Absolutely hilarious! A must read for any teachers who love fantasy.

Those of us who always really wanted to teach at a magic school but just can’t find the right job listings may be reconsidering that desire after reading The Incandescent.
I strongly suspect Emily Tesh must be a teacher, because the accuracy of some of the jokes in here was just too fantastic! I laughed out loud multiple times, and have already leant it to a colleague at my school.

The characters were well rounded and wonderful, I really loved how Doctor Walden used her own life experiences to help her students, and her humour was absolutely perfect.
The world building was fun and fed well into the story, slowly unveiling itself as the plot developed, and what a plot it was. I loved the twists and turns as day to day life at the school devolved into disaster, and was totally gripped.

Overall, I absolutely loved The Incandescent and can’t wait to read more by Emily Tesh in the future!

A thoroughly entertaining and compelling take on the dark academia genre, shaking things up by telling the tale from the perspective of the teachers rather than the students. Fast-paced, fascinating and really, really well written, this was a joy to read from beginning to end. The magical system is well constructed, the characters are interesting, authentic and well fleshed out, and the plot is, quite frankly, genius!

I’m a sucker for a well thought out magic system and this has that in spades. It beautifully combines high stakes action scenes, complete with demons and possible death, with slower, more character driven and educational sequences. And for those who like a little romance with their academia then you won’t be disappointed.

My favourite dark academia I’ve read for a while. It avoids most of the tropes, and overused plot points and it’s refreshingly adult (not YA) in tone. An author I will definitely be reading again and recommending.

El año pasado Emily Tesh apareció de manera fulgurante en el panorama de la ciencia ficción, con premio Hugo incluido. Aunque a mí Some Desperate Glory no me pareció tan redondo, no niego que había cierto interés en The Incandescent, englobado en la fantasía y con la etiqueta de moda, dark academy.


The Incandescent nos habla de la vida de la doctora Walden, directora de un internado inglés, con la peculiaridad de que los alumnos que allí estudian tienen facilidad para las artes mágicas, así que su formación incluye asignaturas de este tipo. Y claro, también las amenazas típicas de un lugar plagado de magia desde hace siglos, con demonios pululando en la sombra para tomar apetitosos bocados de adolescente macerado en su propio jugo.

La elección de la protagonista no es casual. Tesh se desmarca un poco del típico adolescente influido por sus hormonas para dar voz a una profesora joven, que ha antepuesto su carrera a su vida personal pero que no se arrepiente de sus actos. No es la primera en hacerlo, claro, ahí tenemos Magic for Liars de Sarah Gailey sin irnos muy lejos. Esta elección le sirve a la autora para cambiar un poco el foco del género, para ver desde una perspectiva más madura el mundo siempre cambiante de los adolescentes, que al tratarse de un internado ves crecer desde pequeños hasta mayores, siempre rodeado de la misma energía vital. Es una aproximación muy atractiva, que sin duda llamará la atención de los lectores dedicados a la enseñanza, que puede que vean reflejadas sus experiencias en estos capítulos. La bisexualidad de Walden también se trata con naturalidad, sin darle apenas importancia, aportando al libro variedad.

También el hecho de que en el internado se mezclen los alumnos de las familias más pudientes del Reino Unido y algunos casos de caridad nos hace ver el fuerte contraste de una sociedad clasista hasta la médula, donde solo los alumnos extremadamente brillantes pueden subir en el ascensor social mientras que los acomodados no tienen problema alguno. Y, ¡ay del que se le ocurra salirse del camino marcado!

En cuanto al ritmo, hay que reconocer que Tesh sabe cómo comenzar los libros de manera vertiginosa y, afortunadamente, en esta ocasión logra mantener el pulso a lo largo de casi toda la obra. El sistema mágico es el habitual de los tratos con las entidades mágicas, si bien la inclusión de la tecnología moderno ha variado un poco el sistema tradicional. Tesh también decide despachar la AMENAZA SUPREMA, bastante rápido, lo que nos da un idea de que el libro irá por otros derroteros.

Mi problema es que se trata de una novela bastante previsible, que está escrita con gran sentido del humor y que sin duda será muy bien recibida entre el público, pero a la que le falta algo más de enjundia para conseguir las cinco estrellas. No obstante, Tesh sigue en su camino para convertirse en una autora imprescindible.

I have been so looking forward to this release - and I'm so thrilled it lived up to my very high expectations. I loved every moment of this and I couldn't recommend it enough.

