The thing I like about Dark Academia books is that they toy the line between what is real and what is imagined due to obsession. You never know exactly where that line is, how much is in the mind of the character thanks to (frankly) unhealthy amounts of time focused on one idea.

That very much happens in A LESSON IN VENGEANCE. You are constantly being made to question whether there's really magic/the occult, whether there's a non-supernatural reason for it to really happen, or whether it's just in Felicity's head. Her doctor, teachers and mother think it's the later, and her classmates are a mix of in her head and rationality. But Felicity is firmly of the occult opinion, which balances it all out so you're never quite sure which it is.

Until the end, that is, when you're given an explanation. However, I felt there was still space for another option to be true - and you can pick which one you prefer. That flexibility really fit the overall feel of the book.

Part of that comes from hearing multiple versions of the same event - all from Felicity. It sets her up as an unreliable narrator, not because she's deliberately holding things back (a la a thriller where it will eventually be revealed that the MC did it, because information was held back), but because she has been through trauma and blocked and altered memories.

The uncertainty set up also allows a great space in which to explore mental illness. Felicity has been hospitalised before and, alongside her studies and everything that's happening, she has to deal with the reactions (and prejudices) of those around her to her history. Plus there's an exploration of her relationship with medication, and it was nice to see that without judgement of taking or not taking it, just finding out what worked for her.

In all, it was a highly enjoyable read and makes trying to get around to some of the other dark academia books on my list a higher priority.

Okay I liked this one, it was super interesting and the concept was well executed. Something was missing for me, I’m not sure what it was, but I didn’t connect with the characters like I wanted to.

Overall, a good book that I would recommend to people who like this genre.

I mostly enjoyed this story, I've seen a few reviews saying it started off well and then fell a bit flat but I found the opposite, it took a while to get into but hooked me more after the first half.
I think this story would have worked better as an adult tale, as it was hard to remember these girls were in school. Having said that, I liked The main character Felicity's journey through the grief of having lost her girlfriend and the struggles with mental health and stigma.
Also might be a different opinion but I personally liked the ending. I would recommend if YA sapphic dark academia is your thing! Thank you to NetGalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

This book is a great YA thriller but in my opinion it was slightly slow paced. Aside from that it had everything needed to make it a great book. Its witchy vibes and its crazy good representation within the book was phenomenal. The book was a little darker than expected but I loved it. The twist of the epilogue was the icing on the cake. I would definitely reread this book and encourage anyone else to read.

I actually really enjoyed A Lesson in Vengeance, I found it a little slow to get into at first but I found the second half really picked up the pace and upped the stakes.

A Lesson in Vengeance is a really great YA thriller packed with witchy vibes and a dose of psychological twists and turns. I felt like the topics of mental health and grief were handled well, and overall it was just really well written.

I loved reading about the Dalloway Five and how it ties in well with the story Lee writes. Felicity and Ellis are interesting characters and I liked reading about their dynamics and relationship.

This was my first book by Victoria Lee and I can't wait to delve into their other books. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher

This is a tough one to review. On the one hand, A Lesson in Vengeance ticked all my boxes but on the other, so many elements were just...either not needed or made the story somewhat flat. I never say no to dark academia and this did have some of the vibes but the execution at times lacked because it hid behind too flowery language instead of actual description. I also didn't eally mesh with all of the characters in here because they seemed to be there for everything to happen but didn't really have..a present part in it, if that makes sense? It felt like they were removed from everything that happened to them and thus I felt that disconnect.
Still, a good read and I'm definitely in the minority here!

This is such a beautifully crafted and hauntingly atmospheric book staring a lesbian main character who is coming back to finally finish her senior year at a very spooky boarding school. She is also living with an immense amount of grief, anxiousness, and psychotic depression.

Dalloway School is a very isolated school, and the house that Felicity is going to be sharing with four other girls is even more isolated from the rest of the campus. And even though there are beliefs of witchcraft all over the school, the Godwin House is where five young suspected witches lived before they were murdered 300 years ago.

The writing in this is so wildly fresh, and pleasing, and dare I even say the most aesthetic. The word choices and how each sentence is structured feels so very deliberate and it truly made the whole reading experience even better and even more haunting. Truly some of the best words and passages I've read in such a long while and it was truly a treat every single time I picked up this book, while I also seamlessly fell back into the story.

