I did not expect this to be as dark and emotional as it was. I picked this up because of the dark academia theme, and I loved that setting. As Lennon explores this new world, we uncover the mysteries of the academy alongside her. It was refreshing to have an adult in the dark academia setting, which allowed Henderson to explore darker themes throughout the book. Towards the end, I found myself fully invested in the main characters, and emotionally wrecked.

Alexis Henderson the hold you have over me. I realize this is not a style for everyone. Consistently unreliable narrators, unresolved plots, and endings that make me so angry that I want to give it zero stars but than in can’t stop thinking about it and give it 5.

A very different dark academia. Murders. Ethics. Magic. Having no idea what people think because of the emotional whiplash of the narrator. Honestly I’m still not really sure what happened by the end

I really loved the concept of the school, the magic/power and the commentary all of it was trying to tell. I was shocked by the romance and was expecting her to have a thing with her roommate, not the person she did. These endings kill me.

Review: An Academy for Liars
Rating: ★★★★★ (5 stars)
Author: Alexis Henderson
Publisher: Berkley
Genre: Gothic Speculative Thriller / Dark Academia
Format: ARC (NetGalley)

Alexis Henderson has done it again—crafted a story that is as sharp as it is shadowy, and just as concerned with secrets as it is with survival. An Academy for Liars is a fierce and haunting descent into the heart of a broken girl and a broken system, set in a school that feels more like a trap than a refuge.

The novel follows Sunday Ahlefeld, a girl who doesn’t lie so much as she breathes it. Sent to a secluded school on an island meant to reform girls like her, Sunday quickly learns that truth and deception are both currency and curse. This isn’t your typical boarding school tale—think more Shutter Island meets The Girls Are All So Nice Here, wrapped in gothic velvet and soaked in dread.

From the very first page, Henderson draws you into Sunday’s psyche with a voice that’s whip-smart, acidic, and heartbreakingly raw. The prose is lush but never overindulgent—every sentence feels intentional, layered with meaning. The school itself is a character: claustrophobic, secretive, and filled with the kind of women society would rather hide away. And then there’s the speculative thread, a slow-burn creep of something unnatural curling beneath the narrative—haunting, unexplainable, and entirely earned.

What truly sets this book apart is how Henderson explores the idea of “truth” as both weapon and wound. The girls aren’t rehabilitated—they’re studied, pushed, and pitted against one another. Every relationship is tinged with mistrust, every kindness a possible trap. It’s a novel about performance, identity, power, and who gets to control the narrative.

And let’s talk about the twists: deliciously subtle at first, then gut-punching when they land. I had to reread entire sections just to savor how deftly Henderson planted the clues. By the end, I didn’t just want to hug the book—I wanted to scream about it, annotate every line, and shove it into the hands of every reader who’s ever loved a flawed, feral girl.

Final Thoughts:
An Academy for Liars is wicked, thoughtful, and entirely addictive. I couldn’t look away, even when it hurt. Alexis Henderson continues to carve space where speculative horror, feminism, and Black girl rage collide—and this may be her most quietly devastating work yet.

Highly recommend for fans of The Taking of Jake Livingston by Ryan Douglass, The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D. Jackson, or Blood Debts by Terry J. Benton-Walker—stories that explore systems of control, secrets that rot beneath the surface, and young protagonists who refuse to play by the rules.

I'm beginning to wonder whether I like dark academia, or whether the stories coming out rely too heavily on unanswered questions and loose plot threads to maintain their "mysterious" vibes. I had a pleasant time reading this book, but overall, I found the questions I still had at the end and the character development did not leave the impression this book seems to be trying to leave.

An Academy of Liars is a captivating dark academia book that had a lot of potential. The first half. of the book was really intriguing with some great world building. The second half of the book was messy, slow and hard to follow. The wasn't a lot of character development which made it hard to connect with Lennon and others at Drayton College. The concept of the university was very interesting and I really enjoyed the magical elements of the story. Overall this was an interesting read, I was just hoping for a little bit more.

i absolutely adored the vibes of this book, however, the plot and characters left something to be desired. i felt there was many threads left untied at the end, and not in an intriguing way, more like there were too many plot threads for a standalone, and things were just dropped along the way.

