This was my first read of Victoria Lee, her writing is very atmospheric, the setting of historical Godwin House on Dalloway campus was beautiful and haunting. Unfortunately my love for this novel all but ended there.

Enter pretentious teens, behaving above their station with excessive freedom from supervision and no concern of consequences- as often is the case in YA stories.

A Lesson In Vengeance is a very slow burn. There are secrets from the off, of course, but they aren't difficult to unravel and the main character's refusal to see what was brewing under her nose did nothing but continuously irritate me.

Told from the perspective of Felicity, returning to repeat senior year after the mysterious death of her best friend.
Felicity and the four students residing at Godwin House are all wealthy, spoiled 'literature enthusiasts', supposedly elite for their esteemed residential status yet seemingly ostracised from the remaining school save for one wheedling limpet Hannah who appears for the sake of plot advancement.

Felicity is our unreliable narrator. Having returned from institutionalisation to the very place her girlfriend died (!?), medicated, confused and fighting against her own imagination, she finds herself entwined with Ellis, an unlikeable teenaged author prodigy.

But Ellis won't let the past lie and certainly won't let anything stand in the way of penning her next novel.

A Lesson In Vengeance is a mostly character driven, lesbian romance with just enough spooky witchy fantasy to pull a plot together.
Whilst the relationships between Lee's characters were very well developed and the writing faultless, unfortunately the plot was predictable and my interest never truly piqued.

However, I can see this appealing to a lot of readers I know so I'm quite sure this is personal taste as opposed to poor quality.

Read if you enjoyed The Furies by Katie Lowe or The Girls by Emma Cline.

So...where to start with this book.

When I first started reading, I was hooked. I liked the mystery, the scenery. Because Felicity is clearly an unreliable narrator, I didn't know what to believe.

However, the further I got into the book, the more disappointed I became.

I couldn't understand why Felicity and Ellis got together. To me, they had no chemistry. It was like Felicity said 'oh fine, might as well'.

I also expected magic to play a bigger role, and for me to feel more frightened. I was disappointed on both counts there.

I have to give this book 3 stars because it had promise and was very easy to read and get through. Sadly, the plot didn't deliver and the decisions made didn't make sense. I wanted better twists at the end.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely loved this! Filled with dark academia vibes and is a somewhat a successor to The Secret History. I really enjoyed everything about this, the story, the writing and all the characters. I only wish it was longer!

I had »A Lesson in Vengeance« on my radar for a while now, because doesn't witches and a sapphic main character and a boarding school setting with dark academia vibes sound like the best thing ever?
I think it sounds perfect, honestly.
Which is why I was a bit hesitant to pick it up. My expectations were high, like. Really high.

But I shouldn't have worried because »A Lesson in Vengeance« was maybe not everything I hoped it would be - but that's never the case when you are really excited about a book and have these images in your mind, what it's going to be like. It's just never what you think it will be, never, and that's fine - but I had such a good time reading it. Especially the ending. Oh boy, the ending was... something.

I think one of the reasons why I instantly liked this book was that the setting - Dalloway, it's a boarding school that seems to let its students extremely specialize in some topics like science or literature? - reminded me a bit of the Ellingham Academy in Truly Devious. It felt secluded from the outside world as if it was in the middle of nowhere.
Felicity and four other girls live in a house together, and even though there is a housemistress, she's not very present and the girls had had a lot of room to do whatever they wanted. They all were very interested in literature, and even though most of the authors or works they mentioned I didn't know, it definitely set the vibe. Very academic setting, I loved it.

And I loved the characters for how dark they sometimes were. »A Lesson in Vengeance« is told from Felicity's POV and she's such an unreliable narrator - I never knew if I could trust what she was saying/seeing and that made for a great reading experience. And she just was a bit weird but in a good way. I definitely liked her.
Ellis, on the other hand, was a bit weird as well and I also didn't know if I could trust her but she was also very very different from Felicity. They were an interesting couple to read about, even though the romance was more of a subplot. They were just interesting characters overall.

The ending, as I already said, wasn't necessarily shocking to me, but it did give me chills. I was so anxious while reading the last few chapters, and I don't want to spoil anything, so I'll just say that I really liked the ending. I just wished it would have dragged on a bit longer? The book lost a bit of focus in the middle for me and then the ending felt a bit rushed. For me, the book could have been around 50 pages longer and I would have been even happier with the ending.

So, in conclusion: would absolutely recommend this, I think it was a lot of fun to read about Felicity and Ellis and the setting was just very cool and in a lot of ways, this was exactly what I wanted.

