The Incandescent, by Emily Tesh

[mrissa]

 Review copy provided by the publisher. The author is also a friend, which started because we share an agent.

 

This is a grown-up book.

 

There's a lot of dark academia going around these days, but most of it is focused either on institutions of higher learning or on the student level, often both. This one is teacher-focused. The students are brilliantly done, but they are realistic about being 17 in ways that are not always flattering, that are adult-perspective rather than own-perspective. And the protagonist is not just a teacher but a teacher who has moved into administration--what we'd probably call a Vice Principal in the US, where this book is not set. A Deputy Head.

 

Deputy Head in charge of the magic department. In the magic department of her own former boarding school. So there's that.

 

The inter-teacher relationships are also beautifully done--co-workers with history and texture--and then there's the magic, which is revealed with the most amazing pacing, every turn a revelation, the small details so important and so well-highlighted that the moments of "ohhhh it's THAT thing" keep coming.

 

This is a weird thing to praise in a public review rather than a private note, but--the chapters are so well-constructed. If you're having a normal adult life--like our protag Saffy Walden is having!--you will be able to put this book down at the chapter breaks, more curious about what's coming but also satisfied with how the chapter ending went. It's just so well done in so many structural ways, and then the heart is a genuine heart. Highly recommended, pick it up as soon as you can.

Comments

[profiterole_reads]

That sounds great. I'm always in for queer magic school books, and as you say, they tend to be about the students, apart from my beloved Branches of Past and Future by MN Bennet.

[sartorias]

This sounds very tempting, in spite of dark academia, which isn't much to my interest.

[nou]

Oooooohhhhh more Emily Tesh yay!

[vcmw]

ooooooh! I liked Some Desperate Glory enough that I got a copy for a hard-to-please friend as a present, and this sounds absolutely my kind of thing.

[mrissa]

I would commend it to you specifically, yes.

[skygiants]

I loved this book SO much, it is so profoundly about being an adult and about the kinds of mistakes and growth that you have exactly when you make the mistake of thinking you're past mistakes and growth.

[anef]

This sounds excellent, I have put it on my wishlist.