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.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher to providing me with a galley of Emily Tesh's The Incandescent in exchange for an honest review.

I...loved it? I've been looking for an academic-set book featuring sapphic relationships that wasn't quite *so* dark as many other titles coming out now. Despite many of the themes touched up on in this book, this is what I think of when I think of "light academia."

I fell in love with Walden INSTANTLY. Laura was made for the lady gays. I adored the setting. I enjoyed the students. It isn't often (in my experience anyway) that we get to read a school academia from the perspective of the staff so that was such a novel storytelling choice.

It's 1 am and I have no brain power left nor an ounce of eloquence left so TL;Dr if you like reading about unique demon portrayals, academic settings, and barely socially functional bisexuals, read this. The writing is aces. Walden makes some choices that feel somewhat odd to me towards the 2/3 mark but on the whole I can't complain.

Four stars. Everybody read it.

This dark academia fantasy with a sapphic twist drew me in right away with its moody, magic-filled atmosphere and complex characters.

Doctor Walden is the kind of protagonist I love—powerful, competent, and layered with inner conflict. As the Director of Magic at Chetwood School, she’s responsible for protecting the school from demonic forces while teaching Invocation to a group of gifted but unruly students. Walden’s life might seem orderly on the surface, but the deeper the story goes, the more you see how fragile that order really is. The demons she battles are cunning, but it quickly becomes clear that her greatest struggle might lie within herself.

Emily Tesh crafts a world that feels dark, tense, and utterly immersive. The stakes are high, the magic system is fascinating, and the tension between Walden’s duty and her doubts creates an underlying sense of dread that keeps you hooked. Plus, the way she weaves queer representation into the story feels both natural and meaningful, something Tesh does so well.

I first fell in love with Tesh’s writing in her Greenhollow Duology. And in contrast, this book was a surprise, as it does have quite a lot of narrative backstory and explanation, whereas one of the things I most admired about the Greenhollow Duology was how tightly written it was. It accomplishes so much in a rather small word count. The Incandescent, meanwhile, rambles, and it’s also a different type of story—modern-day and dry-humored, complete with cell phones and photocopiers, rather than the Wild Man of the woods in a past century. So, it was not at all the same type of experience, but I do admire when an author shows range and variety, so I can still give points for that.

I think this book would especially appeal to those who want to see what the running of a magical school in Britain would REALLY look like, from the point of view of a responsible, caring adult in charge. (Though is this adult really so responsible? That's the climactic chilling question.) It is indeed a reassuring contrast to the careless and downright idiotic mayhem allowed at the famous wizarding school of She Who Must Be Named and Whose Books Have Essentially Destroyed Magic-School Stories for Me. That’s admittedly another difficulty I had—I think I’m just over magic schools, for the time being. But I will say that despite all that, Tesh’s angle on it was refreshing and interesting, and it did go a little bit of the way toward possibly repairing my relationship with the subgenre. And if you still love magic-school stories, and want an adult view of the situation rather than the overdone MG or YA side, you should definitely check out this book.

Loved that it was queer, too. Another thing She Who Must Not etc. would obviously not do.

The Incandescent is a book that actually lives up to one of its comp titles (The Scholomance series by Naomi Novik). I had forgotten that it was even mentioned in the blurb on the various book websites, and so I spent most of the book being reminded of A Deadly Education because it has a very similar feel, which I think is the most important factor when comparing books to one another.

I thought the writing and narration was very funny, and easy to digest. Walden is a very interesting character, and it was really neat to read a magical school book from the point of view of a teacher, rather than a student. I tore through the last 70% of it in one morning, and had I not started this book right before the first week of school in the new year, I would have finished it one or two days right when I started it because I just wanted to keep on reading. I liked the characters, the plot was interesting, and the worldbuilding was fun to read and didn’t feel info-dumpy. I've read the Greenhollow Duology and Some Desperate Glory by the same author, and The Incandescent is by far my favourite of her work now. Really enjoyed this book, if you like magical schools, give it a read!

