"An Academy for Liars" is a unique dive into one of my favorite genres - dark academia. Lennon Carter's life takes an unexpected turn when she's invited to apply to the enigmatic Drayton College, a hidden magical school in Savannah. The story beautifully blends the allure of a lush, moss-draped campus with the eerie, secretive undercurrents of the college's history. Lennon's power of persuasion and her intense connection with her adviser, Dante, add layers of complexity and tension. The exploration of power and corruption is both chilling and fascinating. Definitely reminded me of The Magicians just a bit, but this story is really its own thing and very intense/engaging.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!!

I need a sequel. This is not enough for me. Tell me more please.

Dark academia ✅
A quickly built world ✅
A twisted and perverse counterculture ✅

Seriously tho, I need more.

A dark academia novel is my weakness. This was my first from this author but definitely not my last! I was really intrigued the entire time and can’t wait to read more from this author.

I really wanted to like this book but just couldn't get into the writing style. The plot is interesting and the characters could have been compelling, but this book is a whole lot of tell and barely any show. It would even sometimes repeat information. I feel like for this style of book you have to be really atmosphere, but this just didn't have the vibes I wanted.

Dark Academia, Atlas Six vibes, and such a cool interesting magic system! I enjoyed this so much!

I've been in such a reading slump and this pulled me right out of it. I couldn't stop reading. I was hooked from the very beginning. The secrets, the vibes, the characters, the moral dilemmas, some murder, and lots of lies. I really just devoured this from start to finish and a million percent recommend to dark academia lovers!

I do truly love dark academia novels. I love the secret society aspect, the interesting and overly complicated magic systems they often have and the delightfully hateful characters. An Academy for Liars had all of these things and more.
The story follows Lennon who after receiving a mysterious phone call with an address, abandons her life to attend Drayton College- a place she is fairly certain doesn't actually exist. Upon arriving she is immersed in a complicated course load that will teach her how to impose her will on others.
I enjoyed the story, it was dark (as I both hoped and expected) and the characters were abhorrent most of the time. One of my favourite things about this genre is that the characters are not good moral individuals- they are nuanced and complicated and more often than not violent.
I will say that the storyline did at time feel rushed- I felt this especially at the beginning and then near the end. Things felt like they were changing a little too quickly and Lennon would often reflect on things that had barely happened a few pages ago.
Overall I believe any fans of the genre will enjoy this book- I certainly di

An Academy for Liars by Alexis Henderson is a roller coaster of events, challenging its characters about their ethics and destiny. The MC, Lennon, moves from some unhappy circumstances to the secret Drayton College which teaches her how to use her will to help and harm, like a more morally gray version of Naomi Novik's Scholomance series. It skimps on some areas, emphasizes others, but is a great read and hard to put down.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC.

The world the author created is so detailed and so well-written. I just wish I had liked the main characters more. So much happened in this book. The author managed to pack so much action into this one book. It seemed like something was always happening and there were rarely any dull moments. It had its weird moments, but was overall a good read.

I'd like to thank NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for allowing me access to this book. I have not read a lot of dark academia prior to reading this book, but this has really got me interested. I think that the beginning and end were really good, but there was a bit of a lull in the middle. I would recommend, especially for someone who is looking into reading dark academia either for the first time or as a regular reader.

An Academy for Liars follows Lennon, a twenty-something mentally unstable woman floundering in life, who receives a mysterious invitation to apply for a prestigious and private university. What follows is something of a deep south acid trip, where Lennon discovers great power and darkness within her.
This dark academia fantasy is incredibly atmospheric and will draw readers into the lush landscape of Savannah and Drayton school. With complicated characters and fraught political tension, there is constant conflict woven into the core of this story. I was hooked by the overarching mystery of the story and found myself rooting for Lennon even as I didn't particularly like her.
I would recommend this novel for fans of the Private series by Kate Brian, and would still recommend to those who were fans of Alexis Henderson's previous work. This novel fits right in with the rest of her extremely atmospheric works.

This is first book that I have read by this author. The title and description lured me in even though dark academia is not really my thing. What kept me intrigued was the blending of a well-developed fantasy world with horror. I enjoyed the book and had a hard time putting it down. There was a lot to decipher in the story and I am still left wondering what Dante's whole moth obsession was about. Maybe I missed something because I flew through the story rather quickly. I feel that it would benefit the reader if the author included a cast of characters and a map of Drayton. The imagery was vivid and alluring but I felt lost at times with who was who especially concerning the professors and administration at Drayton. The ending leaves room for a sequel since it's unclear what happened to Dante. I look forward to reading more by this author and highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking for something a little different.

Wow! Thank you NetGalley and Berkeley Publishing for approving my request! This story has hints of Lev Grossman’s The Magicians and the barest hint of Naomi Novik’s Scholomance trilogy. The students are in their early to mid-20’s making them older than the students of either of the aforementioned series. I am looking forward to its publication and planning to recommend it for a book club. There is so much to discuss.

WOW! I was sold on this solely based on the title, honestly, because I'll read anything with Academy in the title. I've also loved both of Alexis Henderson's books before so I sat down and read this in one sitting on a plane. It REALLY reminded me of Vita Nostra, except with more of a plot and it made me feel less like I was on drugs. I don't feel like I understood everything, but I feel like it's the perfect dark academia to reread every couple years and dissect. I would call this dark academia first and fantasy horror second, which is the dream.

