Dr Saffy Walden, Director of Magic and a Deputy Head at Chetwood School, is a career-driven woman, focussed on getting her Year 13s through their Invocation A Levels, and keeping the 19th century arcane wards on the school from collapsing - at the threat of demons possessing the entire student body. When one such ancient high-level demon strikes out, she lets loose the far more powerful one she’s had not-so-secretly chained to herself since successfully defending her thesis - along with the hot paladin–I mean very proficient marshal– she has recently started flirting with. Only, love interests turn out to be like buses, as another magician shows up at the same time, with a very different opinion on her intricately caged pet demon.

The most important thing to know about this book is that it’s a magical school story - but about the 30-40 year old teachers and staff who work there, rather than the usual (in my opinion overdone) coming of age story about a ragtag group of kids. Along with the FMC being of a more interesting age to read about, she’s also bisexual which is very much felt throughout the story. She’s also very arrogant about her magical abilities - and I support women’s wrongs. Of course though, hubris thy name is Saffy, and this is a great personality flaw to explore.

Some of the supporting cast did at times feel superfluous, and the magic system was not particularly detailed or designed, but as a reader it all just made sense - especially the insane amount of detail of school life that could only come from an author who is (or was?) also a teacher. It was also educational - I learnt, for example, that White Lightning was discontinued in 2009 due to (in part) its strong association with underage drinking. This was an anecdote within the story that so resonated with my teenage years that I felt the need to google & fact check.

There were some interesting morals explored in the book, sometimes in hamfisted monologues, that felt like they were trying a little too hard to make their point. Other reviews have also touched on the marshals being essentially fantasy cops, although to that I would ask what those reviewers think paladins actually are…

I raced through this book in 2 days purely on vibes. That’s really all you need to know as a recommendation - if you want an easy to read book with fabulous vibes and a very fun & fast-paced final 20%, pick this up. If you want something that really gets into the weeds of worldbuilding and magic systems, give this one a pass.

I am writing this as I am 61% of the way through and I am OBSESSED WITH THIS BOOK!! I am definitely preordering the paperback release for next year (hardcovers are too heavy for my hands!). I will update as I go along!

The blurb pitched this novel as perfect for fans of Rivers of London and the Scholomance Trilogy, which happen to be two of my all-time favourite series, so I knew I had to pick this up. And I ended up absolutely loving this book!

I’ve read my fair share of novels set in a magical school, but I don’t think I’ve ever read one from the POV of a teacher, which made for a refreshing change. I loved the subtle British humour throughout this novel, and the setting felt incredibly well-realised — I could tell immediately that the author had experience as a teacher. The world-building was fantastic, and really easy to grasp. In addition to having the normal heavy workload of a teacher, Dr Saffy Walden also has the added burden of needing to keep 600 students safe from demons attracted by so much magic in one place. Demons also happen to be attracted by technology, which makes things quite challenging with so many phone-addicted teenagers around!

Dr Walden was a great main character - she was unapologetically herself, confident in her abilities, and frankly a little awkward when it comes to social interactions. Her self-confidence and intense workload do mean that she sometimes misses the obvious right in front of her, and ends up making a lot of mistakes. But at the end of the day, she is a kind and caring person, who is trying to do the best by her students.

Her invocation students — Nikki, Will, Matthias and Aneeta — were incredibly well rounded secondary characters. They made their own mistakes, which felt incredibly true to those a real 17 year old would make, but at the end of the day it’s their intelligence and ability to work together which will help save the day. The other secondary characters were brilliant as well (I wish we could have gotten more Laura though!).

Despite this being a highly entertaining and humourous dark academia novel, it still manages to explore several important issues, such as class, privilege and private education.

If you’re a fan of a magical school and want to see it from a different point of view, I’d really recommend this book!

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for this ARC. All opinions in this review are my own.