There is also a major theme and plot of literature and how these five girls are working on different theses. Felicity's thesis is about misogyny and the portrayal of women in horror literature. Where a new girl named Ellis is working on an entire book, trying to research these murders to help be inspired for her next award winning novel. And because their projects kind of go together (and because they are living in a really creepy house that five women lived before they were murdered) they decide to work together, and Ellis very much wants to prove to Felicity that magic is not real once and for all.

I really loved the constant bringing up of mental health in the past and how women who were not understood (even without mental health struggles) were so easily deemed witches and made them pay for it with their lives

Thank you for NetGalley and the Publisher for providing an e-arc in exchange for my honest review.


This book had everything I wanted in a book, and it also had everything I did not want in a book.
Representations that I crave, that are there and yet they are not, and somehow everything felt underdeveloped and forced. I will refrain from rating the book because I was able to finish it and because I do not want dump only negative comments on a writers work.

Characters included in the book for representations (apart from our main characters Felicity and Ellis) are there for just that, they don't really add to story. It should be dark academia, which got my attention, and yet it is barely scratching the surface of the genre. But one of my biggest issues was the blatant lack of magic. The underdeveloped romance, where after a brief acquaintance, our heroine Felicity already describes things as "very Ellis".

I really want to write something positive and that would be the writing style, which against all odds I very much enjoyed. Also the plot that kept the reader guessing.

I was a bit apprehensive going into this one because I struggle to get into fantasy, however I needn't have worried. This is more of a gothic romance with a mystery at its heart and frequent references to the supernatural. There are strong themes of darkness, mental health and obsession. And what better setting for those themes than a boarding school?

I think the author did a great job of fleshing out the characters in a way that was believable and yet shocking. The twists were jaw dropping. And I had no idea what was coming until it was right there on the page.

All in all, I thought this was a strong novel that will appeal to YA fans looking for a new dark academia book with a f/f romance. It's a little bit spooky as well which will make it a good choice for the autumn/wintery months.

Thanks to Netgalley, Hodder and Stoughton and Victoria Lee for an advanced copy of A Lesson in Vengence in exchange for an honest review.

Whilst I like Dark Academia, I wasn't the biggest fan of this one. It was a quick read, but not something I would go back and re-read. I felt like there were too many unanswered questions for me, and the twists were a little bit too predictable.

Thank you to NetGalley and Titan Books for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I don't read thrillers very often, but the sapphic dark academia vibes of this book were enough to make me make an exception, and I have zero regrets.

This book had me in an absolute chokehold the entire time I was reading it - I was truly eating out of the palm of Victoria Lee's hand. The setting was so vividly real and atmospheric. I felt completely immersed in the Dalloway School, and especially in the witchy Godwin House. This is dark academia done so very well

Felicity was a fantastic main character and narrator. Her grief and mental health meant that when she didn't know what was real, I wasn't sure either, and I really liked this - it can be hard to get an unreliable narrator right, and I've read some bad ones in the past, but this was superb. Ellis was a complex and confusing character with a character arc that got me hook, line and sinker. She was, at different times, very easy to love and very easy to hate, which I feel is a hallmark of a very developed character. I also really liked the other Godwin girls

The plot didn't go how I was expecting in any way, and I didn't expect this book to get as dark as I did, but I absolutely loved it. I really enjoyed how Felicity and Alex's backstory was told through her fragmented memory - it felt to me an accurate depiction of trauma and associated memory loss. And I couldn't write this review without mentioning that twisted epilogue; I reread it about three times to make sure my eyes weren't deceiving me

This book was fantastic and I really enjoyed it! I have already recommended it to some friends

A Lesson In Vengeance is a queer dark academia novel.

Although I enjoyed reading this, I felt as though the story was quite predictable at times, but there was a few twists, although I felt like I kept waiting for more to happen.

I was disappointed that we never really got to find out more about the Dallowah 5, the historical aspect had me really intrigued and I was let down that I never got that want fulfilled when reading.

One of my main things I struggled with was that there was a character who very clearly had an eating disordered and it was never really addressed? It was ignored by her friends and I just felt quite uncomfortable with that.

