Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC.

I'm not quite sure how I feel about this book. On the one hand I loved the worldbuilding, dark academia vibes and the plot. This book had an amazing morally grey character and an atmospheric setting (which I always adore). On the other hand, it felt that the background characters were underdeveloped and two-dimensional. I sometimes even strugled to remember how they were connected since the MC hadn't had a lot of interactions with them.

But overall I was very happy to read this book during the autumn, when the rainy days just made it even better!

An Academy for Liars by Alexis Henderson grabbed me from the first page. The story kicked off with a bang, and pulled me right into the mysterious world alongside the main character, Lennon. Just like Lennon, I was left in the dark about what was really happening, which kept the suspense high from the get-go.

Henderson’s writing is top-notch. Her language carries the story all the way through. The plot is solid, with the beginning and the end standing out as the strongest parts. It’s hard to pin this book down to a single genre because it feels like a blend of many. But one thing’s for sure—it’s exciting. If you enjoy a story that’s packed with action, a touch of magic, and some supernatural elements, I would definitely recommend this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the ARC of this one; I had a lot of fun reading this book. It was well-paced, and definitely gave me that "one more chapter" feeling.

I really liked the magic system and the world of Drayton. I could picture the campus so clearly, and it felt like such a 'rich' environment I can imagine more books in this same world. The magic system seemed to fit well into the academia setting, but I would have loved to see more about how it actually worked.

Some reviewers have said they struggled to connect with Lennon, but I loved her. Both her and Dante were great morally grey and flawed characters. I was really rooting for them for the whole book; I liked seeing them separately but I loved them together. I really wanted a HEA for them (which probably didn't fit the tone of the book but hey) and I feel like we got a tiny hint of one!

Overall I really enjoyed this book! Like House of Hunger, this was like nothing I've ever read before, but it's perfect for fans of The Secret History (of course), Ninth House/Hell Bent and even A Discovery of Witches.

4⭐️
This was an intriguing, mysterious and fun read for me. If you like Dark Academia then I think you would enjoy this unique world full of angst and LIES.

At the beginning of this book, Lennon(FMC) has hit rock bottom in her life and feels completely numb and done with her situation until she very unexpectedly find herself at Drayton University. A mysterious phone call has her arriving at Drayton with absolutely no idea of why she is there and no clue what what to do expect. Searching to find some purpose in her life, she allows herself to be guided by her advisor Dante (MMC) to unlock her potential in an Academy for Liars. The twists and turns help to build a dark atmosphere and keep you guessing at what lies around the corner. A very captivating read.

I did feel the writing in this came across quite pretentious at times, given the setting, this could very well have been stylistic but for me it was a little much at points. I would also have liked some more in-depth character development to help better build the relationship between Lennon and Dante but overall I really enjoyed this book.


Thank you to RandomHouse UK and NetGalley for sending me an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Dark Academia and I have a rocky relationship. I love nothing as much as elite and secret boarding schools, hidden magical schools, schools with ghosts and demons and secret societies outing your worst secrets to the world. And yet, not every dark academia works for me. As if I always need a little more, but don't know exactly what. However, when I saw this book on Netgalley I got really curious and requested a copy and luckily Transworld Publishers granted me a copy.

I finished the book this morning and I'm still sort of processing what I've actually read. That's partly because the science, or magic, the line is thin in this one, is quite unique. And, just like the heroine of the story, I already immediately saw how this kind of power corrupts and can get really really dangerous in the wrong hands. However, in a way we've seen not much of how the power IS used outside of academy grounds and therefore the point of the story does not always feel clear.

Which is a pity, because there is so much about this story that works amazingly well. Apart from the magic, that is more a sort of science and also explained as a kind of science, there is the matter of a little time travel and a little portal travel. Quite a lot of scenes are also really atmospheric and haunting. The book is on top of that filled with a lot of emotions and we do get to see the horrifying and sickening things this power can do.

It just feels like it's not entirely clear what drives this story. It can't be the characters, because our heroine is dealing with whatever is thrown at her, but is most of the time not actively taking charge of her own life and future. It's also not the plot, because it's there, but it takes a very long time before we understand the plan for the heroine. I think it's the powers and what this power does with and to people and all the horrors we get to see on page.

So, especially if you're interested in the human mind and how it can be twisted, this is your book!

Loved the characters in this. A dark academia gothic vibe to it. Really well written and the overall plot that tied it together was great. If you like dark academia and unlikeable characters you’ll like tbjs

This is my first read from Alexis Henderson , despite having two of her previous releases on my Kindle. Her dark stories with a twist of the supernatural have always appealed to me, and this new venture into dark academia was perfect to start spooky season.

