The Incandescent is one of my favorite books I've read so far this year and anyone who loves a fantasy set in a school needs to pick this up. We follow Doctor Sapphire (Sapphy) Walden, the Director of Magic at Chetwood School. In this world, we're in the modern day (there are references to cell phones and Nintendo Switches), but magic has been a part of our world the whole time and there are fancy boarding schools responsible for teaching young ones with the knack.

This book felt like a love letter to teachers - I don't want to give too much away, but when Doctor Walden was explaining how teaching works to the Phoenix, it just really clicked with me and how it’s very easy to know more than a teenager but trying to get them where you want them to be is the trick.

The Sapphy/Laura dynamic was a favorite of mine, too - Laura is the head of the Marshalls at Chetwood, who is tasked with ensuring demonic incursions stay at bay. Speaking of incursions...I love love, loved that there are risk assessments for experiments in line with my scientist heart. I had similar warm fuzzies for the debate about personhood of Demons in that it reminded me of the debate aroud viruses.

Read this book if you want to watch a chaotic bisexual PhD-doctor be an amazing teacher and also experience some hubris. The magic system in The Incandescent is fantastic and you get the push/pull of people who are classically trained versus those who figure it out on their own. I really can't say enough great things about the book, even though I feel like I'm just giving random snippets, the whole is so much more than the sum of its parts.

I had the distinct pleasure of getting to listen to this as an audiobook and loved Zara Ramm's narration. She really personified Sapphy Walden for me and I could listen to her narrate all day.

Thank you so much to Macmillan Audio and to NetGalley for the advanced copy.

3.5 ⭐️ rated up.
Personally, I wouldn’t consider this a dark academia. Magic school doesn’t = dark academia. I did enjoy it being from the teachers point of view. That’s what peaked my interest for wanting to read this book. I did enjoy the concept of it, though. I felt like it needed a little more. The minimal romance in here didn’t really add anything to the book, it felt almost like an afterthought. The actual school settings, invocation class, and demons is ultimately what kept my attention.

Set in a magical school we follow Walden, Walden is not a student, she’s the 38 year old director of magic. We follow her life as a top-notch teacher, securing the school from demons & a falling into a romance.

The setting is almost exclusively at the school, it’s heavy academic. Personally I’m not always the biggest fan of academic books but I absolutely loved this. Carried by the delightful Walden.

The character work is what stands out for me, the characters each have distinct personalities, they’re quirky, and are filled with humour.
Throughout the book I had a strange feeling that I knew Walden from my school years and felt like I was being privy into the life of someone I knew 😳, that’s to say that it felt like having someone familiar tell you their story and you’re admiring everything about them.

I enjoyed the plot, it had some low moments where i wasn’t as interested, though it also had plenty of great moments.
Dark plot at times, demon attacks, possession, and threats.
Lots of small funny moments throughout, possessed printer, girls summoning a demon to inhale smoke so they can sneakily vape, and a possessed bus.

I really appreciate reading about real adult characters. The book overall has a somewhat cozy vibe to it, though i wouldn’t count it as a cozy read as there are high stakes.

Narrator:
I loved the audiobook for this, the narrator has the perfect voice and brought so much of Waldens personality to life. She kept me hooked and invested into the story, and portrayed a fun, almost cozy British vibe.
4 ⭐

I love getting fantasy dark academia from the viewpoint of a teacher closer to my age than to our typical 20-something-year-old “hero.” I was immersed into this world that feels as if the present day had magic and our usual universities taught it. I resonated so much with Dr. Walden and the struggles of balancing teaching and real-life.

At the same time, the magic and fighting back demonic incursions from demons that are attracted to technology was such a fun plotline. I would love to see more from this world, but alas this was a standalone.

I had a blast reading and listening to this. The narration was perfect to get truly immersed into the storytelling and fall in love with the characters, the love story and Dr. Walden’s fight to keep the students from accidentally killing themselves and those around them.

4.5 stars

Thank you to @torbooks for the eARC and @macmillan.audio for the ALC. All thoughts are my own.