There is also some animal death, which I was prepared for.

Although there was some issues I had with ALiV, I still enjoyed reading it and I’d recommend it to people who enjoy dark academia, I just wish it was a little different and I think I set my expectations a little too high.

I think I'll take this book as a sign not to drool over each book that says DARK ACADEMIA in it's blurb.

But I do love dark academia, I jus didn't click in any way with this book.
I have to mention that I've read 50% of this book, which is to say I've read enough to build a judgement but what I've read didn't feel enough to keep me going for the next 50%.

This is a book about an exclusive school, a school that is haunted with its past. So we may expect some privilege here, and justly so. But the characterization crossed the border of privilege to being simply pretentious. It was so annoying from the beginning that I couldn't shake off the irritation I felt throughout.

The storyline has a gothic feel, but it tries way too hard at being edgy. I couldn't reconcile the language with the characters being technically teenagers, even if one character is a bestselling author at 17. It would have been more appropriate, in my opinion, if this was some sort of an exclusive grad school.

The first half of the story, which is the part I read, practically NOTHING HAPPENS. Absolutely nothing. I understand this is he case when we have a large set of characters, or a phantasmagorical world to build for example. But this is basically about two girls. Some side characters peek their heads through every now and then, but that's all. Other than Felicity and Ellis, we have nobody. And I didn't care for either.

As far as representation goes, we know that this is a Sapphic story from the blurb, but that doesn't justify all the pining.

This was so poorly paced that I really struggled to plough on with the reading. I'm already late on my other reviews and this book was definitely a culprit.

Dark academia is a genre I have fallen for in the past year, inspired by the unparalleled 'Ace of Spades', meaning I have been excited about reading Victoria Lee's 'A Lesson in Vengeance' for months. The premise sounds captivating - we have Felicity Morrow who has recently returned to boarding school following the death of her girlfriend and struggling to cope with the mental ramifications of this. She is joined at school by young author Ellis who draws Felicity back into a world of magic, witchcraft and twisted games. The most interesting plotline is about a previous coven who met horrific deaths which were never solved which Ellis wants to investigate in order to inspire her next book. So, yes, a solid set up.

Lee builds an incredibly foreboding atmosphere throughout the story. The hilly expanse of the school and the lacklustre supervision from all adults leave the girls of Godwin House leeway to run wild. Despite this being ripe with narrative potential, the storyline moves at a glacial pace with each coven meeting, party and night time poetry reading blurring into the next. The murder of the Dalloway five is also intriguing, but never explored in much depth and seemingly forgotten about halfway through the novel. I thought we would get some revelations about these deaths, digging into the constant question of whether magic is real or in Felicity's head, but is left by the wayside in place of Ellis' desire to research for her book in a more realistic capacity.

By the end, lots of readers will be stunned and excited by the twists which occur. Despite there being a couple of shocking events, I felt quite unmoved about them by that point and happy to leave Felicity and Dalloway School behind. Lee's writing is gorgeous and so this experience has certainly not put me off reading some of her work in the future. 3 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher who provided an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This will absolutely be so many people's favorite book of the year. I can see the appeal. I, however, just didn't like it and ended up skimming the last 40%. I think I've finally realized that Dark Academia just isn't for me. In theory, it sounds super interesting and intriguing but every dark academia book I've tried has been a letdown for me.

This is sapphic, mysterious, and well written but I couldn't connect to the plot or characters at all, and honestly, I was getting very fed up with a lot of the things that kept happening. I disliked pretty much all of the characters we met, which obviously did not improve my enjoyment of the book. Also, I was not at all enamored with the ending.

I wanted to like this so badly but this just didn't click with me at all.

The story follow Felicity, the daughter of a wealthy socialite, heading back to reprise her final year at an exclusive girls’ school in New England, full of intellectualism and weighed down by legends of witchcraft and murder among its early alumnae, after the death on campus of her best friend the previous academic year. Felicity grapples with her memories of the past year, the emotional legacy of her friend’s death, the perceptions others have of her because of the circumstances, and her relationship with the occult, and the school’s history of witchcraft.

