Oooohhhh…..dark academia is a love of mine - and I’m always a bit interested in Cambridge to be honest- it’s always felt quite a dark place for me.

This book is described as being “deeply unsettling”, but I didn’t find this to be the case for most of the story, and I was wondering if there was something wrong with me. And then I got it…then I really got it…it really is deeply unsettling- you just have to wait it out…

Excellently written, engrossing to be honest, and deeply unsettling!

My thanks to Netgalley and 4th Estate for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is a dark and unsettling read, dark academia with a supernatural twist. It moved quite slowly for me, the narrator describing his uni days which start off in a relatively normal way and then descend into something darker. The characters are largely unlikeable, which they often are in dark academia, apart from Tim, the one steady ship in the story and a connection to reality. We follow the unnamed narrator back and forth between the present and his past at university and witness an unravelling of a fractured mind. There is obsession, infatuation, paranoia and I was left feeling simply a little sad. Although it didn’t quite catch fire for me, I think this will be enjoyed by many dark academia fans.

A dark compelling read!

The Secret History meets If We Were Villians. Having never read If We Were Villians I only had The Secret History to go by which I had mixed feelings about.

Do I dare say I enjoyed this more than The Secret History? The first quarter of this book was slow but for what it built into it was worth it. It had a dark creepy feeling throughout that left me uneasy especially when reading at night. While the chapters are long it didn't seem to be an issue with this book as I felt some kind of pull to keep reading. A brilliant debut novel I look forward to reading more by this author.

I do love a good dark academia tale but this book is just so much more. It has great depth that is not usual in this type of novel. It was really immersive. More please ......

This unfortunately did not do a lot for me. Temporally the plot was confusing and therefore didn’t really make sense. There was a lack of signposting when it came to time periods.

This is a dark Oxbridge based mystery involving a student from a modest background getting into the inner circle of a charismatic, damaged and wealthy student. Comparisons with Saltburn are inevitable and although I didn’t love this as much as other readers, I have to acknowledge that it is compelling and accomplished. I often struggle with stories where I find myself unable to engage with the characters and this was the case this time.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I’m sorry but this is a DNF for me. I got to 30% and just couldn’t be bothered to go on.
Narrated by possibly the most uninteresting character I have ever had the displeasure of reading, I just couldn’t face another 70% of the book in the characters company, no matter how the book went.

His fawning over a charismatic magician in college was uncomfortable to read and bizarre in the extreme. The whole shtick just felt unnatural and incredibly boring.

I’m sorry that I didn’t finish this having had the publisher supply a review copy but I just couldn’t continue with this one.

Thanks to the publisher for the ARC through Netgalley.

I enjoyed this tale of Cambridge students and dark magic, although the ending wasn't what I wanted.

The initial third of the book was a bit slow, and I was tempted to put it aside. The main character, and narrator, is such a pathetic wet-wipe, which is clearly intentional, but it was making the book tough going! Thankfully, the pace picked up and I became engrossed in the main relationships, the descriptions of Cambridge Uni life, and most of all, by the spooky goings on. The main character is pitifully hung up on the big man on campus, Bryn, a charming, larger-than-life jerk who also seems to be into black magic. The author is clearly talented and created some really nice spooky moments, and I was looking forward to how it would all pan out...

...but the ending wasn't what I personally wanted. There was a twist, which was cool in it's way, but I felt it undercut a lot of what I'd enjoyed about the book.

3.5 stars but I'll round up in case I get hexed.

I enjoyed this book, in spite of many of the characters being complete clichés. The storyline is compelling, and the author conjures up the very unreal world of university life very well. There are obvious comparisons with The Secret History, and this book isn't quite as brilliant as Donna Tartt's masterpiece, but it is still a very good read, and one I will definitely recommend.

I read somewhere that setting your story in an old crumbly university where bad things sometimes happen is not good enough to qualify it as dark academia, that there should be critique of the institution’s colonial history or the way academia gatekeeps prestige or basically some overt attempt at de-romanticising the setting. I think this book does that quite well. The unnamed narrator is a small-town low-income student of music in Cambridge, struggling to afford his time there while surrounded by rich kids whose parents literally bought their way in. He becomes obsessed with the main character of their year, Bryn Cavendish of the old money Cavendish clan and infamous magician father who dabbled in the occult.

When I say obsessed, I mean Obsessed. He cannot go a moment without thinking about Bryn, thinking about how best to get into Bryn’s inner circle of friends. He dates Bryn’s cousin, and when that fails, becomes best friends with his girlfriend. He definitely neglects his studies and his real friends who worry about his uncharacteristic partying and drinking. He also sees things that suggest Bryn is actually a dark magic practitioner. All this is told in recount, as the now-adult narrator returns to Cambridge to commemorate Bryn’s untimely death. It’s very reminiscent of The Moth Diaries.

