A Lesson in Vengeance was gratefully provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The novel follows Felicity, a young woman who is repeating her senior year at an exclusive prep school. She had taken a break from the school following the tragic death of her secret girlfriend the year before. She is now back and trying to adjust to school life without Alex. In addition, there is a child prodigy on campus with whom everyone seems to be enamored.

I enjoyed this novel very much. Felicity is obsessed with occultism, tarot, and witchcraft and I felt the author did an excellent job showing how easy it can be to attribute strange occurrences to the supernatural. I slightly wished for the magic in the story to be real, but I do think that it was a better and more realistic story without it.

Felicity is an unreliable narrator and often lies to herself throughout the story. I love unreliable narrators!! The author can really mess with your mind through the narrator.

The main characters are well rounded. The side characters were quite interesting and had distinct personalities.

Overall, I really loved the book. I would definitely recommend this to lovers of YA.

A Lesson in Vengence follows Felicity Morrow as she returns to the halls of the Dalloway School after witnessing the untimely death of her Godwin House roommate, Alex. She returns to school to address her trauma, and the figurative (or literal?) ghosts that have haunted her since (and before) that fateful night.

Ok, so this was mostly fun! Felicity, our narrator, is unreliable and experiencing some level of a psychological breakdown which makes her a very intriguing narrator. I raced through this book! That said, it's fairly predictable albeit there were a few unexpected twists. The first half of the book is excellent and had me looking over my shoulder while reading at night, but by the end I didn't care so much about any of our characters anymore and the horror elements stopped landing as they were sort of repetitive. I think the ending will be pretty divisive for folks, but it was more or less what I was expecting. .

If you like Gothic horror in a boarding school setting (dark academia), this is a solid entry into that subgenre for older teens and new adults. If you liked Plain Bad Heroines or Ninth House, pick this one up too. 3.5 stars. I liked it!

Creepy. That's the first word that pops into my head when I think about Felicity and her experiences at Dalloway. Returning to re-do her senior year after her best friend/girlfriend died, Felicity feels like she's being haunted. It's easy to see why she would think that, as apparitions of her long-dead friend Alex appear near her window and reminders of what happened to her start showing up in her room. The overall creepiness level is set high. 

And poor Felicity's mental health is not all there. After witnessing her friend die, and feeling like she was at fault, it's not easy to return to the place where they both lived. The school they went to. Especially to repeat her senior year again. And then we have Ellis. The eccentric, method writer working on her sophomore novel at Dalloway. She's writing about the Dalloway Five - the five girls who were accused of witchcraft and all died mysteriously after the conception of the school and is a little too into it, honestly. 

This book was something I had to read slowly. I had to grasp at the little details sprinkled throughout to start to see the big picture, and I got it spot on. And even then, the twist at the end completely threw me off. 

Felicity is still in the closet, but the connection she feels with Ellis is like a hot coal burning between them. It's very clear, from the moment these two meet, that there is an attraction and strong connection between these two. I loved watching their stories meet and intertwine - trying to understand what is going on with Felicity, what happened with Alex, and why Ellis is so adamant about the Dalloway Five. This story is certified creepy and every moment was a little thread pulling us towards the bigger picture. 

Personally, I don't like Ellis. I don't understand why the girls living in the Godwin House are so infatuated with Ellis, other than the fact that she's a published author. But, everyone is obsessed with her. I honestly felt bad for Felicity, who was really trying to return to normalcy and feeling like her dead girlfriends ghost is haunting her is not the vibe she was going for. Especially once she starts getting feelings for Ellis and feels like she can't act on them, lest she anger Alex's ghost. Looking back, the signs were all there. And just like Felicity, the reader is strung up, unsure what's real or not as they have these weird things happen. 

I just felt proud of myself for figuring out what was going on!

Overall, while I don't like Ellis, I still loved this book. It's a dark academia, psychological thriller that honestly terrified me. It makes me worry how realistic and accurate this story feels - a little too realistic . . .

I don't know what it is about this book but I am having the absolute hardest time putting into writing exactly all of the reasons why I loved this book. A Lesson In Vengeance is definitely the dark and twisty atmospheric and gothic thriller it claims to be, but there is so much more to it than that. I wouldn't categorize it as a fantasy, although it has been shelved that way by many a user and does take a deep dive into the world of the occult. It's Sapphic dark academia at it's finest and rather beautifully written. There is mental illness representation that is well written and that representation really matters in mainstream books. All in all, I believe Victoria Lee did a fantastic job and I highly recommend this book.

