The Incandescent by Emily Tesh
This was my second book of Tesh’s. Desperate Glory was such a weird read, I really really wanted to like it and kind of did? But it also had some social things to say that threw me off.

THIS though, was perfection. An absolute five star read. I felt attached to each of the characters. Their motivations, back stories, passions, fears, all made sense. Even in a book about magic, it was all real. The writing hit perfectly. I’m a huge fan of Robin McKinley, who tends to wander in and out of the plot, often going on tangents only vaguely related. This scratched that itch. I didn’t know I wanted to know so much minute detail about these topics until I was told them. It enthralled me.

Sapphire Walden is, honestly, one of my favorite characters I’ve read in recent history. The audiobook narrator did an incredible job of creating a clear and vivid image of who she is. Every moment I spent with her I loved. Her core traits are ones I admire in myself and others. I don’t want to say too much, because I think getting to know her is the best part of the book, and it’s best to go in relatively blind.

It was vaguely predictable at points, which didn’t bother me all that much. It wasn’t so much about the plot as it was about the way people connect with one another on various levels.

The world building was a delight. Tesh’s description of the magical system was so intricate and seamless. I never once thought “huh, that’s odd. It seems out of place compared to this other facet.” It was a very solid foundation on which to build the characters, especially needed since so many of the characters backstories were rooted in traumatic situations involving the magic. I appreciate that while there were solid hard lines on how academic magic worked, there was wiggle room for untrained, more intuitional magic like the groundskeeper had.

I recommend this to anyone who enjoys an expansive description of a small try facet. While I don’t know much about the overall workings of a world with magic, I do know a lot about how a magical boarding school plagued by demons operates.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for my honest review

I’m not sure if cozy and demons go well together in the same sentence, but that is what this book was for me. I love the idea of this dark academia book from the perspective of Dr. Walden. Millennials needed an FMC! This book was wonderful and I can’t wait to buy it in print for my shelf.

A delightful, diverse, Sapphic adventure with demons set at a magic school and told from the point of view of an aministrator with midlife and regrets looming over her. 

The book won me over with demonology, flashes of humor and profanity, and the vivid, quirky campus. TUnexpectedly, the challenges of bisexuality and dating later in life caught me in the book’s grip. I had a blast with The Incandescent on multiple levels. It’s a rare, satisfying book I’d enjoy experiencing again.

The narrator fits the book perfectly, and the entire production is excellent.
The novel’s architecture works beautifully. There's enough detail about the campus, antique wards, academic demands, power structure, branches of magic, demonology, and personalities to create a fully immersive world. The intersections of Chatwood and contemporary life including cell phones, social media, vehicles, and excursions to London are impressive–and the magic system accounts for technology. This is one of the best, realistic, diverse-cast books I’ve read in the past 150 new releases I’ve experienced.

The consciousness about class differences is refreshing and goes beyond the common device of having one poor scholarship student. Likewise, the novel's feminism feels organic, shown in the characters, events, and Walden's at times understandably acerbic thoughts. The book moved me. I became choked up more than once.

The Incandescent shines. It’s a fun, ambitious, imaginative, thought-provoking, loving, humorous, bristly, and at times magical journey into growth, change, risk, and possibility in youth and later in life. Highly recommended to readers of Fantasy, LGBTQIA+, and everyone seeking a new vision of a magic school. You don't want to miss demonology.

Thank you for the ALC for consideration. These are solely my own opinions.

Incandescent by Emily Tesh

I loved this book and it’s going to be on my Hugo ballot next year!

I picked up Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh last year when it was nominated for the Hugo Awards and I loved it! I suggested it to a friend who didn’t know what to have our SF Book Club read next, and our entire book club ended up enjoying it. So I was very excited when NetGalley and the publisher gave me an eARC of Tesh’s next book, The Incandescent.

It was billed as dark magical academia, which is a genre I love. It reminded me a bit of Magic for Liars (which I also loved!) in that it was set at a school and focused more on faculty than on students.

I loved Doctor Walden, the professor who is the protagonist. I felt we really got to know her in an intimate, visceral way. I was very surprised at the late twist in the book and enjoyed everything immensely. I may need to reread it, because I felt like I may have missed the motivation behind the ultimate antagonist (being vague here to avoid spoilers) when I was so wow’d by the twist.

