An Academy for Liars by Alexis Henderson | Spoiler-free Book Review

this book reminds me of a (good) CW show. half-way through, i threw dark academia out the window

GOODREADS

A SPOILER-FREE REVIEW

— 3.25 —

⇢ content warnings// Addiction, Violent, Death, Drug Use, Manipulation, Psychological Insanity

this book started off as if i was living through a nightmare and then somehow changed into a good CW show halfway. it was a fun time~

i do think i would have enjoy this more if it leaned into the nightmare-ish style that it started off with in the beginning of the book. i see how she's a very popular author in the horror genre.

this one’s for people looking for dark (very dark, please mind the trigger warnings) and vivid writing but don’t mind a soft magic system. thematically, this was amazing but i think certain scenes and plot points needed more time to breathe. there was also a narrative shift in the middle that changed my expectations bc of how the beginning was set up. however, i think alexis henderson is an amazing writer and her prose is one that i look for in my more horror-leaning books.

also… how rare are dark skinned male and female leads outside of literary fiction <3 we love to see it.

"she’d made the grave error of mistaking the want of closeness for closeness itself."

this book reminds me of a really good CW show. i say this with love because i do love CW shows because while i think Alexis Henderson is an amazing writer with how she puts together scenes, i feel like the way scenes tied to each other was not always consistently done. individually, they were dramatic and vivid. however, when they all tied together, i could feel a disconnect in the way the supernatural elements of the world flowed. moreover, the magic system felt too convenient and served the narration rather than there being an established magic system and everything else flowing from that.

i do understand that the magic system might not be the focus here but since dark academia is a genre that inherently takes into account logic and intrigue, i couldn’t help ignore the times i was thinking to myself: “how did we get here?”

however, credit where credit is due, alexis henderson was amazing at making this creepy, dark, and vivid. i would definitely pick up more horror books by her, i see why she gets the rep that she does. moreover, she's able to successfully bring out emotions that she was looking to pull from me. there were just choices in the flow that i could not ignore and it took away from the story whenever i took a step back from reading.

"people who mistook greatness for its shadow. As long as they were in the presence of brilliance, they too were brilliant by proxy."

i think this book had an amazing start but fell through a little in the middle due to the change in tone. this often takes me out of the story and always feels like a pivotal moment for me when reading because it’s a delicate balance for authors to keep their readers engaged even when they have to shift focus of the story for the narrative to move forward.

in terms of characterizations, i had the biggest problem with the main character. i understand unlikable characters but i feel like she was supposed to be likable but i could just not understand certain decisions she makes throughout the story. i thought we were going to get an explanation later but it just seemed like everything was always tied with a bow too perfectly. it made me feel like her emotions were superficial but her actions would go another way. it was a little difficult to root for her when it felt like she was making decisions so that the plot would move a certain way rather than the story bending to her based on her choices. i really hope i’m making sense.

overall, it still caught my attention because i obviously finished it and i had a wonderful time. but all of this is why i said it reminds me of a good CW show. i eat it the drama, i enjoy the madness and rollercoaster of emotions for the story, but i can’t ignore how certain scenes (like episodes) have their inconsistencies and sometimes feel like they are stitched together rather than one that has a seamless flow.

thank god this had a strong (stronger than i expected) ending. i might have started a riot if this had not ended properly. if you know, you know.

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