I love dark academia and I thought this was an incredibly unique book in the genre, the concept of having the POV from a professor was great!, great character development and atmosphere, was a bit slow in parts but overall I really enjoyed it, the world building is fantastic, very moody/atmospheric

3.5, I think-- but The Incandescent is so hard for me to rate because I had some really mixed feelings, and I absolutely think it is worth a read

There are so many things I loved about this book, starting with its concept, which I absolutely ADORED. Why haven't we thought to do magical school + demons, but make it about the responsible adults, before?! Such a fun idea and so many humorous ways that this can be fleshed out (we didn't necessary get there here), I really hope to see more of this in the future. As a 38 year old reader, I also really enjoyed that this was a bit of a love story to aging and one's sense of self. It had some really great messaging about growth and maturity, including recognizing that while we can and should learn from our failures, they are also what make us who we are, openness to others. I also really appreciated the social commentary on privilege in general, white privilege, and generational and institutionalized wealth. Overall, great messaging in this book-- if I hadn't been reading an e-copy, I would have annotated, which is UNHEARD of for me. I also really enjoyed the plot and was really surprised by certain aspects of it, even though I really shouldn't have been. I am now a part of the Emily Tesh fan club and will be reading her backlist because of how expertly she was able to foreshadow what was going to happen, but somehow still surprised me when it did.

I know, I know, after reading all that, you probably think I am confused and meant to rate this 5 stars. I truly wanted to, and I am so SO sad it didn't quite get there for me. Where the book lost me a bit was in its personality, or lack thereof. It's hard to explain (although I sure will try), but the main character was just so technical and proficient and walled, that it almost seemed to dull down the entire experience of this book.

Saffy, the MC, is a school administrator/teacher/highly skilled invoker, and her professions (and in particular her perceived professional proficiencies) are her WHOLE personality. She thinks she is very good at her job and spends much of the book in exposition, explaining to the reader (and occasionally others) how to do her job and do it right, and then doing the things that she just explained. I get that this book is an ode to adulting, and the day to day of being a responsible adult can be fairly mundane and boring, but also, as a responsible adult reader, I get enough of that IRL and don't need to go quite so deep in the weeds of someone else's mundanity. Truly, this novel is also a paean to school administration and teaching, but-- and no shade to any school administrators or teachers out there-- there are some really boring aspects of those jobs (think, less classroom time; more paperwork), and this book went really in-depth and technical into that.

As an example, the book would be all, "ATTENTION BIG DEMON EMERGENCY," and I'd be loving it and on the edge of my seat, like "ooooh dang, shit's going down, what's going to happen next!" But you know what happens next?! Lots and lots of paperwork. And then also finding coverage so you can present said paperwork to governing boards, and then lots of meetings about who should be losing their job over said demon emergency, and then more paperwork, and probably some assemblies, and just general dotting of is and crossing of ts. And when the main personality trait of the person doing said tasks is proficiency, oh my goodness is it dull to read about. This book would have been so much more fun and impactful, imho, if it had injected some more personality into these tasks. Isn't the biggest secret of adulthood that we're all basically still just dumb kids-- except bigger and slightly more experienced-- flying by the seat of our pants while pretending everything's fine and we know what's going on?

Anyway, the pros definitely outweigh the cons (really just one con) for this book, but I do suspect that it will not find a loving home amongst all audiences. I especially recommend this one for older (middle aged?) thirty-something+ adults, people who work in education, and those passionate about organizational bureaucracy, paperwork, and tidiness.

A story about a magical school from the perspective of the professor! How could I not be drawn in? I adore the way that Tesh builds a world so clearly in the voice of her characters. There was a curious wonder to the world building in the Silver in the Wood duology. Here there is an academic tone that is not amiss amongst these magical halls of academia. Our protagonist, Dr. Walden, is flawed, of course, but she is also incredibly smart and strong and she doesn't shy away from that. Also, there's a sapphic love story woven in!

I need this to be a series

4.5 stars

There were things I liked about this book and things I didn’t. The good first. The voice, pacing, and plot were all great. I always felt engaged and entertained as I was reading. Magical academia is not a novel concept, but seeing it from a teacher’s perspective felt fresh. I also really enjoyed the main character, Dr. Walden, as she didn’t fall into the usual pitfalls that characters do. She was smart and powerful, yes, but she also made mistakes and said the wrong things and had realistic self-doubts. I was invested in her story and wanted to see her struggle and grow and succeed. As for the things I didn’t like, I readily admit that they’re more a matter of preference than anything. The worldbuilding, for one, didn’t do it for me. It was heavy on the exposition, and that just isn’t my style. I’d much rather be dropped into a world and have to figure it out on my own. My other main complaint was the at the magic had no feeling. It was all described either visually or technically—meaning through the theory behind it—and it wasn’t as immersive as it could have been. I like reading about magic because I like to imagine doing it myself, and this book wasn’t the best at allowing the reader that escape.

There are soooo many books about magic schools. I'm a fan! But the untold story of the magic school is that of the teachers. What's it like to be a teacher faced with powerful magic students who have no idea how to control powers that could end up damaging themselves or everything around them?

The Incandescent are the students. Incandescent, and frankly, exhausting. They burn bright and everyone else has to deal with getting light in their eyes while shepherding these brilliant wonders safely through their adolescent idiocy into adulthood. Of course Emily Tesh would see the Magic School genre and turn it on its head, just like she turned the jingoistic plucky Last Men Standing in Some Desperate Glory and pointed out that those plucky Last Men might actually be inflexible fascists, maybe.