Lennon Carter is in her mid-20s, engaged to a handsome professor, Wyatt. On the surface, things look good, but Lennon is haunted by psychological trauma and - when she catches Wyatt sleeping with a friend at their engagement party - she steals his car and leaves with every intention of ending her life.

But that's not where Lennon's story ends - it's just the beginning. On her way to ending her life, she receives a mysterious call at a phone booth. It takes her on a journey to a magical school for gifted individuals, Drayton.

This story is quite a slow burn at the beginning, with a strange and dreamlike feel as Lennon is transported from her mundane life and begins to learn the rules of her new surroundings. The magic system, called persuasion is a form of psychic power which enables the students to persuade other living creatures and even sometimes objects to act to their will.

"Persuasion is the ability to enforce one's own will on a being, object or entity."

It doesn't come without its cost though, as Lennon and the other characters suffer seizures, headaches, nosebleeds and worse if they overuse their abilities. It's a unique and clever magic system with a dark side, and I really liked how this was done.

The book is dripping in atmosphere and complete with all the dark academia tropes you could want - an "aroma of must and books and cigarette smoke" peppered throughout. But, for me, it was lacking in character development. Lennon's hastily formed friendship group felt utterly replaceable, and her love interest with an older professor didn't feel authentic. Lennon herself is not particularly likeable, but she does make for an intriguing, flawed protagonist exploring some dark and morally complex dilemmas as the story progresses.

Despite a slow-burn start and an unconvincing middle, the final third of this book picks up the pace considerably and I found myself racing through the pages as the mysteries of Drayton and Lennon's role in its future are revealed.

"She had come to Drayton looking for a saviour, now she had the chance to become one."

All in all, this one was a mixed bag for me, but I appreciate the author's atmospheric writing and unique magic system - I'm sure other fans of the genre might enjoy this more.

You want to read a dark academia novel? Well you got one! This book jumps right on in with the dark from the first chapter, and just doesn’t stop! This book enthralled me from the get go, and I just had to continue to read it!

The magic was so unique and definitely added to the dark vibe, as with all the characters too. Lennon was a great mc, strong, but with obvious troubles. Her relationships with her class mates and teachers was so well written too. The book is written from Lennons POV and it very much showed through with how I felt about some of the characters.

I am glad that I read this book for the dark academia aspect, and not for romance too, as I did find the romance very one sided. When it did happen, it was lovely, but the build up before (and even parts afterwards) felt quite strained and not quite there.

This book was perfectly dark with some great plot twists that left me dumbstruck!
Please check the trigger warnings for this book as it definitely goes straight into it with topics such as toxic relationships, sour power dynamics, depression, suicide and other things taking a centre stage at points throughout.

Seriously in two minds on this one
Parts I liked and parts I found jarring. It did leave me with some very strange dreams so it has made an impression.

Escaping a doomed engagement, Lennon answers a call in phone booth telling her she’s through to the next phase in the interview process at Drayton College, a university she’s never heard about or applied to enter. She follows the directions and her life is changed forever. Drayton specialises in persuasion, the mental art of bending others to your will. Lennon falls under the tutelage of the enigmatic professor Dante Lowe, but in a school whose very existence is based on persuading you to see things that aren’t there, what’s really going on?

The school vibe and the rules of the world are really clearly set out and it’s really easy to picture the campus and the characters. The beginning is so wonderfully weird but once at the school I felt it lost pace and focus.

There are a lot of characters in this novel but there was no one I really felt anything for. Lennon’s not a particularly sympathetic protagonist and even the antagonist isn’t present enough to despise. The most interesting character is Dante and he’s as much a mystery at the end as the beginning. There’s a lot of set up and not a lot of follow through.

This isn’t quite a horror, or dark academia, or a supernatural thriller and maybe a bit of everything wrapped together. There’s even a love story but this isn’t a romance. I did think it made some interesting points about power dynamics in relationships and abuse of power.

One of my problems is that there is so much subtext which is used to build tension but actually it just made it really confusing to follow what was going on. And there’s a real lack of resolution which is frustrating. When big events happened it was out of nowhere.

I’m really keen to hear other thoughts on this one. It could be just me

Thank you #netgalley and the publisher for my #arc

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read this book for free in exchange of my honest review!

