I've read a lot of books that are about how to learn magic, and I think that this is the first book I've read about how to teach magic. I loved it. It gave me the fun of the setting of a magic school, but with a point of view that was sufficiently novel to make it feel not even a little bit derivative. It turns out that the plot archetypes of learning magic don't apply at all, and so I didn't have a deep sense of where the story was going to go.

I think one of the key things that a magic school novel has to do is to make the experience and challenges of being a young student of magic feel believable; it gets really boring when the answer is the students just have to try harder or believe in their selves more. To that end, I loved the way that The Magicians made it clear that learning magic involved a lot of hard study, and The Incandescent does that as well. I think of books like The Will of the Many where the student characters sometimes feel like caricatures of pure determination, which I don't really identify with and which don't line up with what I think my seventeen-year-old self was like, even from the inside; the key thing with this book is that the narrator is a teacher, and so when she views the students, she sees them from an adult's point of view, which does line up with my current view of myself at seventeen. I was once that age and facing similar academic expectations and studying really hard, and The Incandescent feels really believable.

That believability is maybe the greatest praise I can give this book. The worldbuilding feels self-consistent and doesn't require me to imagine that societies of people in similar conditions to the real world would behave fundamentally differently to the way that real societies do. Emily Tesh's world is a one where magic exists but it is difficult to do, and so most people don't bother, where it's just another specialist subject that faces questions of what career opportunities exist once you graduate. I imagine that if you showed someone from a hundred years ago what a computer can do, they would feel like that was magic and be surprised that every single person wasn't a programmer to be able to wield that magic, but we aren't all doing that, and so neither is everybody in this book learning magic.

It turns out that Tesh is herself a teacher in Hertfordshire and did go to Cambridge; this surprises me not at all (who else would have a character sing "Oh, I'd rather be at Oxford than St. Johns"?). The degree of specificity in the writing about what it is to be a teacher (and why one would want to be a teacher) is so perfect that I would have been shocked to learn that she had no experience with it. The nitty gritty details of the day to day give the whole book an incredible grounding. Tesh has clearly had both a lot of experience with and given a lot of thought to the ways that people interact with privilege in education, and that thoughtfulness and intent shines through. If there is any justice in this world, this book will be incredibly popular; it has certainly set a standard against which I will compare future books.

3.8

This one was like if Emily Wilde, Evocation, and An Academy For Liars had a love child. I really appreciated our analytical middle aged workaholic professor protagonist. I thought it was really refreshing that the novice teenagers weren't the heroes or focus of the story. I liked the world building and hard magic system the author developed. I love how in depth and academic this book gets. I think some people will be frustrated by the relationships in this story, but I think it's well balanced and realistic that Saffy would be socially/romantically awkward and maybe miss some cues.

I think that where this book could use a little bit of work is adding in some emotional counterbalance to the dry analytical pov. And it was a little frustrating for someone so careful and competent to miss some of the glaring things that were happening.

Overall, I enjoyed it a lot and I am happy to recommend it to customers and followers who are fans of dark academia. (Specifically those who were a little disappointed in Evocation for not focusing enough on the demonic aspects of the story.)

Ugh, Emily Tesh. One of our greatest living authors. Her capacity to shift between genres with such ease while creating characters with such complexity adds to the thrill of reading her books. This take on dark academia was delightful, insightful, and, at times, perfectly dull in an almost refreshing way. The writing really takes off when a new narrator takes hold and very much wish we could’ve spent a little more time in that arc.

This is very much as described: Scholomance series by Naomi Novik but with teachers and from their perspective. Beware going in, there is very British terminology being used in this book — though entirely comprehensible. It was wonderful to step into this magical, old British private (public in the UK) school setting from the point of view of a middle aged woman. She is not only extremely good at what she does but is one of the few at the top of her field and bisexual, but also quite the role model for the young adults who will be effecting change in their generations. So wholesome while also dark and twisty. This book is definitely the breath of fresh air I needed. Highly recommend.

If I had a nickle for everytime one of my gay ships cut one an arm off their partner I'd have two nickels. Which is weird that it happened twice-
I LOVEEEE dark academia, especially sapphic, but another relationship in this had me WORRIED for a second. I really also liked learning about each of the students

I loved the idea of a magic school story that focuses on a teacher instead of a student, and this did not disappoint. I definitely related to Doctor Walden as a character who likes to study, educate, and excel at everything (except, perhaps, social interactions, haha). The magic system, where you have to actually work to get good and even a simple mistake can result in demonic possession, was fabulous. Really enjoyable.

this book was decadent and lush and delicious and dark, and I was gripped the entire time. I would love more by this author!!

