Stylish dark academia suffused with magic and horror
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There are two things that writers often refer to: Write what you know. And: Never trust a narrator. In a clever take on the university bildungsroman, the unnamed narrator looks back on his friendships in Cambridge, where he was the fish out of water, a working class lad from the North of England amongst prep school grads. And from the moment he arrives, he is drawn into the orbit of Bryn, son of a stage magician, gifted beyond compare, and enigmatic and charismatic at once. As university life catches up with our unnamed narrator, his friendship with Bryn is tested, but can the narrator really believe the truth of his own senses when the things that happen appear to have an occult origin?

Van der Borgh keeps you guessing right up to the very end, despite the apparent clear ending. Magic is one of the major motifs in the story, and van der Borgh uses clever misdirection and narrative sleight of hand to keep this reader off balance, never doubting that ordinary occurrences are happening, but also never quite disregarding that there is something supernatural going on. The sense of horror and the pervading paranoia are threaded seamlessly into what might be a standard university tale, ending up in this stylish and entertaining novel that bodes well for van der Borgh’s future work.

Four very creepy stars.

And He Shall Appear is a captivating and elegant read. Admittedly it took me a while to really get into it, but once I did it had me hooked. I loved the dark academia vibes and the intriguing and haunting look at obsessive friendship with a strong undercurrent of music and magic. I would describe it as quite an intoxicating read, full of unease and atmospheric tension. I would definitely recommend to fans of books like The Secret History.

Thank you to 4th Estate for the arc! Alas, unfortunately this was not for me. Derivative, slow, and with characters I never truly believed in, this story didn’t stick the landing. Themes of occult/magic etc were never fully explored, and while I enjoyed the horror-esque elements of parts of the book, I ultimately found that I didn’t care that much what happened to any of the characters. Disappointing, but with moments of promise, I’d give this a 2/5.

This is a very strange book and I wanted to like it more than I did. There are comparisons to “Secret History” and that seems fair. Overall the book is creepy, with a sense of foreboding. We know something unpleasant is going to happen but don’t know what.

A young man goes to Cambridge to study music and is immediately out of his depth. He is befriended (or is he?) by the charismatic Bryn who is a magician. The unnamed narrator falls under his spell.

The characters are unpleasant, the writing is taut but can be repetitive, the plotting is complex but the ending is a bit disappointing. The ominous discomfort is well developed and shows real skill.

Recommended if you’re looking for something a bit dark, and a bit different.

I was given a copy of this book by NetGalley

A gripping read and one I would definitely recommend to dark academia, magic and fantasy fans! The perfect wintery, cosy read in my opinion.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.


And He Shall Appear by Kate van der Borgh Is a gothic fantasy novel set at Cambridge University.

When an unnamed narrator with working class roots joins an elite university he enters a world of wealth and privilege that opens his eyes beyond to a world he could only dream of and the perfect time to reinvent himself.

However, meeting Bryn, a charismatic magician who the narrator may have supernatural skills, however events will lead to the death of this individual.

Which the narrator may be the cause.

And He Shall Appear, was an interesting examination of the British class system through the perspective of one individual, the narrator who we know very little about, allowing readers to imprint themselves easily into the narrative.

Although only seeing the story from one perspective does make it easier to follow, having said that the story is told through two intermingling timelines, the first during the narrator's time at university and the second when he comes back for a dinner a few years later.

With the change of timeline happening only at the start of the chapter it is fairly easy to understand where you are in time.

One thing that Kate Van der borgh does with the single perspective allows the reader to see only one perspective with the story, and while I would not say this uses the unreliable narrator it does use misunderstandings for the benefit of the story.

While, And He Shall Appear, could be classed as a gothic fantasy novel it uses the language and style of Dark Academia to examine the British class system in the 2000s and how it affected life at top universities.

Making, And He Shall Appear by Kate van der Borgh a fascinating read.

Part dark academia and part gothic tale And He Shall Appear was a gripping read that I couldn’t put down. The mixture of the obsession and the magic. Of just what is happening and wondering where the story will go. I will admit that some of the characters felt a little cliched at times but I think that worked for the story.

The writing was beautiful and really keeps you hooked. The world of Cambridge university is brought to life on the pages and I adored the mixture of almost speculative and supernatural with the academic setting. A real page turner that it was hard to put down. This cemented my love for dark academia and I will be recommended to any one who will listen.

As always thank you to 4th Estate and Netgalley for the copy to review, my reviews are always honest and freely given.

This devilish little read had me unnerved, perturbed, rapt. I resented all the hours I had to spend away from it, begrudging having to work, sleep, commute… I just wanted to be reading ‘And He Shall Appear’.