I absolutely adored The Incandescent - it's one of my few true 5-star reads so far this year. As well as being engaging and emotionally resonant, there are some truly interesting considerations of class in Britain and private schools' role in upholding its structure. Every character is well developed, and capable of change - whether child, adult, or non-human. I particularly empathised with Saffy, despite coming from very different worlds (both in a class sense and a universe with magic sense). It feels rare to come across books about someone exactly my age.
In short: The Incandescent is an absolute triumph of a book - balancing humour, suspense and, at times, being profoundly moving. I found that I had underlined many sections - especially those which made me chuckle aloud. I can see myself revisiting this very soon!

This is a wizard school novel for people who want more realism in their wizard schools. It's told from the point of view of Dr Saffy Walden, the school's deputy head teacher, and there's as much in the book about running a school as there is about teaching magic. There are cute little demons that live in the photocopier and can be bribed with biscuits, and much more dangerous demons that will consume humans if they get the chance and must be kept out of the school and away from the children.

Teenagers make the sort of mistakes teenagers make, adults make the sort of mistakes adults make, and the protagonist is intelligent and observant and much too busy to spot every small problem before it becomes a significantly larger problem. I read the book twice, and the second time it was a much darker book as a number of events are re-interpreted in a more ominous light.

It's a good book. It's not always a fun one, but it has a lovely writing style and a solid plot and it ends happily despite everything that's happened. Recommended.

I thought the premise of this book was great. Dark academia? Yes please. But it was so boring. Maybe I'm just the wrong audience, as I like a great deal of action in my books, but this felt more like reading a biography about the school and its professors. It was exhausting trying to get through the book.

DNF at 31%

Unfortunately, this one just wasn’t for me.
I didn’t feel invested in the story or particularly attached to the characters.
That said, it’s just a personal opinion since lots of readers seem to enjoy it.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

"A self is a home is a purpose is a life. But above all those, a self is a choice."
("Strike! Squeaked the demon possessing the photocopier.")

✨Magic boarding school
✨Main character over 30
✨Demon possession

What I liked:
-A magic boarding school setting but the main character is a teacher and over 30, not a student! So refreshing.
-The magic worldbuilding! How demons get attracted by technology and use technic devices to possess humans. Feels very realistic.
-That there is an ethical discussion about summoning demons. Are you taking their free will? Have they rights? Is it unethical to bind them? What about using summoned demons in wars?
-There are two love interests (at a different time), a man and a woman and I enjoyed both side stories.

What I didn't like:
-There are a too many passages about the mc doing administrative work.
After 20% it was more than obvious that she has a lot to do.

Thank you so much Little Brown Book Group Uk for the arc!

Demons were attracted to complexity and personhood. Laypeople assumed that this meant every magicians was on the brink of getting possessed all the tie, but really demons entering the mundane plane moved into complex and person-shaped spaces, like hermit crabs moving into shells. If you were unlucky enough to meet a magician with a demon looking out from behind their eyes, you could usually assume they'd invited it in. [loc. 225]
There are some books I read, and think about, and then review. There are others that I read, and think about, and then succumb to a reread before I review. The Incandescent is in the latter category, and I enjoyed it differently but just as much the second time through.

This is a dark academia novel, in the sense that it's set at a school for magic: but our protagonist is not a student, but Dr Walden (Saffy to her friends), 38 years old, Director of Magic at Chetwood School. Her career is her life, and she's constantly busy: teaching (the four students in her Upper Sixth Invocation group are important characters); negotiating with the demon in the staff room photocopier ('No representation without exsanguination!'); dealing with the Marshals, who police the school for stray demons; implementing a strict Personal Electronics Policy; filling out risk assessments for practical classes...

Dr Walden is an alumna of the school herself, though she doesn't like to talk about the events of her final year: she is also a powerful magician. Everything goes pear-shaped when Nikki, one of her best students, summons something out of her league: and suddenly Dr Walden is fighting for her life, revisiting the catastrophe that happened when she was the star of the Upper Sixth, and revealing a dangerous secret to the abrasive (but attractive) Marshal Laura Kenning.