Definitely this will be on next year’s Hugo ballot.

I listened to this audiobook at 2x speed.

I gave this a shot but I didn’t love the execution. The demon in the photocopier was fun! I unfortunately didn’t love all the exposition. Felt a bit too much at the start of the book. I feel like this could be good but it wasn’t hitting and I struggled to go back to it. It felt more boring than it should be. I gave it a go but just couldn’t do it unfortunately. It could definitely be for those who enjoy academic stories with magic!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

Rating: Absolutely Loved It, 5 stars

This is easily one of my top books of the year, and I loved it so much!

This is a dark academia book is from the perspective of a teacher, which I thought was such a brilliant idea. I am a hard sell on dark academia, but reading from the perspective of an adult who genuinely cares for and safeguards the children at an elite, magical boarding school felt like it flipped all my expectations on their head. We follow Doctor Walden, the 38 year old Director of Magic at Chetwood. She is one of the best magicians in the country and her days are consumed with meetings, paperwork, teaching, and the ever-present issue of how to protect magical teenagers from themselves and the demons that are drawn by their magic. She has a dry and acerbic wit that made me instantly like her, and her devotion to her students and their well-being is what made me love her.

This feels very slice of life for a large part of it, and you can feel that it is written by someone who has experienced being an educator herself. We get a lot of the ins and outs of teaching, the pride and exasperation you feel in your students, the frustration with the broken system we work within, and the genuine care that Walden has for her charges. As an educator, I felt very seen by this portrayal.

I also loved that being a dark academia, the students get up to absolute shenanigans that have dire and potentially world-changing consequences, but the adults actually step in and act like adults! It's not just left to the students to muddle through and figure out. And the way that it was done was handled so well. Weldon looked at her charges with the exasperated care and love that I know so well, and she actually helped them. I also loved the perspective that she held on aging, which felt very tender almost. It was just handled so well.

I also appreciated the questions that were raised throughout about privilege and the broken systems at play within the world of education, and the impact that has upon those who work in that field, and the lengths they will go to to protect their students from that impact. I wasn't sure where exactly the story was going to go, but I was 100% along for the ride! I absolutely devoured this book in just a few days. I thought that the ending was remarkably well done, and I loved every second of this book.

And that this wasn't just about the students. It also focused on the separation of Walden from her professional life and how difficult that is. We get to see her sort of reclaim her personhood outside of being a teacher, which was a delight as well. As a bisexual woman who returns to dating/situationships in her late 30s, that was just a fun time going on that journey with her as well.

The audiobook narrator especially did a fantastic job at bringing Walden to life. We are in her perspective, and I could feel the emotion in the way the narrator told the story. It really led to some of her humor and sarcasm hitting better, I think. While I cannot wait to get my hands on a physical copy to see how some of the formatting choices were made, I loved experiencing the audiobook narration.

Overall, this is easily going down as a favorite of the year, and I am so glad that I read it! It feels like a fresh take on a subgenre that has been very hit-or-miss for me historically. I highly recommend! I received an Advanced Listening Copy from Macmillan Audio through Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own. The Incandescent releases on Tuesday, May 13, 2025.

3.5 stars, rounded up.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Macmillan Audio for the ARC of The Incandescent by Emily Tesh.

I have seen Tesh's name pop up in multiple places since winning the Hugo Award, and this is my first foray into reading her work. Unquestionably, through my listening, Tesh has a strong and solid writing style, and she has evocative descriptions and layered characters that help to bring The Incandescent to life. As someone who has worked in education for 15 years, I really connected with how she described the relationships with the students / the pride and protection educators feel for them. I felt she really captured the part of academia that rarely gets told in featuring a story from the Director of Magic at the Chetwood School as opposed to the student perspective. In its own way, this reads like Naomi Novik's Scholomance IF teachers existed there and the general sort of frustration they would feel at students testing the limits and faculty needing to step in to protect them.

