A gory slice of dark academia. I really want to love it more but I found it hard to connect with the characters. The way the timeline jumps back and forth made it hard to settle into the story properly and with so many strange characters to keep up with, it felt a bit muddled at points.
I did enjoy, but hoped I'd love it.

I love Dark Academia so this seemed right up my street. This is unlike anything I've read before. It is DARK Dark Academia and so gory!
Told from the POV of Alessa, a student at Hellebore Technical Institute for the Gifted, this book follows the story of the students fight against a faculty who are trying to kill them.
There are so many time jumps in this book that at times it does get confusing however I loved Khaw's writing and the eclectic mix of characters she has created.
Whilst this book is definitely more horror than fantasy I still found it ticked a lot of boxes for me and I found myself always wanting to pick it up, looking for answers.
Thank you NetGalley and Titan Books for my ARC copy

The Library at Hellebore was wonderfully icky with this body horror Dark Academia nightmare brought to life.

Khaw does not hold back. This is gory, bloody and extremely messy with some scenes that seared themselves into my brain. It is up to its elbows in guts with truly disgusting and terrifying body horror scenes. Hellebore is where those with monstrous powers are sent to learn, but the underbelly of it is even darker than the regular bloodshed of the school day. It is carnage unleashed and you will not be able to pull yourself away. There is a lot of body and cosmic horror that I enjoyed with inventive world-building - Khaw gives plenty of rich detail but also hints at fascinating elements in the background.

Something I really loved here was the characterisation. The book follows these two time strands where you know the bloodshed waiting in store, but you get to learn more about these people. Their motivations and interactions biome much more weighted in this desperate fight for survival, but Khaw also has plenty of surprises in store. They are world-enders and yet one of the most skin-crawling moments relates to a very human monstrosity. I loved the insight we got into each of them, what made them tick and what secrets they may be hiding. Within this horrific dilemma, tensions rise and things escalate at random. Our central protagonist is Alessa, who is firmly not a good person, as we are shockingly introduced to in the very first scene. It is a bold opening that only gets better as the following pages give you further context. Alessa is determined to survive and willing to compromise anything for this but she also secretly cares far more than she wants to admit.

The Library at Hellebore sent shivers down my spine and made my skin crawl.

This is such a unique book. It's hard to give a review because it's so unique and unlike anything else I've read.

I would describe it as a blend of stranger things/ Beetlejuice style creatures but in a Wednesday 18+ style setting. I should have been disgusted with the creatures, the intestine worms and decay, but I loved it! If you have a queasy stomach then avoid! But I loved it personally!

This book made in the 90s by Tim Burton would have been perfection! I would say it's more horror than dark academia. But, at the same time it's neither. Like I said earlier, it's completely different unique.

So I am having a bit of a dark academia era in 2025 and 2025 is feeding that with the unbelievably strong list of dark academia releases either coming out in 2025 or announced and coming out early 2026.

The Library at Hellebore was one of those on my list of dark academia releases that I was excited for. It’s been marketed as for fans of A Deadly Education and The Atlas Six so I went in expecting a heavy dose of academia. Sadly I felt it didn’t deliver on the promise.

The Library at Hellebore is very sparse on the academia front and is definitely much further towards the horror genre. I think that is mostly on me for coming in with the wrong expectations though. The book is marketed as deeply dark and horror, but I focused a little too much on the mentions of academia.

I am not a horror lover and as such the book fell flat for me. Objectively though, if you are a horror fan then I think you will love it. It is gruesome and gory and hellish. The descriptions are vivid and stomach churning, Khaw really does have a talent for writing the grotesque and making you squirm.

I struggled to feel invested in the characters too much. It is quite a short book and the majority of that time is spent on the action/plot rather than developing any of the characters. It gave off extended short story vibes, something I could have seen being in a Lovecraft anthology. The focus is very clearly the eldritch horror and there is nothing wrong with that, it just wasn’t for me sadly.

