Am I glad I read it? I am! I came to this book having read Parry's Heartless a few months prior, my first book by her, and absolutely LOVED it. I was already eager to read this one for that reason, plus I enjoy historical fantasy set in the aftermath of WW1 and books about the spiraling shenanigans an intense group of codependent coeds find themselves tangled in.

Parry's approach to the magic school trope is perhaps one of my favorites, and I think it, combined with how she uses the 'malicious' fae, works really nicely as an exploration of not only dark histories and insidious exclusivity of the ivory tower but also of the temptation to view admission into said tower as acceptance into the privileged elite. This is dark academia in content (the obsessive pursuit of knowledge at all costs & its repercussions; the exploitative underbelly of prized institutions of 'higher learning') but not in tone.

The plot can be efficiently summarized as the aforementioned group of coeds f*cking around and finding out; the first 60ish% of the book is dedicated to the f*cking around, and we finally get around to the finding out portion of the story in the last 40%. I had a really enjoyable time reading this book, even with how very long it is, but it lacked that je ne sais quoi, that extra oomph that would make me really love it.

Rating: 👍🏻👍🏻 (really liked; 4.5 stars)

Thank you to Redhook Books and Netgalley for the advance copy of this title!

The novel excels in its atmospheric description of magical academia, reminiscent of classics in the genre while establishing its own unique identity. The faerie elements introduce a wild, dangerous magic that contrasts with the structured academic environment of Camford, creating an intriguing magical system with depth and consequences.
With its themes of sacrifice, class division, friendship, and the lasting impact of war, "The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door" offers a thoughtful reading experience beyond typical magical school stories. The bittersweet conclusion hints at far-reaching repercussions that leave readers contemplating the true cost of mystical knowledge and power.
For fans of historical fantasy with darker undertones and complex character relationships, this novel provides an immersive journey into a magical version of 1920s England that feels both familiar and wonderfully strange.

I don't know how H. G. Parry does it, but she always delivers. I have yet to rate an H. G. Parry book anything less than 5 stars, and The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door is no exception. She is literally THE queen of standalone, character-driven fantasy.

The Scholar and The Last Faerie Door feels reminiscent of Parry's debut, The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep, if only because we are back in the world of academia again, and novella Heartless, in part due to the complicated friendships between main characters -- and yet it's entirely different from anything else in Parry's growing oeuvre. In this book, we're introduced to scholarship witch Clover Hill, a young woman from a rural family who had not known magic existed until a few short months ago. Clover's brother Matthew fought in World War I and came back damaged by a faerie's curse, which launches Clover on a quest to find a cure, bringing her to the magical school of Camford. At Camford, she is an outcast among the wealthy Families whose children have attended the college for generations; but when one of these young men (because they are almost all, of course, men) takes a shine to her, Clover's life expands in ways she never knew and sews the seeds for a dangerous event years later.

This novel felt nostalgic in all the right ways and wholly absorbing. I couldn't put it down, while at the same time wanting to savor it. I say this every time, but I adore Parry's pacing: from the languid beginning to the breakneck ending, this book was beat-for-beat absolutely perfect. And the relationships between the characters!

Everyone here felt so beautifully drawn that I couldn't help but feel I knew them, that I'd been brought into the fold at Camford too. Clover is a wonderful protagonist: determined and intelligent yet naive to the manipulations of those around her, provincial and yet worldly in ways the Families could never be, caring and yet shortsighted to how her singleminded focus can hurt others. Alden, the wealthy young man who stumbles upon Clover reading his favorite author in the library, is by turns charismatic and selfish, a star who glitters so brightly that he can shine on you, too, or blot out your light entirely. Hero, Alden's childhood friend and former betrothed, is a kindhearted and strongwilled woman who refuses to submit to what the men around her want her to become, and she's my absolute favorite of the crew. And shy plant specialist Eddie is the moral compass of the group, Alden's foil in more ways than one. The complex relationships between the four are a highlight, as is the way Clover's world clashes with the glitz and glamor of Alden's. The dialogue here sparkles, and I became so deeply invested in part because of the characters.

I also adored the setting of Camford itself. A magical space between both Cambridge and Oxford, Camford is steeped in tradition and Clover at first wants nothing more than to become a part of this. But like all institutions, Camford has a dark side; right away, we can see part of this in the way that Clover and Hero are treated as female scholars, but Parry peels back the layers of this until the ending in a way that was truly unexpected. Much like her Shadow Histories duology, there is a rich revolutionary thread running through this book and I wholeheartedly enjoyed it.

Honestly, everyone who says "dark academia is an aesthetic, not a genre" ought to read this book. Because, yes, dark academia IS the moment right now, and so that means we're getting inundated with lots of genres wearing Dark Academia's coat, and fitting into it quite poorly. But then you've got books like this, that are so intelligent and evocative and beautiful that they should become instant classics and hallmarks of the genre. This is the dark academia I've been searching for all year, and I am so thrilled to have found it.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Redhook Books, and H. G. Parry for gifting me this e-ARC in exchange for my honest review!

