I’ve never read a dark academia book from the POV of a professor and let me tell you this better not be the last one. If you like any type of dark academia books with writing equivalent to if we were villains, you are going to love this one.

This was fine, and I appreciate focusing on an older professor in a magical school setting as opposed to the more common focus, but this made me realize I am very, very tired of magical schools altogether. The cute/funny details were just grating, but that's very much a me issue.

I received a digital ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, and I can't explain how excited I am to recommend this book!

I already knew I would love Emily Tesh's writing from The Greenhollow Duology, and The Incandescent did not disappoint. What I did not expect was an original and beautifully executed take on a magic school novel written entirely from a teacher's perspective, which (magic aside) felt so very relatable to me.

I loved how well rounded Saffy's character is. Everything she does and says and even thinks is so real, it feels like she's someone I've met before. I also love that Tesh's world building is married to her storytelling. She doesn't explain anything, and she doesn't need to. Aside from how much I loved Saffy, my favourite component of this novel is definitely the plot. I spent the entire book clueless as to where it was going like a kid enjoying a fun ride with Tesh firmly in control the whole time.

My only ask is that someone please tell me why Mark did what he did because surely there must be a lot to unpack here.

I will definitely be adding this to my shelf once it's out and recommend to anyone who loves their heroes middle-aged and morally ambiguous, and their villains clever and also morally ambiguous.

So refreshing to read a dark academia story focusing on the teachers - more books about competent, professional adults, please! I loved learning Saffy's story and seeing how it fit in with the current events of the book, and the last third was a twist I did not see coming but made for a satisfying resolution. I think this would be a great book to recommend to fans of Scholomance or possibly Deborah Harkness, though romance was less of an emphasis here. I love that the book features a bi main character, but fans of queer romance may be disappointed that there weren't many interactions between the two women. I found Saffy's musings on the ethics of education particularly insightful, and I think the depiction of the reality of teaching would resonate with a lot of readers in that field as well. I'll definitely recommend this at my library, particularly for readers looking for something different from the typical YA/coming-of-age story.

The Incandescent is a queer fantasy and dark academia novel about magicians in England that will appeal to readers of Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries.

This book was extremely hard for me to rate. At times it was very intriguing and a lot of fun. However, other times I wanted to put it down and never pick it back up again. It chooses the strangest times to do an info dump that causes the pacing to slam to a halt. There were so many chapters where I really did not care about what was happening, and I think it was down to the pacing. Also, the plot was pretty predictable. The beginning was so good! But then after the first big bad fight, it lost me. I really wanted more of Laura and their dynamic, but she’s barely in it. For me, sadly, this was a 2.5/5.

Disclosure Statement: I received an ARC of this novel from the publisher. My thoughts and opinions of it are entirely my own and have not been influenced in any way by either publisher or author.

I've never hated finishing a book more than with The Incandescent. From the first chapter, I knew that I would be absolutely hooked on it, and that led to a total obsession. It is so rare to find a book that seems to speak directly to you, and yet that is exactly how I felt reading about Saffy and Laura and Phoenix and Chetwood.

This is a magical, dark academia book for the ages. It's full of all kinds of magic and keen world-building, but it's also full of competent characters, adults both celebrating their maturity while still grappling with what it means to grow, what it means to live and learn and step one foot in front of the other into the stages of life that come after high school. It's so refreshing to take on the perspective of someone exactly my age, walking through the same questions of life and career and adulthood.

Tesh writes about this stage of adulthood romantically, and it is so hard not to be swept up with its sentiment. Saffy, as a character, is complex and marvelous, beautiful and ornery and full of her own self-assurance to a point of fault, but I have almost never loved a character so unabashedly--unless you count Laura Kenning, for whom I would give my soul. I absolutely adored this book's characters, the way Tesh gives them such wonderful flaws while also making them so marvelously gifted. Part competency porn, part awkward, striving, gorgeous and flawed people, I simply could never get enough of these two (or the larger cast, who are also just as interesting).

But what also strikes me the most about this book is the way that Tesh thinks about the relationship of a teacher to their students, the complex intersection of power and privilege in academia, and the way that the world can wear on someone whose purpose in life defies the rest of the world's lack of principles, or its willingness to sell its scruples for something that cannot matter nearly as much as the process of learning and living a human life. Nothing in the book is flawless, but everything it does is purposeful and perfect. It captures the feeling of being an educator with deep romanticism without ever being inauthentic.

I could drone for days about all the ways this book absolutely consumed me, but I just think it's just safe to say: I don't think I want any other fantasy than this. I am heartbroken that I have finished reading it for the first time. I wish I wish I wish I could go back to that first chapter and experience it again with totally fresh eyes. What an absolute treat to have had this experience. I'm in love.

