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Title details for A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee - Available

A Lesson in Vengeance

by Victoria Lee
Lindsey Dorcus
Audiobook
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A dark, twisty thriller about a centuries-old, ivy-covered boarding school haunted by its history of witchcraft and two girls dangerously close to digging up the past. The dangerous romance and atmospheric setting makes it a perfect read for fans of dark academia.
Felicity Morrow is back at the Dalloway School. Perched in the Catskill Mountains, the centuries-old, ivy-covered campus was home until the tragic death of her girlfriend. Now, after a year away, she's returned to finish high school. She even has her old room in Godwin House, the exclusive dormitory rumored to be haunted by the spirits of five Dalloway students—girls some say were witches. The Dalloway Five all died mysteriously, one after another, right on Godwin grounds. 
 
Witchcraft is woven into Dalloway's past. The school doesn't talk about it, but the students do. In secret rooms and shadowy corners, girls convene. And before her girlfriend died, Felicity was drawn to the dark. She's determined to leave that behind now, but it's hard when Dalloway's occult history is everywhere. And when the new girl won't let her forget. 
 
It's Ellis Haley's first year at Dalloway, and she has already amassed a loyal following. A prodigy novelist at seventeen, Ellis is a so-called method writer. She's eccentric and brilliant, and Felicity can't shake the pull she feels to her. So when Ellis asks Felicity to help her research the Dalloway Five for her second book, Felicity can't say no. Given her history with the arcane, Felicity is the perfect resource. 
 
And when history begins to repeat itself, Felicity will have to face the darkness in Dalloway—and herself. 
 

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    August 3, 2021

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780593399545
      • File size: 295514 KB
      • Duration: 10:15:39

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from June 7, 2021
      In Lee’s (the Feverwake series) deliciously unsettling standalone thriller, 18-year-old Felicity Morrow, who is white, is reattempting her senior year at Dalloway, a small prep school in the Catskills. The year before, her obsession with the Dalloway Five—purported witches who were brutally murdered in and around Felicity’s residence hall 300 years ago—led, she suspects, to the mysterious death of her girlfriend Alex. Though she’s determined to abandon magic following the previous year’s events, she’s soon drawn into the orbit of eccentric white, gray-eyed novelist Ellis Haley, 17, a fellow Godwin House denizen who persuades Felicity to help her research the murders for Ellis’s next book. As the girls grow closer, forming a coven with their housemates, Felicity, haunted perhaps literally by both Alex and the Five’s leader, begins to realize that everything is not as it seems—not within her own mind, and not within Godwin House. Lee touches on abusive familial and romantic relationships, classism, mental health stigma, racism, and sexism while providing clever commentary on—and near-constant references to—women in the genre of horror. With queer primary characters, an irresistible gothic atmosphere, and unrelenting creeping dread, this propulsive work of dark academia is both thrilling and thought-provoking. Ages 14–up. Agent: Holly Root, Root Literary.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Narrator Lindsey Dorcus fills her voice with the smoothness of smoky whisky and the softness of flickering candles in this twisty sapphic thriller. At the beginning of her senior year at Dalloway, a prep school for girls haunted by its legacy of witchcraft, Felicity is still mourning the death of her girlfriend the previous spring. But she's soon drawn into the orbit of new student and writing prodigy Ellis. When Felicity offers to help Ellis research the mysterious deaths of five Dalloway students in the 1700s, things start getting weird--and dangerous. Dorcus's low narration is silky; Felicity's grief and grit are palpable in her tone. Drawing listeners in with the haunting cadence of her voice, Dorcus casts a spell as powerful as Lee's prose. L.S. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
    • School Library Journal

      October 1, 2021

      Gr 7 Up-Two girls are alive when this story begins; one isn't-or is she? Felicity has returned to Dalloway School after a stint in a psychiatric facility, precipitated by the death of her girlfriend, Alex. Was it an accident? Murder? Or something else altogether? Then there's the school itself, founded long ago, where five girls were accused of witchcraft; they weren't convicted, but all died not long afterward under varied horrific or mysterious circumstances. As Felicity tries reintegrating into school and Godwin House, where she and Alex lived before the tragedy, she becomes obsessed with the belief that one of the original witches has returned and is manipulating her and the environment around her. New student Ellis Haley is a writing prodigy, trying to finish another book. As the story progresses, her life and secrets become ever more enmeshed with Felicity's, leading in and out of what can best be described as a tenuous reality based on either truth, lies, or a blend of both that's a challenge for listeners to decode. VERDICT Larger libraries where creepy young adult fiction is popular might consider this, but the plot is nebulous and it's hard to get a decent read on the two main characters, which detracts from the story quite a bit.-John R. Clark, formerly with Hartland P.L., ME

      Copyright 2021 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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