"Just girls. Just clever, bright young women. Too clever and bright for their time."

A lesson in vengeance is a true dark academia, pushing the lines of Young Adult fiction and not shying away from some twisty and consuming topics. Whilst I very much appreciated it with my reading tastes, I do think this may not be suitable for younger YA audiences are there are some scenes that they may find upsetting.

Similarly, I wish the author had aged up the characters a little because I didn't find it very believable and at the beginning of the novel I did find myself taken out of the story multiple times trying to figure out their actual ages. There were a few occasions where the logic didn't quite add up.

That being said the atmosphere and dark themes were really rich and vivid and twisty in the best way. I was shocked and there was a strong sense of unease and suspense that increased throughout.

I would say that this book has a medium pace, however I do think the second half speeds up considerably with some of the events. I did think it was well plotted also, however I did suspect some of the plot points.

Overall I would recommend for those who enjoy dark academia but definitely check trigger warnings as the way mental health issues are portrayed could be triggering or disturbing. It is cleverly done and not without importance but it is definitely dark.

Rated 3.5 Stars

3.5 Stars

As soon as I read the blurb for this book, I was immediately intrigued by the premise. I don’t read a huge amount of dark academia, but I'd like to! As I started reading I really enjoyed the first few chapters; I was intrigued about what was going on, and quickly realised that our protagonist, Felicity, was a very unreliable narrator.

Sadly it went downhill from the first quarter of the book, and I was quickly left confused about what kind of story this was meant to be, at first I thought it was a paranormal thriller, but then it all got so cluttered and confusing that I didn’t really know what direction the book was going in at all. Because of how unreliable of a narrator Felicity was, big chunks of information were withheld from us as readers, and then it felt jarring when they were just casually dropped into the story at seemingly random times. I think if the story had stuck to ghosts of dead witches it would have been much better than what it ended up being. I guessed lots of the plot twists very early on, and was then frustrated by how slow Felicity was to understand what was going on around her. Also, where were the adults in this story? I went to a boarding school myself, and I can assure you that we weren’t holding wild parties, sneaking out at all hours, and smoking and drinking in the common room.

The characters themselves I found a mixed bag. I found Felicity a bit wishy-washy, but I liked the girls she shared a house with much more, and enjoyed seeing her interact with them. I disliked Ellis from the start and found her unbearably pretentious. There was actually a lot of the book that I found eye-rollingly ridiculous. A bunch of teenage girls not having phones, writing essays on type-writers, referencing writers that I'd never heard of, wearing silly outfits… I'm not sure if these are just hallmarks of the dark academia trope and I'm too basic to understand them, but I found it nauseating how up-themselves everyone was in the story.
One of the saving graces of the book was the ending, which I thoroughly enjoyed. The last 15% or so of the story finally picked up, after chapters and chapters of Felicity ignoring obvious signs, and having repeated mental breakdowns. But even though I enjoyed the final couple of twists, it felt very fragmented and almost like it had come from a totally different book to the one I'd just read.

Overall, it wasn’t a bad book by any means. I think I've been so critical here because I was expecting much more from it and expecting to love it. I think all the pieces were there for a great story, but they weren’t put together correctly and were bogged down by unnecessary plot-lines. If the story had stuck with a boarding school haunted by witches, and Felicity learning to cope with the death of her girlfriend, I would have enjoyed it much more. I also think it was a mistake to have the book set in the modern day. I went into it expecting it to have been set at some point in the past, but then was taken aback when mobile phones were mentioned. This would also have negated some of my feelings around the pretentiousness of writing on typewriters and wearing predominantly tweed.
Maybe if you're a big fan of dark academia you'll enjoy this book more, but for me it just missed the mark slightly, although it did contain some fun plot twists and spooky scenes.

I received an eARC from NetGalley in return for my honest review.

I read through this book pretty quickly but found myself skimming or skipping paragraphs quite often. The premise of the book immediately grabbed my attention, as someone who finds the concept of Dark Academia interesting I was looking forward to reading a book that fell into the DA label that had openly queer characters. However, the pacing of the book and the 'relationship' that the main character has with the other students slowly shifted my opinion of A Lesson in Vengeance. I feel like the best way to describe the plot would be that it is cluttered, there are quite a few things going on at once and on top of those, the main characters past is brought up throughout but without enough information to successfully allow her past to add mystery to the book.

Also, as much as I find it important for fiction about and aimed at teen/ young adults to address mental health issues such as eating disorders in this book the character who struggles with an ED is mentioned very briefly and then cast aside, not really creating any conversation around the topic. Similarly so are any characters who bring any sort of diversity outwith LGBTQ+, these characters are not fleshed out in the slightest and solely exist to further the twisted dynamic of the main two characters.