The novel's plot is demon-heavy: none of your potions, herbalism et cetera, just invocation (demons), evocation (spells) and instantiation (alchemy). But the demons are as much characters as the humans, and more likeable than some. The school is vividly described (Tesh was a teacher, though possibly did not have to deal with a demonically-possessed photocopier) and the secondary characters -- from Walden's rather judgmental perspective -- well-observed. The magical system makes sense (though there was one element where I wondered how a magical oath might manifest; surely more efficiently than that?) and there's a strong sense of how this magical school fits into the real world: newsletters, legal responsibility and so on.

But what I liked most was the journey from 'Dr Walden' (superiority complex, arrogance, cosplaying her grandmother, dry humour) to Saffy. I also liked the distinction between her two major adult relationships -- with Laura, and with Mark, a security advisor -- and how differently she thinks and feels about them. I loved the Phoenix, too, though I should not.

There's a point in the last third of the novel where everything changes, and it is truly shocking. Even on first read, I had to go back and reread a few pages to check whether what I thought had happened was what was on the page. It was. Splendidly done! The ending felt a little anticlimactic (but that's resolution for you) and there were a few loose strands that didn't seem resolved. (One character's employment, or rather who they're working for; another character being accepted in a new role...) But overall, an extremely enjoyable read with a relatable protagonist, a twisty plot and plenty of emotion.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance review copy, in exchange for this full honest review. UK Publication Date is 13th May 2025.

This was my first read by Emily and it won't be my last!
I was lucky enough to get both the audio and the ebook and I think immersion reading this book really brought it to life.
The book was perfect, the pacing was great, I can't say enough good things about it!
A must-read!

I was happy to have been granted both the ebook and audiobook for this title, and I love immersive reading more than anything!

Emily Tesh had blown me away with her ability to write different stories in one and the same book. This was done to perfection in Some Desperate Glory (I'm still not sure how she pulled this off, and it keeps living rent-free in my head).

There is a point in The Incandescent where I had the feeling this might happen again. The first 30% are quite different to what happens next. However, if you trust the author (and oh I do) you will get rewarded.

Saffie is the FMC, and much to my delight she is in her 30s with a very adult attitude. She is also unapologetically queer. And she is very caring, good at what she does, and would give her life for her school and her students.

In her magic school she is fighting demons as well as the chores of administration.

Speaking of demons: the human world and the demon world are kind of sharing a space, and there are portals or gaps where demons can enter our world. Such an incident is happening in the school, and as you can imagine this leads to all kinds of trouble.

I have to admit I was a bit confused in the middle part of the book, but the beginning and ending are kind of bookends to the story - a narrative device I very much adore.

As this is from the POV of an adult, I have the feeling this is finally an adult Dark Academia, and I loved this book for all it is.
Oh and did I mention there is a cheeky demon in the copier machine?

4,5/5 stars

Thank you @netgalley and @macmillan.audio and @torbooks for the eARC!

#TheIncandescent #Netgalley #Bookstagram

This was so good??!! It almost feels like the traditional Magic School book but instead of the group of misfits being the main characters, it’s the adult professor who actually knows what the fuck she’s doing.


Dr. Walden is a 38 year old professor with a very exact schedule and not stressed at all! She genuinely loves teaching and seeing her pupils succeed. She knows beter how to be a professor than a person and lack of personal life kind of gives it away. But she’s a passionate and extremely smart main character and I loved reading from her perspective.