I loved fantasies with a magical academy setting, found this entertaining and gripping the whole way through and the magic system was really unique, highly recommend!!

First, thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the e-ARC!
The Incandescent offers a refreshingly different angle on the magical academic fantasy genre, largely due to its protagonist: an older, deeply competent, trauma-burdened magical teacher. It was incredibly satisfying to read from a perspective that wasn’t just another wide-eyed newbie or chosen teen, but someone experienced, battle-scarred, a bit of a nerd, and still figuring things out.
The magical system is both intriguing and well-developed, and as someone who adores magical school settings, I was immediately hooked. The narrative also engages with themes of privilege and institutional power in meaningful ways, adding depth to the world without bogging it down. I particularly enjoyed the approach to demons—not simply "evil," but complex, with some pushing back against the roles they're expected to play. The nuance here added a great layer of moral ambiguity to the story.
Where the book faltered for me was in its pacing and tonal consistency. For a novel with dramatic magical threats and urgent stakes, the narrative often slowed to focus on administrative tasks—meetings, procedures, paperwork, and professional decorum. While this might have been a deliberate commentary on institutional inertia or the burden of responsibility, it sometimes drained the energy from otherwise high-tension moments. The story spends so much time being competent that it forgets to let loose a little. There’s a kind of stiffness to the drama that made me wish the characters, or at least the storytelling, would embrace a bit more mess and unpredictability.
Ultimately, while the book has a lot going for it, I found that its final act lost some of the spark. The plot’s resolution felt overly tidy, the character dynamics got simplified, and the narration began to over-explain itself—at times reading closer to YA than adult fantasy, in terms of how it handled complexity and subtlety.
While it didn’t fully stick the landing for me, The Incandescent is still a rich, layered read that stands out in the fantasy landscape. It’s not flashy, but thoughtful; not chaotic, but quietly sharp. It’s a story about competence, control, and the weight of responsibility—especially when power comes with more red tape than glory. This isn’t a book for readers chasing adrenaline or gothic melodrama, but it’s a great fit for those who enjoy their fantasy grounded, their magic regulated, and their heroes a little tired, a little scarred, and still showing up.

Thank you very much to Netgalley and Little Brown Book Group UK | Orbit for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I've read this authors previous work "Some Desperate Glory" before and enjoyed it immensely, so naturally, I was very excited to read another work by Emily Tesh.

In "The Incandescent" we follow Dr. (!) Sapphire "Saffy" Walden, the Director of Magic at Chetwood Academy. She's bi, tattooed and in her mid-thirties. A teacher with that profile? Iconic, I already like her from that description alone. The supporting cast is very lovely and well fleshed out. I love the apparent queer-norm in this universe. However, I disliked the male counterpart for Saffy that got introduced after The Incident (TM), and didnt like how her original love interest Laura got basically sidelined until the heroic sweep to the rescue at the end.
The 4 students we meet the most are lovely youngsters, full of mischief. The depiction of teacher-student-relationships and teenage boarding school behaviour was very spot on (and gave me some unpleasant flash backs to my own high school time).

The atmosphere of The Incandescent is very well crafted - I could picture the school, the setting, the grounds, even the classrooms and boarding areas clearly in front of my inner eye. Excellent writing here. The descriptions of the demons, the demonic plane, the actual magic was so beautifully written. The fighting scenes were so athmospheric as well - on top of being not boring or drawn out too much.

The plot fell off for me personally right around where the big twist happened. I was also not too overly fond of all the minutiae around school administration/lessons/grading/student:teacher 1 on 1 heart to hearts. (I guess I'm just tad too old for that sort of content). Adding to this, I really really disliked Mark (aka White Toast Dude, bc he was as memorable as toast). He felt manipulative and out of place, especially in a book that is advertised as sapphic. I dont need a love triangle in my seemingly adult romances.

The twist with the Phoenix Demon taking over Saffys body was a tad unexpected - mostly in the way it actually happenend and was executed. I must give kudos to Dr. Walden to have taken lots of precautions for it and to have had the oath with Laura. The solution to Saffys demon problem was brutal, but inevitable. The conclusion was sad but also absolutely fitting. Not too happy about the rather abrupt ending as well.

"The Incandescent" takes up a lot of time with school admin and is also organized by the school terms. We get lots of mentions of how a school is run and what is needed to have it run smoothly. However, the cop issue (bc lbr, the marshalls are basically magic cops), is barely touched upon and that seemed a bit odd. I would have preferred this topic to be elaborated on, instead of having Saffy gallivant around campus with toast guy. (Who is also related to one of her students? Ick!)