What thrilled me most is how Kate van der Borgh’s novel comes to embody the explanation of magic that’s offered to readers within the narrative. ‘[M]agic is conflict’, she writes. ‘It’s that place where the possible and impossible meet’. Declaring magic to exist as that boundary line between two disparate things (even binary opposites), Kate van der Borgh describes it as a space ‘where belief and disbelief collide’. I think these words – conflict, collide – are exemplified, personified, on a small scale throughout the book and, in its overarching form, by the book itself. In other words, in writing the novel the author performs the very magic shown in it.

I’ll try and make my thoughts a bit clearer, because I feel as though ‘And He Shall Appear’ has me spellbound and tongue twisted. The book succeeds so exceptionally because it is conflict in written form. At once, there's the book that is printed on the page, but there is also another 'And He Shall Appear' that reads underneath it. Just like van der Borgh writes, her definition of magic ‘explains why, when two very different people come together, the effect can be—there’s no better word for it—magical.’ What I understand ‘And He Shall Appear’ to be, is two very different novels coming together, so that the effect can be (‘no better word for it’) magical.

I don’t wish to issue any spoilers, but, to further illustrate the impression the book made on me, let’s say my Novel the First is the one where we reach the end of the book and see, as our narrator looks back upon his time in Cambridge, the concrete events that took place – it’s the factual report of the deaths within his friend group. It’s the ‘Academia’ in Dark Academia:

‘[I am] for ever on that hill, memories whipping about me like leaves ripped from ancient trees, the sky like a face I almost recognise, never getting any closer to the summit however hard I climb, the rain beating me back – beating on my window as I look at that bone shard of the past. It’s not healthy, they say, to dwell. But, even if I wanted to leave it behind, I couldn’t.’

Then let’s say my Novel the Second is his insider account of the – what? – the ‘cursed trinity’ of Bryn, Alexa, and him, brimful of occult influences whose sway upon him extends into the present day, where a grinning Bryn staggers straight out of Hieronymus Bosch’s ‘The Last Judgement’ – demon charmer, mage, diabolist or devil ‘moving around college like a great comet’. It’s the ‘Dark’ of Dark Academia. Because, of course, the half-formed imaginings of our nightmares will always be the more unspeakable visions than any horrors printed neat and clean on the page:

‘[Can] visceral things like werewolves and aliens ever be more frightening than things like spirits and demons? Or are the intangible things always the worst?’

So: the author defines magic as this ‘place where [two things] meet’; in this respect, she conjures magic herself where these two novels meet, on the boundary line where they collide (to allow myself to get carried away – perhaps in the white space on the page between writing the word Dark and writing the word Academia). This magical plane, this collision space where magic is ‘conflict’ – as the friction where some two edges converge – recurs in the novel:

‘And when we’re different things to different people, what then? My mum always said I was kind, considerate. Tim said I was a good bloke. I disagree. So whose version is true?’

Van der Borgh is as equally concerned with magic as the collision taking place in this space, as she is with this impact zone itself as a void:

‘Some people say we’re our true selves when we think nobody is watching. […] If, like the tree falling in the proverbial wood, nobody is around to hear us, is our story a story at all?’

The author repeatedly draws our attention to the film ‘The Blair Witch Project’, using sleight-of-hand references to the movie, subtly winking at its significance:

‘A group of us had gathered in the common room to watch a film about some kids getting lost in the woods, being chased for days by something awful. In the film, these kids come across a river and, if they follow it, they’re bound to get out of the woods at some point. Right? But – and this was the bit that stayed with me, the bit I couldn’t shake – after a day or two of walking, they find themselves back at the spot where they started. That’s the part where you know the normal rules don’t apply, and those kids aren’t getting out at all.’

Van der Borgh also dwells upon the possibility of turning back when faced with ‘that place where the possible and impossible meet’: the narrator is caught ‘[s]tumbling backwards’ when confronting it. This is most deftly effected when she employs symbolism from the movie:

‘How do we know when to stop being afraid? Can we ever be sure that we’ve left the path that would lead us to disaster? Or will we always wonder whether we’re lurching towards some horror, like those kids in the woods following the river, heading unknowingly back where they came from?’

The fact that Bryn and the narrator exchange their deepest fears (“What are you horrified by? Really?”) when they are watching ‘The Blair Witch Project’ together, makes ‘find[ing] themselves back at the spot where they started’ a potent tableau. Watching the film, then, is marked as a pivotal scene, and that gives us a sense of foreboding, a suspicion that we might be witnessing a foreshadowing of ‘the part where you know the normal rules don’t apply’. This scene is when the narrator tells Bryn about the scratching noise, and the fact that both boys confess in this scene that their deepest fears are related to their fathers summons the principal ‘conflict’ in the novel, which is then realised as the death scene invokes all of these elements, in the ultimate collision where the first novel and the second novel clash.