Thanks to Berkley for the gifted copy of this book!

An Academy for Liars is dark academia, but with a lot of darker horror elements. Taking place at a secret college, this was a fun setting for this read and I loved how the magic system worked with all the students with gifts. This was a super entertaining and great fall read!

Thanks to the publisher for the e-copy.

I really wanted to like this book, since I've enjoyed other books by this author. I didn't NOT like it...but I had to put it down and read something else several times before skimming through to the end. Maybe it was the time of year I read it, or my mood, I'm not sure.

I did enjoy the dark academia and magical realism aspects. There's a lot of world building, and it wasn't seemless for me like it has been in other books similar to this genre. Also, the whole persuasion thing kinda weirded me out a bit. There was also the issue of finding the characters, especially Lennon, fairly unlikable. Their ages were a bit strange too - why are they all going to college in their mid/late 20s?

There are definitely people that will love this book, but it just didn't work for me. I will still read the next book by this author!

3 stars because I finished it, the concept was great, and I do love dark academia - and I think it will be liked by the right audience.

This was my first Alexis Henderson book and I am so disappointed that I have picked her up before. This book is for the morally gray character lovers. There is not a single character in this book without blood on their hands (maybe just the rat). I adored how messy and raw these people her. I wanted to shake their shoulders and scream at them for their stupidity. At no point during this book did I know where we were or going. It was turn after turn after turn. The ground never felt solid beneath my feet. This world and magic system were nonsense and intricate as hell. I still have no idea how any of it works and I don't mind one bit.

I don't typically find myself gravitating towards dark academia but this pleasantly surprised me. There were some aspects of the magic system that I found slightly underdeveloped/confusing and the idea of a student/teacher relationship makes me a little uneasy even if both parties are adults. Other than that, though, I truly enjoyed the pacing and plot of this book.

Alexis Henderson is quickly becoming one of my all time favorite authors. Each work turns a genre on its head.

This was one of the most unique dark academia books I have read. It pulls you in from the beginning and I couldn't put it down. I ended up rereading it again shortly after I finished because I couldn't stop thinking about it once I was done.

I think the idea of a secret school and a magic system that could be used and manipulated without being seen or noticed was so interesting. I loved the writing and felt so immersed and drawn into the main characters growth and education.

I'm a big hit and miss with dark academia as of late, but I'm pleased to say this was a hit. It was an interesting dive into the idea of free will and the power of persuasion with some deeply flawed characters. Secrets, murders, and a backdrop of magic. There were also mystical elevators, which admittedly made me a little confused at times, but I enjoyed what it added to the story. The ending was also really satisfying and I like where the characters all ended up. I confess that I prefer Henderson's horror novels to this, but I'm still very much a fan and look forward to what comes next!

This book sort of shocked me with how much I loved it by the end. The beginning for me was a bit torturous as our protagonist, Lennon, finds herself enrolled in a magical school and is in a constant state of shock, awe and confusion at the things transpiring around her. I understood her confusion but the narrative tended towards info-dumpy dialogue as the main mode of exposition and I struggled to connect with the characters or register the bonds that were meant to be forming amongst the characters because of the relatively stilted and almost interview like cadence of every conversation. Now, I won't say this issue fully went away, in fact the sort of stilted dialogue is my main gripe with the book, but eventually I truly can't say that I cared. Alexis Henderson totally won me over with this plot and the general atmosphere of this story. The third act stepped on the gas and went so crazy I was almost breathless turning the pages. I loved the way the magic worked and the intensely psychological aspect to it all. It was very trippy and unnerving, loved it! One other gripe I have with the story was the fact that the progression of Lennon's power skills at any given time seemed sort of inconsistent but whatever. The cool, powerful, gifted girl is cool and powerful why not? It was a deeply entertaining read for me. I can see it being divisive among readers, but I had fun.

3.75 stars

Atmospheric and enthralling. I loved the setting, perfectly dark academia with a magical/psychological twist. More than a lot of books that have claimed to be, this felt very much so like a grown up Harry Potter with lots of wish fulfilment, found family, and a magic school you wish you could attend, while adding some sophisticated explorations on the nature of power and the darkness of this cruel and corrupt magic society.

