A Lesson in Vengeance

rating update: the more i think about this book, the more upset i get. i need to leave more time between finishing a book and reviewing it because my god in retrospect were some things a hot mess about this book, and i'm not even talking about the weird author bashing a reviewer debacle

the portrayal of a Black character did not sit well with me upon first read, and i'm glad to see that i wasn't the only one. not only did it feel like tokenism (especially since no other side characters play much importance in this book) but the fact that their only purpose in this book is to teach a white character that Racism Exists? holy moly... lots of other weird things that just... did not need to be said with regards to The One Black Character Who Gets A Name. also weird comments about their hair. what i wouldn't give for white authors to stop fixating on Black hair

original review preserved below:

i'm growing increasingly convinced that dark academia is not for me

i think that victoria lee crafted a really spooky and atmospheric little school with messed up girls, but the predictability of the book and the pacing really crushed my enjoyment and by the end i felt exasperated. also, as someone who has read all of the referenced material throughout the book, that also felt like really painful giveaways as to what was going to happen.

overall, i still really liked the world-building and the story behind the dalloway five, but the modern day characters never quite hooked me in and at some points just plain annoyed me. also i'm still wondering what the point of some of the side characters were... but i digress.

so i think with that i'll be approaching any books marketed as dark academia with caution from now on, as i'm regularly disappointed with the execution, but that's on me and not on the authors/writing/stories!