I really enjoyed how this started and how this ended, but the middle was just a slow slog through the tedium of being an academic instructor. The two most interesting parts of the beginning (the demon phoenix and the sapphic love interest were then sidelined for the majority of the novel in favor of a bland white dude and administrative details. That said, I did enjoy reading from Saffy’s perspective as 38 year old, confident, established woman even during the slower parts.

The audiobook narrator was generally fine, though her American accent was not quite it, and she seemed to pronounce some words incorrectly (since I only had the audio and not the print, it’s possible I misheard as well).

Thanks to Macmillan Audio for the gifted copy!

Doctor Sapphire Walden is the Director of Magic and a professor at Chetwood Academy, a school of magic in England. She's stretched thin with meetings, teaching, and securing the school from demons... and everything else that comes with being a school administrator.

THE INCANDESCENT is a slow-paced, atmospheric, and character-driven dark academia book. I loved the perspective shift of focusing on the Director of the school rather than the students, the mishap of A-level student accidentally summoning a powerful demon, and magical contracts. However, this book moved a little too slowly for me and it was hard for me to feel like much was happening. I think this book will find its perfect audience when it publishes! All that aside, I loved the narration in this one by Zara Ramm.

Thank you, @EmilyTesh, @macmillan.audio, and @TorBooks for my free audiobook. #MacAudio2025 #macmillanaudio

📚 #BOOKREVIEW 📚
The Incandescent by Emily Tesh
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / Pages: 432 / Genre: Dark Academia
Audiobook Narrator: Zara Ramm
Duration: 12 hours 26 minutes
Release Date: May 13, 2025

In this world of dark academia, Dr. Saffy Walden is the Director of Magic at the Chetwood School. As one of the most powerful magicians in England, her job is to teach students how to safely summon demons as well as defend themselves against them. She’s also there to protect them when there’s a demon incursion and to identify when someone has become possessed.

I’m not a fan of young adult fiction, so I especially liked how this story was written from the perspective of the teachers and adults who work at the school rather than the kids. I also liked how the demons weren’t just evil monsters, they were more like malevolent ghosts so their humanity was still in there somewhere.

Overall, I really enjoyed this thought-provoking and thrilling story. Zara Ramm did a wonderful job narrating the audiobook with her lovely British accent.

Dr. Saffy Walden, 38, is the Director of Magic for Chetwood Academy, a prestigious magical boarding school. Saffy is both instructor and administrator, teaching magic to a small group of teens while also inspecting and maintaining the magical defenses of the school against demons—a heavy lift. She is witty, self-assured, and a little bit of a hardass at times—but she also cares deeply for the well being of her students.

The magic system also reminded me a lot of Jujutsu Kaisen. Where barriers are weakened, demons may break through to the mundane world from the demonic plane, inhabiting technology and systems of a complexity and size equal to their levels of intelligence and strength. For example, a lower level imp may set up camp in a copy machine, while a high-level demon may even possess a human.

Tesh’s choice to focus on Saffy’s perspective instead of the students’ paves the way for a fresh take on dark academia with themes that are more interesting to me at this stage in my life as an adult professional. With Saffy, we grade papers, lecture and conduct demonstrations in the classroom, individualize lessons and feedback based on each student’s learning style and needs, manage parents and the administration—all while ensuring the magical barriers of the school remain intact against demonic incursions. We are left thinking, “Well no wonder she doesn’t have great work-life balance. When would she have the time? Do we expect this much from our own teachers?” I could see others perhaps getting bored of following Saffy’s day-to-day job, but I was locked in the whole time and devoured this in two days.

Although there is a standout group of students, we see them through an adult’s eyes for the kids they are. In a way, Saffy reminds me of Nanami of Jujutsu Kaisen: a responsible adult fighting the demons so the kids can have a chance to be kids. And I loved that Saffy did not have to be a “cool” teacher to earn the trust of her students.