I had, from the blurb, expected this one to be a light book but it’s really not. It’s heavily interested in Felicity’s trauma and wavering mental health – she has returned to school ostensibly to face up to her demons, thinking that a return to the site would help give her closure – and it is quite willing to really lay that bare. At points, it is brutal, and while I personally think that brutality served the narrative very well, especially in light of the ending, I think it walks close to the line, and would likely be a difficult book to read for some.

Beyond that return, we to some extent depart from a strict driving story narrative… it’s simply the story of “what happened then”, and details and plot drivers slowly, organically emerge from a very character-relationship-driven beginning. The early part cares a lot about atmosphere, about conjuring a feel of the culture of a place, of a group of people very invested in their own little cultural bubble, and so it takes a while for plot, in a more events-driven sense, to really get going. And that felt a little tedious at times. But I realised, when I was about 75% through, that it had stopped feeling tedious, and I’d never really noticed when. The change is subtle but definitely there – certainly unlike A Deadly Education where the shift is like a switch being clicked over – and it’s interesting to reflect on the early part of the story in light of my feelings at the end.

Once you have a plot, though, it’s a strong one, and I think the atmosphere-building at the start does ultimately pay off. Whether it’s worth the time and tedium spent with it, I’m less sure, but it’s certainly possible to see at the end what the intention was, and the effect it has on the narrative as a whole.

What I do think Lee does particularly well is her vivid descriptions of the school and the girls in it. I have strong, visual memories of the characters, how they dress, their mannerisms, and the space they occupy, as well as the woods and the world around them. It’s absolutely leaning into dark academia, and I have to admit I like the aesthetic. I enjoyed reading something full of people in thick knitwear and tweed being artlessly glamorous in a shabby but expensive old house, reading old books and drinking tea and whiskey. It’s unashamedly itself, and happy to be so.

As that stretches over to people – particularly the main character – is where it gets a bit tricky. On the one hand, this is a book where you’re deeply inside the head of a shamelessly pretentious, self-absorbed, frankly insufferable teenage girl convinced of her literary and intellectual greatness, for the most part. And because the narrative is so embedded in her worldview, the narrative voice itself is inextricably linked with that pretentiousness, that insufferable self-regard. In a book that is much given over to literary concerns, it becomes… a lot. However… I was once an insufferable teenage girl, probably just as convinced of my own superiority, and I can see an amount of accuracy in how she’s portrayed. I don’t like that past me is being Seen by this, but I really am. I mean, frankly, past me is being absolutely bodied by the portrayal of Felicity. But I know that being seen by it that way, feeling so utterly called out… it’s hitting the mark by doing it.

Whether the latter balances out the former… is somewhat still undecided for me. By the time I got to the end of the book, the vibe I was getting was a self-knowing one, slightly ironic, and possibly eye-rolling a former self the author knew just as much as I know mine. There is definitely a slowly increasing sensation that, perhaps, the narrative wants to puncture Felicity’s ego and perception of the world, her relationship with literature and scholarship and with the people around her. And in the moments when I settle on this thread, when I think there’s an irony to it all, I appreciate the book for that, and consider it a clever, subtle character assassination of all the people who were like that at 18 (and frankly, a lot of us needed that, though we’d not have heard it at the time). But then sometimes I seesaw over to the other side, and wonder if the book really is convinced of some of its pre-occupation with a certain period, a certain type of literature, just an aesthetic without substance, and the superiority of the sort of person who is deeply invested in that literature, and the only thing being assassinated is Felicity’s own privilege and perspective, not that perspective in a wider sense. And then I think it’s not so good after all.

The latter view predominated for me in the early part of the book, and I leaned more to the former toward the end. If I had to decide, I would hope it is that knowing and that self-mocking. I enjoyed reading it that way. But it’s no sure thing. And I strongly suspect that reading this as someone who wasn’t that sort of teen, or didn’t know (and like) someone who was, would just be a slow and awful torture, and would leave you concluding it was entirely up its own arse. Which… well… it is. And it knows it. But there might be that sly little bit of mockery to flip it over into being worthwhile.

In the end, I gave it 3 stars, but a very mixed 3 – there are some genuinely well done parts, and if I have to be honest, I enjoyed it 4 stars, but think it’s 3 stars good. I’d be interested to know what someone else thought of it though.