The magic system at play here is also really interesting - again, similar to Novik - but a bit more cozy-ish urban fantasy as regular life seems to take a similar hold on the amount of time we spend in the story. Demons are the main worry for magical youths and for the general populace, and they love to store themselves in technology - a great risk in the 21st century. Doctor Walden helps to prevent demonic incursions, and she maintains the two-century old mechanics that keep the School safe from the demonic realm that longs to feed off the magical energy the students generate.

My reasoning for removing stars, even though I liked much of the book, is that the description didn't really match with the novel itself. I felt it started off really strongly, but it seems the first act ends about a third of the way through, and then we spend about another 40% of the book with very little happening except being subjected to an absolutely awful love interest where the main character seems to throw all her self-assurances and self-respect out the window for no reason, and then it picks up again for the last 15% to come to a resolution. I don't think I would really call this dark academia or cozy.... Doctor Walden is just such a competent main character to follow that even when there are stressors or dangers everything remains fairly level. If anything, it's hard to see a description that "the entity Walden most needs to keep her school safe from - is herself" and then to have that exposure feel so lackluster for such a large chunk of the book. I would have loved to stay in an extended first third of this book, and to keep Kenning around longer, and to somehow get to that last 15% in other ways. It's not that the story lacks action per se, but it doesn't have any urgency and it's all resolved so quickly that the overall impact felt muffled.

Zara Ramm does an excellent narration and I enjoyed listening to her.

Audio review: Overall I liked the audio, I feel like the voice fit well with the main character and I could imagine Saffy sounding just like that, which always helps me get immersed. The American accent was a bit forced, but that was brief and the audiobook was otherwise enjoyable performance and good quality.

I've read pretty much every fantasy dark academia or academia adjacent fantasy book I can get my hands on, and I'm a huge Emily Tesh fan. Needless to say, this book was one of my most anticipated releases of 2025. I loved experiencing the magical school from the adult/professor perspective, especially the older I get, it is less enjoyable to read younger characters sometimes.

The Incandescent examines issues in education, has the action of demon incursions, slice-of-life teacher moments, I don't really come to Emily Tesh books for the romance, and this is no exception as I could have done without it.

Audio: 4/5

3.5⭐️

My favorite parts:
•A bisexual, 38 year old teacher working at a Magic boarding school and fighting demons
•Dark academia with a mystery
•A modern twist (demons love technology)
•A huge plot twist at the end that I absolutely never saw coming
•The narrator’s accent

My least favorite part:
•The middle of the book

I loved the first 30% or so and the last maybe 20% but the 50% in between that was kind of boring. I love magical academies because the kids are always up to something but from a teacher POV and all the administrative stuff - I was excited because it’s different but it really just dragged. I was also sad that our love interest was gone for that 50% in the middle.

However, the good parts were GOOD and intriguing and this book was overall different and fresh. If you love dark academia, definitely give this one a read!

Thank you so much to Macmillan Audio for the gifted copy!

DNF at 16%

This one had so much potential but it started to read like a diary into the management of a school and I was just so bored.

I did not enjoy this. I should have dnf'd it, but it had so many good reviews I had to know if it got better, but it did not. worse, it switched to second person pov near the end for a chapter and I HATED it. if you like character-driven stories, you might enjoy this, but there simply wasn't enough plot to keep me engaged and interested in what was happening. it felt almost like two different stories put back to back because the first section we dealt with the demon Old Faithful and the second section were dealing with what's going on to the school. the structure of it all didn't sit well with me.

Imagine a highschool where the lessons revolve around demons, how to summon them, how to deal with them, how to negotiate with them...

Now imagine the director of said school keeps inside the toughest of them all, which safeguards the school from other demons... or that's what everyone thinks.

Following dark academia life from the POV of an adult dealing with hormone powered students and annoying colleagues is the best way to do it.

Although blaming students for her hormones when you got a crush on the head of security with her tattoos and her bike isn't fair. And the conversation they have about how to deal with a relationship in your 30s and how sometimes your own peace is worth more than another attempt at dating was my favourite part of it.

Emily Tesh might know how to disappoint people, but I don't think we'll discover it with her books.