Alexis Henderson also pulls in lots of themes and discussions around race and gender - I can't recommend this highly enough!

3.75 stars rounded up

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for the electronic ARC!

This story started very strong for me. I think my thoughts have changed a bit from 30%-70%. The middle does seem to hit a lull and become boring. The dark academic atmosphere remains strong but the endangerment and alienation of the main character becomes repetitive. Then close to 80% things become extremely intense and engaging again. I also really enjoy a black sheep morally grey protagonist. Side note I never would have predicted the murderer of one of the professors. That reveal and Dante protecting the lead are a big part of why I am rounding this up to four stars.
Besides finding a decent portion boring I think my next big problem is I did not enjoy the advisor/professor relationship with a student. Another aspect is with the academic setting many things had an air of mystery to them and by the end as a reader I still have too many questions or just unclear concepts of the book.

As good as “if we were villains” with the vibes of “atlas six” Dark academia is my favorite subgenre and like many folks i am constantly chasing the high of reading the secret history, and this DID IT. The setting and magic system are at once classic and inventive at the same time. Savannah is my favourite us city. I do think i would have liked to have a deeper exploration of the relationships between the students rather than so much focus on Dante but the book was already quite long (though well paced!)

As a lover of dark academia- I was so excited to get this book. And it was fantastic!! So much tension, loved the atmosphere, great characters! I want more!!

An Academy for Liars is easily one of my favorite reads of the year. Although I am new to dark academia, this book sucked me in instantly.

Lennon's life is not going the way she planned. After finding her fiance with another woman at their engagement party she flees. Just when she thought she hit rock bottom, she receives a mysterious call informing her that she has been selected to take the entrance exam for Drayton University. Drayton however is no ordinary university. Here she will learn the art of persuasion, navigate her growing feelings for her mentor, and attempt to make friends all while trying to control her power.

The storytelling in this novel is impeccable. I could not help but root for these morally grey characters while they try to uncover the secrets of Drayton University.

This was *SO* intense but I really enjoyed it. I've liked everything I've read by Alexis Henderson (though it has all definitely been intense), but I think this is my favorite. She does a great job with characters who are kind of morally gray/less than likable but still compelling, and I found both the main character, Lennon, and her mentor/professor/love interest, Dante, to fall in this category. At the start of the story, 24-year-old Lennon is late for her own engagement party to Wyatt (who, frankly, sucks) and she sees something weird in the mirror - a reflection of herself that is her, but not, and creeps her out. She's got a history of mental illness and seems to initially wonder if that's what's going on. She tries to be present at her party, but ends up running away when she catches Wyatt having sex with their close friend. She takes his car and runs away, finding herself in the parking lot of an abandoned mall where she plans to end her life until a phone starts ringing in a mysterious phone booth, and she's told that she needs to drive from Colorado to Utah to start her admissions process for Drayton College. Drayton is hidden within the city of Savannah, only accessible by students and faculty, and the course of study is focused entirely on building on its students' innate gifts of persuasion. I really liked this take on dark academia. The school isn't teaching magic, technically, but the way that students are taught to hone and use their persuasive talents feels like a form of magic. Lennon turns out to be particularly gifted, but she struggles to control her gift as well as her feelings for her mentor, Dante. Most of the characters in this book are kind of awful people, which seems like a prerequisite, I guess, if you're willing to exert your persuasive will on others on a near constant basis. I was really engrossed the whole time, even when I was like "UGH LENNON WHY," and I blew through this pretty quickly. It felt like a fresh take on dark academia, but it did overall follow the typical conventions of that genre, so content warnings: violence, murder (pretty graphic), suicidal ideation, and a questionable romantic relationship (power imbalance).

1.5☆

I wanted so bad to enjoy this. I found the synopsis to be promising, but I just couldn't get into it. And I wouldn't even say that it was particularly bad, the writing itself was fine, but there wasn't much for me to get excited about. I found it to be boring, slow, and there wasn't any character I was a fan of besides Dante. And even then, it was because he was such a mystery.

Speaking of mysteries, this was supposed to be one but it wasn't at all thrilling. Every "twist", if you could even call them that, was easily guessed and I reached a point where I wasn't really engaged with the story. I continued because I wanted to see how the romance between Lennon and Dante would play out, as there was little bits that alluded to a romance perspiring, and it was...underwhelming. They had their moments and while I can understand that this wasn't supposed to be focused on the romance, because a bit was included, I wish there had been a bit more to it.

The last 10% was entertaining and the very end even made me a little emotional. People's true intentions were revealed and the main character finally came to her senses. I found her to be quite annoying and a little dumb for not seeing that these people didn't have good intentions, especially when it came to her. She continued to make bad decision after bad decision (though some things were out of her control so I didn't blame her for that) and I was just over it.

As I stated earlier, this wasn't poorly written and I truly think others will enjoy it! I think it's worth giving a shot, it just unfortunately didn't work for me.

Thank you NetGalley and Berkley for access to this arc in exchange for an honest review.

An immersive, glittering jewel of a novel, AN ACADEMY OF LIARS is a dark academia novel shot through with tendrils of true horror. Set in Savannah, a young woman gets recruited to a mysterious academy of magic (although let’s not call it that) teeming with secrets, where she must overcome the ghosts of the academy's past - as well as her own. This is for fans of Lev Grossman and Olivie Blake, yet Henderson is a wholly unique voice in the genre and this should absolutely gain new readers. Can't wait to see what this author comes up with next.