A fun and interesting addition to the genre of dark academia novels currently being published, I enjoyed the dark mystery element to the novel and the twisted relationship between the two main characters, I do think some of the dark academia references where a little too heavy handed at times, it was trying very hard with all the references and the characters didn't really feel high school aged to me and maybe would have been more suited to being university aged instead. Overall, a fun read that I managed to read in one sitting.

A Lesson In Vengeance is a slow-paced, dark academia for people who love goth vibes and unhinged sapphic nerds.

Dalloway School stands isolated in the Catskill mountains, a centuries-old, ivy-covered school for the elite. Godwin House is the most selective dormitory, rumoured to be haunted by five witches who died on campus in terrible, strange ways. Felicity Morrow returns to Dalloway after a tragic event the year before where her best friend, and girlfriend, died. She’s determined to leave her past behind her, but when she meets Ellis Haley, an eccentric writer she’s immediately drawn to, she’s pulled back into the occult school history.

The writing style is so gorgeously gothic and broody, filled with rich descriptions and atmospheric moodiness. If you love books with strong vibes, this is a fantastic pick. A Lesson In Vengeance features an unreliable narrator struggling with psychotic depression, something the author has lived experience with. This gave the book a level of authenticity often missing from stories featuring characters with mental health problems. The main criticism of this book lies with the side characters. They should have been better developed, especially the characters of colour who feel very flat. One discusses with Felicity the history of racism at Dalloway School, but this is an offhanded mention making it seem performative. Felicity and Ellis are fantastic morally grey characters, so it would have been good to see the side characters get the depth Victoria Lee is capable of. The sapphic relationship in this book is messy, obsessive, and toxic, and yet, so compelling. Sapphics deserve an unhinged, tragic, gothic romance, and Victoria Lee is here to deliver. A Lesson In Vengeance is an entertaining read that people who love slow-paced, gothic books should pick up.

I went into this book not sure what to expect but was pulled in with a synopsis of old crumbling boarding school houses and a history of witchcraft.

With how popular themes of dark academia have become in popular culture, especially that of social media, this definitely read like the author's love letter to the aesthetic. Which I think is helpful to know going into the book.

Typical of the sub genre we have characters that are all quite morally grey. On the scale from just unreliable narrator to reprehensible human beings. Which makes them all quite interesting to read about.

Books that centre on the dark academic mindset tend to feel like a fever dream to me, maybe it's the atmosphere or setting or both.
I really loved the descriptions of the old houses and buildings that makes up this school, the cliquey bitcheyness that only girls schools can seem to manage so well.

I think the reader will generally be aware of a lot of the plot twists even the main character seems to take an age to realise. But because we're on the outside watching her mentally spiral it isn't as clear to her.
There's also a feeling of never entirely knowing what really happened, as we know the main character lies, is mentally trying to block out memories and is neglecting medication. So reality to her is somewhat removed from actuality.

I have to say it was really quite fun to read from the POV of a villainous character. But then many of the characters had far from moral intentions. It was like two villains playing head games.

As it still is in the YA age bracket it didn't stray into too dark territory so I'd recommend to anyone who enjoys the sub genre as well as some cosy mystery aspects.

A Lesson in Vengeance has been on my wish list, an anticipated read for a while now. I am a huge fan of dark academia and the whole aesthetic. This book specifically is a wonderful sapphic dark academia that is a fantastic story from the author, I feel it is cleverly written and compelling.

This book did not disappoint. I loved the constant undercurrent feelings of grief and guilt, which added to the gothic vibes perfectly, and made the main character relatable. It follows Felicity Morrow, a young woman who returns to her boarding school after being away due to a horrific accident that left her girlfriend dead. Felicity finds herself plagued by guilt and haunted by the ghost of Alex, her ex girlfriend and the five witches that died under suspicious circumstances. I enjoyed how the novel led you to question whether what Felicity was experiencing was a result of her mental health or a more darker situation.

If you’re a fan of twisty dark academia, LGBTQ+ rep and mental health representation in your stories then I would definitely recommend this to you.

- Dark academia
- LGBTQ rep
- Mental health rep

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️