My first Cassandra Khaw novel, and it certainly won’t be my last! Dark academia isn’t normally a genre I read, and the books I have read weren’t really my cup of tea. However, this one was fantastic, and the gore was brilliant. (100% more of a gruesome horror book)

Hellebore is an academy that promises redemption, acceptance, and a normal life after graduation for the dangerously powerful: the Anti-Christs, Ragnaroks, the world-eaters and apocalypse-makers.

We have Alessa Li, who is the narrator of the book, and the story is split into two timelines: the past and the present. The second part of this book is seriously unhinged and with very gruesome detailed parts might make you want to stop reading for a minute or two! The body horror and the existentially terrifying themes in this book are striking! A school that you or anyone you know will never attend, but you want to hear more stories from there. What’s more terrifying than the literal son of Satan?

Khaw's writing was phenomenal - sharp, glittering, brutal. The more I think about this book the more I want to keep rating it higher! You won’t want this miss this book when it releases next week on the 22nd of July.

Thank you to Titan Books for my ARC.

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

This is a new dark academia fantasy horror book, set in the depths of a library at a school for monsters.

The main character, Alessa Li, is kidnapped and forcibly enrolled at Hellebore, an institute that promises redemption for anti-christs, Ragnaroks and world-eaters. On graduation day, the faculty embark on a rampage to devour all of the students, and Alessa - along with a band of misfits - barricade themselves in the library.

I was not prepared for the squishy, squelchy goriness of this book. The detail was truly visceral, but consistently balanced with the plot and character development. I’m not particularly squeamish, but some of the descriptions actually made me feel nauseous.

I did find the book confusing at first. It’s split into the events of the graduation day, and then flashbacks before then, but even the flashbacks weren’t in chronological order, so it was really hard to follow. I also felt that I was missing out on a lot of important worldbuilding and background.

I loved the morally grey characters, and particularly how Alessa grew on me as the story unfolded. I really wish that we could have had more background about her life before Hellebore though.

The highlight of this book was definitely the writing and the prose. The setting was unique, but certain aspects of it needed developing for me.

I knew I was in for a wild ride when I started reading and was instantly plunged into gore. The first chapter was intriguing and dragged me into the story - I needed to know what was going on.

This is dark academia meets Society, and I enjoyed every disturbing chapter.

As always, Cassandra Khaw's writing is thick with atmosphere, and every sentence is carefully crafted. The characters are vivid and complex. Some of them are likeable, some detestable, and even some pitiable.
If you're squeamish, I wouldn't recommend reading around mealtimes - the book is packed full of nauseating ideas. I have a strong stomach, but one moment in particular put a serious dent in my appetite.

The Library at Hellebore is full of bizarre, nasty wrongness and I loved it.

My thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the advance review copy.

Rating: 3.75 (rounded up to 4 for NetGalley).

At 15% into this book, I didn't have a clue what was going on, and wasn't really vibing with it. Then all of a sudden, something clicked and I couldn't put it down because I NEEDED to know what happened. It's a mix of body/cosmic horror (with plenty of gore), humour and fantasy/dark academia.

I can't deny that Cassandra Khaw can write - her mastery of eldritch horror is truly extraordinary, the prose great at conjuring up gruesome imagery that made me grimace. This might say more about me, despite considering myself to be well read, but there were a lot of big words that required the use of my Kindle dictionary to look up. While I don't have an issue with looking up the odd word here and there, I don't expect to have to do it every other page, and it could be distracting for a lot of readers.

The structure of the book, with the disjointed timelines that jump to "before" the graduation and "after" being locked in the library, did add suspense to the plot, but it also confused me. At first, I felt like I had started halfway through the book, for example, characters being spoken about as if we've already been introduced to them (we haven't at this point), but as you continue throughout, everything comes together better.

The story is told from the POV of Alessa, and I found her to be a bit of an arsehole, but as you go through the book, you realise it's a shield. On top of that, she is not a reliable narrator! Took me a while to realise that and get used to it, but once I realised, it does make her and the book a lot easier to understand.

I didn't feel particularly connected to any of the characters, but that could be because we didn't spend much time getting to know them. Despite that, the vivid descriptions of their supernatural powers/abilities were so good and really interesting.

