Reviews

A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee

starrynews's review against another edition

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3.0

The setting on this book is amazing: a historic campus with a creepy house containing quite the past. As I was reading it, it felt, to me, that there were two possible paths this book was going to take. One I was really curious for and the other not as much. Unfortunately, it took the latter path. That said, the latter path is something I think would appeal to a lot of other readers. This is a tough one to keep spoiler free so it's hidden part of the review time:
SpoilerI love fantasy, but I am easily terrified so I avoid horror like it's just laying in wait for me around any bookshelf corner. So I had very much been hoping for the witches to come through for me. The early development of a psychopath veers too close into horror for me (if I can even remotely envision it realistically happening, I am noping out of there). So, the author did a great job with that! But I am noping out of here!

sofresh's review against another edition

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3.0

Might bump up the score later but for now, a 2.5.

It was alright.

This book was pitched as sapphic witchy dark academia but I think it's kinda mixed on the latter two. Firstly, the appeal of dark academia to me is to critique the institution of academia. Other than simply saying that academia is elitist, classist and racist, it didn't really do much critiquing. I wanted it to go beyond that. What is it about academia that makes people kill for their art? It toyed with those ideas but never fully delivered.

I did like how the witchy, fantasy aspect of it was left ambiguous. It really aided in Felicity's characterisation as an unreliable narrator. Figuring out if magic was real was part of the mystery. I do think Felicity's relationship with magic was underdeveloped a bit however. I'm not sure what the hell the Margery Coven was supposed to be, but it was never really explored well at all. It also unfortunately commits my least favourite book sin - didactically just telling the reader what the thesis of the novel is. Seriously, I rolled my eyes when Felicity was just like "mental illness is used to make readers distrust women's perspectives, which makes it appear to be magic. You get it, right? Right?"

I did really like the ambiguity and the unreliable narrator aspects of it and the mystery was interesting enough that I kept reading. I thought the cat-and-mouse dynamic of Ellis and Felicity towards the end was really interesting and I wished that section had gone on longer. The vibes were emmaculate, though.

blairreads3's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

maggiesummerkate's review against another edition

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2.0

2.5 rounded down

i wanted to like it. i did. i really really wanted to like this book, but i couldn't. not in the ways i wanted to.

i'll start with the good. the atmosphere. i loved the feeling of the world because i felt like it could be real, like i was there. that was something that i found solace in. at every turn, the world felt pretty real.

now, for everything else... where do i start? first, i would say that most of all, i'm upset at the ending and the twist. it was cheap. it was what i predicted 7 chapters before, and it was quite literally just like scream 1. it's like billy's little monologue about maternal abandonment and how it "certainly fucked you up, didn't it? made you have sex with a psychopath." that was quite literally exactly what this was. and yes, i LOVE scream. but that's already been done. several times. i want something NEW. i know the horror/thriller genre is formulaic but you could've tried a little harder.

as for the characters, they were mediocre. i felt like they could've been developed better. i'm not sure what i needed more of, but i needed MORE. it wasn't enough. i wanted to know these characters. i also wanted to see more of their daily lives. of classes and things, because school is NOT like this.

all in all, the cover was pretty, the world was nice, but the plot left a lot to be desired.

alexadj's review against another edition

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4.0

3.5


It was a little hard to get through and kept waiting for some something exciting to happen, but had to wait for the last couple chapters for that. In the end, it was all more sad than anything.

I love the premise and the idea here but not the execution, unfortunately.

taylorthebookaddict's review against another edition

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5.0

I originally was going to rate this a 4 star book but the ending made it a 5.
*chefs kiss* perfect for October.

marenkae's review against another edition

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2.0

2.5

amym3030's review against another edition

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1.0

this is my biggest disappointment of the year. on paper this should’ve been a 5/5 read for me, as sapphic dark academia is totally up my alley.

however, i’m a character-driven person, and i hated every single character in this book. first off, i couldn’t tell you a single one of the side characters names (and i literally just put the book down). what i could tell you is one of them was black and was used as a token POC which is 100% NOT ok. POC don’t exist to educate white people about racism, but apparently this author thinks so. every other side character was just very surface level, and i didn’t feel connected to any of them. i was hoping to get more of a found family boarding school vibe (similar to the minerva crew from “truly devious”) but this book failed to deliver any sense of connection between the characters.

unfortunately, the main characters weren’t much better. i didn’t feel any empathy towards them at all. the only emotion i really felt while reading scenes between the two of them was frustration and boredom. the “romance” between them was poorly developed and shallow, everything that came out of their mouths sounded pretentious, and i couldn’t bring myself to care about what happened to them. they were basically just mean to each other for the entire story which was not entertaining at all.

also, the dark academia boarding school vibe was very much just a vibe. i didn’t feel transported to the setting at all, and i don’t think the author did well with the world building. in comparison to other dark academia/boarding school books like ninth house and truly devious, this book is very surface level and doesn’t envelop the reader in the world nearly enough.

lastly, i was very confused with how magic was handled in this book. i was never quite sure if magic existed in this world, or if it was just make believe. maybe that was the author’s intention, as felicity was struggling with the difference between magic and reality following alex’s death. nonetheless, i didn’t like this take on magic. i think the author should’ve established at some point whether magic was real or not. had magic been real and had the idea of the secret society “covens” on campus been explored more, i think this could’ve been a much more interesting read (and more on par with the likes of ninth house).

overall, i’m highly disappointed and will likely not be reading from this author again. beyond everything listed above, i also didn’t particularly like their writing style or the rushed ending they used. the writing style was unnecessarily pretentious and made this book very difficult to finish. the ending was slightly more interesting than the rest of the book, but was still very unbelievable.

aemilyl24's review against another edition

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3.0

I picked this book up as it was set in a boarding school, and since I went to one/and now teach at one, I'm always looking for books that represent that population. The first half of the book was great, and then there was just a weird twist and honestly things tied up a bit to "nicely" for me. Overall it was a bit of a weird read, and I'm glad I listened to it on libby rather than having to pay to read it.

ashleymarie164's review against another edition

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5.0

The dark academia and witchy “magic” was everything! Felicity was such an unreliable narrator and a pleasure to read. Did not expect the twist coming at the end! Overall an enjoyable read!