First off: this is /not/ dark academia. This is a boarding school that teaches magic alongside regular subjects, from the perspective of a director-level teacher in her 30s. Most of the book is concerned with making sure the students pass their exams and the school continues to run smoothly. In that way, it's rather nice to see magic so integrated with society that it feels more like a niche subject that someone /could/ study but has very few long-term viable career paths (especially ones that allow you to keep things like morals in consideration when weighing jobs), so most people have an understanding of how magic affects their everyday lives, but no practical ability. It's that mundanity that gives the world and this book its charm.

The vague dips into a bigger plot are.....not great. While the Old Faithful bits are plausible, the fact that they're more set up for the rest of any further plot make you expect more from said plot than we get. Literally what was even the goal of anyone - you can't give a "oh shadowy organization with their own aims" explanation and not...give an explanation when it's supposed to be one of the climactic plot points.

I'm also not sure how I feel about all of the attempts to address privilege and how it relates to academia and learning and in particular the British schooling system and opportunities. It feels very "I'm writing a book about schools and I know this inequality is here and I have to address it, but I don't know how, so I'm just going to say it exists and hope that acknowledgement is enough". There's a lot of "oh, this system is unfair, but it's a long-standing system, we can't change it overnight" which might be true, but especially in a world with magic and demons, you would hope for a little more than acknowledgement and lip service and a little more working to shift the needle. Especially at almost 40 and a director at the school.

I did enjoy the narration a lot - Zara Ramm does a great job of conveying Walden's narrative and her love of being and exasperation at teaching. And really that's what this is - a love letter to teaching and learning and to a lesser extent, to the institutions dedicated to those pursuits.

The Incandescent is a captivating dark academia fantasy that offers a refreshing twist on the magical academy trope. Set in the prestigious Chetwood Academy, the story follows Dr. Walden, the Director of Magic, as she navigates the chaos of teaching, administration, and safeguarding her students from demonic threats.

What sets The Incandescent apart is its focus on adulthood and responsibility, rather than the more common coming-of-age tropes. Walden, an academic and a survivor of past magical trauma, is a deeply relatable and grounded protagonist. Her struggles with bureaucracy, student welfare, and her own inner demons will be sure to resonate with anyone who’s ever worked in education or navigated institutional resistance to change. Rather than centring the experience of the students, the novel casts its gaze on the educator’s burden, adding a refreshing layer of complexity to the narrative.

This book has emotional depth that is combined with dry humour to keep the story from ever feeling too heavy, even when tackling serious themes like grief, burnout, and the ethics of power. The novel is also queer, weaving LGBTQ+ identities into its characters and world without fanfare, creating a more inclusive and realistic magical landscape.

I had a fantastic time listening to this audiobook and would definitely recommend it to my followers.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for this audioARC to review.

I really enjoyed the novel, I think that it is a refreshing take on a boarding school style book. Where instead of being focused on the kids we get their teacher. I think that that choice made me love the Sapphire so much more because we are able to root for her throughout the novel from when she is banishing a terrifying demon to when she decides not to cover her tattoos, seeing her as a whole person rather than just the educator, as often happens in this genre was wildly refreshing.

The Narrator also was stunning, I loved how she kept me immersed in the novel, I felt as though she really embodied the character. The only time that took me out was when an American character showed up and she vaguely did the accent, but it was more funny than bad.

Emily Tesh's The Incandescent was the perfect book to get me out of my reading slump. Atmospheric, with gorgeous prose, it tells the story of Chetwood Academy, where Doctor Walden finds herself tasked with schooling future magicians. Set in our world, but with magic, The Incandescent is a modern dark academia with millennial vibes and an incredible engaging fight against demons.

I loved the audio production and would highly recommend that version.

It really is like reading The Scholomance series from a teacher's POV (if there were teachers). This is dark academia done right. It was engaging from the start. I thought I knew who the big bad was going to be, then was pleasantly surprised to find it all come back around.

This book was a little difficult to rate. At least, more difficult than usual for me. I LOVED having a woman in her mid/late thirties as the main character! I cannot stress this enough. Outside of the fight/battle scenes, the book is quite (intentionally) mundane. I really liked this perspective on the magical boarding school plot. It was refreshing and intriguing. I don’t think I need to dig into the themes here because they were very obvious while reading. Not a bad thing by any means.