While I feel this book would be perfect for others this was not for me. I'm so grateful to get this book early so thank you Netgalley for that. Unfortunately this was so boring. I'm a dark academia girly so when I heard of this book I had to read it. I appreciate the LGBTQIA+ rep and the writing was not bad at all. The biggest complaint I have is this felt like I was sitting around with these characters doing absolutely NOTHING. So yeah, I would read something else from this author but this one is a no for me.

I really hate that work prevented me from reading this faster because if I could have read this in one sitting I absolutely would have. Between Some Desperate Glory and The Incandescent, Emily Tesh has absolutely been established as an author I will read anything from. I just totally loved this. And also I got some light Abhorsen/Old Kingdom vibes which was wonderful.

What a fun and refreshing twist on a magical school story.

In Incandescent, we follow Dr. Sapphire Walden, Saffy if you are lucky, as she navigates the everyday ins and outs of running of Chetwood, a respectable school for magic. Between teaching, meetings, banishing demons, juggling her somewhat non exist love life, and battling the ghosts of her past (figuratively and literally) she's exhausted. So when demon incursions start happening around her more frequently, she has to decide how to control them before they control her.

I loved seeing the school from the perspective of someone in charge rather than a student for once! It was so witty and relatable.

As a bisexual woman in her mid 30's who feels totally uncool around teenagers but used to be a rebellious and reckless teenager herself I definitely felt a kinship with Saffy lol

I greatly enjoyed Tesh's short work and am so pleased with this novel! It is contemporary, magical dark academia at it's finest!

This was really fantastic. The Incandescent is a book that takes its time but does so in a confident and engaging manner--I was thoroughly engrossed in the theoretical discussions of demons, teaching, selfhood, and morality, and absolutely riveted to the more action-heavy scenes. This is fun and dark and inventive, and it went in directions I absolutely wasn't expecting--I'll be thinking about the structure of this book for a long time.

It also reads like a love letter to teaching, one that sees the profession with all its flaws but also with deep affection. One of my favorite things about this book was how obviously Tesh *gets* it and encapsulates that on the page--although it also gave me secondhand stress (truly, Walden never gets a break).

This is probably going to be one of my top ten reads of 2025, and I'd be shocked if it doesn't get all sorts of award nominations.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc! Opinions are my own.

I had high expectations for this book. I was lucky enough to get an ARC of *Some Desperate Glory*, which I thought was astonishingly good (the Hugo for Best Novel was very, very well deserved). And during an AMA Emily Tesh mentioned her next project - a book set in a magic school, but from the perspective of the teachers responsible for keeping all these overpowered, overconfident, hormonal teenage idiots from blowing themselves and a good chunk of the local geography to smithereens - I was very excited. When I heard she planned to use years of break-room stories from her own time as a teacher I was *thrilled*.

Happy to report this is easily one of the best magic school books I’ve ever read. Might even be better than Naomi Novik’s *Scholomance* trilogy (I’ll need to chew on things for a while, maybe give it a reread). I can’t think of anything else that comes close.

Saffy Walden, MThau, PhD, is the lead teacher of Invocation (demon summoning) at Chetwood School, a centuries-old boarding school in England, and one of the finest places to study magic before going off to uni. It’s a rewarding job, but a demanding one. There’s all the normal teaching responsibilities - lessons, grading, helping students. There’s the more uniquely *boarding* school responsibilities, being much more involved in her students’ lives and personal, moral, and social development than in a normal school. And then there’s the uniquely *magical* responsibilities, ranging from labor negotiations with the imp in the copy machine, to maintaining the ancient-but-impractical-to-replace magical engines that protect the school, to the occasional exorcism of a student (or maybe just their iPhone) that’s been possessed. And there are some definite bureaucratic turf wars with Laura Kenning, the chief of the school’s contingent of Marshalls, the ancient order dedicated to protecting the world from demons. Obviously, they look a little suspiciously at any invoker, and Dr. Walden is one of the world’s most powerful.

In many ways I’d call this a slice-of-life story. Much of the book is taken up with Walden doing her job, the tasks that are (for her) completely mundane. She is very protective of her star pupil, Nikki, who lost her parents to a demon when young and is a ward of the school, in part because Kenning and the Marshalls are very suspicious of the circumstances of the demon’s arrival. She has other students in her A-level Invocations class (aside from an American - I think this is, like, advanced college prep? Maybe AP?), each with their own challenges. One is a cocky kid from an old-magic family - talented, but overconfident and careless. One is another ward of the school, supremely talented, but utterly *lacking* in confidence. One is a bookworm - not really a naturally talented magician, but extremely disciplined and dedicated. Most of Walden’s energy is going towards shepherding her students towards their exams (and then, hopefully Oxford in Nikki’s case). There’s a very soothing quality to it all that makes me think of Becky Chambers.