Despite some minor cultural differences of this book being set in the UK, I was still able to follow along and immerse myself into the world of this story. The plot and upcoming conflicts were pretty predictable from the beginning; however, I still enjoyed following along as they all unfolded in time. I also appreciated how several races, sexual orientations, etc. were represented by the characters and incorporated naturally into the storyline (instead of tokenizing them/making their identity based entirely off this). I also appreciated the moments of insight and consideration of the humanity of demons in the story instead of blindly accepting them to always be evil. I would recommend this book to someone who is interested in basic character development and has the patience to follow along with a slower-paced story.

Audio notes:

Was just given access to the full audio version of this, and again, crying that I didn't wait because the narrator is INCREDIBLE and I am sure I would have loved it even more on audio. If you are planning on reading to this and you like British narrators, LISTEN to it!

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Original Review:

4.5 stars, rounding up. Can confirm this is far superior to the Scholomance series and a standout in the "dark academia" genreas a whole. This book has some truly incredible characters and an ending that I absolutely didn't see coming. The only real critique i have of this is that the writing style is bit dense at times. Also, if you aren't familiar with the British education system, there will be parts where you'll need to do some googling...

The story as a whole is a reflective, slightly slice of life, character driven story that focuses on the day to day administrative duties of someone with way to many responsibilities and little to no social life. There's also demon summoning and a historic magical school.

This is a really unique novel in that the protagonist is 38, and is a fully well rounded and realized character. As someone who reads a lot of fantasy, this age is criminally underrepresented in favor of 18 year olds, and as a 30 something I found this so refreshing and unique. It's nice to read MC's who have a bit of life experience and aren't just running at every obstacle full blast while simultaneously monologing about their lover's eyelashes. Also, this may be the first time I've read a dark academia told from the point of view of the teacher, not the student!! I would love to read more books about this and I hope other authors are out there taking notes.

4.5 and would definitely read more from Emily Tesh.

The Incandescent, to me, read like a story where an Emily-Wilde-esque FMC was the director of a magical boarding school who, in this episode-long arc, is fighting against the demonic infestation of her school. Like Emily, Doctor Walden fervently studies magic, and wears her bookishness and accolades as a researcher as a badge of honor; she'd much rather abscond away into her rooms studying or grading papers on a Sunday night rather than have a night in town socializing. What I loved about the premise of this book was that it was a FMC in her 30s (38, in this case) in the fantasy genre (gasp! not a trembling virgin in her 18 - 22 y.o. range?!) and the concept of a magical school told from the perspective of the staff rather than as a student.

Positives
• I loved the concept of magical tattoos talking back to magic wielders. Made for a fun personality that added variety to the cast and conversations, keeping the dark academia setting from feeling overly dark

• I also appreciated the thought that Emily Tesh put into the various types of magic one could cast (like Doctor Walden can summon demons or Chief Marshall Kenning using more physical magic to enhance her fighting rather than setting up intricate spellwork like the academics)

• The author acknowledges the privilege that some students are born into vs. those who are less well off (for example, the Chetwood school costs I think 50 grand/yr, not tuition that's attainable for families in lower to middle socio-economic strata), at least at a surface level

• I actually liked the main love interest and thought it was a shame that she wasn't featured more in this story

