a spirit her former best friend and her called into the world last year. She's doing all she can to keep her sanity, but the closer she gets to Ellis, the more the events of the past come to light and she's unsure if she'll survive this semester.

A Lesson in Vengeance was a startlingly interesting read. A student introduced me to Victoria Lee as one of her favorite authors and I knew this was an opportunity I had to take. I'm thankful I did! The first part was devoured quickly, but the second half felt like it took mere minutes with how much chaos begun to unravel, how much gore was included, and how many secrets were revealed. I was fascinated with just how much care Victoria Lee took into making it hit as hard as it did.

The world needs more horror YA because the teens LOVE IT. I can definitely see this one always being checked out because it does what it does well and the horror is just *chef's kiss*.

I love the aesthetic: dark and mysterious. Libraries full of dark wood and leather tomes. Girls loving girls with literary discussions thrown in.

Ellis always felt odd to me, I never found the allure. Though I liked that the characters had flaws. Felicity especially felt so real. No sugar coating on top.

I loved how Felicity's story changed the entire book. You start to realize she really is unreliable. Every time you think you've gotten the full story of what happened with Alex, you get more! I find her thing with the antidepressants very believable, but I've read some reviews against it.

I also liked the little doses of magic, though I don't know how accurate they were. It even inspired me to break into the tarot deck I bought last month.

The spooks were perfect. I was reading at home at night and had to get up and check my own house. I was definitely immersed in the story.

No happy endings here, but a great book nonetheless

Advanced Reader’s Copy provided by NetGalley, Random House Children's, and Delacorte Press in exchange for an honest review.

I'm struggling with rating this one to be honest. There are parts I REALLY liked, and others that I felt fell flat/were too confusing that they distracted from the plotline.

First off, as soon as the story gets going, it's very obvious that Felicity is a very unreliable narrator. Which meant that readers need to separate actual fact from fiction and what Felicity says is fact (which is rarely the truth) in order to piece together what is actually happening.

Dalloway School, but especially Godwin House, help to set the tone and the rules of engagement. And is your classic example of a dark academia setting. I wish Lee had taking Godwin House a step further and really embraced the Gothic Novel tropes that could have been there given the history of the house and the school. There are hints of it, but the house could have been a more prominent character that would have added to the suspense while readers waited for Felicity to finally admit what really happened to Alex and what was going on in the present.

There were some twists that I didn't see coming, and other aspects of the storyline that I wish had been fleshed out more. They weren't exactly red herrings, but I really felt like the magic/witches line of the plot was such a focus and then disappeared without much resolution. But then again, that could tie back to having an unreliable narrator.

Then we've got Ellis Haley.... even after finishing A LESSON IN VENGEANCE, I'm not sure where I stand with Ellis. Which may be the point? She's not quite a villain, but also not quite a good person either.

Overall, A LESSON IN VENGEANCE sucked me in pretty quickly and I enjoyed reading it. Part of me wishes the first half of the novel was shorter to give more text space to everything that happens in the last 30% because it went by in a rush and I didn't feel like all loose ends were tied up by the end.

This book was spooky, and atmostpheric..
I loved the Dalloway Prep School, learning about its history, and the Dalloway 5 was one of my favorite parts of this book.. It was written so well that I could see myself walking its halls, especially the library which has its own restricted occult section that requires a permission slip to enter..

Felicity is headed back for her second attempt at her senior year at Dalloway. She isn't sure about going back after her friend presumably died.. her body was never found. There she meets Ellis, a writer, researching her newest book about the Dalloway 5. Something about Ellis draws Felicity in.. Felicity has started seeing things, were not sure if this is real, if she is being haunted, was cursed by something she did last year, or if she is just slowly going crazy trying to deal with her grief and PTSD surrounding Alex.

The beginning of the book really sucked me in, with all of the spooky ghost, dark magic, curses and talk about the five witches who mysteriously died one by one.. However we do loose some of that towards the middle/ end of the book and I really wanted so much more of that.. Also there was an animal death which I tried to skip over.. the middle slowed down alot, and we get alot more of the relationship building between Ellis and Felicity, then the end I liked. When everything is finally revealed, although I did feel it left alot of unanswered questions about Ellis and her motivations for what she has done..

A LESSON IN VENGEANCE by Victoria Lee was very middle-of-the-road and never reached that must-turn-the-page standing I'd hoped it would. I read the book jacket copy to a group of high school students and their verdict was that maybe it was taking on too much. None of them said they'd read it based on the book jacket. It has potential but felt like it needed a nudge in one direction or another. Felicity and Ellis were both a bit predictable and neither really jumped off the page.

I was so incredibly excited to have been approved for this book. Sapphic? Yes please! Witches? LOVE. Ghosts? Amazing. Murder? Even better! This book is like a puzzle, piecing together the mystery slowly and deliberately, but there are so many different elements to this puzzle than meets the eye. Following Felicity's journey back to school after the mysterious death of her best friend, Alex Haywood. That death seems to be the mystery that needs to be solved, right? WRONG. This story is layered and complex in the best way, winding through the woods around the dark academia boarding school of my dreams, Dalloway. As you read, you tend to second guess the genre. Is this just a mystery novel? Thriller? Horror? Lee interweaves so many elements from multiple genres incredibly well. Throughout the book, Lee explores the human fascination with the macabre and the supernatural and exactly how far one can go before it is too late. Every chapter gives us a new insight into Felicity Morrow and how the witchy atmosphere of Dalloway affects her past, present, and future. The end of this book will have your jaw on the floor. This was an incredible book and I can't wait to get my hands on a physical copy in August!

Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for the ARC.