Look at you, eating magic like you're one of us."

Doctor Walden is the Director of Magic at Chetwood School and one of the most powerful magicians in England. Her days consist of meetings, teaching A-Level Invocation to four talented, chaotic sixth formers, more meetings, and securing the school's boundaries from demonic incursions.

Walden is good at her job—no, Walden is great at her job. But demons are masters of manipulation. It’s her responsibility to keep her school with its six hundred students and centuries-old legacy safe. And it’s possible the entity Walden most needs to keep her school safe from—is herself.

Did you enjoy Naomi Novik's Scholomance series which starts with Deadly Education? If so, I think you will LOVE The Incandescent by Emily Tesh. This magical school story is told from the perspective of a teacher rather than from the perspective of a student within the school. There is very little romance in this book, but the characters are very caring about each other. This story features racially diverse characters, and the main character is bi.

Thank you to Tor Publishing for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!
I was so excited to read this book!
I’ve been a big fan of Emily Tesh since I read her Greenhollow Duology. That was one of the novella series that really put me in the mindset of reading as many novellas as possible — which is now my whole personality. So, truly: me and Emily Tesh are best friends! I was quick to read her debut novel, Some Desperate Glory, which got a lot of very deserved critical praise.And I was excited to read The Incandescent — especially because it was comped with Naomi Novik’s Scholomance trilogy, which is one of my favorites!
I was also looking forward to Tesh’s disruption of my expectations. Every single Emily Tesh book is completely different. Like I wrote in my review of Some Desperate Glory, from reading the Greenhollow Duology, folklore and romance-heavy episodic novellas, you would imagine something of what Emily Tesh likes to write. But she did a 180 and dropped a military sci-fi, complete with spaceships, alternate universes, and aliens. And there’s one more surprise waiting for you — whatever you think the story is going to be about, Tesh is going to flip it over your head. It’s about to be about something else entirely.
Similarly, I went into The Incandescent with an expectation of what the plot was going to be. That happens when you read a lot of genre fiction and get used to the genre conventions (and there’s nothing wrong with it!). I guess I forgot about Tesh’s predispositions to surprise me! The synopsis promises the magic school trope, but in a contemporary preppy English boarding school. And we don’t follow the children, but the Director of Magic, Dr. Walden. She’s a very talented magician, a workaholic, and has complicated relationships to the demons that make up this world’s magic system.The thorn on her side is an Awesome Hot Magic Demon Fighter Lady who’s in charge of the security of the school. And now they have to work together to face a massive threat living underneath the school…
I won’t spoil it by telling you what the twist is. But I will say that, although I thought the pacing was great, it’s a lot less action-heavy than that synopsis might imply. There’s a lot of reflecting on the role of schooling in a child’s life, and the impact individual educators have on them. The setting also leads us to the unavoidable discussion of privilege (which, although very present, isn’t the main focus of the story), especially along the lines of race and class.
What I thought was more striking, though, was how Tesh approaches the “two worlds” inside a school. For the students, Tesh writes, the school is their whole world. Boarding schools, especially, are bubbles for their students. It’s where they live, where they see all their friends, and where they learn. But, for the staff and for the faculty, the school is their workplace. Although boarding school adults live there too, their relationship to that space and that community is very different than a student.
It’s kind of embarrassing to admit, but this analysis was an epiphany for me — and I’ve been in school my entire life. As a college junior, I’m a fairly recent high school graduate. And I went to a similarly preppy private school with a heavy legacy and a lot of rich classmates. The school was my whole world, and when I left, it was a bit of a shock — a positive one, to be honest. It kinda sucked over there. But I’m embarrassed to say I never considered how my teachers saw the same space I saw. The Incandescent made me think about them — how did they see themselves, and how did they see me?
The title of the book comes from its epigraph, which waxes about the “adolescent incandescent”. Throughout the story, Walden is frequently in awe of her students’, of their potential and their intelligence. I guess I never thought teachers had opinions about their students, but now it’s obvious that of course they do. I never thought teachers fought amongst themselves, or that – oh MY GOD – they dated each other, or something. As an adult, with my own coworkers to speak of, I found myself returning to my high school teachers and imagining them in their teacher’s lounge. Who did they absolutely hate, and who did they hope to run into every workday?
Similarly, I was touched by the appreciation Tesh (and Dr. Walden) have for the staff of the school — from secretaries to custodial and maintenance staff. Schools this size are the devil (no pun intended) to run, as the book evidences. The nitty gritty is often the worst of it, which obviously includes making sure all the smart boards or whatever the fuck are working, and that the kids aren’t clogging up every toilet at once. When I was in high school, I remember the maintenance, custodial and secretarial staff being huge presences in our lives. Some of them were mythical, like Dona Eneida, who had been at school for ages and who controlled everything (she once checked over my shoulder when I told her there was an issue with a test’s alternatives, and it was terrifying). Some of them were the nicest and just took care of us, like Seu Luís. I have a video I took on my last Monday at the school — right on the cusp of graduating. It’s a first person POV of me and my best friend walking out for the last time on a Monday. Why I thought this was significant to videotape, I can’t say, but I’m glad I did. It was nice looking back. A prominent figure in the video is Gil, a security guard who was standing by the exits and watching over us leaving the school. He couldn’t have been more than 25. In the video, we cheer when we see him and we ask if he’s feeling better after being out sick. These people were staples of our daily lives and they watched out for us every day as we went in and out of the school. It’s a sad thing to realize how little credit they get for doing what they do.
But Tesh is firm with the idea that “every child is every adult’s responsibility”. She shows us point blank how actively adults (all of them) in schools are involved in caretaking. How they go “above and beyond” what is literally in their job descriptions to create healthy environments and to take care of the children. And I guess I never really realized anyone was taking care of me.
This, I think, was the best time for me to read this book. As college graduation rapidly approaches, – oh my GOD – I think I’m at the moment where I stop being a kid. Now I’m a (mostly) grown adult. I’m supposed to get a big girl job, and pay even more taxes, and – fuck. – deal with insurance or whatever. All things I’ve been doing for a while, but now it’s for real. And this moment really does give you some perspective. I’m at the age where a lot of my teachers and staff members at the school were when they started their career paths. Now children and teens are my responsibility, just as I used to be these people’s. And Tesh’s The Incandescent is a lovely way to come full circle. No matter how many terrible memories I have of my (endless) days at Brazilian Private School, Tesh has helped me to see that, all that time, I was being watched over. And y’know, there wasn’t an actual demon living beneath the school, but we did come real close to a metaphorical one.
So, today I guess I’m grateful for all the adults that kept me from getting (metaphorically, and maybe literally a couple of times) eaten. Thank you for showing me wonderful things. I promise I’ll remember them for a long time.