Overall, I had a great time with this book, although the lull in the middle slowed my progress and put a slight damper to my enjoyment.

If you love demons, magical schools, a tad of high school drama and a chaotic actually-competent-and-world-savvy-adult Lady Protagonist, this book is for you.
3.75 stars, rounded to 4 for GR.

The Incandescent is a good choice for anyone who loves magical realism, especially magic in school settings, but who's looking for adult rather than young adult fiction.

I was trying something new with The Incandescent — I usually like my magical realism with more realism than magic. I am also not the target audience (waaaay too old!). So although the description intrigued me, I was out of my comfort zone here.

Which made this one quite hard to get into, initially. It felt very new to me and I had to concentrate hard in the early chapters to take in the magic education I was getting. The protagonist, Dr Sapphire (Saffy) Walden, is Director of Magic at a centuries-old boarding school in the south of England. Immersing myself in her life at the school, I did feel like I was following lessons at times!

Despite all of the unfamiliarity and my learning curve, I sank into the narrative and enjoyed it. While a lot of the characters were teenagers, and all of them were decades younger than me, it did not read like a YA novel. Dr Walden is a sufficiently complex adult character to hold my attention. And I actually enjoyed the details of her everyday life; she is in charge of a school that brings with it very special responsibilities, not least warding off demons poised to devour all the students and staff if its security is breached. Both her magical strengths and normal human weaknesses are well portrayed, and her relationships ring true. Dr Walden, initially a strong and confident figure, goes through a series of challenges that bring her face to face with existential questions around privilege, power, self-image and relationships.

Tesh is a teacher so perhaps it's no surprise that she understands young people! The older teenage characters in The Incandescent are well rounded and interesting. On the cusp of legal adulthood, they are at that age where any source of stress or high emotion can plunge them back into childishness or bring out the adult that they are becoming. The way their teachers struggle to navigate their charges' elusive, shifting characters is insightful and well described.

I loved that the story is set in a world that is our own world, today, except that magic is an integral part of it. The explanations of the difficulties of managing demons in the modern world – because they have a tendency to get into mobile phones, printers and other electronic devices, which are now ubiquitous – were particularly entertaining.

In terms of literary merit, I very much appreciated Tesh's strong writing skills. The Incandescent is well written, well paced, with unique and realistic characters, and a gripping story including several edge-of-your-seat dramatic scenes.

Balancing out the pros (story/characters/narrative style) and cons (not-my-genre/learning curve), for me it was a 3-star read. Readers in the book's target audience, and more versed in magical genre fiction, will probably get more out of it than I did, so for that I give it 4 stars.

A fantasy set in a magical school in England where kids are taught to harness and use their magical skills but told from the perspective of an elder millennial teacher and all the mundane teacher things she loves to do, but which also includes protecting and warding the school from all the demons attracted to its magic that try to get in from the demonic plane.

When it appears that someone is purposefully breaching those wards, essentially inviting the demons in, she must investigate and deal with the problem.

I loved this book! How we go from Saffy being the apparently stuffy, boring, set-in-her-ways Dr Walden to the true badass that she always was at the end was such a fun ride! I found the spell casting and magic use plus all the demons very interesting and it really enriched the world building. The romance aspect was very secondary, which I preferred. Definitely a favourite of the year so far!

"You will never meet an innocent adult. Everyone fails. Everyone. What matters is how you meet failure, and how you face up to it. How you learn."

The Incandescent brings a fresh twist to dark academia by having the main character, Dr. Walden, as the teacher/director of magic instead of a student. Following her through her very long workdays had a bit of a "slice of life" feel, which I enjoyed. It manages to capture both the view of teenagers/students and their struggles, but also how a teacher processes it and might act accordingly. This book also offers an insightful look at the complexities of grief, privilege and guilt.

The beginning was strong, kicking off with an early action scene that draws you in. However, while I understand that the slower pace in the middle of the book serves to explore Dr. Walden’s daily life, I found this section the least engaging, as it felt like we were progressing very little on plot. Towards the end, the story picks up again with more action. The plot twists, while not particularly surprising, were executed well and still satisfying.

The romance element isn't central and feels a little like an afterthought, but I thought it fits Dr. Walden well.

Thank you Little, Brown Book Group UK and NetGalley for the eARC.