“It was satisfying, challenging, intellectual and totally unhelpful when a giant demon was trying to stab you with thousands of sorcerous knives”

I really enjoyed the romance too, it had the very matter of fact quality and no bullshit aura that you see in 38 year olds with no time for casual dating. Saffy (Dr. Walden) knew what she wants and isn’t going to waste time on anything else. (Although it caused some regrets of course, can’t do without that)

“””You’re not going to throw me off by telling me the girl I fancy is an awful nerd with a superiority complex “”
The magic system was intriguing and well built in my opinion. And I really enjoyed all the characters, they felt very alive and I cared for them all deeply. Nikki, Matty, Will and Aneeta are obviously my favorites, it was so awesome to see the drama of the typical “chosen one” group from the perspective of the professors. How issues that seem huge to 17 year olds are actually so minuscule and yet Saffy took them all seriously.

I absolutely adored this!!

“”You are burning down my school, go fuck yourself.””

I love the trend of dark academia. Usually it is from the viewpoint of a student, but in this wonderfully dark novel, it is a teacher, Doctor Sapphire (aka Saffy) Walden, a really cool teacher who tries her best to set her students on the right path and keep them from repeating mistakes of the past (namely trying to summon a demon much too powerful for them the control, which she actually has experience in that). You get to see the history of the school, Chetwood Academy, both the dark and the good, and the depths of character, strengths and weaknesses and what Doctor Walden will do to protect her students and keep the school safe (along with all the other teachers tasked with this), even if it may be from herself, and even possibly find someone to share her life with (or at least help kick demon butt with). Yes, it focuses a lot on schooling and testing for A levels and you get to know her students well with their struggles and strengths and such, but you also get some really good fight scenes, demon summoning, demon banter, and even some demons that weren't too bad (aka Phoenix, or an imp in the copier).

This was an absolutely wonderful story with depth, great world building, a tense showdown, and a happy ending for most (Doctor Walden certainly deserves it for all that she sacrificed and went through during that last school year!) and I adored this so much! I know I will definitely reread this in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this awesome novel! I highly recommend it!

I absolutely loved this! I don't usually read urban fantasy, but I love dark academia, so I decided to give this one a go. I'm so glad I did. It wss really fantastic.

I loved the worldbuilding of the demonic plane overlapping the normal world and the demons gaining sentience. The philosophical debate that took place between the students was excellent.

I loved the fact that this book was told from a British teaching POV. As a British teacher, myself, it was so very relatable. I found myself nodding along at several salient points, thinking, yeah, that's accurate. A lot of it really captured the essence of teaching.

I loved the characters. The fact that some were so full of themselves was just... typical of education.

Honestly, there was nothing about this book I didn't enjoy. I was hooked from the first page and have already told my teaching friends all about it.

Emily Tesh's The Greenhollow Duology is one of the best things to happen to fantasy in the last 15 years or so. Lyrical, atmospheric, whimsical, unapologetically queer - what is not to like. Of course, I was intrigued by her first long-form foray into the genre, especially since the premise looked intriguing. Imagine a magical school story, but from the perspective of the teacher - I was sold immediately.

The first 30% or so were excellent. Unlike Deadly Education, that death by infodumpting incarnate, The Incandescent seamlessly connects worldbuilding and character development. By about the 10% mark not only does the reader figure out the basics of the magic system in this world, but also gets to familiarise themselves with the protagonist, Dr Walden, and her core students (very much the secondary characters in this story). We are thrown right into the narrative, evoking long shadows from the past during the first major demon incursion of the story. Tesh's signature whimsical style makes the story shine. Equally, the last 20% or so are gripping, and the character dynamics - an overconfident middle class person and someone more down to earth to save them from themselves - are very reminiscent of the Greenhollow Duology. The middle 50% or so was of interest to me personally, but the pacing could have been tighter, whilst exploring the same themes of class, privilege and the role of old institutions.

