Ok, wow. I didn’t expect to love this book as much as I did. I haven’t read any of this authors books before but I’m definitely changing that asap because this book was so freaking good!

The Library at Hellebore is a fast paced dark academia horror novel that will hook you from the very beginning. I don’t know what it says about me that I fell in love with these morally grey characters and was rooting for them, but that’s what happened. This story is gory and bleak and emotional. I loved it.

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 book feels like A Deadly Education meets Gideon the Ninth with a dash of The Magicians (the show), and I am HERE for it! It's going to be a beautiful physical book and I cannot wait to reread it during spooky season already!

Okay, wow, the voice - THE VOICE. I went into this book with such high expectations and it met at every turn.