The book is very atmospheric, an unsettlingly lovely version of Camford, where magic pulses through the very walls, trees grow into the buildings, and libraries seem to keep vast, haunting secrets. Parry seamlessly mixes the academic life with magic and makes the mundane appear mythic. Bits of history, especially the post-WWI influence, bring additional context to the story and grounds the tale in an extraordinary yet painfully real reality.

The story follows Clover Hill, a common girl who enters Camford, a prestigious magical university, in hopes of saving her brother from a deadly faerie curse. As she navigates this new world, she befriends Alden, Hero, and Eddie, three students from powerful Families. Together, they dive into the dangerous realm of faerie magic, and their reckless decisions spell disastrous consequences for the world. The world building in The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door is mesmerizing. Camford is a magical, almost enchanted place, with towering trees growing through the buildings and an enormous library that promises secrets behind every dusty corner. The academic setting is very rich in detail, and the atmosphere thick with a sense of hidden knowledge and the weight of the yet-to-be uncovered. The author gives vivid historical details, which provide grounding in reality for the otherwise fantastic world while making it a kind of commentary on the power dynamics in the real world and the consequences of war.

Best book I've read in a long time!

This book was fantastic. I look forward to sharing it with library patrons looking for reading materials like this.

I am a sucker for a magic school novel, especially if it has a tight group of misfit friends. This book had all of that but for some reason it failed to keep my interest.

I think it was because the characters felt more like types than people. Clover is the Very Smart Girl who is Poor but who will succeed anyway because she's just that good. She also can't fit in because of her social status. Until she meets: Alden Lennox-Fontaine, a blond wonderboy who's sort of the Gatsby of the group. He is effortlessly charming, feckless, but with a hollow inside that no one knows about. He is friends with Hero, my favorite character for the part of the book I read. Hero is the only other girl at Magic School. She's rich and classy but also perceptive and kind. She's a great friend and practically perfect. I think that something happens to her in the second part of the book that I would strongly dislike. Then there's Eddie. He's a bit neuroatypical and so is bullied until Hero and Alden rescue him. He's the overlooked one of the group with his own special genius.

These four create their own golden private world. And then nothing much happens for a very long time. There are hints and insinuations. There is the set up. Faerie doors can no longer be used because of the deadly consequences of opening one during the Great War. BUT: Clover's brother is no longer quite right because of that opened door and Clover thinks that she could heal him if only... Alden also has his own secret reasons for wanting to open a faerie door despite all good sense screaming otherwise. The secret that these two keep will probably split the friendship.

But I don't know that for sure. I read about half the book. And then I just didn't care enough to pick it up again. Alden is a weak hero, to be sure, and I didn't find Clover interesting even though she was Special and Smart. And I am given to understand that then there's a time jump and a great change coming toward these characters and I didn't care enough to find out what happened. I'll give this author another try but I wish this one had gone better for me.

I won't be reading this. I've tried multiple times and haven't gotten into it. Thank you though for the opportunity. If I read it in the future I will come back and change this review.

Historical fantasy, dark academy, and faerie magic? Everything I love, and the writing was spectacular too. This was such a good book, and the characters were compelling and complex, and the magic was super cool! Highly recommend :)

This was quite the journey for me! I didn't feel invested for the first bit but there is a big mystery at the core of the story and when it starts to unravel and reveals happen...amazing.

Clover's brother returns from WWI injured in the big final battle. Except his fight and injury was not normal, it had involved a Faerie and a curse. Some nights the curse is closer to the surface and her brother is suffering. To find a cure, Clover secures a spot at the magical academy, Camford, accessible through either Cambridge or Oxford. The information she's seeking is not easy to find, and actually forbidden to research but she makes friends with a group who has similar interests. The characters are really where this book shines, but it does also have a very complex and interesting magic system.

Pacing wasn't perfect but once things got moving, I was hooked and I ended up absolutely loving the world and the story. Highly recommend for fans of historical fantasy, academia and politics.

Thank you to Netgalley and Redhook for a digital copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

5/5!!!!!
Dark Academia + Fae magic will ALWAYS be a great combo, but Parry REALLLLY nailed it here! I was intrigued at every point of this read and the twists were huge surprises to me (THE END?!?!). The amount of world building was just right, loved Clover, Eddie and Hero (petty about Alden).
It was amazing as a standalone, but lowkey wish this was a series (I feel like I say this about all standalones I love)
Thank you to Net Galley and to the Publisher for allowing me to read an ARC of this read (even though it is already out; sorry!!)

The vibes: secret magical college, historical fantasy, WWII, sinister faerie magic, lower class underdog proves her worth, tight knit circle of friends, classism, society secrets

I have mixed feelings! I was enthralled with the first half, almost getting Ninth House-lite meets Emily Wilde at hogwarts college. But at the halfway point, it started to drag a bit, and leaned more into historical/lit fic. It left me wishing for more exploration of the college and magic, but there was only one magical area of focus. I would have liked to see how people used magic in society and daily life in this secret world! Some of the twists and turns in this book also felt too emotionless, and thus dampened the impact. There were some choices that I didn’t love.

There have been many glowing reviews and I think a lot of people will certainly enjoy this. I’m in the middle. I did listen to most of it and really enjoyed the narrator for the audiobook!