Overall I enjoyed the maturity of Saffy’s romantic relationships, but I do think the main love interest could have been more developed as a character herself. She is essentially a school cop, and Saffy butts heads with her quite a bit over what is best for the school. In particular, Saffy does not think increasing the presence of “cops” at the school will help (she’s right). This plot thread is not resolved in a satisfying way, and it does taint the relationship a bit.

Regarding the audiobook, it is exceptionally well done. Zara Ramm is the perfect voice for Saffy. However, there is a brief moment in which someone has an American accent (California), and it sounds a bit strange (lol).

The Incandescent publishes on May 13, 2025, and seems to be a standalone.

ALC provided by NetGalley and Macmillan Audio in exchange for an honest review.

✨Book Review✨

This was an entertaining listen. This dark academia novel is told by Dr. Walden the director of magic at Chetwood Academy. This book is in the pov of the teacher and how she teachers her students to keep them from accidentally feeding themselves to demons from their magic.

The only downside was I didn't feel like the romance was developed enough. If you're looking for a sapphic dark academia novel then check this one out! The narration was great. I felt like I was listening to a teacher and it made it very enjoyable.

Thank you Macmillan audio for the gifted audiobook-Ash

Dr Sapphire Walden is a professor and Director of Magic at Chetwood Academy, an elite magical boarding school. Like any teacher/administrator, she's stretched thinner than she'd like, from overseeing the wards that protect the school from demons to teaching A-level evocation magic. Her approach is all about risk management - assume that something will go wrong and think instead about how to mitigate repercussions. (Dr Walden and I would get along smashingly as colleagues.) When planning an A-level class about summoning a demon, she knows that her students won't do it perfectly, but it's a learning process... until they summon a powerful demon called Old Faithful who has been hanging around the school grounds on the demonic plane for centuries, and dragging up old memories from Walden's own A-level year.

I loved this book. One problem I often run into with Dark Academia is that it focuses on the students, and I don't tend to prefer the young adult/new adult perspective in most of my books. Walden was the perfect POV character for me: she's a bisexual 38-year-old no-nonsense director with a strong sense of empathy. She allows herself to be continually surprised by her students and colleagues, even when she'd prefer to be a pessimist, and perhaps most importantly she allows herself grace and forgiveness and growth from her mistakes. Emily Tesh masterfully writes a well-rounded and relatable character, whose experience in the face of demons feels like a breath of fresh air in the genre.

The magic system is all about contracts (fantasy writers take note, this is the way to my heart), and while some people have more proclivity towards magic than others, there's no innate magical ability that allows one person to be a magician over another. There's a practicality to Walden and to this book that speaks to me, from the mistakes we make to the successes we see to the love we find.
I was hooked from start to finish.

I loved listening to the audiobook, narrated by Zara Ramm. I think the worldbuilding is approachable for most people to listen to this one if you enjoy an audiobook.

I have been dying for a dark academia from the perspective of faculty and this was just perfect. It had a great balance of humor and magic and scares and I just loved it. Great narrator!

Wow! This was a beautifully fun read. This was what I wanted "The Atlas" series to be like, and if this one doesn't get the same kind of recognition, it will be a true injustice. That series was a serious letdown, while this standalone 100% delivers on the "magical dark academia" that it promises! The MC is fantastic, and as an (almost 40 year old) career educator, I really appreciated her POV. I'd be curious to know if Tesh spent time as an educator, because she NAILED what the behind the scenes life of an educator is really like. All the extra business to attend to, the meetings, the paperwork, the passing conversations with friends in the hallway because that's all you have time for between lessons. I really appreciated the little jokes and nods to the life of an educator that Tesh made here. Aside from that, the setting is about as magical as you could ask for, a British boarding school for the upper crust where magic is taught to students who have an aptitude. It's a cool premise in that the magic is just part of the mundane world. People know about it, and it is woven into society, but only certain people can use it. Thus, the school in question teaches perfectly ordinary subjects as well, which is a fun way to present the "magic school" setting. The story was never boring, the plot was well developed, and the surprise bit, while foreshadowed, did not go down exactly as I was anticipating it would, which is always nice. This was a REALLY great read for fans of magic and dark academia.