A YA dark academia about troubled teens who are brought to this academy to be in order to focus their minds on studying and trying to reform them to have better behavior with a strict curriculum. But that’s at the front of the school, now the back of the school is a whole different story as there’s something even more sinister going on. Something more demonic. So a paranormal twist, it's mysterious af, dark, grim, the cover kind of gives us an idea on all the bad happenings in the story. I do wish the author had taken things a little further but still liked it overall.

No words can describe how difficult it was to finish this book.

I truly wish I had something positive to say about this book, but it was just a lot of pain and suffering. I'm seeing a lot of comparisons to Curious Tides which is honestly kind of annoying. Both books have a "Dark Academia" kind of setting but there were staggering differences that the comparison feels like the stretch of the century.

The plot of Unhallowed Halls was all over the place and while some of the characters had their moments I found all of them pretty unlikable.

Unhallowed Halls by Lili Wilkinson is a YA dark academia fantasy novel set in a school for gifted yet troubled teens in the remote moors of Scotland. The book begins rather mysteriously– the main character Page’s reason for transferring to Agathian is alluded to only in half-truths, and the true story behind the school, its students, and its faculty is as foggy as the desolate landscape the story takes place in.

From the moment Page stepped off the train and into the moor, I was entirely immersed in the atmospheric and delightfully unwelcoming world the author created. Throughout the book I felt as if I were really there, shivering in the stone halls of Agathian, or never quite able to rid myself of the damp chill from the eerie and unrelenting highland weather. Where most books take at least a few chapters for me to feel fully absorbed in a story and its world, Unhallowed Halls engulfed me almost instantly.

This book was deliciously dark, twisty, mysterious and full of surprises. For the majority of the book, I truly had no idea where the story was going or what would happen next. While the pacing in the first half of the book felt slightly delayed, the author sprinkled enough intrigue to keep my attention until the plot sped up significantly in the second half of the book.

My one critique is that the main romance plot felt somewhat rushed and underdeveloped. While I still enjoyed it and thought the love interests were a great fit for each other, I would have liked to see more moments between the two before things went from loose friendship to romance.

I saw so much of myself as a young adult in Page while reading this. Between navigating endometriosis and the physical and mental pain that comes with it, wrestling with feeling ‘other’ and struggling to fit in, to her fear of not being enough academically, socially, or romantically– it felt as if I were looking back at a version of myself who needed this character and her story. While I’m 26 now and have found who I am and where I belong, this book hit a note deep in my heart and made me ache for the girl I was at Page’s age.

While this book is categorized as YA, it never felt juvenile, making it perfect for young adult and adult audiences. Overall, I loved this book. It always feels a little weird to read what is likely to be one of your top reads of the year so early on, but you won’t find me complaining about this one.

The atmosphere!! This was like Curious Tides mixed with Netflix’s Wednesday. The writing was gorgeous, setting the creeping, gothic atmosphere as well as creating a strong narrative voice to get to know the MC, Page. This was a great dark academia mixed with fantasy and a gothic mystery vibe. I loved the incorporation of mythology, the diversity of characters, and the uniqueness of the twist-filled plot.

DNF Review (25%)

I really wanted to love this one but I just couldn’t connect with it. The premise started off intriguing and atmospheric, then leaned too heavily on the greek history angle for me. Maybe I should have read reviews first so it's partially on me - I based my choice on the blurb alone. It just wasn’t holding my interest enough to continue.

Unhallowed Halls is a story of belonging and found family. A story of accepting the darkest parts of yourself and letting others see them too. It's a story of magic and power and darkness and forgiveness. I was really drawn into this book and the mystery of Agathion. The school and setting really transport you to the moors of Scotland where it really does feel like anything can happen. And it really made me crave scones and tea!
I liked the character of Page and her fierce desire to belong. I really liked the supporting cast as well, although I wish they spent less time trying to keep Page in the dark if only so we got to know them better. They were such an interesting cast of characters and I feel like we only skimmed the surface.
The book starts out really strong, but loses its way towards the end. There were definitely points I thought it was almost over, only to see I had over an hour left according to my Kindle. However, I did like how the story wrapped up. And really this book gets all the points for a character getting stabbed and saying it's nothing compared to their cramps because honestly #truth.

This is such a captivating and twisty story. The setting was so well done and tied into the magic system perfectly. I loved the characters it was interesting learning who to trust and the bonds the main characters created solving such a deeply weird mystery. I also appreciated the characters hesitations to trust each other and to fully believe what they were uncovering. It helped the pacing of the book that they didn't all just dive into believing everything and fit well with the dark academia vibes. All around I really enjoyed this book and how everything came together in end. It was a very satisfying read.