I was so freaking excited for this book that I practically begged for an ARC. I’m a fan of Alexis Henderson’s writing style & was thrilled to see this dive into dark academia!

So I got the arc - Woop! And then life got absolutely insane, I lost my kindle, and I didn’t finish it. I regularly forget that I can read kindle on my phone because I just don’t enjoy it that way, so I found my kindle and snagged the audiobook (it’s got great narration, I couldn’t resist) and I started over this month after never finishing and ate it up.

Academy for Liars follows Lennon from a messy breakup that lead to her lowest point to a hidden academy of magic located in Savannah’s 25th square. I am a sucker for anything set in Savannah… being from Georgia, it’s the place I call my second home & I visit often. There are 22 squares but when Savannah was originally built, there were 24. I really love the little tidbit that there were secretly 25 and that Dayton College sits on the 25th square, hidden from time and the world. I don’t know, y’all. That just made my southern heart happy.

Dayton College is a unique magic school that teaches the complex act of persuasion. It’s a type of magic that can be used to force your will upon other people but persuasion, when wielded by someone powerful enough, can influence the very folds of reality. And you know our girl Lennon is one of those super powerful ones because, what else did you expect?

Lead by her advisor and tattooed love interest, Dante, Lennon explores the depths of her powers and trains her abilities to do things she cannot yet comprehend, things that will shape every moment of her future.

I really enjoyed this book. It opened with a creepy mirror scene that lives rent free in my head because I have a thing about my reflection anyway. We get some spooky undertones but for the most part the story is more of a true fantasy dark academia than horror. Henderson is great at dipping her fingers into the horror genre and sprinkling it throughout her books so if that’s your thing, definitely check out her other work- House of Hunger is a yummy story of Dracula’s brides.

I mentioned it was set in Savannah - this gave me high hopes for more involvement in the city but the aforementioned 25th square lace in is about where it stopped. We get a visit to River Street and a couple comments but that’s it. I also don’t feel like the majority of the characters were fleshed out - they felt two dimensional - with the focus really sitting on Lennon and Dante. This was also true for some of the scenes and plot lies - like the secret society within the school - I just wanted.. more. More of all of it. I feel like Henderson writes with this air of aloofness and mystery that can pay off, but didn’t necessarily for me in this case. I really appreciated having bipoc main characters in the world of dark academia lit that doesn’t always feel diverse.

That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy it. Because I did. And if Henderson ever drops a sequel, I’ll be there on the pre-order list. She just writes with this… I don’t know, oomph… that I really enjoy. She’s bold. She’s dark. There’s always angst and blood and insanely flawed characters. I’m here for that.

I couldn’t decide on a rating- I feel like I always fall around 3.5 and round up but when I think about how much I enjoyed this one (when I finally had a proper start to it), it’s definitely a 4.

A great big thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for the opportunity to review, with heaping apologies for the tardiness of it.

This started off so intriguing! My favorite thing about this was the atmosphere and the way it was built up perfectly from the beginning with vivid descriptions and a macabre vibe that gave me literal chills. There were so many elements I found interesting and couldn’t get enough of and overall the creepy vibes were perfection.

There were however some things that took away from my enjoyment. For one thing the character development didn’t really resonate with me the way that I had hoped it would. While I understand what the author was doing with the characters it seemed to develop in a way that fell flat. A lot of what I found appealing lost its momentum as the story continued and the things being presented weren’t interesting enough for me to care.

In short, while the premise of this was promising and started off great the narrative ultimately veered into one big chaotic mess that didn’t make sense. I’m left with more questions than answers and overall slightly disappointed with how this turned out.

This genre is fairly new to me. I haven’t read much of gothic/dark romance but this was a solid start! I had the chance to meet Alexis via zoom thanks to Berkley. This book was such a vibe. I could not put it down. The plot as a whole worked really well and I will definiltt be looking out her other books!

Dark academia meets gothic mystery in this haunting, twisty read. Henderson’s lush prose and razor-sharp tension make it impossible to put down!

I've always enjoyed Alexis Henderson writing and this book was not an exception. Henderson has a wonderful dark writing style and manages to make readers stay in suspension. Once I started reading, I felt myself hooked until I was done.