I’m an Emily Tesh maniac; I have enjoyed everything she’s written and this was no exception. While “The Incandescent” did not reach the exhilarating highs of “Some Desperate Glory” for me, I doubt it was meant to: its main character is a middle-aged teacher rather than a teen fated to change the world, and her job is to guide those fated teens to make good decisions in their education and personal lives. The magic system and demonic worldbuilding were really well-done and explained clearly, making plot developments sensible but not predictable. There’s a little bit of romance in here – minor - and a twist that is telegraphed rather purposefully from the beginning so much that it is barely a twist, and on the whole this was a very fun, easy-to-read novel from a unique perspective in fantasy.

This book was essentially A Deadly Education from the perspective of a teacher, and I loved it. I really enjoy Emily Tesh's writing style, and Saffy was such a great main character. She felt so complex and well-rounded, as did the supporting cast of characters. The world Tesh created, while confined to the school most of the time, is expansive. I also really appreciated the commentary Tesh makes about education and what educators have to deal with on a daily basis.

I liked this one to start but unfortunately we aren’t clicking right now so I’m hoping to come back to it later and give it another shot! Loved the concept loved the characters but unfortunately idk what it is, we aren’t clicking

Emily Tesh looked into my heart and pulled this book out!! Oh my gosh this was good. It's slow, and character-driven and a bit pretentious, but in all the ways I love!!

I constantly read books set at schools that don't give you enough SCHOOL I want to be in the classes and learning, and in this book, you're following from the perspective of a TEACHER! You get sooo much learning and also so much interesting insight on teaching and education. The MC is quite isolated and lonely (without admitting it) so her journey is also lovely to watch.

There's some romance, some intrigue, some demonic possessions, and truly, I cannot praise this book highly enough!!!!

I thoroughly enjoyed this, though not as much as Some Desperate Glory. Emily Tesh is a thoroughly talented author. I'm not sure I would label this as dark academia, but it does primarily fall under that category. I honestly thought it was surprisingly cozy for the genre (this may have more to do with the fact that the book talks a lot about the mundanity of academia). I found most of this book pretty delightful. For the longest time I could not figure out where it was going, which I enjoyed deeply. I know it's being marketed as a sapphic fantasy, which I find more incidental than purposeful. The MC just happens to be queer. The romance is really not a huge feature, so if that's appealing to you, go for it!