Definitely have to say this sits at a fairly round 3 star rating for me.

A Lesson in Vengeance follows Felicity Morrow, a wealthy senior at a prestigious boarding school rumored for its links to a conspiracy regarding murder and supposed witchcraft centuries past, as she returns to school after a long break due to her mental illness regarding the prior death of her girlfriend. It introduces a new figure in Felicity’s life: Ellis Haley, prodigy successful writer who has decided to write about the school’s legacy of witchcraft.
The story continues as Ellis, the ringleader, ropes Felicity, still vulnerable and unstable, into her research for her upcoming book regarding the witches and their murders by recreating a coven within their dormitory. The members of the coven meet in secrecy and do crime-related tasks, all because Ellis is a “method writer” and wants to get into the mindset of the events and disprove the theory of witchcraft. And Felicity cannot help but be pulled in and seduced by Ellis’ magnetism even as they dive deeper and deeper into the mindset of killers and trying to recreate the perfect crime.

As for my thoughts to the novel:

If you follow me on Twitter, perhaps you already saw this, and I feel like I should include it even though it’s 100% on me and not on the book itself.
For reasons unknown, I thought this was an adult novel. I thought it took place at a college, like TSH or something. It definitely does not. They are teenagers in a glorified high school. And I can’t help but be mad at myself for not realizing until I was reading because, quite honestly, I wouldn’t have bothered reading if I had known it was a young adult novel since I prefer adult. But again, that’s 100% me, and I’m trying not to let that affect my review.
However, I will say that since the characters were so independent and at a boarding school that pretty much served as a college, I feel like it would’ve just made more sense for them to be aged up slightly (+2 years maybe) and be at a college instead, since they mostly acted like adults anyway. It seems very unrealistic that a group of teenagers would act like this, but perhaps that’s just me.

Continuing on!

While I didn’t hate this book, I didn’t think it was great, either. It sat pretty middle of the road for me. I was intrigued but not gripped, not convinced, just wanting more.

I feel like this book, with all its hints towards the characters, was just too heavy-handed and obvious. This felt like it leaned towards mystery/thriller but it just lacked the THRILL because it wasn’t subtle AT ALL. I did catch myself rolling my eyes a couple times and I didn’t feel very immersed because of how skeptical I was. I think if the author had been more delicate/subtle, it would have added so much more depth and nuance and would have been so much better in general.

The twist towards the end you could see from a mile away, except for a few details, and I think, character-wise, it really didn’t ever explain WHY. Like it didn’t make sense to me because there didn’t seem to be a reason behind it. Or the reason that was given was not explored or backed up.

The resolution was fitting, I suppose, however I found myself dissatisfied. I was just like “okay” about it, and the same with the epilogue. It didn’t make me feel anything, though, and I like to feel things at the end of books. I guess this was just a miss for me.

For trigger earnings off the top of my head: I will say that this novel dives deep into mental illness and trauma, death of a friend/lover, animal death, murder. I’m not too good with noticing trigger warnings because I’m not bothered by much, so I think the author has posted a list on their website.

This novel is also wlw which is part of the reason I read it and I think that in itself was done well. Felicity was a self-labeled, in text, lesbian. Ellis was wlw but not sure of label. Ellis had two moms and a nonbinary sibling who used they/them pronouns. All of the LGBT rep felt organic and natural and that was enjoyable to read.

As for POC rep, there was one major side character who was Black, and another major side character who was Indian (based off her name and description).

So if you want to read a young adult sapphic dark academia book, then read this! You might like it more than I did but it did fall a pretty flat for me.

A top contender for my favorite book of the year! CW (taken from author’s website): death, violence, manipulation, child neglect, mental health issues, substance abuse, suicide references, racist history at predominantly white academic institution. The author goes into more detail here: https://victorialeewrites.com/a-lesso...

I’m sure that there are high school aged kids out there who are actually like this but these characters felt pretentious as hell. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing and I think it was actually necessary for these particular characters, but I still found myself rolling my eyes at them occasionally. Overall I really loved Felicity, and to a lesser extent Ellis. Their dynamic was really interesting, even if it was incredibly toxic. But we love toxic/obsessive female relationships in this house. Felicity’s mental and emotional journey throughout the book was well done, though parts of it were difficult to read. I appreciate Lee’s delicate handling of the tough topics (see content warnings above) while not shying away from their realities.

Sometimes the book as a whole felt a little too pretentious and aware of itself and what it was trying to do by spelling it out through Felicity’s thesis project. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it’s just something I was hyper aware of at times.

This has perfectly creepy spooky vibes without being over the top on description. It’s kind of a shame it’s not coming out in October. It would be the perfect fall read. I love an unreliable narrator and not knowing if what she's saying is reality or not.

45% into it, I had no idea where it was going. By 60% I had an inkling of what was going on but no way did I anticipate where it actually went. The set-up of the plot was expertly crafted and executed. It did not give us an “out of left field” ending for shock value but it also did not lead you right to the resolution. 10/10 for Victoria Lee’s storytelling abilities.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars

This started out strong, grabbing my attention right away and pulling me into the mystery. I wanted to know what happened to Alex and whether the original Dalloway girls were actually witches. Felicity is an unreliable narrator which always makes things interesting and I wasn't sure if I could trust her or any of the girls around her.

The middle of this slowed down and took too long to give us information. I appreciate giving tidbits of information and drawing out suspense, but we needed something to keep the plot moving. There were some spooky parts earlier on and I think having more creepy scenes would have fit well.

I did like the ending and there were a couple twists I wasn't expecting. This wrapped up well and didn't leave any loose ends. Definitely an intriguing, dark read.