I felt the book is character-driven but I felt like Phoenix and Laura were criminally underdeveloped. The love-interest plot line gave me a bit of whip-lash. Not quite frenemies but definitely not friends. Coworkers but they don't agree with one another and harbor some judgment... to instalove?! Weighing pros and cons of long-distance relationship before even going on a single date? I don't think so. I felt cheated here. This is advertised as sapphic but the WLW relationship never goes anywhere. We do see quite a bit of the hetero relationship later which is also a big ick.
Sorry to say, the villain was obvious and also underdeveloped. What was the motivation of the villain? If that didn’t matter and it was the rest of Dr. Walden’s life, then why were those plot lines also so surface level?

The book also felt like it was two separate stories and that break/change did not flow well..

Aside from her American accent, the audiobook narrator did a really wonderful job!

The Incandescent is a fantastic magic school book but with the unique twist of being from the perspective of one of the teacher. I've always loved a good magic school book and as a middle age person myself it was interesting to see the trope from a completely different perspective.

A sapphic dark academia book from the perspective of the late-30s school director of magic! I was sold from the premise alone - I didn't know that magical dark academia from the teacher's perspective was something that I was missing in my life.

Dr. Walden is the Director of Magic at Chetwood School, a boarding school for rich magically-inclined children. She spends her days teaching invocation to 6th formers, attending and leading meetings, and making sure that the school's magical boundaries are safe from demonic incursions. But then, a lesson goes wrong and she and her 6th formers find themselves fighting off a high level demon who has lingered in the school's background for centuries, and it won't go away quietly.

As a teacher, it is SO rare that I find a book told from a teacher's PoV that actually understands the job and everything that comes with it. But, Doctor Walden genuinely LOVES her job. She loves her students, she loves the work, and Tesh as an author does such an amazing job of depicting that. I found myself nodding along to some of Walden's commentary about the school as I was listening - and in particular about being seen as a real person outside of the classroom to students. While the romance itself was kind of secondary, it was still an interesting build up.
More than that, though, I loved the premise of the magic system in this universe that Tesh created. Walden's magical tattoos for siphoning power and summoning a demon are such a fun idea. Students going to a magical boarding school to be funneled on to very normal prestigious colleges, and magical majors that (just like non-magical ones) don't always have any real world practicality. Magical law enforcement.

Overall this was a blast of a book and I would love to see more in this universe!

A dark academia tale from the perspective of a bi FMC, how refreshing! While most dark academia seem to focus on students, this is from the perspective of the school administrator, and I definitely loved the fresh take.

This book absolutely cured a recent reading slump I was struggling to pull myself out of! The Incandescent was everything I ever want from a fantasy book! I was lucky enough to get approved for an Audiobook ARC for this book, and the narrator really brought this story to LIFE! I felt like I was at Chetwood Academy, fighting a long side Dr. Walden to keep her school safe from the nefarious magical entities trying to claim the school as their own.

I LOVED that this book featured an approaching middle aged women as the main character. It added a nuance and a relatability that is lacking in many offerings in the genre. Walden is a BAD ASS! She is one of the most powerful magical wielders in the world. And she uses this power to protect her school and her students. She found a way to bound a demon to herself using a phoenix tattoo on her arm. This demon helps her fight, and ultimately, protect the school.

This book is a lot of internal dialogue within Dr. Walden's psyche. I love books like that, where we can follow the thought process of one person throughout the story.

Please pick this book, especially the audiobook, if you want an enchanting tale of magic, an older heroine who is perfectly happy in her life and with her choices, or if you're just looking for a narrator who knows how to bring a story to life with her storytelling! I loved every minute of this book that I got to listen to!

I’ve had my eyes on this one for months and it really did live up to the hype. A sapphic dark academia with demons and such a cool magic system! This is definitely worth the read/listen!

The narrators voice was literal perfection, their name isn’t listed for me but BRAVO!