While I thought some parts of this book were 'meh', the vivid descriptions of the body horror and characters' abilities were standouts for me, so I've rated it higher.

A nonstop, gruesome, visceral ride. Cassandra Khaw plunges us into a dark and violent world, set within the eerie walls of a mysterious school for students with various apocalyptic-level powers and abilities.
The story unravels rapidly in a whirlwind of blood and chaos. It's disturbing, stylish and relentlessly intense, with a disorienting depth thanks to it's split timelines. But it's not just horror - beneath the carnage lies a surprising emotional depth as we see how the characters connect with each other amid the chaos, and in events leading up to it.
Khaw's prose is sharp and evocative, entwining horror with a strange, aching beauty. There were moments I had to make use of my e-reader's dictionary, and I loved that she didn't hold back on the vocabulary as it suited the theming perfectly and enriched my experience.

If there is any flaw to be picked at - it's that the novel is overstuffed. The lore, setting, and characters all beg for deeper exploration, and at times the narrative strains under the weight of everything that is jammed into the one standalone. The world offers so much - it feels like we're only seeing the tip of a blood-soaked iceberg, and I for one crave more!

A horror that is both brutal and tender, The Library at Hellebore is a must read for fans of dark academia, body horror and emotionally layered storytelling - but be warned, it does not pull its punches when it comes to gore.

Huge thank you to Titan for this ARC - I cannot wait to get my hands on a physical copy for my shelves!

I really liked the idea of this book, but unfortunately the execution didn’t work for me. The whole thing felt kind of underdeveloped. I never fully understood what each character’s powers were or how they were supposed to work, and that lack of clarity made it hard to stay invested, which in turn, led to the dual timelines becoming confusing - maybe it was just my lack of understanding but it felt like there wasn’t enough distinction between them, which made the reading experience feel clunky and disjointed. More than once, I found myself halfway through a chapter and having to remind myself if it was the past or the present.

2.5 stars rounded up. I really wanted to love this book, it had a lot of potential but it just didn't really come together for me.

Not really for me. Just didn't hook me in like I wanted it to.
I liked the writing style though, I think the themes were maybe just not to my taste!

Unfortunately this book is simply not for me and I need to steer clear of dark fantasy/acedemia in the future.
That being said I believe many will love this book as its certainly not without its redeeming traits.

Thankyou Netgalley and Titan Books for this eARC!

I was super excited for this book and it did not dissapoint. I was honestly really confused at times, but when I realised just how unreliable our narrator was it made more sense.

This is a book that really is eat or be eaten, and is filled with many different types of... people... that were all really interesting. I almost wish this book had been a little longer just to get more of a sense of who everyone truly was. It is filled with body horror and gore which I loved, and I think it was just the right amount. The narration does jump around between chapters which did take some getting used too.

The only downside I found with this book, was that it uses a lot of BIG words that I did have to google but that could just be a me problem.

I would definitely read this again, and am excited to pick up some of Cassandra's other works.

Honestly, this book was a lot! I probably should have explored the author's previous work and the genre in more detail as the read of the blurb to me sounded like I was on more of a dark fantasy, dark academia path than a gore and horror fantasy one. I read some horror here and there, but it's often more psychological, whereas this was a lot more gory!

Alessa Li is a student at Hellebore, an institute for world-eaters and apocalypse-makers, but she didn't enroll there by choice - she was kidnapped and woke up there. The story starts with a bloodbath and continues much in that way, as you might expect from a school for monsters! The students are promised redemption and acceptance after graduation, but in reality, we quickly discover that instead the faculty turns on them and devours them, quite literally. Alessa and a group of classmates manage to flee to the library where they barricade themselves in.

One thing I did really like about it was the narration style that flits between the present, the days where the students are stuck in the library and fighting for survival, and the "before", which is non-linear most of the time. It adds to the nightmarish effect of never quite knowing where you stand and what's going to happen next, but it also serves to make the present make more sense knowing how they ended up there.