I think Victoria Lee's an auto-buy author for me now.

A Lesson in Vengeance isn't just your dark academia happy place. It's a book with some of the most beautiful prose I've read recently, and it's got characters that you'll fall in love with AND want to slap across the face at times.

I think this book is one of those that I'll be thinking about for a long time coming, and one that I'm absolutely recommending to everyone. Get this book in your hands!!

Dark academia at its finest! This dark, ominous read pulled me in and didn't release me until the very last page. I'm completely blown away by Victoria Lee's writing and the witchy atmosphere she created throughout this entire book.

The shining star of this novel is definitely its lush, dark atmosphere. This entire book feels feverish and dream-like. This school felt so real - like a haunted boarding school of witches really sits in the Catskills. I was so wrapped up in this world and never knew whether or not paranormal things were actually happening. I also loved how Felicity's thesis so clearly paralleled her actual life. It was honestly genius.

The characters in here are eerie and strange and I never trusted a single one of them. But I was completely and utterly fascinated by them throughout the entire book.

Victoria Lee did a fantastic job of pacing and timing by sprinkling small reveals throughout the story, keeping me on the edge of my seat from the very beginning. I was frantically flipping through the pages by the end, trying to discover where the was leading (and I was ALWAYS wrong!).

If you want a fast paced, gripping dark academia novel that isn't afraid to go there and scare the pants off of you - add this to your TBR! It's definitely on the upper end of YA (this book is DARK).

Content warnings: Animal sacrifice, Death, Depression, Paranoia, Hospitalization, Child neglect, PTSD, Murder, Substance abuse

The elements of dark academia, sapphic romance, atmospheric writing, and witchy vibes all combined nicely to be a great character-driven book that ultimately surprised me in the end and was exactly what I was looking for. Felicity was a great narrator that displayed how grief, abusive and distant parents, struggles with fitting in, and dealing with sexuality can affect a person. How clearly laid out her faults and struggles were allowed for a very honest portrayal to stand out and grab me by how realistic it was with its imperfections. Especially the mental health struggles resonated with me on how complex and ultimately still struggling with it that was shown throughout the novel. Representation doesn't always need to be positive and has a happy outcome, for most it's not realistic that your first time around getting help will fix everything. Even those with struggles like mental health issues and from other marginalized groups are not perfect people or even good people. There are flaws and faults in everyone, sometimes to an uncommon extreme, and this novel doesn't hide from that. It embraces it within its detailed writing that stitches together the macabre with academia and complex histories attached to a place.

With all the good things I have to say about this book, I think if there was anything I wish could be different, I would say I would have liked to see more of Quinn's and Leonie's backgrounds explored more than in the one or two conversations we got towards the end. Although I understand most side characters, whether having a marginalized identity or not, were on the back burner to learning about Felicity and Ellis who were the characters at the forefront of the novel.

I would definitely read more by Victoria Lee and I can't wait to see what she does in the future. I hope there will be more stories like this with lesbians and dark academia.

A Lesson in Vengeance is a thrilling dark academia about a super senior at Dalloway, Felicity Morrow, who’s enchanted by the history and magic of her school. When her magical obsession went wrong last year, she swore she would leave it alone… until she meets the young author Ellis Haley. Ellis is writing a new book based on the Dalloway Five - witches at the school who died mysterious deaths. She enlists Felicity with her knowledge of magic to help her learn more about the history of the school and the five witches. Felicity is torn between helping her new friend and reigniting her passion or staying out of the whole thing altogether.

Here’s everything I love:
- dark academia, of course
- female/female relationships
- historical witches and the study of their magic. The magic in this book is not fantastical magic. You’re in a world where no one believes magic is real, and you’re left to wonder if it is or not
- the writing was incredibly beautiful. It makes me want to read everything this author writes
- real philosophical questions on the treatment of women throughout history

Overall, I give this book a 5/5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The vibes are immaculate, but the plot gets a little lost.

Dark academia, with obnoxiously wealthy lesbians at boarding school? Absolutely perfect. I loved everything, even the pretentious vocabulary and Felicity's absolutely ridiculous decision to do all of her schoolwork by typewriter. Everyone dresses like they're in the 50's/60's, most of the characters choose to get rid of their cell phones to focus on their "academics", and even though there is supposedly a teacher living in the small, five-student dorm, I don't think she ever makes a single appearance, even as the girls openly drink alcohol and smoke joints. Completely unrealistic, but I enjoyed it all.