The strengths of The Greenhollow stories are definitely all still here, but the text still feels like a bloated novella, not a tightly constructed and paced novel. One of the quirks of this book is that it is a story about being a teacher at a magical school and not, in fact, a magical school story told from the perspective of the teacher. The middle 50% or so follow Saffy/Dr Walden's everyday life as a Head of Department and an A Levels teacher, complete with marking, staff meetings, concerns about school maintenance and extended musings on the nature of private schools in the UK. The eternal question of whether a talented and highly educated middle class teacher would choose to work in the state or public sector was relatable for me, and it is a discussion I have heard many times in real life, but it might be a bit repetitive to a reader looking for a magical story. Additionally, for something supposedly focused on the mundane running of a school, we get very little detail on Saffy's relationship with her colleagues. Extra characters might have overstuffed the core narrative, but they also would have filled the void of the middle section a bit. I understand that Saffy is meant to be somewhat of a loner, but she does not have to be besties with the other teachers for them to be present in the story. The student characters rarely get to be more than stereotypes they are written to be, and the sense of true connection between the teacher and the students rings somewhat false as a result.

The pacing and somewhat thin selection of characters to follow and get invested in aside, the development of the core characters was excellent. Dr Walden herself is a three-dimensional person, and Tesh does not shy away from exploring her flaws. Laura the Marshall is clearly in the supporting role, but her story arc is written well. I also really connected to the complex relationship Saffy has with the school itself, the institution, both seeing its indefensible privileges and being drawn to it as her only true home and only place where she ever felt like she belongs. The sorts of discussions we see in other fantasy critically interrogating institutions, such as Babel, rarely succeed at showing what is alluring about these places and capturing not just the blinding glamour but the more homely sense of community, safety and love they can foster, which can make any critique of them emotionally complicated for the characters at their centre. The dichotomy between Saffy, a middle class white woman feeling at home in the magical school, and Laura, a working class white woman from Essex who has much more complex feelings about her place of work, is a great way to discuss places like this in a more complex way.

Overall, I really enjoyed this, but I can see how the pacing might not be for everyone.

The Incandescent follows Dr Walden, a teacher of invocations (think demon summoning!) at Chetwood Academy. While a lot of the plot is quite ‘slice of life’, it still manages to fit in epic magic battles and plot twists galore!
This had got to be one of the most realistic ‘magic school’ books I’ve read. And it was so much fun too! It had humour and heart and flawed but loveable characters. I’m definitely going to be checking out Emily Tesh’s other books before this.
I have a love for books set in our world with a magic twist, and this really hit the spot. The worldbuilding was exquisite and detailed and so fun to think about and imagine. And as I happen to be a year 13 student in the UK, there was an added factor of relatability with the crazy magic for me that really made this something special. The things that year 9s used magic for is definitely what would happen in real life! The different types of magic and how they interacted was also really interesting. Petition for Emily Tesh to release Dr Walden’s invocation textbook!
The characters were really well done too. The young adults actually *felt* like real young adults, and I really enjoyed Dr Walden as the protagonist. She had a lot of faults but her earnestness and integrity shone through and I really loved that. I also loved her dynamic with a certain nonhuman character in the book (I won’t say much for fear of spoilers!), I definitely cracked a laugh several times.
The romance was really sweet as well, I just wanted everyone to be happy together!
The pacing was a little odd: we got a scene that felt like a climax very early on, and then a much slower pace throughout the rest of the book. It was a little bit jarring, but the humour and interesting worldbuilding carried it through for me. However, I think this quirk will make the book not to everyone’s taste.
That said, if you’re looking for a super unique, funny, creative and unique twist on the typical ‘magic school’ trope then you’ve got to pick this one up! It was a lot of fun and its little bite of social commentary tied it together really nicely.

Deadly Education by Naomi Novik is one of my all time favourite series, so the fact that The Incandescent was being compared to it had me excited but also apprehensive - that is a lot to live up to. However, I'm so glad this book was brought to my attention because it ended up being something really special.

The Incandescent is a fantasy academia from the view of a talented and competent magic teacher, and we spend a school year experiencing a brilliant mix of mundane and fantastical with Dr Walden. I was totally gripped from the start with the clever world building and intriguing magic system, and honestly couldn't put the book down. I can't recommend it enough!