This super-concept of magic being ‘where belief and disbelief collide’ and therefore the novel being magic because it manifests this concept (‘belief’ being the accepted chronicle of Cambridge society when the narrator attended college; ‘disbelief’ being the narrator’s version where Bryn is some supernatural Satanic being) is borne out in the narrator’s final words to Bryn. The author toys with us in that space between possible resolutions of plot according to which side of the ‘conflict’ the reader wishes to favour. There’s that cool, smooth ending that kind of plateaus on the page, yet there’s also that Andrew-Michael-Hurley-esque ending with its exquisite sense of something deeply dreadful happening. After all, the Blair Witch that we conjure up in our heads is no doubt more terrifying than anything the creators of the movie could have fleshed-out onscreen. Just so, Bryn. Just so, my preferred version of the narrator’s history.

Thanks are due to Fourth Estate and William Collins, and Kate van der Borgh for the treat of getting to read an eARC in exchange for review.

Protagonist with no name.
I called the protagonist X. He came from a Northern town, his Father was an alcoholic which caused the breakup of his parents marriage, his Father subsequently died from alcoholism and did not keep in touch with X. His Mother supported D and encouraged him in his musical studies. x does well at school and is accepted at Cambridge, he is overwhelmed by this opportunity and sees it as a fresh start. He is teased about his Northern accent and state schooling, he is befriended by another outcast Tim and they drink and study together.
At a party X meets Bryn, a flamboyant, attractive, spoilt student who does magic, he performs some tricks and X is full of admiration for him. Around uni. X engineers meetings with Bryn and is accepted by some into his circle. Bryn is mesmerising and X jumps into swimming pool from a height feeling that he is under Bryn's influence. A group goes to Bryn's huge farmhouse for the weekend, events get out of hand and someone gets locked in the cellar,
X gets involved with one of the girls and encourages Bryn to date the beautiful, accomplished Alexa, he has visions of the four of them going out together, but this does not work, eventually X and his girlfriend split up. After a couple of people upset Bryn they suffer from delusions and leave uni. X gets together with Alexa and worries about Bryn s revenge.
A haunting story of class divides, self advancement, cruelty and evil.
I loved this book, it did sends shivers down my spine at times and make me want to shout at x.
Thank you Kate, NetGalley and Fourth Estate for this ARC.

I really enjoyed this, it was poetic as such. The way the narrater describes everything. I couldn't put it down as I needed to know where it went. A completely different style of writing that I felt lost in, it was beautiful, and sad.

Thank you to the author, publisher and netgalley for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Likened to the Secret History, An He Shall Appear follows an unnamed narrator as he arrives at Cambridge University to study Music. With a working class background, He finds it difficult to assimilate with his classmates until he meets Bryn Cavendish, an enigmatic magician.

It was an interesting read but the execution was not for me. We move from his days at Cambridge to the present where is has returned to the University. The lines blur between truth and imagination, as he becomes more and more unreliable. Overall, I thought it was going well until the end which I can't talk about without spoiling the book. But it didn't quite fit to what had been building from the previous chapters. I did like Tim as a character but everyone else was forgettable.

Thank you to 4th Estate and William Collins | Fourth Estate for the ARC in exchange for the honest review.

Intriguing but not quite gripping. And He Shall Appear has all the right ingredients for a great dark academia story – a mysterious college setting, a music student drawn into the world of a fascinating but secretive classmate, and some interesting themes about identity and perception.

The writing is smooth, and the atmosphere really nails that eerie gothic vibe.

That said, while it’s enjoyable, I felt like the plot didn’t develop enough to really keep me hooked. The characters and setting are compelling, but it left me wanting more in terms of action or deeper connection.

Definitely enjoyable, but it didn’t fully hit the mark for me.

If you’ve been looking for a book similar to The Secret History then look no further. Dark academia and a suspense filled story, perfect for the colder months.

I will definitely keep an eye out for what this author publishes next.

Having read such glowing reviews I was intrigued to read this book. There's no doubt it's an interesting and thought provoking read. But I think it just wasn't my cup of tea. It's a personal pet peeve of mine when we don't learn the name of our protagonist. And I didn't like any of the characters, which wouldn't necessarily make me dislike the book as obviously some characters are meant to be unlikeable. The dynamic between the protagonist and Bryn was disturbing but there was a lot left unresolved. I just didn't connect or really care what happened to anyone and was left feeling confused and unmoved. Perhaps having a more literal brain, I missed subtleties that others picked up on.