I really was so excited for this book AND I can’t believe I got an ARC! Thank you so much NetGalley and Macmillan Audio!

Dr. Walden is the Director of Magic at Chetwood Academy, a picturesque boarding school in rural England. She spends her days in meetings, teaching a small group of upper level invocation students, attending more meetings, sorting out the complicated lives of more teenagers, maintaining safety on the school grounds, banishing demons, and preparing for more meetings. But all is not as scheduled at Chetwood - will Walden be able to keep more powerful demons away?

We are immediately dropped into a world that is familiar, yet not, to us. This is expertly written: the writing style is descriptive and easy to follow, with fantastical, yet believable, world building and a perfect touch of smart humour. It was refreshing to read about an older main character who has relatable flaws, and I was very invested in her day to day life and ultimate outcome. The narrator of the audiobook deftly captures this setting and slight humourous tilt, and was a perfect match for the tone of the book

Personally, this book is and is not for me. First, I started, but didn’t finish a previous book by this author (Some Desperate Glory) because I didn’t like the themes or direction. But mostly I usually avoid dark academia and school stories because I used to be a school teacher and currently teach in academia, and do not find it “fun and escapist” to read about my stressful job. And this book was no different: I initially couldn’t quite get immersed in the world because it did feel too much like my real life (minus the magic and demons of course), though this was a strength of the author who has realistically captured the intended setting. What I did particularly appreciate about this, which was again personal to me, was that the setting mirrors a UK school setting, using English concepts and vocabulary, which had me nostalgic for the brief time I taught school in England.

To my surprise though, as I kept reading, I got wrapped up in the main character’s life, the school setting, and the overall plot points! In the end I really enjoyed my time spent at this school, and I came to quite like the main character and was satisfied with the ending. I would for sure read more by this author, and I think I’ll likely reread this at some point as well!

Overall, if you're looking for a well written, modern magical boarding school story, from the point of view of a somewhat antisocial, slightly jaded, yet brilliant demon vanquishing professor of magic, then this book is for you!

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Gosh gosh I have mixed feelings about this book. Part of it comes from this: if you're coming because this book is tagged as lesbian you will be pretty disappointed because it was 10% lesbian relationship and 90% het relationship. I would not come expecting very much sapphic content. The main character is bisexual and most of her time is spent in a heterosexual relationship which is completely fine but when the book is advertised as lesbian it is frustrating. The world itself was incredibly fascinating and cool. Emily Tesh is a brilliant writer and the story was interesting and well written. I think the way it ended was a little frustrating to me because I thought it could have gone differently and it would have been better. But that's just me. Conflicting feelings abound with this review but overall I think the quality of the writing outweighs my general gripes.

Thank you to the publisher for providing this audioARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I was able to read this early because of Netgalley, so thank you Netgalley! I loved having the point of view of the teacher in a magic school, whose used to teenage drama, but also at the end learns that sometimes adults who think they are smart can also do stupid things. I find it a bit difficult to review this without getting into some spoilers, but I loved how the author integrated demons into the universe. I found it very charming, and I loved the main love interest. In general, the book felt like a breath of fresh air amongst a very common genre.

The Incandescent delivered on what all us elder millennial fantasy readers have been clamoring for....a well thought out fantastical plot that runs parallel to an adult MC with all sort of adulty hurdles to clear. What a breath of fresh air!!

I think it can be a difficult to balance the mundane with the magical and make it both compelling and sparkling but Tesh does it effortlessly here. Readers follow Doctor Walden who is the Director of Magic at Chetwood Academy. She is a magician with immense power and skill but that doesn't excuse her from the monotony of her teaching position. We get to see her triumphs and failures as she navigated wicked demons and students alike!

I had the opportunity to listen to The Incandescent and I couldn't recommend it enough. The narrator took great care in reading the tale with a nuance that made the story feel tangible and evocative!

Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit Publishing for the opportunity to listen to this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

This was so good! The narrator was perfect. This book had everything- a dark academia (but cozy) setting, spells, demons, heart and a little romance. I really enjoyed the main character’s point of view, and the pacing was great. Very enjoyable story to listen to over the weekend.