Sapphic dark academia laced with wry humour which owes a conscious debt to the English school story but here squarely aimed at adult readers. Award-winning author Emily Tesh’s entertaining exploration of the life of a harried teacher of invocation – summoner of demons - has a realist feel that stems from Tesh’s personal experiences of teaching – so the perils of magic jostle with questions around the nature and philosophy of education itself. It’s set in scruffy but upmarket Chetwood School nestled in the English countryside. A character in its own right it's partly modelled on aspects of Wells Cathedral School with dashes of Cambridge architecture thrown in, as well as echoes of Tesh’s childhood school.

Tesh’s story revolves around work-obsessed Director of Magic Sapphire Walden aka Saffy whose sensible attire masks a wilder element that dates back to her misspent youth – as well as concealing a potentially deadly secret. Saffy’s ordered existence is disrupted by the rise of a powerful demon invoked by two of her favourite pupils, setting in motion a battle that threatens to destroy both Saffy and everything she cares about. Tesh’s world-building’s thorough and convincing, although I found the shift in tone towards the end slightly awkward. But Tesh is a highly skilled writer and her atmospheric plot unfolds at a more than decent pace, despite the odd dip and lull, accompanied by a muted but ultimately satisfying love story.

I absolutely adored this book - it was such a nice change of pace that the point of view was a teacher rather than a student in the school. As a science teacher myself, the attention to detail was exquisite - the author went to great lengths to accurately reflect school life. I have recently struggled with fantasy set in the modern era, but this one was excellent. Modern day ideas were well incorporated.

The world of magic was unlike any I had read before, the demons were so interesting. A new take on fantasy and academia - loved it!

3.5⭐️. Thank you NetGalley & Little, Brown Book Group UK for the ARC.

I was so sure this would be a 4-4.5 star read by the end, but boy did the second half really fell off. It was such a strong start — the introduction to our 38-year-old protagonist, Dr. Sapphire "Saffy" Walden who is a teacher, her batch of 4 students, and her eventual love interest Laura. Then came such an exciting magical battle/confrontation in the 30% mark (sapphics vs a higher demon!!) ... after which, it didn't really pick back up.

I have to start with how refreshing I found this novel's premise to be, of having the POV of the teacher as opposed to a student in a magical school setting. As a former teacher myself, the beats and daily grind of being an educator was so familiar and relatable to visit: from doing risk assessment forms and lesson observations, to appeasing parents and always being prepared to the ruckus of young people, to oh god never having enough time for everything! The classroom settings and Saffy's interactions with her students were my favorite parts, so when there was less emphasis on these in the second half, my interest dipped so much. Regardless, the Teacher Inspires Student talk between Saffy and Nikki near the last third was one of the best scenes of the entire novel, and gave me hope that this might end with a bang.

Alas, it didn't, because THE climatic Final Boss Fight of the novel was so poorly built up. The sudden POV switch from Saffy to the demon was a poor narrative choice for me because we're left to fill in the blanks of what was essentially a timeskip of months. Imagine getting to the point of the story where the protag Finally Figures Out The Baddie's Plan and then bam, fast forwarding through it all.

What should've been the other highlight of the book—the sapphic romance—was RIFE with potential but flopped, such that I'm getting grumpy just thinking back on it. It's a shame because Laura & Saffy's contrasting personalities and how they bounce off each other are so fun to read. The classic "Book Smart with the Street Smart". But the removal of Laura as a key character after the 40% mark was a huge detriment. I wish Emily Tesh had found a way to keep her around, but we're stuck with the blandest Colleagues With Benefits in the form of Saffy & Mark, the magical consultant hired by the school. I get that Mark is never meant to be endgame, but if we're going to be reading about him so much, could his personality and this dynamic be even a smidge more interesting? And less obvious. Oh, SOOOO obvious.

I do really appreciate the commentary given on how inaccessible tertiary academia can be if you don't have the finances for it. Sure, the presence of demons certainly puts the "dark" in dark academia, but the true darker side of it lies in the elitism.

Great concept, probably would not re-read a second time. If Tesh decides to expand this world though, I'd pick it up.

A sapphic dark academia fantasy that puts the focus on the school administrators and staff at an arcane magical boarding school. Focusing on arcane safety courses and maintaining the thematic engines that keep the school from collapsing out of mundane reality altogether and disappear into the demonic plane. A fascinating take on a popular genre that puts it’s teachers front and centre with a focus on class differences, growing up in a boarding school and owning your mistakes, especially when it costs someone else their life. Perfect for readers of fantasy and dark academia!

𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐋𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞, 𝐁𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐆𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐩 𝐔𝐊 | 𝐎𝐫𝐛𝐢𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚 𝐝𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐚𝐝𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐩𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐈𝐧𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐛𝐲 𝐄𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐓𝐞𝐬𝐡

Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC.

I loved The Incandescent! Emily Tesh managed to create a school that mashed up the excitement of learning magic with the actual challenges (and sometimes boring daily routine) of running a learining institution. The characters were complex and not perfect - my favourite kind! Read this if you love fantasy mixed with real life.

I would like to thank the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read and honestly review an advanced reader’s copy of this book.

I loved Emily Tesh’s “Some Desperate Glory” when I read it in 2023; something about the way she wrote those character arcs was so incredibly satisfying. So when I heard about “The Incandescent”, I was already sold. Fantasy Dark Academia, from the point of view of the teacher; That sounds perfectly up my alley.

And it was! I read this in two sittings, absolutely devoured it. Emily Tesh writes queer stories so incredibly well. I loved the complicated relationship at the centre of this, the Demons and the magics, and the close look at why Academia so often isn’t up to standard.

10/10, a fantastic stand alone novel.

This book is a beautiful, begrudging love letter to educators and education.

Emily Tesh's character voices are some of the strongest I have ever encountered. I absolutely adored Walden, even though I constantly wanted to shake her. The sapphic love story that develops in this novel is hilarious and sweet and full of excellent banter.

The Incandescent is a lovely next step for the concept of dark academia/academic fantasy. It is about the way academic systems fail people and the people trying their best to prevent them form falling through the cracks. A hilarious, moving, page-turning read!

Two years ago I reviewed Emily’s last book, Some Desperate Glory (review here) which was a science fiction novel. I liked a lot of it, although my general impression at the end was that it was a little predictable and – gasp! -overrated. But what do I know – Some Desperate Glory then went on to win the Hugo Award for the Best Novel for 2023!

Nevertheless, despite my reservations there was a lot of it I liked, so when this new book arrived for review, I was intrigued, mainly because it sounded like it was going to be different. And so it is – The Incandescent is an urban fantasy set in the now of 2025. Think Harry Potter, but with Emily’s spin on it.

From the publisher: “Dr Walden is the Director of Magic at Chetwood School and one of the most powerful magicians in England. Her days consist of meetings, teaching A-Level Invocation to four talented, chaotic sixth formers, more meetings and securing the school’s boundaries from demonic incursions.

Walden is good at her job – no, Walden is great at her job. But demons are masters of manipulation. It’s her responsibility to keep her school with its six hundred students and centuries-old legacy safe. But it’s possible the entity Walden most needs to keep her school safe from . . . is herself.”

Let’s get the obvious Hogwarts comparisons out of the way first. Yes, this is a story about a private school who are teaching children and young adults’ magic. But really there the comparisons stop. This is clearly a book for grown-ups, written from the perspective of adults and with all the sensibilities that experienced adults provide.

Focused around Dr Sapphire (Saffy) Walden, Director of Magic at the school, the plot gives us her experiences of being an ex-pupil and a teacher, as well as a manager – she is, as the book explains, an “academic turned educator turned school management”, which gives us a unique perspective to the school over time.

“The difference between a schoolchild and a schoolteacher, one of Walden’s mentors had once remarked, is that a teacher who finds herself miserable at school can leave.”

It is this that makes the book work for me. It also helps that the book is literate and intelligent, with nuanced characters that felt honest and also have depth and resonance. The actions of those we meet seem genuine – not forced, and cobbled together for the sake of a plot point, but as people would do say and react if such an environment was actual.

“Teaching wasn’t about being right, or being clever, or being in charge. It was about making them believe.”

Through Saffy Tesh makes the important point that there are major, major benefits in being a teacher – the positives of teaching, of developing professional relationships, of helping young people learn and grow, even with the added complication of having magic involved. It would be easy to just spend most of the book telling the reader about Saffy’s love for the job, and the students she teaches and whilst the novel does do that, in terms of plot much of the book is also about how Saffy herself develops over the course of the novel.

The flipside of this is that there is also a lot of trials and tribulations of being a teacher, even without the magic element. With the tension of potential OFSTED inspections, lesson observations, endless meetings, preparation and marking and so on, the academic year progresses and embeds the fantasy element in some semblance of normality. The pressures these cause were spot-on – and I say that with nearly 40 years of experiencing such things in both state and public schools myself.