Emily Tesh’s previous book, Some Desperate Glory, is one of my absolute favorite books. Needless to say, my expectations were high going into this one. I am happy to say that, for the most part, it delivered.

Dr. Saffy Walden is the head of magical safety at the elite British boarding school she herself attended as a child. Her specialty is summoning demons, and she teaches the highest level course on that subject to a select few exceptional students. I am sure you can imagine the kind of things that might go wrong with this basis so I shan’t spoil anything further, but I will say that there are plot elements I both did and did not see coming, and I enjoyed all of them deliciously.

The world of The Incandescent is very much like our own, in fact a little too much which is one of my small complaints. It seems to me that having magic exist in the open for so long would have changed things a little more than it appears to have done, especially since demons possessing technology is a real concern. That aside, I really enjoyed how the magic system worked, the demon summoning and the wards and arrays were believable without going into bogged down details.

What it is like being a teacher and administrator at an elite magical boarding school was mostly very interesting, though I admit I got a little tired of spending so much time in Walden’s head. It was refreshing however to have a dark academia book not from a students perspective but rather that of a thirty-something administrator. Behind the scenes of the boarding school genre, as it were.

The last third of the book however really picks up the pace and I was on the edge of my seat, reading in one go. I ended up loving it, and caring about characters I didn’t think I would.

I definitely recommend, especially if dark academia is your jam, and if you feel a little bogged down in the middle, keep going, it’s absolutely worth it! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for access to the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

It’s a problem I have: I love magic schools, dark academia aesthetics, all of it—but nine out of ten books that fit that genre seem to be YA or YA-adjacent. As someone closer to forty than twenty, my interest in reading about teenage drama is on a serious wane.

Enter The Incandescent. This book is a love letter to everything academia, from the classic crisp October campus vibes to the mundanity of school exams. But unlike most books in a similar vein, The Incandescent is told from the perspective of the faculty, which gives a more mature view of the genre. There’s still teenage drama—of course, it’s a boarding by school!—but there’s also coworker camaraderie and career goals.

But most of all, The Incandescent was just a delight to read. All of the characters were compelling, the setting of Chetwood school was lovingly drawn, and there were multiple heart-pounding scenes where I couldn’t have set this book down to save my life.

My only criticism is that after the banger of the first third of the book, it felt like the story rambled for a bit before picking back up on the plot. It was very enjoyable rambling though and the writing was extremely well-done throughout, so I’m not complaining much.

If you enjoyed A Deadly Education, The Magicians, or any other classic magic school series, you’ll love The Incandescent.

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!

I had a lot of fun with this overall, and I liked Saffy Walden's perspective and the world of the book. It read a LOT like Scholomance, like maybe too much for comfort, but I liked it better than that series because a) it's about adults rather than children and b) there isn't QUITE so much exposition in the middle of otherwise exciting or plot-moving sequences. It's kind of like a mix of the Emily Wilde series and Scholomance--cozy, academia-fetishizing, much more an exploration of a world than a plot-driven adventure, with a hyper-competent professor heroine. If that all sounds good to you, you'll probably like this. If you like less exposition and worldbuilding in favor of more stuff actually happening, this book probably isn't for you.

One of my favourite reads of 2024. I love the slow burn of the sapphic romance. I love seeing academia from a headmistresses perspective. I love the pacing and time gaps and unreliable narration! I loved the whole thing and cannot wait to hug my pre-ordered copy!

I really liked the beginning and the end but the middle was a little bit of a slog. It could have benefited from stronger world-building and maybe some more POVs. The main character is very shut off from the world and that is reflective in the writing. And one of the big plot holes is that she doesn't have a person's phone number so she can't contact them for help, but, like, in the next chapter her students see she needs help so they Google the person and get into contact with them... plus half of the staff also have this person's number. OG was just too lame or proud to ask them.

Also, like, this lady had a super powerful demon bound to her, so definitely going to become a problem, right? It did, and we got the POV of the demon when it did, which was great! I just wished it was throughout the whole book so you could see the struggle. Plus, there was an ethical storyline that they had about if a demon was human and what is a human and is it ethical to banish demons and cast magic on them without their consent... and it is never resolved. The main character starts to see this demon as an equal, but doesn't fully get there and never talks about these realizations to anyone else. Which was annoying because then no big changes are made in this magical world.

It's also a very predictable book which is probably why it felt slow through the middle. I really enjoyed having a magical book through an adult lens, but the storyline was still very juvenile/ya.

The demon in the printer would be an excellent novella, if the author is looking for ways to expand the universe a bit.