The intersection of the occult and of dark academia aesthetic is no great stretch. For those who love books and secrets, the wedding of obscure and dangerous knowledge and dusty tomes deep within the shelves is a happy one indeed. We love the idea that persistent and even self-destructive study may find a payoff of something remarkable.

A Lesson in Vengeance promises to deliver such a thrill, and as a fun novel it certainly does so. Its depiction of magic seems to try to incorporate both contemporary witchcraft staples such as the Tarot, crystals, and self-made spells, as well as restricted grimoires in the library and more complicated ceremony. In doing so it runs the risk of missing neither. However, I think this charming novel manages to pull just the right bits of those elements to tell the story it wants to tell and do so in a way that is neither rushes nor dragged on.

This was my first dark academia-themed book, so I have little to offer for actual comparison to similar works. I enjoyed A Lesson in Vengeance and I think it opened up a genre slot that I will likely keep filling for a good while.