Overall, I would probably recommend this book to people based solely on the fact that I feel it had potential and I would be intrigued to find out others opinions on it.

Thank you to Net Galley and Titan Books for the advance copy of A Lesson in Vengeance.

A Lesson in Vengeance is the dark academia style, sweepingly sapphic novel that the blurb promises. Filled with studious wealthy girls in box pleat skirts who join cults and drink whisky casually but unenjoyably, the atmosphere and imagery are there. From this perspective, if you're in for the aesthetic, you'll be pleased with what you find - tarot, crystals, enchantments and spells, with a dash of a murder case or two. The magical is made real at Godwin House, both past and present, for which main character Felicity Morrow must deal with the consequences.

However, I felt this story somewhat lacked the drama I was looking for. Is this because they are school girls who seem to get away with absolutely everything far too easily? A little. Perhaps because anything significant was left in the unsaid? Certainly. But in the author's note, Lee talks about how this story started as fragments that were later pulled together into the narrative as a whole; to me, I think this was where my jarred reading came in - everything felt a little too fragmented.

There are some pros to this: Felicity becomes an unreliable narrator, time speeds up where necessary, and atmosphere is heightened by what is cloaked in shadow. Yet the cons felt more akin to my reading experience with a lack of good character growth, a flicking through time that didn't develop the storyline in a particularly meaningful way, and strangely connected friendships that didn't have enough page time to feel real. A lot of the time I felt like I was reading at a distance, watching the events play out but quite easily spotting how Felicity was being played. The whole read can be summed up in 'Okay, that's cool, but when is the magical action going to kick off?' - I wanted more occult intrigue, more on how the original girls of the Dalloway house died, and more unsettling spooks. Felicity reads so many of these classic horror novels that play on this trope, but I feel Lee didn't quite hit The Haunting of Hill House vibes she was going for. Although I did enjoy all of the literary references!

Despite disliking Ellis the whole way through and being very confused by her apparent appeal, the ending was worth the wait and I was really into the last few chapters where the pace and stakes picked up. I think if the whole novel had been a bit tighter, it might have been more up my alley. However, for those that enjoy gothic quiet moments, murder mysteries and unreliable narrators, I think there's a good book here for you.

Awesome read!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the chance to read a digital arc in exchange for my feedback.

Dark academia, gothic elements, witchy mysteries AND lesbians? How could I not be excited to read Victoria Lee's new book "A Lesson in Vengeance", even though I admittedly didn't know a thing about the author before? The blurb promised a perfect reading experience for a cozy dark winter afternoon, and in parts I did get what I expected.

The story started out really strong, hooking me immediately with the premise of our protagonist Felicity returning to Dalloway, the prestigious school she left for a while after her girlfriend Alex died in an accident. A school that is also known for its gruesome history: Five alleged witches, the Dalloway Five, lived and died here centuries ago. The whole history of these witches that might or might not haunt our protagonist and caused her beloved's death, is really intriguing and set up very well. I wanted to know what was going on, I wanted to delve in and figure out the mystery. I was just as intrigued by Felicity as a character and (highly unreliable, as it turns out) narrator, as well as the new girl she slowly befriends and develops feelings for, literary prodigy Ellis. The writing is beautiful as well and perfectly fits the eerie setting.

After an exciting beginning, the story started to drag a little, though. Critical information is withheld from the readers for such an unnecessary long time that it became frustrating, and while there are lots of nice moments (especially bonding moments between Felicity and the rest of the girls), the development of the actual mystery seems to just stagnate for a long time. There are only so many slightly creepy but in the end not really scary moments, only so many mental breakdowns of our protagonist, only so many literature references for the sake of characters sounding really educated that you can endure without getting just that little bit bored by it all.
The story, in general, could have been darker in nature, too. It's actually pretty tame compared to similar stories. Add to that some decisions that made me seriously question whether Felicity is not just a giant dumbdumb after all and some ultimately unnecessary characters thrown into the mix (what was the point of Quinn's appearance other than adding a revelation moment that could have easily worked without them? What even is Hannah supposed to stand for?) and the book became more of a frustrating read at times. Especially because it REEKS of potential to be more. There are some twists that you can't possibly see coming (which is, in itself, not always a good thing - twists should make sense within the story, after all), and the Main Twist is honestly very very predictable and a lot of readers will see it coming very early on, which lead to me actively wishing that Lee would just not do what I thought she'd do. She did, though. The ending was amazing though! The final about 15% of the book picked up the pace and were exciting to read.

