A wickedly cool premise that didn’t quite stick the landing.

I wanted to love this one. A school for world-enders and apocalypse-makers? A brutal dark academia setting where the faculty literally devour their students on graduation day? That’s the kind of diabolical, high-stakes concept that should have had me devouring the pages. And in some ways, it did. The atmosphere is thick with eerie tension, and the writing is sharp, lyrical, and dripping with dread. Hellebore Technical Institute feels alive, pulsing with danger, secrets, and the kind of horror that lurks just beneath the surface.

But here’s the thing: the execution didn’t fully match the hype. The pacing felt uneven—slow in parts where it should have been breathless, and then chaotic when I wanted more time to sit with the tension. Alessa is an intriguing lead, but I never felt fully connected to her or the other characters. The survival horror aspect was fun, but without deeper character development, the stakes didn’t hit as hard as they could have.

That said, if you’re looking for a vibes-first book with killer dark academia aesthetics, morally gray characters, and a nightmare-fuel setting, you might have a blast with this one. It’s viscerally dark, which I appreciated, but I just wanted more—more depth, more tension, more time to care before the blood started spilling.

A solid read, just not quite a favorite.

The way I felt about this book is mystifying. All at once, I was entertained, confused, disgusted, intrigued, and baffled. While at times I did enjoy the writing style, at others it felt choppy and disjointed. This book was presented as dark academia, but I struggle to place it in that genre beyond taking place at a school and there being magical/supernatural elements. I was so intrigued by Alessa and Rowan (separately as characters, as well as their dynamic) but it felt like that potential was never reached on any of those fronts. There were so many times when I was reading and I had to stop to go “wait…WHAT just happened?!” (and not always in a good way). I wish more had been done around character-building, as well as world-building (even just more about Hellebore itself).

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for the ARC!

Cassandra Khaw has a specific almost euphoric style that I've come to absolutely adore. Their monster girls are genuinely monstrous and their struggles to connect with others are incredibly touching amidst the carnage. This is a no-holds-barred gore-fest in which one of the most tragic figures is also the most disgusting, and it genuinely broke my heart by the end.

Thank you Netgalley and TOR for the eARC.

Based on the description this looked really cool. It seemed like it was going to be some sort of monster battle royale-esque kind of story. So I was really excited and usually TOR almost never misses for me.

Unfortunately, I don’t know what it was, but I just couldn’t really sink my teeth into it? It just felt like it was missing something which seems like an insane thing to say because:

Alessa was fantastic and I loved her voice.
Rowan had some good moments.
Gracelynn doesn’t get enough credit.
The prose was descriptive but not in an overdone way
Horror! Oh the horror!!! :3 (Though, I definitely recommend marketing it as such. It will have a lot of a appeal to fans of that genre meanwhile I don’t know if the fantasy fans might take to this.)

Thing is the storytelling itself was giving me whiplash. Like I’m fine jumping into a world I know nothing about and you get piece by piece of information, but there was not a lot in the beginning to really get your bearing. Between the time skipping and the rapid fire introductions of new characters there was just no time to really get a good footing on the story.

This title was a little gory for me. I could not get into it and only made it a couple of chapters in.

'The Library at Hellebore' is absolutely dark and twisted. It's about some magic inclined college students who are sent to Murder Hogwarts, because their powers are likely to destroy the world. It's incredibly messed up and gory, but also delightful? The whole book of a mix of these gorgeous, twisted lines and straight-up disgusting body horror. Like, there is a character who can divine the future using his own entrails! Visceral and viscous and vicus. Full of body horror, death, and absolute weirdness. I might have to buy a copy for my own shelf when it comes out in July. 5⭐️

"It is the nature of people to overcomplicate things: we want there to be nuance to evil and dimensions to good. The truth is often simpler than that."

Thank you Netgalley and TOR for the eARC. I was originally drawn to this because of the comparison to The Atlas Six (& I tend to like books TOR publishes), but aside from being in a school there wasn't any dark academia elements.

This left me with mixed feelings. On one hand I was entertained and wanted to know how things panned out. I liked the author's prose, and the characters Rowan and Alessa.

On the flip side, the book could have used more world building and character development. At times the narration felt choppy.

I think this also leans more towards body horror rather than a fantasy book? I wanted to love this more than I did, but the execution fell flat.

Whew. okay this one is DARK. I didn’t fully expect that even though I should have based off the author. but I loooved it. the dark academia vibes mixed with the fantasy were just phenomenal

Visceral, violent, and disturbing, The Library at Hellebore is an ode to anyone who ever felt different or 'wrong'. The students are calamities and apocalypses made flesh, the teachers ominous and hungry. Khaw's prose is in full force, sweeping the reader into the twisted atmosphere of Hellebore and trapping you as surely as the students.

Khaw continues to astound me with their character designs, coming up with unique backstories and abilities that I can't stop thinking about. I struggle to choose a favorite character, and found myself even loving the ones I hated because of how masterfully they were written. Khaw's grasp of eldritch horror is otherworldly, somehow managing to capture the incomprehensible and put it into words. In many ways, it's a fever dream printed on paper, but it's also full of emotional human moments to ground the gory chaos.

This is everything my dark academia heart could ever want! It was twisted and had body horror so be aware of that. This will put you in your feels but not in a mushy way, you may look in your own mirror and question yourself. Absolutely brilliant!