When I first saw the cover and read the blurb for Unhallowed Halls, the promise of “dark academia with demons” instantly hooked me. I was thrilled to receive an advanced copy, and the book delivered on its dark, Gothic tone and fast-paced opening.
The side characters, with their found-family dynamic, were a highlight, and I enjoyed following the FMC’s journey as she uncovered why she was admitted to the academy. The romance was sweet, though I wished for more chemistry and buildup between the FMC and her love interest.

While the pacing kept things engaging, it sometimes felt too rushed, making it hard to fully connect with the characters. The mystery started strong but lost momentum in the third act, with a reveal that lacked the shock factor I’d hoped for.

Overall, Unhallowed Halls is an intriguing, atmospheric read that fans of YA and dark academia will likely enjoy.

RATING: 3.75/5⭐️

Thank you NetGalley and Delacorte Press for the opportunity to read this book.

This book gives the dark, mysterious, pompous boarding school to create the dark academia vibes. The main character comes off like every teenage girl who feels out of depth in their life and it comes off meh to me. The side characters are diverse and interesting but I kept losing interest in the interactions and the philosopher name dropping throughout the first half of the book. Its got a paranormal interesting take and mysterious plot but this book was not for me.

UNHALLOWED HALLS was an excellent paranormal thriller.

Page Whittaker is offered a scholarship to the mystery Agathion College in Scotland. This Florida girl has been looking for a new start after a disturbing incident that has left her with burn-scarred palms. Page has always been a loner. She's smarter and stranger than average teens and finds herself an outcast at whatever school she has attended and there have been lots of them. Every "incident" has resulted in her parents moving her to another school.

At first, Agathion College looks like just the place for her. She loves the atmosphere, the steaming cups of tea, and classes filled with intellectual debate. And it looks like she might finally be making friends. She finds herself in a group with Cyrus, Oak, Ren, Gideon and sometimes Lacey.

But everyone has a hidden agenda and has slotted Page into place to further it. Even her friends are keeping secrets from her. And then the weirdness begins... Cyrus "graduates" early and Page sees him taking part in a strange ritual.

She learns that her friends are part of a secret society who want to overthrow the school's Masters and stop the evil they have been perpetrating for centuries. But ancient evil isn't that easy to overcome, and all of the group will be tested to their limits before the thrilling finale.

I loved the complex worldbuilding complete with ancient goddesses and demons, and I loved the personalities of the members of Page's group. Page grows and changes a lot through the course of the story as she battles demons and finds love and friends.

This story mixes dark academia with fantasy using greek mythology, witchcraft and so much more. I thoroughly loved the queer and LGBTQIA+ representation included.

This story had so many layers and I liked our FMC even if I wish she had been a little more pushy with her questions at some points. This had some twists, betrayal, romance and found family elements that really brought the story together.

4.25 stars!

THOUGHTS

This book started so strong and then lost all that energy. I'm usually all for magic seeping into a story, so you know something's gone amiss when magic makes the book really take a sharp nosedive. But that's the case here. Or at least, that was my experience.


PROS
Mystical, Magical: Lili Wilkinson definitely nailed the vibe of these opening chapters, right from the start. The foggy highlands, the remote school built around a ring of standing stones, and the creepy feeling that there's something supernatural happening here: wonderful. Plus the casual relationship this book has to queerness is really nice. These characters can just exist, however they want, as whatever gender and with whatever magic they desire.

Serious Subject: In a book like this--a dark academia magic school book--I find either one or the other aspect is done well. Magic or academia: that's the choice. But this book doesn't make compromises. Though I've said the book takes a nosedive after the magic comes into the picture, that isn't the fault of the magic (the faults will be listed below). No, Lili Wilkinson takes both the academic portion and the magic portion seriously in this book, complete with requisite obscure academic references and dark and twisted magical interventions. I appreciate how well these two sides of the plot are married, at least in aesthetics.

High-Stakes Shenanigans: I do like a book that has high stakes, and the stakes here, well, they're pretty high. Like, world-ending high stakes. It adds a really nice sense of consequence to this magic school on the foggy moor.


CONS
Pacing Problems: The pacing in this book is... weird. The setup is really nice. It builds the setting, the main character, the sense of foreboding and suspense. And then... not much happens. It takes a while to get anywhere, and when we do get somewhere, things move so quickly that all sense of character development is just left in the dust. There was a lot of potential here, but it really wasn't that well executed. The transitions, the critical bits of character and plot development that would have made this book great, just didn't happen.

