I enjoyed this a lot more than Nothing but Blackened Teeth and The Salt Grows Heavy. This truly felt like a fever dream. Alessa was the perfect unreliable narrator. I really enjoyed the non-linear storytelling, but it was jarring at first. This book feels like how the word squelch sounds; it's gross and weird and filled with righteous rage. I don’t want to give too much away, but the political commentary and themes are explained with such nuance that they don’t feel like force fed morals. I truly enjoyed this.

There was a glitch with this book title. I could not upload, or read a copy of this book through NetGalley. So, I cannot review it.
Pennsylvania Literary Journal: Spring 2025 issue: https://anaphoraliterary.com/journals/plj/plj-excerpts/book-reviews-spring-2025

Thank you NetGalley and Tor for an advanced copy of this book.

Easily the goriest book I've ever read. Less dense than Khaw's novella The Salt Grows Heavy, but just as bloody and "what the heck am I reading" inducing. We follow Alessa Li, a "student" at Hellebore, a mysterious institute that purports education for those who are magically a huge dager to society. If you're looking for worldbuilding to answer all your questions, look elsewhere. The atmosphere and background are truly unsettling, but don't expect it all to make sense beyond the bloodbath. The Library at Hellebore is creative, creepy, weird, eldritch horror at its finest.

Thank you to Tor Nightfire and NetGalley for an eArc of this book. All opinions are my own.

Cassandra Khaw is an acquired taste. This is the second book by them that I’ve read and I’m honestly not even sure how I feel about it. Their stories make me feel some type of way, which I’ll usually take into consideration when doing my reviews. I think their stories make me UNCOMFORTABLE which I feel like is part of the point. This particular story involved cannibalism(?). As some of the victims weren’t completely human, I’m not sure if that is the appropriate term. The horror aspect is always present and in your face, which I enjoy. The plot of this story was pretty straightforward and was interesting to explore and resolve.
I’ll probably continue to read Khaw’s books as the writing is intelligent, which I love. Khaw also doesn’t hold back with the descriptions of horror, which I also love. The stories are engaging enough and always so unique that even if I don’t love them, they are entertaining. The cover of this book is also gorgeous. I recommend this book to anyone looking for something just a little different. Someone looking to go outside their comfort zone.

The Library at Hellebore by Cassandra Khaw is a viciously sharp, dark academia horror novel that blends biting satire with apocalyptic stakes. With lush prose and brutal twists, Khaw reimagines the magical school trope as a deadly trap for the world’s most dangerous students. Smart, savage, and deliciously unhinged.

This feels more like a horror academia rather than the usual dark academia, but as long as you prepare for the gore, it’s pretty enjoyable.

The Hellebore Technical Institute is an academic institute for antichrists and humans (?) with powers that cause violence and destruction. Alessa was taken there against her will, but on the night when her class can finally graduate, the faculty begins eating the students. Alessa and a few of her classmates escape to the library, but to save themselves, sacrifices must be made.

There’s not a lot of focus on academics, but there is a lot of vivid imagery of gore and visceral violence, and at times it felt like torture-type horror movie in book form (in a good way). It’s told in a non-linear structure, where scenes from the past are interspersed with the current events of the faculty’s massacre. It is a bit confusing at times and hard to get grounded, as things come up but they’re explained a few chapters later, or a scene from the past is split up between present chapters and other scenes.

The characters were pretty distinct for not having the most backstory or pagetime, and the writing was great for adding to the horrifying atmosphere (so many anatomical words to add to my vocabulary). I can’t say the magic totally made sense to me, and I liked the ending but also didn’t totally understand it, but I did enjoy this. Would go into this book expecting more horror than fantasy from this book.

Thanks to Netgalley and Tor Nightfire for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

5*

The Library at Hellebore was a dark and twisted tale, through the darker side of magic that sometimes we shy away from.

Seeing the humanity wrought into "monstrous" characters reminds us of what it is to be human and what it is we'll do to protect ourselves and out friends.

Cassandra Khaw has an expert way of handling dark topics with respect and unflinching honesty, and it really drives the narrative of her work.

This is one of the bear books I've read this year. I'm definitely going to recommend that my library purchase this title.

I was excited about the premise of a magical school graduation leasing to a bloodbath where the professors may or may not be human and are definitely trying to ear the students. And Cassandra Khaw's execution of this premise was stunning. Without giving anything away, the plot was top tier. The narration is wonderful and I like the use of sarcasm and wit. I think descriptions can make or break a horror book like this and I thought these descriptions were really interesting. There's one point where something (I won't say what) is described as melting like butter and it was such a creepy way to describe that. I had to put my tablet down for a minute.