All in all, a solid 3 star novel with some flaws that dampened my enjoyment, but I'm sure it'll have many fans.

Yesterday at work a customer asked me for dark academia recommendations. After my thrilled spiel of 'you've come to the perfect person, I did my dissertation on The Secret History' I showed her my usual suspects of M. L. Rio's If We Were Villains and Maureen Johnson's Truly Devious series, she mentioned that she particularly enjoyed the complex relationships between characters and it was at this point that the thought crossed my mind to recommend A Lesson In Vengeance.

The character relationships, particularly their integrity and motivations were what stood out to me as particularly strong. Felicity and Ellis were engaging to read about together and the uncomfortable situation of not being able to keep away from someone you know may not be best for you was presenting intriguingly.

Where I wanted more from this novel was some of the earlier scenes, a lot of the first third of the novel didn't do much for me at all, and in contrast the majority of my enjoyment was in the last third when the pages really began to turn themselves. All of the themes and motifs of the dark academic vibe were present but they didn't appear to subsitute a plot for the beginning of the book.

I would recommend this book overall and am begging the world for more sapphic dark academia.

I kindly received an advanced copy of this e-book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I ADORE dark academia and this did not disappoint. It started off as a slow burner but then increased in pace as the tension increased. It was gothic and atmospheric and had lots of dark imagery within it. The wriitng was good, the charcaters were good and I really liked the storyline with the classic murder mystery that seems to be a staple of dark academia books. I really enjoyed it and I love the front cover too.

A Lesson in Vengeance is a dark academia thriller set in Godwin House, a house in a boarding school haunted by the death of Felicity's ex-girlfriend Alex, as well as the Dalloway Five - five witches who died in ritual sacrifice decades ago. Felicity returns to Godwin House and is met by Ellis, an eccentric writer who draws her back into the world of the occult.

--- Have you ever loved and hated a book at the same time? That's how I felt about this book.

It begins with a tale of witchcraft and spells, with a compelling dark academia atmosphere (although at times it became too much, with the glorification of smoking and underage drinking, the rejection of modern technology despite a modern setting etc), but the horrifying realisation of a much more sinister plot then sets it. The readers are forced to follow the path of Felicity, working our way through hazy memories, terrifying nightmares, and a murder plot. The unreliable narrator, the plot on horror stories and mental illness in females, and the toxic dynamic between Ellis and Felicity created an unsettling and horrifying atmosphere. I found the concepts of studying witchcraft as a way of demonising women with mental illnesses fascinating, and would have loved to see that side of it explored further!

The book begins with a frustratingly slow pace, as the plotline doesn't come into fruition until about 75% of the way through the book. It quickly changes course from a witchy ghost story into a muder mystery and a haunting tale of female romance, psycopathy and murder. Whilst it was not where I expected the story to go, given its blurb and marketing, I was nonetheless instantly drawn in.

I have so many unanswered questions, and I suppose that's what makes this book so fascinating yet also so frustrating! - was Ellis a psychopath? Did Felicity truly regret her first kill? Did the trauma from the following events lead Felicity to crave murder at the end of the book? Will she kill her next girlfriend? Did we ever get to the truth, or was the whole book a twisted perspective?

Ultimately, whilst not perfect, this book truly got inside my head, which I think is the sign of a great story. It made me think, it made me question, and it made me want more! It felt like a character study of Felicity, as the more I read, the more I recognised the unreliability of her words, and the more I became unsettled by her version of the events, trying to piece together which parts were real and which were made up.

(Thank you to Titan Books and NetGalley for providing this arc in exchange for an honest review)

So this book is the epitome of Dark Academia. If you're into the aesthetic you will for sure get all the gloriously eerie vibes the cover promises out of it!

This twisty psychological thriller takes you to a creepy old all-girls boarding school in the mountains, surrounded by forests. It is said to have a history with the occult. Witchcraft is secretly being practiced there and there are rumors of hauntings by the spirits of five students who have died on the school's grounds under mysterious circumstances long ago.
Felicity returns there after the death of her girlfriend and meets prodigy writer Ellis with whom she works together to unravel the mysteries of the unsolved deaths of the past, trying to find out if the supernatural really exists.

It's a chilly, complex story that gets more ominous as it progresses and lives from the uncertainty and constant questioning if magic is real or not.
I felt like losing my sanity myself with the suspense of trying to figure out what is reality and what's only happening in the unreliable narrator's head and which of the morally-grey characters to trust.
I loved the diverse representation (lesbian main characters, nonbinary and POC side characters) the way it delved into darker topics like psychotic depression.