But the stakes are much bigger, so it’s not a slice-of-life *book*. There’s an ancient and powerful demon that’s been lurking around the demonic plane adjacent to Chetwood for centuries, feeding off stray magic and the (very occasional) student or teacher when the wards fail. Let’s just say telling us about that demon without having it be a plot point would be a massive Chekov’s gun, and Tesh is too good a writer for that.

There are a number of magic-school tropes that this completely does away with, and it’s delightful. It’s set in more-or-less our world, but magic is open and known - Walden, for example, impresses the hell out of her students when she lets slip that the Pentagon approached her after grad school and offered her a job, which she turned down. Technology works just fine - matter of fact, the school is rather draconian about its smartphone rules because demons have a habit of possessing them. And Chetwood not only offers an excellent *magical* education, it offers an excellent education all-around; knowing magic is great and all, but you also have to understand, you know, math and such. The current Headmaster is actually a geography teacher, which is part of why so much of the magical side of the admin falls on Walden.

And, naturally, there’s romance. Walden might clash with Chief Marshall Kenning, but she’s also aware that Kenning is competent, dedicated, and extremely attractive.

Cannot recommend this one highly enough. She’s done it again. Comes out on May 13.

Incredible from start to finish, this academic fantasy from the POV of a teacher is so beautifully written, with heart-wrenching moments, relatably disastrous attempts at flirting, and a climax that I can't stop thinking about, is my current favorite book of the year.

I adored this book. Everything from the imp in the copy machine to the love story to the twist of who is really the villain was magnificently crafted. I will be recommending this to so many friends who love academic magic and academics who just want to help their students succeed.

A magical school story told from the perspective of a teacher instead of a student? Absolutely. This book balances the wonder of academia with the exhaustion of bureaucracy, following Dr. Walden as she juggles lesson plans, staff meetings, and the small matter of keeping demons from breaking through the school’s wards.

The worldbuilding is seamless, making magic feel as intricate and demanding as any academic discipline. Walden herself is a fantastic protagonist—brilliant, deeply flawed, and increasingly haunted by forces both external and internal. Tesh’s writing is sharp and atmospheric, blending humor with an underlying tension that keeps the story moving.

While some of the relationships felt underdeveloped, the novel thrives on its originality and execution. A must-read for fans of dark academia who want something fresh, intelligent, and just a little terrifying.

This was a fascinating book, quite niche. I don't think I've seen a magical boarding school novel from the teacher's perspective before. An interesting combination of the magical and the mundane. I thought the worldbuilding was incredible and made the world entirely believable.

I loved Emily Tesh's SOME DESPERATE GLORY, and while I'm not a huge fan of dark academia, I was intrigued immediately by the premise of THE INCANDESCENT. I needn't have worried. Tesh offers a fresh perspective on dark academia from the POV of a teacher at a magic school who is an expert at demonology, and the plot gets better with every page.

An atmospheric and riveting sapphic dark academia novel, set at an English boarding school for magicians.

Dr. Saffy Walden has dedicated her life to two things: the pursuit of magical excellence, and her position as Director of Magic at Chetwood Academy. Her days are filled with marking, meetings, and the endless minutia of administration. One of the most important parts of her job is keeping the demons, some of whom are centuries old and unimaginably powerful, away from the centuries-old school and her young charges.

It was rather refreshing to read a story about a magical school from the perspective of one of the adults that keeps it running. This point of view allowed the story to feel simultaneously nostalgic and fresh. As someone who works in education, I really enjoyed the bureaucracy of it all. Dr. Walden is a flawed yet loveable protaganist, and Tesh does an excellent job at slowly unravelling her backstory for the reader.

Tesh has a way with words, and the prose was achingly beautiful at times, quirky and silly at others. Some moments were heartbreaking and poignant, others quirky and goofy, which created a nice balance.

I would have liked to see the romance storyline developed a tad more, as it felt sometimes out of place, or like a bit of an afterthought. I enjoyed its inclusion and was happy with its conclusion, but I would have liked to see more along the way.

Overall, this is a lovely read and I recommend it- fun, wildly readable, and a unique perspective on a much-loved genre.

The Incadenscent by Emily Tesh was such a fantastic and enjoyable read. It does an amazing job of showing the exploration of magic and identity set against the haunting backdrop of a magical academy. The writing is sharp as it is evocative, drawing readers into a world where personal demons are as dangerous as the magical threats lurking in the shadows. The characters are complex and relatable with deep emotional layers that make their struggles and victories all the more impactful.

The book effortlessly balances the intrigue of dark academia with the weight of self-discovery, making it both thrilling and introspective. The world building is rich and immersive providing just enough detail to feel fully realized without slowing down the plot. This is a perfect read for anyone who enjoys magic, hidden secrets and complex characters. It kept me hooked right from the beginning.