The mystery aspect is where this one fell short for me. I finished this book 20 minutes ago, and I've been sitting and thinking about it ever since, and I feel like I just do not understand the motivations of the characters. They seemed to be doing random, confusing things, for no particular reason. There were many small threads that seemed to not go anywhere. And, in particular, there was a major reveal towards the very end that was just slipped in with little to no explanation, and I just....I needed explanation.

I still enjoyed this one (again, the VIBES), but it would have been better if the mystery had been tightened up. Still worth a read--YA has been getting dark lately, but I'm not mad about it. Check your trigger warnings.

*eARC provided by NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Before starting this book I highly recommend reading about Lee and the personal aspects put into this novel. It made a lot of the characteristics and nuances stand out deeply. I was pretty stoked to get my hands on a story that lands itself in the sapphic dark academia category. Especially one with LGBTQ+ representation at an own voices level.

I did go in expecting witches, spells and the otherworld knocking on the door of the characters in this book. However, this is not that kind of novel. There is a deep rooted witchy history for the girls at this school but the real story is rooted in psychosis and mental illness. Lee creates a well crafted depth to her characters and tied the plot together nicely.

I enjoyed the novel more for the representation of both mental awareness and sexual identity/representation. The plot itself was slow going for me though. Even the climax and reveal wasn't a huge moment. That aside, I felt a connection to the content represented in these pages. This story may not be for everyone but there is beauty in the prose and chaos in the imaginative unraveling.

Special thank you to Delacorte Press and Victoria Lee for the gifted digital copy in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts are my own.

A Lesson in Vengeance is a hard book to review. On the one hand, it’s atmospheric and creepy, alternating between a paranormal thriller and something a bit more mundane. On the other, at times it feels there’s not much to it except vibes.

Perhaps the best part of it was the unreliable narrator. Felicity is not telling the reader the truth for many reasons (some of which come to light sooner than others) and, for the most part, Victoria Lee does a great job of that balancing act of you seeing through Felicity, but also not quite trusting her. From time to time, the reveals of Felicity’s unreliableness did kind of come out of the blue—I thought there could probably have stood to be a bit more foreshadowing for some of it—but it was very well done on the whole.

Then there’s the relationship between Felicity and Ellis. First of all, I loved how both of them explicitly identified as lesbians and how the word itself was used multiple times. The novel centres on their relationship, really, and it’s definitely a compelling one—a relationship that you’re not entirely sure if you want to root for, but one that keeps you reading anyway.

Possibly where this book fell down was in the pacing. The opening caught my attention, for sure, but after about a quarter of it, the plot started to drift. It felt like not a whole lot was happening, and everything started dragging. In fact, the actual events, the climax of it all, starts with only 15% to go. So there’s a whole 60% chunk of… not very much. And, with that twist, it felt a whole lot like People Like Us, just not as good.

Add onto that the fact that it felt, as a story, as though it would have suited a historical setting more than contemporary? Well, it just was a little disappointing overall.

Wow! I really enjoyed this book! It was creepy and dark and I loved the unreliable narrator aspect. Victoria's writing is gorgeous without being too flowery. I will definitely be reading more of their books!

I received an eARC of A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

4⭐️

This was the dark thriller I didn’t know I needed! Definite recommend for fans of Dark Academia! There are so many things I loved about this book! First, it’s set in a school environment with history involving witches, murder, hauntings, and a secret society. The narrator, Felicity, is completely unreliable; which keeps things interesting. While it started off slow, it definitely picks up pace about 65% through and doesn’t stop. So many twists. I flew through this!

TW‼️ Death, Violence, Mental Health, Substance Abuse, Manipulation/Emotional Abuse

Blurb:
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.

The history of Dalloway School lives in the bones it was built on. Five violent deaths in the first ten years of its existence. Sometimes you can still smell the blood on the air.
 
It wasn’t until Felicity enrolled that she fell in love with the dark. And now she’s back to finish her senior year after the tragic death of her girlfriend. She even has her old room in Godwin House, the exclusive dormitory rumored to be haunted by the spirits of the five Dalloway students who died there—girls some say were witches.
 
It’s Ellis Haley’s first year at Dalloway. A prodigy novelist at seventeen, Ellis is eccentric and brilliant, and Felicity can’t shake the pull she feels to her. So when Ellis asks for help researching the Dalloway Five for her second book, Felicity can’t say no.
 