What’s interesting about this book is how adamant the narrator is in romanticising his memories of that time, which are revealed to be inaccurate at best and highly skewed at worst. People tell him to his face that he needs help and he foolishly ignores them all, hell-bent on believing his fantastical narrative that proves he had a brush with something extraordinary. NGL, there’s something alluring about this level of delulu.

And He Shall Appear, Kate van der Borgh’s haunting debut, is a powerful exploration of privilege, obsession, and envy, narrated by an unnamed protagonist whose insecurities and delusions bring remarkable depth to the story. With poetic prose and layered storytelling, van der Borgh examines the fragile nature of trust and loyalty, drawing readers into a darkly compelling world where ambition and envy blur the lines between admiration and obsession. This novel resonates with a chilling beauty, capturing vulnerabilities with stunning precision. Fans of Saltburn and Donna Tartt’s The Secret History will find much to admire in this atmospheric, thought-provoking work.

I love a good dark academia read! And He Shall Appear has the perfect blend of magic, mystery, and macabre. There’s the ancient, ivy-covered Cambridge University … the gloomy weather and the eerie ambiance.. shadowy corridors .. dimly lit spaces and hidden dangers. The characters themselves are well-developed, and have relatable struggles.

The story follows the unnamed narrator/ protagonist who becomes fascinated/obsessed with Bryn and his magical talents. He goes out of his way to be closer to Bryn and gain his approval. However, as the story progresses, the darker side of Bryn’s character emerges - his manipulative and sinister side. As such, our protagonist begins to question his own reality and mental state until he has to decide whether to break free from Bryn’s influence or risk losing himself entirely.
The perfect read for a gloomy weekend.

Well this book gave me the creeps and i absolutely loved it. Highly recommend. Read it!! Thanks NetGalley, and publishers for the early release. 4/5

Dark Academia is a new genre to me, and heralded as 'The Secret History' meets 'Saltburn' seemed like a winner, though I'm not so sure that would be my description. Van ver Borgh has an interesting writing style in which the use of an unnamed narrator, a flickering structure and (obviously) an academic setting is melded with, in places, some really effective atmospheric narrative style. Music features well and adds to the cadence of the general tone of the novel as well as harnessing a specific timeframe. Obsessive 'friendship' is the main theme, but - and it's a big 'but' - I wasn't convinced by the characters. I hate to say that, I really do, because there is a lot of good stuff here, but there it is... Don't get me wrong, I love an unlikeable character or two or three, but that unlikeability has to be narratively important - it has to be an element of the whole of the novel's ingredients, and I just didn't feel that here, so that unstuck the glue of the plot a little. I am, however, grateful to NetGalley and to the publishers for the privilege of the early read.

Unsettling and creepy this obsessive and magical story will hook you in. Smart, soaring and brilliant. This is an outstanding read.

While I can appreciate the writing skills of the author this turned out to be just not the sort of book for me and I can't say I enjoyed it that much. Pity but nevertheless my thanks to NetGalley and 4th Estate and William Collins for the opportunity to read it in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

Part of me should have known this wasn't for me. But the synopsis intrigued me.
Sadly though I just couldn't get into this.
The pacing felt slow and the characters were so unlikable it just struggled.
Maybe books compared to Secret History aren't for me.

Was all set to be spirited away by this story, loved the setting and certainly the writer achieved the feel of student life at Cambridge both in the past and the present though it was sometimes difficult to discern the time difference.! Our main character is entranced by Bryn, the young man of the moment, the ‘in’ person surrounded by his adoring fans. However there is more to Bryn than meets the spiritual eye! His father was a famous magician and Bryn’s aim in life is to emulate his hero. There are dark shadows sliding along roof tops, things that go bump in the night, odd illusions which are difficult to explain. The story creeps along but nothing really seems to happen and I was waiting for the grand finale which never really happened!

Having finished reading And He Shall Appear, it has left me rather puzzled, what really is at the heart of the novel?
Initially we follow the trials and tribulations of a young man coming to terms with a life so different from what he's used to, as he begins the first year of his life at Cambridge University. The writing is exceptional and for the first third of the book you become hooked. But where was it headed? Would it be homo-erotic or a young man with just an obsessive crush on a charismatic student with a penchant for magic? It was the latter and certainly a rather unhealthy crush as he could not really discern how little his friendship meant to the 'magician', a certain Bryn Cavendish.
I am afraid the latter two thirds of the novel became wearisome and other than the death of a female student, rather predictable.
The author possibly got some inspiration from the life of Peter Warlock (Philip Arnold Heseltine), although I would suggest that Hilaire Bellock was the source of the lyrics to which Ha'nacker Mill became one of the student's favourite works of Warlock. Halnaker Mill being in West Sussex.

Really dark and gripping book and as a dark academia reader I really enjoyed this. I would love to read more by this author! Thank you netgalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for a review.