It's rather slower paced and took me a while to get into it, but I overall enjoyed the book for its moody atmosphere and setting.
Unfortunately, I felt that it got a bit predictable towards the end.
Also at times the book seemed too full of itself and pretentious, which generally Dark Academia often tends to do of course, but I was missing a deeper connection to any of the characters that could have kept me more invested.
Nonetheless, I think it makes for a great read for fans of Donna Tartt and lovers of the genre in general.

3.75 stars (rounded up to 4)

A Lesson in Vengeance has been one of my most anticipated releases. It sounds perfect too; lesbian witches in a dark academia setting?? there's a murder too?? it sounds like everything I want in a book, and in some ways it was. Victoria Lee's writing is atmospheric and vivid, and the way they describe Dalloway and its surroundings is incredible and just pulls you right into the story. You can understand why this is a dark academia book completely. On the writing and the descriptions alone, I think this would have been a favorite. But there are some issues with this that made me knock off a few stars. The book had an very slow start and I felt Lee spent a lot of time building on the atmosphere rather than the plot and characters. While yes, I loved the characters and how they were all introduced, but somehow I just found them hard to connect too.

I also feel that this book kind of shifted plots a little; like it was a spooky dark academia book about witches at first and it somehow became a murder mystery? But I did enjoy this for the most part and it was a pretty fun book to read, late at night, in the cold winter.

Overall, I think my expectations for this were a little too high, but others might enjoy this more than I did.

3.5 stars

A Lesson in Vengeance follows Felicity who is returning to Dalloway School, an elite boarding school, the year after her girlfriend died there under mysterious and malevolent circumstances. The school has the legend of the Dalloway Five, girls thought to be witches who all died centuries ago in ritualistic killings and Felicity is haunted by both her own past and the legends of Dalloway school. When Felicity returns she meets Ellis, a writing prodigy who is keen to explore the legend of the Five in order to help her write her next book thrusting both girls into a world of magic, murder and vengeance.

I have quite mixed feelings on this book, some elements I really liked including the horror elements which I thought were really well written. I loved Alex and her whole storyline and how Felicity reatced and managed her grief, as well as the ghost elements and Felicity being haunted by the past. (Additionally I way preferred Alex and Felicity's relationship over Felicity and Ellis, I thought the chemistry and care was so much more belivable.) I also really like the mystery/history of the dalloway five - honestly they deserve their own book.

However other parts really annoyed me; in particular Ellis - imo the book would have been so much better if her entire storyline had just been cut and just focused on Felicity returning to the school and dealing with her haunted past and the legacy of the Dalloway girls. Additionally the irony of both the mental health conversations and dark academia vibes really frustated me. The main characters talk about one of the societies not caring about actually doing something and just doing it for the aesthetic but the whole book feels like one big dark academia aesthetic rather than feeling authentic - the characters are super pretentious and read like they were in the 18th century when the book took place in modern times (which I also think was a bit of a mistake - this is not the first time I have been burned thinking a sapphic DA was set in historical boarding school only for it to turn out to be modern). Also the Felicity is doing a project on mental illness and unreliable narrators in horror (and I assume on the fact that this is problematic) but then Felicity herself is an unreliable narrator because she has stopped taking her medication??? I don't know if this was a delibrate choice or not but it made me uneasy.

I also felt like this book was limited by the fact it was YA, the characters are constantly smoking and drinking (which don't get me started on characters smoking in YA and romanticising it, I would never shame anyone for smoking but please please authors do not make it seem 'cool' - when you have seen patients unable to complete a sentence without getting breathless from COPD due to lifelong smoking I cannot in good conscious support anything that makes smoking seem okay without any mention of the consequences) also the horror elements could have been leaned into a bit more if it had been adult! And I think morally grey/evil characters are much more suited to adult ficition - not saying YA should be sanitised but it just felt like the charcaters were not explored to their full potential, instead of trying to seem like actions were somehow justified if you want to make characters evil just lean into the fact they are pschopaths. I don't think I'm explaining it well but it just felt like the characters would do some really dark things but it was just glossed over and at the same time like you were being told this character is bad more for the aesthetic than anything else.

I have been a bit harsh in this review (lol T_T) but overall I did enjoy my reading experience, I was just a bit sad it didn't totally live up to my expectations. I would still reccomend it, especially if you like dark academia (I also have to admit I'm not the worlds biggest dark academia fan - esepcially when everyone studies literature) and creepy vibes.