It feels to me like Tesh knows the life of an educator intimately. Always just a little too much to do and not quite enough time to do anything as well as you'd like. There are classes. There is grading. There is all the committee and administrative work that no one notices but that is essential to the running of a school. There are financial and political worries, both personal and for the school. Things and people constantly break down, need repair, need oversight, need some TLC. Exhausting. Why do you do it? Because you care, because you love what you do, the people you help, the idea of making a difference. The job will take from you until there's nothing more to take.

Dr. Walden has made Chetwood School her life because there's not room for anything else. She doesn't date, doesn't really leave the campus, doesn't spare herself anything. But in her her past there was Saffy, herself as a student at Chetwood, a girl who was part of a calamity that might be part of the reason that Dr. Walden can't let the school go. Walden knows the danger.

It pains me not to rate this book higher. Why didn't I? Walden was so closed down that I had a hard time loving her as much as I wanted to. I wanted more glimpses of Saffy and a bit more of the past that led Walden to be who she became. Maybe it's because I work in education myself. The worn down yet empathetic persona of Dr Walden, with her walls just high enough to protect her while still allowing others to use her for support, that feels all to familiar. The feeling like you're trying your best yet something somewhere must be going wrong because you can't pay attention to everything, yep. Maybe it's because the Magic School genre for me is a cosy escape and being in a teacher's head shows the Behind the Scenes that allow students their gentle reality. I wanted more of the gentle escape than the Woman Behind the Curtain.

Also, Walden's students never came all the way to life. This is because they were just the latest batch of Incandescents in a long string of them, that's very real. But Walden made some mistakes with them that pained me. She actually made quite a few decisions that pained me, since as a reader of this book I knew more and could see more than Walden could. Maybe it's just that for me, this book was just a little too close to home. I've got to give Tesh kudos for her paean to teaching, though.

*The Incandescent* by Emily Tesh is an absolute triumph, a breathtakingly beautiful novel that captivates from the very first page. Tesh’s lyrical prose effortlessly weaves a tale of magic, love, and self-discovery, set in a vividly imagined world where nothing is as it seems. The story follows a strong, complex protagonist who is drawn into a world of ancient secrets and untold power. Tesh’s masterful world-building and deeply emotional character development create a gripping narrative that explores themes of identity, belonging, and transformation. The relationship at the heart of the novel is tender and poignant, full of raw emotion and passion. What truly sets *The Incandescent* apart is its unique blend of fantasy and literary depth, making it not just a story, but an experience. Emily Tesh’s storytelling is nothing short of magical, and this novel is a must-read for fans of immersive, thought-provoking fantasy. Unforgettable and utterly enchanting!

Y’all, I wanted so much to love this book and on paper I should have. I mean a sapphic dark academia with magic?! Sounds right up my alley but I struggled so much with it. There was so much world building at the beginning that I never really felt like I got the grasp of.

A magical school is one of my favorite settings for a fantasy novel. We so often see schools from the perspective of students. Though not always children, authors rarely focus on the experience of teachers in these magical schools. Emily Tesh introduced us to Doctor Walden and showed us how much strain keeping young magical children safe puts on someone. Doctor Walden was also Saffy, Sapphire, and Walden. This multiplicity is something many teachers experience having to separate themselves into different personalities for the sake of professionalism. Walden was incredibly relatable to anyone who has ever taught before.

Walden's journey throughout the book was interesting to see as she let herself be split further and further and ultimately making it back together. Tesh used names in an interesting way to hint at what was slowly happening to Walden. While the beginning was a bit slower paced than I would have liked, the twist at the end was absolutely not what I was expecting and made me not want to put the book down for the last 1/4. I found the resolution slightly unsatisfying as a lot was left unexplained. This was balanced out by the wonderful world building and magic system. Overall, I found this book a wonderful addition to the fantasy genre and I hope to see more teachers as main characters in the future.

Emily Tesh won my heart with her Greenhollow Duology though I never got around to her first novel. That was clearly a mistake, because The Incandescent is one of the most lovely, heart-wrenching and original fantasy novels I have read in ages! Walden is a glorious character, flawed yet unyieldingly competent. I loved how she talks herself through interactions with the teenagers in her care and seeing how that translates into her relationships with adults. The teenagers themselves absolutely broke my heart at times. But really, I knew I was in as soon as the demon in the photocopier went on strike. Dark academia has felt stale for so long and though this is in a completely different direction from Babel, it feels like an equally welcome new direction!

This is a magnificent book. A magic boarding school, seen from the teacher's lounge, is already my jam. The exceeded my expectations by a wide margin. About a quarter of the way in, there is a sequence that in any other book would be the climax. I was wondering how exactly it was going to top that. But it did.

Highly recommended.

4/5

Enter a magical academy seemingly like no other, one where modern technology presents a problem for the staff trained to wrangle students against a host of demonic entities seeking to gain entry to the mortal plane. Tesh flips the script for the magical school setting bringing focus on its professors and the director of magic, whose job is to keep the school running smoothly, especially against the powerful demon who has set its sights on the school. The humor lies in the absurdity – from the risk assessment forms teachers are required to fill out ahead of term, the imp possessing the copier with a taste for digestive biscuits, to the students suffering through coursework (summoning demons). The Incandescent examines all the ways in which a person can become tied to a place and whether or not centering identity around a place so strongly can have detrimental effects. Witnessing Walden shouldering her pain and the burden of the expectations attached to the place she loves so much was overwhelmingly poignant. Tesh voices the weight of magic and the costs of harnessing such power no matter the intention. Complete with a hot butch who runs into the fire after her idiot crush the Incandescent is a startling & fresh take on a classic setting and a standalone few will regret venturing into!

This review will be featured on my blog closer to publication!