I will be telling horror fans about this one!

3.75 rounded up to 4

This book is being advertised as a “dark academia” novel, and while that’s not technically untrue, it’s definitely much more “dark” than “academia”. This book is a gory, monster-filled ride that has as much in common with Brian Yuzna’s body horror film “Society” (which actually gets name-dropped in the narrative) as it does with “The Atlas Six”. With all the danger and descriptions of people’s insides on their outsides, it’s surprising that the book actually has time to give us some insight into each character’s personality and motivations. Certain characters are definitely more fleshed out (no pun intended) than others, of course, but it was enough to make our cast of monsters feel real and human, and make the stakes matter. If you’re not sure if you’ll enjoy this book or not, pick it up and read the first page - if it turns your stomach, you might want to skip this one. But if you don’t mind a little light disembowelment or the word effluvium, this might just be the read for you.

Some say dark academia but I say body horror in a meat factory disguised as a school.

It’s vivid bloody descriptions are not for the meek so if you are not into body gore you may want to set this one out. This book will have you questioning what reality the entirety of the story. The narrator starts out the gate not be trustworthy since she seems to have murdered her roommate and has no memory of it. The cover of this book is a bit misleading. It makes you think this may be a dark romantasy but nope not at all. This book was body gore and graphic horror so lyrically written and it was darkly enchanting. My only gripe is I would have liked more world building when it came to the school itself.

The Library at Hellebore is a good book that could do with some fat trimming. The story is interesting and fun in its own way, but it starts to drag on. The story begins with Alessa killing her roommate, which definitely draws one in, but it takes so long to get to the why, and once the why is revealed, it falls flat.
It is a gruesome read, but the gore never seems gratuitous. The characters are a little one-dimensional, but are still fascinating.
I would recommend The Library at Hellebore for any YA reader who enjoys dark fantasy and isn't easily offended.

For weeks I have been craving a read similar in gore and horror to Nightmare on Elm Street movies. Enter The Library at Hellebore. I enjoyed this book from the opening scene of blood and carnage. I am not a fan of Dark Academia, but this novel hit. Maybe its because there wasn't the usual teen bickering, or possibly because the characters had already gone through so much they knew who they were and didn't need the typical YA/DA character developement. Either way, I am here for whatever book Khaw creates. The blood, the gore, the vocabulary, the descriptions. You can hear the skin ripping, the body parts exploding.

This was my second book from Cassandra Khaw and I will say her writing is quickly growing on me! First, no one does fantasy horror quite like Cassandra. The Library at Hellebore is another great example of the two genres and makes me so interested to read more. It’s brutally dark, gruesome, beautifully written, and full of unique plot and characters!

Hellebore Technical Institute for the Gifted’s student body consists of apocalypse-makers and world eaters, better know as Anti-Christs and Ragnaroks. The story follows Alessa Li as she and many others are abducted and forced to attend the school with the promise of a normal life after graduation. But the odd faculty member’s secret comes to light on graduation day when they begin to feast on and kill all the students. A select few students manage to escape to the school library where they must work together to try and escape. But the horrors have just begun and the safety of the library is very short lived.

All throughout the book I was constantly left guessing what is actually real. Alessa is definitely an unreliable narrator. Her narration goes back and forth in time which allows us to see the build up to graduation. During this we get glimpses of the dark things happening at this school which for me helped build the suspense. Add in the dark academia vibes and the high stakes and I was on the edge of my seat while reading this. The Library at Hellebore’s mix of fantasy, dark academia, and horror led to a fantastic mix of suspense, psychological horror, and gore. This was a powerful story and one that I will be left thinking about!

Thank you to Tor Publishing Group, NetGalley, and the author for an eARC!

The Library at Hellebore is a wild ride—imagine a twisted version of Hogwarts where the students are literal world-ending monsters, and graduation involves surviving a faculty feast (and not the celebratory kind). It's dark academia meets body horror, with prose that's both beautiful and brutal. If you're into stories that are gory, gripping, and gloriously weird, this one's for you.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced copy!! I don't know how to feel about this. It reminds me a lot of The Locked Tomb series, but smooshed into a singular book and with a lot more body horror. I think to grasp this one is a couple of rereads.

What happens when you send a bunch of apocalypse-level teens to boarding school? Nothing good and everything gloriously horrifying.
In The Hellebore Technical Institute for the Gifted, the students aren't just dangerous; they are the danger in the world. The kind of kids that get locked away, not enrolled. Alessa finds this out the hard way when she's kidnapped and forcibly brought to the Institute. Promised redemption and a path to normalcy, she quickly realizes Hellebore has its agenda. On graduation day, the staff transform into monsters and devour the students. Yes, it's as wild as it sounds. Trapped in the school's labyrinth library, Alessa and her reluctant classmates must survive, maybe?