Thoroughly enjoyed this , clearly inspired by others in the gothic mystery genre and I thought was a good addition
Kept me turning the pages and would read another of this authors

I love a slice of dark academia, particularly set in universities, so I jumped at the chance to review And He Shall Appear. An unnamed music scholar arrives at Cambridge University where he finds himself a fish-out-of-water. He is offered the friendship of other ‘outcasts’ but eschews theses in favour of ingratiating himself with the college’s acknowledged leader and the person around whom all social acceptance revolves. Bryn is the archetypal golden boy with the silver spoon in his mouth and around him a cohort of privileged, disdainful students gather. However, even when he seems to have made it in to Bryn’s inner circle, our narrator wonders if he has truly been accepted or if he is still possibly the butt of some secret joke, and whether or not Bryn has a darker, crueller side to his nature.

This may seem like a typical dark academia novel that follows the standard tropes but, in actual fact, there is a lot to mark it out as something different in the genre. The suggestion of the supernatural is one of these factors. The other is the way the book ends, with the book taking a right turn down a path I did not expect and found me questioning everything I thought I understood about the relationship between the two young men, just as the narrator ends up doing years down the line.

The rising is extremely accomplished, I loved the way the author makes the narrators own identity fuzzy and unformed which accentuates how he is happy to change and reform himself to be what he thinks he needs to be to fit in with the world and the group he is so desperate to be a part of, but this lack of self knowledge and confidence ends up being a part of his undoing. Although there are few of the characters that are pleasant and appealing, they are all compelling and it is very hard to get them out of your mind once you start reading. Proof that we don’t need characters to be nice, just memorable.

The book is very bleak and left me extremely unsettled by the end, but that is what we come to this genre expecting. It is one of the better additions to the canon that I have read it recent years and I felt like it has got my 2025 reading year off to a strong start. One I would definitely recommend to anyone who loves this genre.

Dark academia is en vogue at the moment, spawning its own sub-sub-genres all over the place. Kate van der Borgh's debut, And He Shall Appear, is what I shall refer to as classic dark academia, with a direct through-line from The Secret History. Our unnamed narrator arrives at an unnamed Cambridge college (Corpus Christi) in the early 00s (I feel like I can date it precisely to somewhere between about 2002 and 2004, as Facebook and I arrived at Cambridge in 2005, and the narrator tells us this was pre-Facebook). Otherwise, van der Borgh evokes a Cambridge that is exactly, painfully how I remember it, with an attention to detail that is, annoyingly, rare in Oxbridge novels. She hits all the beats of dark academia, but so perfectly that it feels like she is reinventing the genre.

Have we ever really had a properly good dark academia novel set in the real world?* The Secret History might be the sub-genre's source of inspiration, but in many ways after Bunny's death it veers far away from the academic. Van der Borgh writes so well that And He Shall Appear becomes genuinely creepy and unsettling as our narrator becomes obsessed with fellow student Bryn, whom he suspects may be dabbling in dark magic. His obsession with Bryn also feels so much more real than this trope usually does, with a series of beautifully vivid set-pieces: magic card tricks at a room party, a dive from a roof into a swimming pool, occult costumes at formal hall. The novel bounces between occult influences from The Blair Witch Project to M.R. James's 'Casting the Runes', which worked brilliantly for me (van der Borgh and I clearly share a sense of what is truly frightening). And then there's that ending. 'For me', Bryn says earlier in the novel, 'magic is a reminder that, for some of us, anything is possible. Why should we accept an ordinary life when we can dream of more?' This, van der Borgh seems to be saying, is why dark academia is such a comfort to us, even when it's also horror. Better to believe that our lives are cursed or fated than that we have no meaningful story at all. 4.5 stars.

*my favourite fantasy dark academia will probably forever be Naomi Novik's A Deadly Education

An unsettling and dark novel, following the progress of an unnamed young Cambridge music scholar who develops an obsession with befriending Bryn, a skilled magician and party animal. Bryn’s magic becomes darker and more sinister and the story spirals into a riveting thriller.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

I'd really give this a 3.5 I think - it's a very creepy, suspenseful novel in places, and definitely plays with the premise of the unreliable narrator. Living and working in Cambridge (at the University) you can certainly imagine this kind of drama playing out among the students! However, I needed a better method for marrying the two time periods in order for it not to feel a bit clunky.

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

It's a dark, creepy read. If you're squeamish, read something else. It has a well-written plot and good characters. Recommended.