Let me start of by thanking Tor and NetGalley for the e-ARC of this book. Now, for the record, I am not a huge horror and gore person but if anyone tells me that something is a mix of A Deadly Education and The Atlas Six, I am there. That being said I desperately would have loved to love this book, but the execution of it fell far flat for me. The narration is choppy and adolescent without the wit and sharpness needed to make it a cutting and compelling read. I think once the audiobook is released I would listen, as I think a lot could be done with a really great voice actor. In all, I found the characters flat and cartoonish and the language stilted. Even at the climax of the action, I was more just bored waiting to find out who survived than I was hooked on every twist and turn and terrible choice they had to make. Additionally, with the kidnap and forced to attend premise, it lacks the element of choice that makes books like The Atlas Six and A Deadly Education tick. The idea that these children are literally forced to kill each other after being kidnapped and traumatized takes away the moral complexities of picking between difficult choices which are what keep other similar books bringing us back for more.

The Library at Hellebore by Cassandra Khaw, an interesting premise that didn't fulfill for me. I do think others will enjoy and thank you for giving me a chance with this book.

When I first read the synopsis I thought "oh a dark version of House on the Cerulean Sea" and man...this is DARK. But fun! I don't read much horror so this really freaked me out (I'm a baby) but if that's what you're into, than this is the book for you!

This one was a wild ride. It was whacky, inventive, intriguing, and freaky in a way that only Cassandra Khaw can do.

I really loved reading this book and I can not wait for more by this author!! I flew through this book because it was that good. The author did an amazing job keeping the plot interesting without it getting boring or slow. I will be recommending this book to all of the family and friends.

This book absolutely had some value when it came to its descriptions. It had what were easily the grossest, goriest, descriptions of body horror of any book I have ever read. I'm not very squeamish when it comes to books, but this one was testing my limits (in a good way).
On the other hand, the comps to A Deadly Education had me really excited for something similar, something approaching the realm of dark academia at least. However, the dark academia atmosphere was virtually nonexistent other than the fact they were in a school library, and while I did like the characters and their powers, I would have loved a little more backstory. The back-and-forth timeline also made it more difficult to figure out what was going on.

I just finished reading The Library at Hellebore by Cassandra Khaw. I received an eARC from NetGalley.

Alessa Li is part of a group of people who were were in the line of fire when magic came back into the world. The world governments, surprised by this development, and wholly unprepared, have set up a number of schools and spaces for people who are magically gifted. They need to keep the public safe after all. That is how Alessa ends up kidnapped and sent to Hellebore-- the baddest of the bad schools. Everyone at Hellebore is extremely magical, but in a could-end-the-world-without-breaking-a-sweat way. Upon graduation, there's one final thing-- the Hellebore faculty is going to eat the entire class. That's how Alessa finds herself locked in the Library, on the day of graduation, with a handful of her dangerous classmates, trying to survive.

I love Cassandra Khaw; I fell in love with The Salt Grows Heavy, and haven't looked back since, so naturally I jumped at the chance to read this. In the beginning, it seems like Khaw is playing with the "magical school" trope. But of course she's going to do it in a way more sinister way.

Alessa is a great MC-- she comes from a troubled upbringing, and brings her skepticism with her. She's wary, mistrustful, and cunning. Her power is so cool-- I won't spoil it here-- as are most of the powers that exist within the walls of Hellebore. (Hello Antichrist!). The timeline jumps back and forth between Alessa pre-Hellebore, and the current Library timeline, which helps kick the action off right from the start. This book needs no slow build, it starts horrific and then continues to get more and more horrific as it goes.

A really fun, dark, NA-ish take on the magical school trope.

If you've ever felt othered, on the outside, weird, different, or unwelcome, this book will resonate with you. A school of misfits, dangerous to the last, is being trained here at Hellebore to be "helpful" and "worthy" of returning to the 'normal' world. Strange classmates, stranger teachers, in a labyrinth building of weird, our motley crew of characters faces one impossible challenge after another. Alessa Li is a rarity at Hellebore, not chosen from a bed of desperate applicants, but kidnapped and forced into attendance. The classes are weird and often non-sensical, the people are mostly unlike anyone she's ever known, and the staff? The staff is hungry.

By the end of this book, I was broken. My heart hurt so much for those we lost, and my anger at the treatment of these people, and Alessa in particular, went from burning hot to apocalyptic. I can't give a more solid recommendation than if you're ready to lay all your emotions bare and have them played like a violin, this is it folks, this is where the pantheon of feeling lives and in some cases, dies. Absolutely 10/10 stars, perfection.

Every single book that I've read of Cassandra Khaw's has immediately become one of my favorite books of all time and The Library at Hellebore is no exception. Their horror is funny and tragic and gross in the most perfect way and utterly enthralling. I loved the way they played with time, teasing both the tragic beginnings of our main character at Hellebore and the gauntlet that the survivors ran through after graduation. It was interwoven perfectly and kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. I would read another ten books about the residents of Hellebore and their school tribulations. I absolutely ate this book.

This books was interesting for me. I am an avid fan of dark academia and I loved the atmosphere of this book. The prose was beautiful and I found the characters and the story interesting. I do feel like a lot of the violence was put in as a shock factor vs to drive the story. It is enjoyable, but I don’t feel the descriptors prepared me for the level of graphic intensity in this book compared to others with the same descriptors.