I think that the teachers may have attempted to digest me because my brain is goo!
This is a two readings book if ever there was one. I immediately want to double back, armed with tabs and a book about old gods and mythology. The decadence of even the most horrific of scenes...
Cassandra Khaw's writing is perfection!

When magic returns with all its chaos and carnage, the world needs a place like Hellebore: an institute to shape youths with hideously dangerous talents into useful members of society. That's the story, anyway. In reality, they get a year of random coursework and winnowing, then the faculty eats them. Alessa and a handful of classmates escaped their graduation to hide in the library, but the reprieve is temporary. Both the flashbacks and the present are full of exquisitely rendered violence and body horror. On the other hand, there's very little sense of the larger world and how anything at Hellebore works apart from with maximum bloodshed.

Khaw dives into the world of dark academia with "The Library at Hellebore," but with her personal brand of horror. As usual, the writing is superb, and the plot is put together well. It's easy to get drawn into the story. Khaw fans and dark academia lovers will love this book.

Title/Author: The Library at Hellebore by Cassandra Khaw

Page Count: 288 pages

Publisher: Tor Nightfire

Format: Hardcover (special editions available)

Other Books I Enjoyed by This Author: The Salt Grows Heavy, Breakable Things (short stories)

Affiliate Link: https://bookshop.org/a/7576/9781250877819

Release Date: July 22nd

General Genre: Horror, Fantasy, Dark Academia, Magic

Sub-Genre/Themes: Body Horror, "fight to the death", Cannibalism, Campus/Students, Morally grey characters

Writing Style: Dual timelines, "before & present", if you didn't enjoy the lyrical/stylish prose of 'The Salt Grows Heavy', you most likely won't appreciate here--I love it. I delight in seeing new words and looking them up. The tone/vibes are different though

What You Need to Know: : "The Hellebore Technical Institute for the Gifted is the premier academy for the dangerously the Anti-Christs and Ragnaroks, the world-eaters and apocalypse-makers.
Hellebore promises redemption, acceptance, and a normal life after graduation. At least, that’s what Alessa Li is told when she’s kidnapped and forcibly enrolled. But there’s more to Hellebore than meets the eye. On graduation day, the faculty go on a ravenous rampage, feasting on Alessa’s class. Only Alessa and a group of her classmates escape the carnage. Trapped in the school’s library, they must offer a human sacrifice every night, or else the faculty will break down the door and kill everyone.
Can they band together and survive, or will the faculty eat its fill?"

My Reading Experience: I just enjoy being in Cassandra Khaw's imagination and storytelling style. I'm a fan. This review will be slightly skewed toward my personal preference for Khaw's very stylish brand of dark fantasy/horror.
I love the premise of The Hellebore Technical Institute for the Gifted, a secret school filled with diabolical minds capable of dangerous students.
"Every single item was embossed with Hellebore’s heraldry: fig wasps and the school’s namesake threaded through the antlers of a deer skull, its tines strung with runes and staring eyes."
Can I have a tattoo of this? Also, I will never eat a fig again, ever.
My only complaint is the school is really more of a setting/battleground and not a fully developed magic system or curriculum. That was the only failed expectation--I was excited to see how Khaw would put a unique flourish on trad Dark Academia tropes but the focus is more on relationships between students and the survival story--which is fine, I'm not mad about it. (dropped a star though)
At first, the dual timelines are challenging--we go back in time to "The Beginning" to watch the MC, Alessa, navigate her new surroundings after waking to learn she has been kidnapped and forced to enroll in a secret academy.
Then there are chapters that fast forward in time where Alessa already has fully formed relationships and we're inching toward graduation day.. Eventually, the past timeline catches the reader up enough to where the present chapters make more sense.
The kill scenes and the body horror are unmatched in the genre. I read certain scenes with my jaw dropped open in shock and awe. Khaw's imagination is wickedly clever and disgusting. I love it! I had so much fun with this book.

Final Recommendation: For horror fans who appreciate twisted, gruesome and intricately detailed deaths/kills, a touch of dark academia--more of a setting/vibe instead of a deep dive into the academia elements, themes of cannibalism, morally grey characters, strong (sassy) female protagonists, video game "final boss" battles (imagery), survivors banding together & group dynamics.

Comps: Hunger Games + The Faculty, An Academy for Liars by Alexis Henderson

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.