I loved the relentless tension, the gruesome creativity of the world-building, and the darkly funny student interactions. The stakes are tremendously high, and no one is safe. Alessa's voice carries the story with grit and tenacity, and the other characters are ruthless and unpredictable. The pacing felt so breathless it offered very little time to reflect between the chaos and the wild twists. It's a book that's meant to be devoured in one sitting. You are exhausted from all the tension and suspense. It was a brutal, entertaining ride that blends dark academia, a twist-filled story drenched in gore, body horror, and razor-sharp banter.

Thank you, NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group/ Torn Nightfire, for the opportunity to review and provide my honest feedback.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC!

There were pieces of this I really enjoyed, but for a lot of it I felt like I was thrown in the deep end without context. I just wanted more of an introduction to the characters and setting, because without it I had no one to really root for

My goodness gracious. Lovely, bloody, hellish, heartbreaking, vicious, cruel, gory yet beautiful.

The lyrical beauty of The Salt Grows Heavy but in dark academia. The characters, the gory visuals, the anger, the violence. I am so here for it. Look at this muthafukin sentence:

“So I rent him in half: lengthwise and real fucking slow, suspending him in the air so his guts sheeted down on me like a porridgy red rain.”

My gosh. Every sentence is transportive to a lovely bitter hellish place. The timeline is completely batshit and I was lost amid the glory, but that still is an amazing place to be.

This is why I read horror.

I was really excited to get this ARC because I liked Khaw's last couple of books quite a bit, but I do have mixed feelings about it. I am going to mention a lot of spoilers, so heads up to stop if you're reading this and wanna go in totally fresh. But yeah, I have so many questions about the plot. Like, why did this have to be at a school at all? They barely even mention anything school related and if the whole point of the school is to eat all of the students at their graduation, then why not just eat them right away? Like, do people graduate sometimes? It says that there are students who voluntarily go there, so there have to be at least some people, right? If no one ever leaves after graduating, then you'd think people would wonder why and maybe not send their kids there. Also, why do they eat them at all? What even is the faculty and why do they turn into a blob monster? Either way, what's the point of having them pretend to be at school for an indeterminate amount of time at all if you're just going to eat them all? It doesn't make any sense. And yeah, the time thing. There's really no indication of how much time they actual go to this school before they "graduate", so the time jumps are confusing as hell. There were times when I forgot if we were at a "day one" or "before" chapter, and got super lost because it seemed like some scenes happened during the same time when they didn't. Also, basically every character is awful, so I didn't care at all what happened to any of them. Especially the main character. She was so ridiculously unpleasant. The few who seemed redeemable were barely in the book, so I didn't get to know them enough to care either, so there wasn't really any suspense. This book should 100% have been at least 100 pages longer to spend time on setup and character development. Like, I still don't understand what almost any of their powers were and I forgot who several characters were because they only popped up a few times and were all of a sudden super important to the plot. Like Adam who's power was fire, I guess? But, also like regeneration or something? I don't know. Besides the character issues, things happen so abruptly that it felt like the book started like halfway through the story. Then there was the insane vocabulary. Every other page, characters who otherwise speak in a completely contemporary way will throw out the most unnecessarily complex word that no one would ever use in casual conversation. I'm very glad I read this on a kindle because I would have stopped reading it if I had to put down the book to google words as often as some random ass thing like "coruscating" would pop up. It drove me crazy.

All that being said, I definitely didn't hate the book. I know it sounds like I did, but it was very fun. I do love horror and gore quite a bit, so I had a pretty great time reading it and sped through it pretty fast because I really wanted to know where it was going. I wouldn't mind more books in this universe to expand on things more, because it sounded really interesting and I think you could do a lot with what basically sounds like an entire planet of magic people, monsters and gods. Like the whole "skinless wolf" thing. It was like Lovecraftian cosmic horror and folk horror combined and I'd love more of that. I would definitely recommend it if you can handle gore because it is super violent, but go in expecting more of a horror story that takes place in a weird building than dark academia.

The gothic, sinister elements paired with intense emotional stakes made me devour this book in one sitting. I loved the dark themes and the unpredictability of the plot. It’s the kind of book that grips you with its atmosphere and keeps you hooked with its twists and turns. If you’re into dark, twisted academia with high stakes, this will not disappoint. It’s everything I love about the genre, taken to an even darker, more diabolical level. A must-read for anyone who loves their academic settings with a side of horror.