I also enjoyed the diversity of the characters - we had a range of racial backgrounds, which weren't just used as token characters but had fully fleshed out (lol) backstories that added context to the narrative. There were also genderfluid characters that identified differently in gender depending on the moment and non-binary characters. I'm not overly familiar with this genre, but I imagine it's not common to see such a range of characters in it and I'm glad to see it!

The characters themselves are very interesting, as alongside their monstrous traits, you've also got all the complexities you'd expect to find in normal "humans" thrown together in situations like this. Also I loved the character of Rowan - he gave me Ridoc from Fourth Wing vibes.

The writing, the characters and the setting were great - I'd have loved to know more about the school itself too, I think it would be very interesting, but I get that's not what this book was about. It only falls on the star rating because the level of gore wasn't for me, and that's on my own head, not the author's!

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publishers for a review copy of this book.

I have to admit this could arguably be the first proper horror book I’ve ever read. It had such an interesting premise but I did find it very confusing to read. I think part of it was it took until most of the way through the book before I felt like I even wanted to root for the characters.

I did really enjoy the more lyrical and dense writing here though it may not appeal to some, I also enjoyed the non linear storytelling but I feel like we could have been eased into it a bit more.

This was difficult to rate I think because the body horror element was so visceral and it’s the first book of this type that I’ve read.

Very strong premise with a ton of potential but it was so very confusing! I have read another book from this author and I wanted to give it another chance. The writing is very difficult, I use the sentence surrounding certain words to kind of navigate what they mean but I should not have to use the kindle dictionary that often lol. It doesn’t have to be so difficult. I think the writing just isn’t for me but my did I try. Only reason the previous worked better was it was a singular character if I recall and short, very straight forward. This was a mountain compared to that mole hill. The last 30% really picks up everything and throws it at you but I was completely lost by that point if I’m being honest. Rewinding so often it was a bit much. I hear the audio is way better to grasp maybe I will give that a go on the re read.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an ebook in exchange of a review!

Thank you to NetGalley and Titan Books for the advance reader copy.

The concept of this book sounded very interesting and I was even more interested when it came up as a possible pick for a subscription box.
Unfortunately I was and still am very confused and not too sure where the story was going.

I like non linear storytelling but found that there wasn’t enough information about the characters to make me root for them.
The book reads like a thesaurus was thrown at it and there was a word count needed and that also made reading a task.

Overall I imagine people will enjoy this but personally it didn’t hit the mark for me.

I was really looking forward to reading this one with the promise of dark academia, students vs faculty vibes. It’s delivers on those themes, being more horror-academia with lots of body horror and really gruesome scenes plus the creature parts of the students. It left me with a very “ewwy” feeling after reading it and although I didn’t have full body shudders, it definitely repulsed me. Was that the intention? If so, it delivered.

The writing style was poetic and lyrical, with several words that I needed to look up (personally, I don’t mind that and I haven’t had to do that since I was a teenager!)

This is a hard one to rate as I can’t get past how repulsed I am by the body horror aspect of it. The story is good, a bit confusing at times, and I felt a lack of rapport between the characters and felt like their time together wasn’t explored enough to make me care about any of them. So overall, I’m left repulsed, detached and asking wtf?! If that’s the intended result then job well done!

I still remember thinking those girls at St Trinian's were rather naughty, and more recently getting excited about all the wizardry in the classrooms at Hogwarts. Neither experience prepared me for the bloodbath within Hellebore.
Hellebore is an academy full of darkness and decay. Death lurks in every corner but even death is not an escape from the dark horrors that permeate almost every page.
The author takes the horror genre beyond its normal boundaries with graphic visions of decaying flesh and monsters devouring monsters. Here are creatures of the damned which are intended to scare and most certainly do.
But amongst all the grisly grotesqueness and the stark horrors there are still moments of tenderness and even love, and throughout the story I found myself with empathy for the loneliness of these forlorn characters: unfriended, afeared, seeking an escape that even death cannot promise.
This is a book full of shivers seeking brave-hearted readers.