This book is well crafted and an evocative story that immersed me in a world filled with magic, mystery, and unforgettable characters. The writing is very lyrical writing which brought to life the enchanting landscape and the complex emotions of her characters. The twists and turns keep the narrative engaging and unpredictable, while the vivid descriptions and lush world-building create an immersive reading experience. I really enjoyed how the themes of love, loss, and identity came together in a way that felt both timeless and deeply relevant. The relationships between the characters are beautifully developed, adding depth and emotional resonance to the story. While some parts of the narrative may feel slow, the overall pacing is well-balanced and ensures that the reader remains captivated.

This is a must read for fans of magical realism and literary fiction. Recommended for those looking for a thought-provoking and emotionally rich novel.

Potteresque Narrative That Pulls Readers into a Consistent Magical World

“…Sapphic dark academia fantasy by… bestselling author Emily Tesh, winner of the Hugo and World Fantasy Awards.” Tesh has been winning awards between 2020-4, with the one Hugo for best-novel coming at the end of this cycle. She teaches classics in England. The publisher stresses that a summarizing line from this novel is: “Look at you, eating magic like you’re one of us.” There is a common trope in fantasy of showing division between insiders and outsiders of aristocracy-imitating cliques. It is a good way to build tension into a story by designating an outsider as the automatic hero, who is being accosted by a group that automatically becomes the villain that needs to be vanquished.
“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.” This sentence made me question what this is about. These ideas are explained in the first few pages of the novel. Walden is teaching a class called “Upper Sixth”, which involves a “lab practical”, with a “lesson” such as summoning “a medium-sized demon for the first time”. This class is taken by a small group of four 17-year-old magicians. Though this did not explain just what the term “formers” meant and why it was being used together with “sixth”, as in “sixth formers”. What is the “sixth” that is being formed, when they are summoning something that is already formed, like a demon? As I read further into this book, I did not find a simple definition for “sixth”.
“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.” Inside, Tesh elaborates that this school is “six and a half centuries” old. “And it’s possible the entity Walden most needs to keep her school safe from—is herself.” Walden is holding a drink in a scene, but more significantly there are questions about who Walden is, and if she is as in-control as she made it sound.
“Chapter 1: Risk Assessment” opened with a few academic jobs amidst a serious explanation about the downsides of leading a magic school when magic tended to cause the death of its practitioners. This book explores the rules of this magical universe as closely as some the Harry Potter series, or the last fantasy series I read in college (a Harvard PhD friend convinced me that it was popular, so I had to find out why he was recommending a children’s book) before no longer being able to just sit down and read pop-fantasy cover-to-cover… Rowling found a way to combine the introduction of curious novelties in her depiction of evolving magical practices, while keeping the language extremely simply, thus allowing for the reading of a thick book in as little as a day. One element that reminded me of Potter is the use by Tesh of details that make magic realistic or like a world that invites the suspension of disbelief. A few pages into the book, Walden describes a list of magical incidents she is reviewing in a “risk assessment”, noting, including: “summoning array misfire” and “magician error (underconfidence)”. Tesh is committing to this world and exploring how it would look from an administrator’s perspective. It is a better story when the narrator ponders about giving a student a D or a C/D aloud, and self-analyzes her grading policy as it works to help students grow. In contrast, many books try too hard to make a story “fun” or “deep” by having characters discuss or think about random topics that are unrelated to the main plotline. In this case, the plot is the administration of a school, and that’s what the author focuses on. This book is dense with information. I did not find wasted paragraphs. Each line delivered some interesting, and thought-through idea. Ghosts are explained as being capable of skinning people. “Teenage magicians attract demons. A beginner is a natural target for a magical predator… all that power none of the common sense…” They can “get eaten by demons.” The philosophizing in different sections is relevant to the narrative. For example, near the end there are reflections of who Walden is, from her physical body, to her “mental construction” of herself, and the demonically possessed self. The author is in control of these ideas, instead of making the mistake of borrowing theories without really understanding their implications.
It’s very tempting to just read this book cover-to-cover; if only there was all the time in the world. Those with enough time, and who are interested in academia, should enjoy taking a break with this novel.
—Pennsylvania Literary Journal, Fall 2024: https://anaphoraliterary.com/journals/plj/plj-excerpts/book-reviews-fall-2024

I really enjoyed this read. This was my first LGBTQ/Sci-Fi/Fiction book!! I was hoping the representation of LGBTQ wasn’t going to be cliché but it was very well written!!

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!