Drawbacks
• If you're actually a fan of coy fantasy reads, then this is not a drawback for you, however maybe the cover might be misleading: this story is actually a lot cozier and mundane than the high-contrast majestic phoenix image on the cover may suggest. It's a slice-of-life story, with a significant amount of time going over the administrative duties following Doctor Walden, grading students, thinking up lesson plans, getting lost in the intricacies of some magical function, getting emotional over students' acceptance letters to XYZ colleges, etc. It felt like Walden put out school fires, like those pesky demonic incursions, as if they were perfectly normal things that could go awry--almost like she was a janitor who, yes would ideally never have to plunge a clogged toilet, but does indeed understand it as a inevitable accident that could occur--fix and move on, no need to fuss.
• Even though I am so down for a magical school story to be told from the newer perspective of the adults, I fear Tesh went a little too far on "the adults" side, and put all the important characters as the old folks. The students felt cardboard thin in development; a number of students were mentioned by name, and the only one that stuck out really was the star pupil, Nikki, and even she only had a mildly larger role in the scheme of the story--the others felt like they were interchangeable with each other and were just filler to make the world feel bigger around Walden.
• What I'd hope to see in the next book is more student involvement in resolving the conflict alongside the adults--or the results of the student's performance be more significant than whether or not the professor will feel proud that they'll get into a good college after.
• We needed more romance. I know, shocking, coming from me. I'm normally complaining that in things that are even remotely anywhere near "romtantasy" or fantasy that features romance, that lately the releases getting the most hype are all focusing way too much on the chase and thrill of "catching" a new love interest. But here in The Incandescence, I honestly feel like we could've used a little more of it. Walden was awfully resigned and detached when it came to her romantic relationships in this book--I get coming to terms with accepting that you are a 38 y.o. bookworm who doesn't date much and finds joy in getting lost in research and reading, but also she as so nonchalant and aloof about her sexual encounters or crushes, it made the romance feel a tad bit uninspiring.
• Sometimes Tesh go into over-explaining the magical systems to the point where it made the plot feel like it was stalling for too long. More elaborate explanations of how the in a fantasy world works if it feels like the payoff for learning it is worth it, but imo, since this was largely so full of banal and cozy day-to-day meanderings of an academic, it felt slightly bloated instead of ammo to a large, exciting payload.

Overall 3.5 ⭐️'s. If you're interested in a cozy magical school story about a bookish FMC in her 30s, told from the perspective of the staff rather than students, give this book a try.

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

4.25 stars. I had the ALC from MacMillan Audio for the Incandescent by Emily Tesh. The book is narrated by Zara Ramm. The narration on this book is excellent. This is a dark academia fantasy but instead of the focus being the teen-agers, the FMC, is Dr. Walden, called Saffy by her friends. Dr. Walden is the lead teacher of Invocation (demon summoning) at Chetwood School, a centuries-old boarding school in England, and one of the finest places to study magic before going off to university. There is humor and romance, Dr. Walden is bisexual, and finds herself attracted to Marshall Kenning, who is responsible for protecting the school from demons. Demons, as it turns out are attracted to technology. This story is set in our world but with magic and the magic is not hidden. I really loved both women although sadly Marshall Kenning is sidelined for middle part of the story. This is a standalone, but I really hope there is another book focused on these characters. Thank you to Net Galley and MacMillan Audio for my ALC. This book releases May 13, 2025.

Thank you to Emily Tesh, Netgalley and MacMillan Audio for the ALC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

You had me at sapphic + dark academia + fantasy. There was no way I wouldn’t have picked this book up with that description. I was really intrigued by the book description. I love academic settings and I thought that the perspective of the school director instead of a student was a really nice change after reading so many other “magic school” themed stories. The narration was well done, however, the story itself fell a bit flat for me. Had I not been listening to the audio and physically reading instead, I probably would have DNF’ed this. There were a few “action scenes” that were really interesting, but the rest of the book was very slow paced and lacked an element of tension or intrigue to drive the plot forward. The highlight/plot twist of this story is pretty much given away in the book description, so if you want to be surprised, don’t read that. Overall, this was just okay. If you absolutely love exclusively dark academia books, this might be for you. If you need higher stakes and tension in your stories, this will probably bore you. I rated this 3 stars for the narration, world-building, and unique perspective.

I loved this. I can't get enough of the trope where a book takes place in a modern workplace filled with drudgery--but also there's magic. In this case, demons. I also love having a middle-aged woman save the day in a fantasy novel. I thought both the teenagers and the middle-aged people were so realistically portrayed--middle-aged romance, too. It had humor and heart and beautiful writing and plenty of tension to keep me going. I got really absorbed in it and am honestly going to miss the world. Highly recommend!

This was a great audiobook. I loved the story told from a teachers POV. The reader did a nice job with the characters and I enjoyed the production. The story was so interesting and unique and although this was told in third person I felt very connected to the FMC. The magic system was unique and interesting. I look forward to more from Emily Tesh.

This was made to be an audiobook! The narrator did a great job, and I swear I was transported to the halls everytime I tuned in. I had my issues with the story, but the audio version was incredible.