I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

The pacing of this didn't feel right to me and this felt a bit of a slog to get through. The story-telling was fine but life is too short to push through books you're not enjoying. May pick this up after publication.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. - Freya, arc & monthly book box pick reviewer

I am a big fan of the author's, since their previous sci-fi novel Some Desperate Glory made me fall in love with sci-fi when I am not even a fan of the genre. I have been looking forward to reading The Incandescent since the author first announced it on their Instagram pitching it as: "we love chaotic bisexuals but what about bisexuals who have their lives in order?" I am a highly organized bisexual myself so I longed to see myself understood and seen in this book, especially in a dark academia setting. I have two Bachelor degrees so I have experienced my fair amount of academia haha In fact, Saffy reminded me of myself so much that it was surreal.

The beginning was brilliant with the first 40% of the book being phenomenal even. Then came a plot device that I didn't enjoy, and ultimately the last 20% being a fairly great ending. The plot device involves the mc suddenly not being the bisexual who knows better and has order in their life, and it threw me off a lot. It's like a nagging little voice that keeps asking, "Why?"

Saffy is a thirty-eight year old Director of Magic at Chetwood Academy, which is a boarding school that teaches magic alongside other subjects. She is also (self-professed and otherwise) one of the most powerful magicians in England, and I looooove seeing women in positions of power! I loved Saffy's perspective and insight on education, privilege, teaching, teenagers, and on authority. I truly loved it all. She is irreverent and brilliant and has such a sharp, keen mind. I'd freaking love to have a drink with her.

She is also a fantastic teacher and a brilliant magician, and yet, all of a sudden, when Laura leaves, she falls to a half-charming man's flirting and deceit? It was so in contrast with how Saffy has been that for the life of me, I can't understand it.

Laura, our lesbian love interest, she is a fantastic character. With her own emotional baggage, witty lines, and clear character development, she was amazing throughout the book.

The worldbuilding was great, and the author's writing very unique and intriguing, but at least in my earc, there were a lot of long paragraphs, as in single paragraphs took over the entire Kindle screen. Some terms I had a very fragile grasp on, and the paragraphing didn't help me much. The final version may not have these long paragraphs, I have no idea, but alongside terms that I didn't understand, it made my reading experience not so easy. But hey, demons and magic in a school setting will always be a favourite!

The author's perspective on teaching and teachers was also spot on, and this comes from an actual teacher (me!) so the author earned tons of respect just for that.

Overall, The Incandescent offers an insight on teaching, learning from one's mistakes, forgiving oneself and others, and realizing that it is never too late. Unique prose, great dark academia vibes, demons, and queer women conquering the world.

Alright, this book was good, but not exactly what I was expecting. It had an almost slice of life feel, while still being very much magic and school. It's mundane, in a way. There was less actions than I expected, which isn't an issue at all, the story is built for that, I simply had to shift my reader's focus.

Our main character, Dr Walden, is a 38 years old, with stressing and complicated task of overseeing a magical boarding school. She still teaches a few courses, but her main job is to deal with all the administrative and managing part of the school. She is, also, a very powerful magician, with a secret. Delightful to have a dark academia focusing more on the teaching side, with magic playing somewhat of a secondary, albeit important, role.
I enjoyed her a lot. She has a little bite, hidden under her mask of Dr Walder. It's easy to feel for her and her position, how she struggle to manage the balance between her professional life and personal life (the latter being nonexistent). When some of the teenagers she teaches try to summon a demon, it opens up an old memory box and create a series of events leading to Dr Walden's secret to bite her back.

'The incandescent' is a very well thought book, playing with the mundanity of managing a magical school, but also thinking deeply about the implications of having magic known to all society and as an academic field. Emily Tesh tackles subject like privilege, elitism and trauma.
There is little romance on the side, but it is not the main focus of the book at all. I did feel like the turn was a bit quick and couldn't really get invested in that part of the story, but it didn't hinder my enjoyment at all.

So glad to have read it!