This book was great. The ambience was set straight away, and the writing allowed me to dive in head first. The plot was really interesting: the magic system was not something I'd seen before and I enjoyed learning about it. The characters are fleshed out, and each held their own. The plot progression made sense. Be aware, there are A LOT of mentions of blood. My only reserve about this book was the timeline that sometimes jumped around and it took me a couple pages to catch on where the book was in time (until main events at the school, such as holidays, were described). The ending gave me Inception vibes but without the ever-lasting questions and theories and I am so grateful to the author for not leaving me hanging!

All in all, I liked it enough to get myself a physcial copy when this comes out. If you like dark academia and don't mind blood, then give this a go!

While I’m not entirely convinced by the dark academia label, this was a thoroughly entertaining book.
Lennon has spent her life running away from her problems. When she finds her fiancé having sex with her friend in the bathroom of their home it’s only natural that she decides to leave. What is not usual is the fact that she then takes receipt of a strange phone call inviting her to an interview at Drayton, a college that nobody has heard of.
Curious, Lennon sees this as an opportunity to prove her worth. However, the interview and test is like nothing she has encountered before. For reasons she is unsure of, she passes and begins her studies.
Drayton is a college like no other. Every student is skilled in the art of persuasion and there are many suggestions that Lennon may well be one of the most gifted…of course, things don’t go that smoothly and Lennon has a lot of learning to do before she can tap into her potential.
There’s twists and turns aplenty. Some chilling scenes showing the risk of manipulating others, and some interesting magical elements linking to the concept of travel.
Aside from the mawkish ending - by that time I felt she needed to have drawn a line on her feelings for Dante - this was cleverly constructed and definitely a recommended read (though it did feel like something of a misdirection).
Thanks to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review it before publication.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my copy of this earc.

I feel like this book was longer than it needed to be. I was loving the first 15-20% but after that I kind of lost it and felt like it was really slow paced.

I prefer a fast paced book but think many people will enjoy!

I was very intrigued by the premise of this story, but unfortunately it didn't live up to my expectations.

First of all I'm quite unsure of how early of a advanced copy I received, but I think I've never read an ARC with this many typos, grammar errors and words missing from sentences before. That made it very off putting to read, it definitely needs a couple more rounds of proof reading before going into final print for that alone.

Aside from that the story itself felt rather disjointed. It was like reading the rough outline of an interesting story that started off quite good, but as it progressed I kept on finding myself confused if I was missing chapters, because things just kept progressing and ending in a very abrupt manner. There were many time jumps when things just started to get interesting and could have used more time to be established.
I really liked the setting and the atmosphere, but the characters felt so very one dimensional and flat, what made it hard to really get into the story. They had interesting foundations, but never came across as more than an idea of a character. If they were more fleshed out, through their interactions and actually showing their relationships progressing, I could have warmed up to them, but as it is everything was so rushed when it came to social interactions. I never saw anything actually playing out and instead was made to assume that things just happened off screen during the last time jump between chapters and everyone is best friends all of a sudden.
The main plot of the story was also relatively predictable, I kept on being reminded of every other sci-fi dark academia book or tv show ever, so unfortunately that also couldn't really make up for the lack of character depth. All in all it kept me entertained enough to read on, but it didn't really convince me.

Given how much I've loved Alexis Henderson's previous novels, I should not have been surprised at how much I enjoyed this. An Academy of Liars is a story of persuasion, the pursuit of it and how the lure of its power is intoxicating and destructive.

Lennon, our protagonist, has hit rock bottom at the start of the novel. Having discovered her fiancee in a compromising position with his work colleague, she finds herself lost and contemplating the worthiness of her life. Until she receives a mysterious phonecall stating that she's moved onto the next stage in thr selection process for an unheard of college. What follows is a rabbit hole of magical elevators, a highly competitive school hidden from the general population and mysterious societies with deadly games of admition.

I like Lennon as a protagonist. She's deeply self deprecating, having continually let everyone down in her life so far she's desperate to remain at Drayton where she finds herself to be special, unique. Her inexplicable pull to Dante is magnetic. The pair know that together they're both bad and good for each other. Two sides of the same coin, and Dante knows how to get the best out of Lennon. I did at times find their relationship a little unconvincing in that Lennon falls very easily given no encouragement from Dante whatsoever, however their chemistry cannot be denied.

The overall plot was intriguing and highly atmospheric as Lennon spends most of her time within the mysterious walls of Drayton college. It's a college that oozes gothic, dark academia - and from someone who normally hates dark academia, I found myself pleasantly surprised by how much I liked the world. Some of the finer elements of the plot are left a little open to interpretation or not fully explained (such as the kids skeletons and weird dark shadow monsters for example) and the pacing did get a little off track in the middle however overall I found that it was highly entertaining and interesting. It had definite Ninth House vibes and the mysteries that Lennon becomes embroiled in were suitably creepy and satisfying to see unfold.