Dalloway’s occult lore is everywhere, and the new girl won’t let Felicity forget it. But when the past begins to invade on the present, Felicity needs to decide where she stands. The soil under her feet is bloody with Dalloway’s history. But so is the present. Is it Dalloway—or is it her?

Felicity Morrow is back at Dalloway School. Perched in the Catskill mountains, the centuries-old, ivy-covered campus was home until the tragic death of her girlfriend. Now, after a year away, she’s returned to graduate. She even has her old room in Godwin House, the exclusive dormitory rumored to be haunted by the spirits of five Dalloway students—girls some say were witches. The Dalloway Five all died mysteriously, one after another, right on Godwin grounds. Witchcraft is woven into Dalloway’s history. The school doesn’t talk about it, but the students do. And before her girlfriend died, Felicity was drawn to the dark. She’s determined to leave that behind her now; all Felicity wants is to focus on her senior thesis and graduate. But it’s hard when Dalloway’s occult history is everywhere. And when the new girl won’t let her forget. It’s Ellis Haley’s first year at Dalloway, and she’s already amassed a loyal following. A prodigy novelist at seventeen, Ellis is a so-called “method writer.” She’s eccentric and brilliant, and Felicity can’t shake the pull she feels to her. So when Ellis asks Felicity for help researching the Dalloway Five for her second book, Felicity can’t say no. Given her history with the arcane, Felicity is the perfect resource. And when history begins to repeat itself, Felicity will have to face the darkness in Dalloway–and in herself.

I loved A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee! As soon as I saw a lesbian dark academia book was coming out, I knew I had to read it! This book is YA, so it's missing some of the depth you get from adult titles like The Secret History and If We Were Villains, but I think it's a fantastic addition to YA dark academia. It's creepy, atmospheric, and a perfect read for fall. I'd highly recommend putting this book on your autumn TBR for spooky season! CW for mental illness, murder, mental abuse and manipulation, and child neglect. If you're looking for queer dark academia, I'd highly recommend A Lesson in Vengeance!

This book is the twisted, sapphic, spooky story we all need in our lives right now. I'm going to have a hard time writing this review without putting any spoilies, because I need to talk to someone about how all the sh*t goes down!

Felicity and Ellis are our dark academia queens, with a dash of pretentiousness and murder thrown in. I am absolutely loving the Jennifer's Body vibes I got from this book, and I also don't think men show up until the very end of the book, which is something I've never experienced before. It really is a thoughtful look at the teenage experience, after all, Hell is a teenage girl.

This book deals with extremely dark themes as well, and my heart broke several times over for all that Felicity had to go through mentally and physically. I do think this book would have changed my life if I had read it when I was on the precipice of womanhood.

A Lesson in Vengeance is a twisty, atmospheric tale, full of mystery and memory. Victoria Lee has expertly crafted a gothic thriller with twists of literary fiction and horror that is sure to have readers on the edge of their seat.

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.

Felicity Morrow was such an interesting character to read from and I thoroughly enjoyed her perspective. Her character also fulfils something I adore reading: unreliable narrators. In the case of A Lesson in Vengeance, this worked perfectly to maximise the spookiness and unsettling nature of the story. The reader is often left uncertain of what’s real and what’s not, as Felicity’s own mind works against her. I also adored her character arc and development throughout the novel, resulting in a really satisfying, if unexpected, ending.

The novel’s intensity, of both characters and plot, served to keep me glued to my kindle until I finished it. Although this is definitely a slow burn, it was effortlessly engaging right from the first page, only growing more and more addicting as the story progressed. The side characters were all interesting and I enjoyed Felicity’s interactions with them but Ellis stole the show. The build up of their relationship and the sheer intensity of everything they did was phenomenal and I never knew where Lee would take me next. The background of the Dalloway Five and the way it was so cleverly woven with the present had me spellbound.

A Lesson in Vengeance is dark and mysterious, equal parts intense and haunting. It is a tale to read if you want to have your mind thoroughly blown through clever writing and characters. I cannot recommend this book enough if you fancy some lesbian alongside your dark academia and murder mysteries.

I received an advanced copy of A Lesson in Vengeance through NetGalley so I could share my review with you!

Content Warning- Death (graphic), Violence (graphic), Manipulation and emotional abuse, Child neglect (past/offscreen), Mental health issues, Substance abuse, Suicide references (no actual suicide), References to racist history at a PWI, Animal abuse/death (graphic), and Gore.