This book was a delightful and refreshing read. While it incorporates familiar tropes and elements I've encountered in other stories, it reimagines them within a unique framework that felt entirely fresh and engaging. It struck a perfect balance between being comfortably familiar and surprisingly innovative, making it both a satisfying and enjoyable experience

This was wonderful! I loved the writing style, the characters, the world-building…everything about it was top-notch. I will definitely be recommending this book!

Magical farm girl ends up at an upper class Hogwarts and nearly causes the End of the World? 3.5 stars.
Clover Hill is just an ordinary girl living on a farm with her family when her brother goes off to fight in world war one and comes back cursed by a faerie. This curse means that every significant date in the calendar (solstice, full moons etc.) he needs chaining to a bed so that the faeire doesn't sneak him back over into the world of Faerie. After hearing about magical business actually existing, Clover thinks great, this is my chance to escape my home where nobody understands me and go and live with a load of pretentious snobs (who also don't understand me, but are magical). The writing of this feels really young, I don't know if it's due to the main character being quite immature and her friends equally unbearable or what, but even though it is written almost as a memoir from the future and the characters start out at 18 they seem much younger. Halfway through the book something occurs which changes the book from "spoiled teenagers mash-up the famous five and harry potter" to gorgeous friend from the past was a bad guy after all and it escalates A LOT.
There was a lot of waffle in this book, it could easily have been edited down at least a hundred pages and got to the point a lot faster. I personally didn't feel like it added a lot to my experience with this (mostly) insufferable group of people to hear about what they spent their summers wasting time eating and where they went to sunbathe that day.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Redhook for this ARC of the Scholar and the Last Faerie Door.

I really struggled the first time I tried to read this book. I picked it up and put it down so many times. When I got into it I really enjoyed it! It’s a classic story about faeries and their magic intermingling with our world.

The pacing threw me a bit with this book, but once it gets going it’s hard to put down. The characters are all very unique and their relationships with each other makes for a more meaningful story.

This is a great book if you enjoy faeries and exploration of their world and how it’s connected to ours.

It was interesting, unique and very academic. I loved the setting and the way the characters were written. Emily Wilde if it was darker, over more time, and somehow more stakes. I really enjoyed the characters and the twist in this book! I both empathized and scorned the main male character for his actions and also found the humanness of all the characters to be really well written. A great book overall. 4.5/5

I’m honestly obsessed with this book. The dark academia, the magic, the historical aspects… ugh it’s all just so perfectly woven together. The storyline is gripping, I couldn’t put this down. I loved Clover as our FMC and her internal monologue. I love being able to understand so deeply the main characters motivations. I’m adding this author to my auto-buy list and I can’t wait to read more of their work!

Please read if you love twisted tales of magic, academia and character driven stories!

4.5 stars

After her brother, Matthew, is struck down by a faerie curse while fighting on the battlefields of WWI, Clover fights her way into obtaining a scholarship to attend Camford, the premier magical academy in England. While the rest of the students come from magical families, Cover’s a commoner and must work twice as hard just to keep up, let alone find a cure for Matthew.

Clover’s soon befriended by popular Alden Lennon-Fontaine and his friends. They each have their own reasons for wanting to interact with the faerie world and so work together to break the seals that have closed the doors to the faerie realm. But, when things go wrong, will their friendship help pull them together or tear them apart?

I love the way every book H.G. Parry writes blends the everyday with magic. And also how cozy her books are! You’ll smell the leather of the books, feel the stones of the library walls and see the dust settling on stacks of old tomes. The story takes its time, letting the reader soak in the academic atmosphere and become immersed in the setting.

Even though this is a slow-paced, character-focused novel, I was fascinated with the dynamics of the friendship group and was always invested in the story. Clover grows and matures throughout the story from a young, naive student willing to trust anyone and who will do anything to fit in, to a mature, college professor, recognizing that her drive for scholarship at any cost will lose her the friends and family she’s grown to love.

If you love an academic setting, fairy stories, and character heavy novels that focus on friend groups, I’d highly recommend this book!

*Thanks to NetGalley and Redhook Books for the digital arc. All opinions are my own.

Absolutely loved this book! The writing and plot were so engaging and yet had a cozy voice. I'd love to see more from this author.

I enjoyed a good dark academia, particularly if faeries and magic are involved. This one provided all of that. I found myself engaged by the narrative, the POV of Clover, the outsider who makes it into magical school. The story progression worked well and I particularly liked the historical setting of just post WW1, in a world that mirrors ours but has magical components. The magical system and hierarchy was fascinating. The group of friends were interesting and varied. I liked the structure of the book and I was fine with the "looking back at the past" narration we get from Clover.

The idyllic environment of magical school, the lure of knowledge, the intoxicating company of the three magical aristocrats who befriend Clover made for competing reading. I truly wasn't sure which direction the plot was going to take and I was surprised various times in the narrative.

I think this would appeal to anyone who appreciated dark academia, fairy stories, school friendships and magic. It felt like such a good blend of historical fantasy, magical school setting, and forged friendships. I found the world building quite thought provoking.