Another great edition to Alexis Henderson's stories. If you loved her other novels, or Ninth House I think you'll love this one.

I reviewed An Academy of Liars for book recommendation and sales site LoveReading.co.uk

I’ve chosen this title as a Liz Pick of the Month for November.

Please see the link for the full review.

I had such high hopes for this book after having loved Alexis Henderson’s previous works, but unfortunately, this one did not live up to her earlier books in my opinion.

Henderson’s talent for creating complex yet digestible world-building, her captivating atmospheres, and her skill for writing realistic, unstilted dialogue are what ultimately carried me through to the end. That, and my determination to find out what happened next as I’m not sure any of us could have predicted some of the directions that the book went!

Although I’m not a big reader of book series, I found myself wishing that Lennon’s character arc had been stretched across multiple books. While it’s impressive that Alexis managed to pack so much into this single story, I would have preferred more time to get to know Lennon, her peers, and her associates, as well as to spend more time at the College itself. Personally, I didn’t feel particularly connected to Lennon, and I suspect this was due to the rapid pace of events escalating before we had a proper chance to understand her outside of the chaos. This left me feeling frustrated with Lennon and the characters around her, rather than rooting for them.

Echoing the sentiments of other reviewers, I found that the relationships—both romantic and otherwise—left a lot to be desired. These relationships felt underdeveloped, possibly due to the rushed and frantic circumstances under which they were formed but they had so much potential!

Overall, while I found the book engaging enough to see the story through, it didn’t quite meet my expectations. I will definitely continue to read and recommend Alexis Henderson’s past (and hopefully future) works, especially her more horror-oriented stories, as I feel that’s where her characters and narrative skills truly shine.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-ARC. All opinions are my own.

Alexis Henderson writes descriptively dark and atmospheric gothic stories and An academy for liars is every bit as dramatic and dark as you could hope for.
I enjoyed the storyline, a secret college where selected people are invited to hone their powers of persuasion.
While I enjoyed these elements of the book, I did find the writing to be repetitive in parts and a little cliché with Lennon the student and Dante her adviser/professor.
The story takes some interesting twists and turns and has plenty of likeable (and unlikeable) characters.
I didn’t love Lennon (mc) I found her character annoying and wish washy, she’s bottom of her classes and yet she’s supposed to be special. She struggles with learning how to use her abilities and yet she’s gifted?
If you enjoyed the likes of Naomi Novic’s A deadly education or Silvia Moreno Garcia’s Mexican gothic then you might like this!
Overall an enjoyable read.
⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

This dark academia with horror elements book was great! I found Lennon to be a compelling but flawed MC, and the gradual reveals as the sinister aspects of Drayton college were revealed was well executed.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

3.5 stars

Overall I really enjoyed this. I loved the atmosphere, the writing and thought the plot was interesting and I specially liked the ending. I guess my biggest issue was with dark academia specifically, I always expect a good character work, and this book didnt satisfy me in this regard. The only characters I cared about was the protagonist and Dante, and Dante wasn't that much either. But like I said, the rest of the book keept me entertained and internesting. I really enjoy this author, will definitely keep an eye for the next releases.

I am a fan of dark academia, yes magic but no rainbows and butterflies. This is nicely dark filled with moths and rats (yes, experiments but taken good care of by Dante and Gregory is awesomely cute!), mind twisting and control and the occasional dark reflection or twisted being that wreaks chaos. It is an interesting magic, mostly called persuasion. the stronger one is, the more they can influence others and the strongest can even influence or change reality (but only a very special few). And they get called by the hidden college of Drayton to be tested and to learn to change the world (if they can make the cut). Lennon was interesting in that she is a kind of a mixture of weakness but also capable of great strength even to the creation of elevators. And as the story progressed and she grew into those powers, she also learned more about herself. I kept reading to see what she would be capable but also what the mystery of Dante is and what his plans are. The first part was interesting with the introduction of Drayton, the middle had a few draggy bits (not quite a fan of the professor/student relationship that popped up) but the ending with the house of cards falling down, it got really thrilling and I too told Lennon to run!

I have enjoyed Alexis Henderson's other books which do not shy away from the dark, disturbing, but also kind of magical. I liked this one too and will happily read any other books she publishes.