We also have the magic element, of course. Much of Saffy’s work involves maintaining the wards around the school, ensuring that the nasty demons being kept at bay stay that way. There are minor imps around the school that leaven the dark atmosphere a little – for example, the Gremlin-esque imp in the school photocopier may cause some wry moments to anyone that has had issues with such a machine – but the nasty ones on the whole are really nasty, giving a sense of genuine peril to the characters, both teenage and adult.

As if teaching wasn’t enough, as a manager as well as a teacher Saffy has a lot of additional administrational tasks to do, magic as well as mundane. Dealing with difficult colleagues as well as students is part of the job, and Saffy finds a number of them irksome. In particular, Laura Kenning, the commander of the Marshals (a kind of magic police force) at Chetwood, seems to really get under her skin. So too the arrival of a new member of staff given the task of overseeing the school after a major magical incident there, both of which affect Saffy’s professional and personal life.

All of these elements are fixed into a setting that feels appropriate. I was pleasantly surprised how well the book’s setting worked. Chetwood feels like a real school, whose long history and attractive countryside setting adds to the book a great deal. There’s a lot of backstory for both the history of Chetwood School with its 600+ years of magic, and its adult characters which I enjoyed a great deal. (I would love to read more stories from Chetwood’s past.)

The upshot of all of this is that these elements work together to create a realistic feel to the events of the novel – and I say that knowing that I’m talking about an urban fantasy. When romance becomes part of the mixture, I did feel at times that the book should be subtitled “The Life and Loves of Saffy Walden”, although it does humanise Saffy somewhat. it’s well done on the whole, even when I felt it made the book more of a soap opera – Saffy’s romances in the book create a tension that is straight out of the “will they – won’t they” playbook.

All of these elements drive the book forward, and should keep you reading until the end. The main issue I had was towards the end when I felt that some of the things in the final scenes were perhaps a little too convenient in wrapping things up. The denouement was not bad – but not quite as effective as I hoped it was going to be after such a careful set up. I will also say that the title doesn’t really work for me, although I accept that that may be a personal bug-bear.

Nevertheless, in summary, The Incandescent is a book that for me was a major, major improvement on what Tesh has written before. Although there were elements that didn’t quite earn it the very top marks from me, as a sort of British version of Lev Grossman’s The Magicians it is one of the best books I’ve read this year and certainly one of the best urban fantasies I’ve read in years. For anyone wanting to try dark academia or simply enjoy a fresh and original take on it, The Incandescent is recommended from me as one of the best in a currently popular sub-genre.

The Incandescent was such an entertaining and unique take on dark academia for the magical. The dark part is generally down to the demons, they are literally everywhere and the magic to keep them at bay is complex and flawed. The rest of the story is very much a witty and fun take on academia through the eyes of the educators.
The FMC is a teacher and a great character to explore the themes of power, privilege and identity through. Her experience and devotion to her work is a testament to her character. I was totally there with her watching her seemingly mundane life unravel.
Throughout the author is able to show us a very real story of adulthood and the pressures of life. Another very true to life element was the romance subplot, this was absolutely charming. Overall I absolutely loved the whole feel of this book.
At times there were some pacing issues but these are forgiven as I found it a compelling read and highly recommend to the teachers out there, fantasy and academia lovers.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC. This is a voluntary review of my own thoughts.

This was definitely one of my favourite reads of the year so far! Even though there was one aspect that I was slightly disappointed with it does everything else so well that I still had to give 5 stars.
The Incandescent is a dark academia with a very heavy focus on the academia part. In fact, it is absolutely a love letter to teaching while also exploring the systemic failures of educational systems and how this impacts students and teachers alike.
We follow a teacher at an elite magical school and see a lot of the day to day effort that goes into her work. I really liked Saffy and her character development. It felt refreshing reading from the perspective of an almost 40 year old main character.
I was absolutely ecstatic when I realised this included a sapphic love story, with a butch modern knight no less! However, we get surprisingly little page time from the main love interest and only get very few scenes of them developing their relationship at all.
The setting and world building is another point where this story shines. We have a creepy old magical school in alternate world England with all the atmosphere that brings with it. The magic is unique, expertly interwoven with our own world and the theory behind it thoroughly explained through our main characters academic career or teachings. 
I loved the humour that was brought into the story through the demons possessing mundane items like phones and photocopiers.
I also really enjoyed the ending with it being one of the most satisfying conclusions to a book I’ve read in a while.
All in all, I’ll be keeping a look out for this author’s future work! Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the eARC!