Ethical Conundrums: Hey, I get it. Not everybody's into ruthless characters. But I did find myself wondering if Wilkinson got some beta reader or editor feedback voicing some concern about these characters and the choices they were making. Because the plan as it was written in the near-final edition I read just didn't make sense. I'm going to tiptoe around this criticism for the sake of avoiding spoilers, but there's absolutely no way these kids weren't planning on killing people in the first draft. And they would, quite honestly, be justified in doing so. So the weird moralizing that happens in this draft feels... out of place. It doesn't make sense, because what do you mean they're undecided on what to do? You've already started on this path, and there is no other conclusion to the plan you've set in place. Also the weird wishy-washy way they don't trust each other didn't really make sense. There's basically a lot of back and forth that happens that doesn't serve the characters or the plot. It just makes everything... confusing. Like the author (or her initial readers) couldn't commit to the original vision of the plot.

Magic Makes It... Weirder: I love a good magic twist, and this book was set up for that twist so well. But... it didn't work. It didn't work, because the main character, who is otherwise so skeptical, just kind of shrugged and said, Okay, there's magic now. Which was so out of character. So beyond what this plot was set up for. So disappointing. Everything, character-wise, happened too quickly, and her backstory (which may have set her up for this revelation) was revealed so poorly that it didn't work. And that's disappointing. Because magic should only make a plot better, not lessen the impact. Alas.


Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
6/10
Those who loved Danielle Paige & Kass Morgan's The Ravens will like this new school and its secret society life. Those who enjoyed Pascale Lacelle's Curious Tides will like the high stakes of this dark magic world.

I enjoyed this book and believe that it will appeal to a portion of my students. I find that sometimes the dark academia genre skews a bit older than what is appropriate for older middle schoolers, but I would definitely be able to recommend this to some of my students.

The characters were interesting and the story developed well. There were enough twists and turns that kept me guessing, but nothing so crazy that I wasn’t prepared. I wouldn’t book talk this to my entire population, but absolutely to those into darker fantasy/paranormal or supernatural titles.

This book started out strong for me. I loved the atmosphere and world building. The mysterious school, with the even more mysterious school club. I didn't mind the fact that everything was left mysterious. I appreciated constantly being left in the dark. I was hoping for an unreliable narrator. Unfortunately, about half way through, the narrative started to lose me and my interest. It became difficult to finish the book. The mystery gave way to a more fantastical aspect, which just lost me. I wanted to like this more but it did veer into more unbelievable than enjoyable. It also felt rather long and stream out towards the end.

there were aLOt of twists and reshapings in this story, with the contexts continually changing, but all in all i really liked it. 4 stars. tysm for the arc.

If you like dark, mysterious, and boarding school students with a lot of unknowns factored in then this is the book for you. A lot happens within Unhallowed Halls, and it'll keep you on the edge of your seat for the entire book. It took me longer to read this book through and I had to put it down a few times. Strange things creeps around the boarding school and it's occupants in this book by Lili Wilkinson. This book is similar to Curious Tides.

I'd like to start with the positives. I devoured the first half of this book, it was so mysterious and interesting trying to figure out what was going on with the school and it's students. I loved it right up until you kinda figure out what's going on, and then the following 200+ pages felt like a completely different book. Once we were told what was what it lost all the mystery and intrigue and critique of the education system that made it dark academia, it just became a not so great supernatural thriller.

This is one of those books that on paper, it should be a book that I absolutely love but unfortunately that just wasn’t the case.

I do love the gothic dark academia setting and it’s very atmospheric, but I struggled with the pacing. But I do think that readers of the dark academia should still definitely add to their tbr. I just find that I’m extremely picky in that sub genre.

Content Warning: self-harm, violence, demon possession

This book definitely got the gothic, dark academia part down with it being set in Scotland. The setting is perfect for a boarding school filled with misfits. It’s dark, gloomy, always raining and cold, and surrounded by moors.

As for the story – something mysterious is happening at Agathion and it’s not only all the Greek philosophy being studied at the school. Something dark and sinister. That also was done very well in the book I feel, the whole atmosphere of impending doom.

Page is trying to find where she fits in at Agathion and she thought she finally found her place until she figures out what is happening at the school. Who can she really trust? Even with her new found friends, I didn’t feel like she could trust anyone until the very end. As a character, I didn’t really connect to her but I thought she had a lot of growth as the story went on. There is a little romance which I found to be kind of sweet.

I did like the chaos of everything happening in the book, there are a few twists and turns but I think there were times where too much was happening and at times it got confusing. It may just be a pacing issue for me and it being just a tad bit too long.


Final Thoughts:

I thought overall this was an entertaining read. It did take me a few days to read because of the pacing issues but I did push through even when things got confusing because a lot was going on. It’s got all the gothic vibes, a little romance, a little magic, some fantasy, and some demon possession. If you like dark academia, demons and Scottish mores, you might enjoy this one.

this had a lot of potential but i think it just kind of fell flat for me. i am interested in seeing where this author goes in the future though