Everything is not as it seems at Dalloway Academy. Darkness lurks in its very history, yet Felicity Morrow seems to be the only one who can see it. That is, until the arrival of Ellis Haley, who is at the school to research her next novel, which explores the murders that happened on Dalloway’s campus back at its beginnings. Back then, five girls were accused of witchcraft and were killed off one by one until their fates became legends. Their deaths are the gory center at Dalloway’s mystique, but they aren’t the only tragedies seen on campus. Felicity is still recovering after the death of her girlfriend, which was either an accident or the result of her own magical mistakes. Ellis is the first person at the school to share Felicity’s passion for Dalloway’s history of witchcraft and murder, and an instant connection forms between the pair of girls. If they aren’t careful, they’ll be consumed by Dalloway’s famous darkness.

You can get your copy of A Lesson in Vengeance now from Delacorte Press!

A Lesson in Vengeance was delightfully dark and twisted! I was especially fond of the ways that Felicity’s perspective shaped the narrative of events in the story. She was an excellently unreliable narrator, as it was difficult to tell what was the truth and what was happening in her head. The ways that perception and reality blended together in this novel were both exceptional and engaging. As someone who is only just getting into the genre of Dark Academia, I found this book to be an exemplary piece of writing for the category.

My Recommendation-
If you think that October and Halloween can’t come fast enough, I highly recommend that you pick up a copy of A Lesson in Vengeance to tide you over! This psychological ghostly thriller would be a great choice for fans of Ace of Spades or If We Were Villains.

This book literally had the makings of everything I could want: dark academia, spooky vibes, witchy things, sapphic...and yet, it left so much to be desired.

The story takes place at a prestigious all girls boarding school (Dalloway), and mainly follows Felicity Morrow (who is repeating her senior year following the death of her girlfriend) and prodigy novelist Ellis Haley (who is starting her first year at Dalloway). Together, they are two of the five girls that live in the coveted Goodwin dorm.

One of the biggest issues that I had with this book was the fact that I had to constantly remind myself that these were high schoolers. There was no well-rounded liberal arts curriculum. Instead, the dialogue between the girls was an onslaught of in-depth literary examination about books from authors that I have never heard of. You had girls that rebuffed modern society and instead thrived off vintage fashion, cigarettes, and sipping on bourbon and whiskey. Also, social media was nonexistent for this clique as well. It was so painfully pretentious.

When it comes to characters, Felicity and Ellis are the only two characters that get any sort of depth. We see side characters of color as well as a trans character, but they all feel like interchangeable shells because they pop in for a random comment then float back into the ether. I wish that the author spent more time developing the other characters instead of only focusing on Felicity and Ellis.

I will say that the author does a really great job of digging into horror elements to create a desolate and spooky vibe at the boarding school. I would've enjoyed this one more of the constant literary references weren't crammed down my throats, and it didn't feel like the side characters were token characters.

The atmosphere of this book is so great! It’s total spooky, haunted, boarding school vibes and it was so well done. So if you like an unreliable narrator, this is your book! This story has a lot to do with Felicity coping with her grief, and you really never know if you can trust what she is seeing or if it is just her portrayal of events. Felicity kept a lot of secrets from those around her and from the reader. I’m not gonna lie, I did struggle a bit with being on Felicity’s side at times because of how unsure I was of what her actual truths/experiences were, but I couldn’t help but feel for her as well. The relationship in this was a little meh for me, but I think that is because Ellis just wasn’t my favorite. The representation in this story was amazing and I am here for it. I think this author crafted a very unique story and I do plan to read more from them!

Something about the ending fell flat for me and I think it was feeling a build up for extra twists that never happened- making the ending feel as though it was cut short.

Beyond that though, this was atmospheric, filled with paranoia, and something I couldn't put down once I started. It took me a bit to feel grounded in the environment being established but tension-filled relationships and dynamics between our main character, Felicity, and curious new girl, Ellis.

Felicity is truly an unreliable narrator in the most entertaining way as she desperately tries to navigate past deaths and whether or not they were accidental, witchcraft and if the spirits she feels around her are real, and new relationships- wondering if they can be trusted or not.

Lesbians, murder plots, and witchcraft all set in creepy boarding school filled with secrets- it's a story I didn't realize I needed.

CW: grief, death, murder, manipulation