Member Reviews
Lennon is a woman whose life is thrown upside down when she answers a mysterious call and finds herself at Drayton studying the art of persuasion. Life doesn’t get any easier as she falls further down the rabbit hole of her teachings at the mysterious college.
This dark academia book had a grip on me and I was up to 2am finishing it.
Although this book is set in recent years (it even references the Canadian wildfires that cast NYC In smoke) it is hauntingly eerie and atmospheric in places. The opening alone is dark and creepy.
This is a multi layered story of manipulation and betrayal where people are constantly battling for power, not only amongst students but the faculty itself. I found myself unable to tear myself away from the pages for too long because I needed to know what was happening next.
I liked the lead character of Lennon and her character development is great. Her willingness to blindly follow instructions without question for a good half of the book (hey let’s drive 8 hours to this place I’ve never heard of on my own because a phone call told me to) did annoy me slightly but took nothing away from story.
The book has some great characters but I did find the teachers to be the more interesting ones with more depth than the students.
This is the first book from this author I’ve read and I really enjoyed her writing style. The stories pacing flowed beautifully and descriptions were on point. Since finishing I’ve added her previous books to my wish list for next pay day
Thankyou to NetGalley, Random House UK and Transworld Publishers for sending me the ARC ebook for review
I took a risk requesting An Academy For Liars, my love for Alexis Henderson overrode my wariness of dark academia- for me the 'dark' is never quite dark enough in these titles.
At the 20% mark nothing much had really happened aside from Lennon's bizarre induction to the school and a few vague character intros. In fact it wasnt until the 45% mark that the plot took off with a bang!
The biggest postive for An Academy Of Liars is it's unique focus, the power of persuasion- not only over people but reality itself. Although a secret school hidden by magic isn't exactly original and the world impact of such a power existing is only vaguely alluded to, the story is contained entirely to the school and a handful of students.
The pacing picks up throughout the second half with a few twists and some decent bloody scenes but overall I was looking for more menace, more reasons to care about the characters.
An Academy Of Liars follows well trodden tropes with a morally grey love interest and a 'chosen one' arc. I'm sure fans of the genre will be pleased, I'd prefer more of Henderson's debut style, The Year Of The Witching remains number one for me.
I enjoyed this. I found the plotting a bit inconsistent at times but overall liked the story and found myself really looking forward to going back to read it
Your next dark academia obsession.
I haven’t felt this way since reading Vitra Nostra, The Magicians, or Middlegame! This also reminded me of the moral complexity and interpersonal entanglements of the Atlas Six!
After discovering her fiancée’s infidelity, Lennon receives a strange phone call inviting her to be interview at Drayton College.
From there, Lennon learns she is one of the rare individuals who possess the heightened ability to persuade the natural world into complying with their will. Gifted individuals who can force their will on both individuals and matter itself.
Enrolled in the College, Lennon learns how to focus her ability, as well as discovering the depths of her own psyche.
Lennon doesn’t want to be a hero or a villain. she just wants to be better. However, she must grapple with who deserves to hold power, how we decide to use it, and whether good v evil is an innate choice. Is persuasion an act of force?
Can she trust herself with this power?
"I just want to matter. But everyone who matters hurts people. It's like you said.. all of us tramping on the bodies of others to get to a place where we don't actively hate ourselves."
This is also a tale of toxicity. Lennon is drawn to older, unavailable men. Escaping her fiancée at the start, we quickly learn she places she self-worth on who she can attach herself to.
This leads to a complicated relationship with her advisor, Dr Dante Lowe, one of the most powerful to come out of Drayford. She is caught between two opposing instincts of attraction and fear.
This is dark, powerful, and charged.
Check trigger warnings for depression, suicide, panic attacks.
Thank you to Random House books for providing me to the physical arc in exchange for a review!
3,75 ★
I will say that this was quite a unique read and one that I'm having a hard time putting into words for this review. I’m very conflicted by this book. First, I loved the dark academia vibes and setting. Drayton College trains those who can bend the mind of others and reality itself through one powerful tool ; persuasion. I loved that magic specificity, if you can call it that. Though, it was also confusing at times.
I was surprised by the plot. While I did see some of the twists coming, others completely caught me off guard.
I loved Lennon and wanted to protect her from any harm, sadly, she was running towards it willingly. I also loved the side characters, especially Blaine. Also, shout out to Gregory the rat. He deserves some recognition!
Now to the things that troubled me! Character-wise I loved Dante too but some part of his background felt wrong (by that, I mean his past relationship which I found really fucked up - check out the trigger warnings, always!). It has the student/professor trope which I’m not a fan of (hate it even). The age gap (for the main duo at least) is appropriate in the sense that she is mid twenty and he’s early thirty and it is consensual but still, not my cup of tea. That’s totally on me tho, I should have done my research (sometimes I don’t want to know too much of a book before getting into it and well, that’s when it happens). Basically, I loved the characters as individuals, their complexity, how they fit in all of this but I wasn’t much into the romance aspect of this book and I did even found it sad that Lennon didn’t felt like she deserved better than this in the end. Even tho I love dark academia, I often struggle with some of the characters/relationships portrayed and that one wasn’t an execution sadly.
Overall, I enjoyed reading An Academy for Liars for its magic system and universe. Alexis Henderson’s writing was very good!
NetGalley review:
A dark, twisted, shocking, horrifying, gripping, story that will surprise you at every turn and get you thinking about who you can really trust and how much you can trust in yourself.
It gave me stranger things vibes along with goosebumps also.
I loved this book! It's an amazing mix of dark academia and fantasy all wrapped up in an intriguing story.
A perfect read for autumn, curled up in a blanket with a candle and a cup of tea.
Oh, how excited I was to receive this ARC… unfortunately, An Academy for Liars just wasn’t for me. I loved the concepts behind the story, but that’s where my enjoyment ended. All of the characters felt flat and one-dimensional, the mysteries weren’t exactly mysterious, and plot itself crawled along at a snail’s pace.
I also really hated how Lennon tried so hard to reestablish her identity separate from her romantic partner just to end up being defined by a new man. Including a student/teacher trope didn’t help either (if this was marketed, I totally missed it, because I wouldn’t have requested the ARC had I known it was a key factor in the book’s romance plot).
Overall, I was left bored and disappointed. But hey, at least I was able to cancel my preorder!
Thank you NetGalley and Random House UK for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
DNF @ 16% - Adult dark academia
Unfortunately, deciding to DNF this one but I do think this is personal taste only. I have such a love / hate relationship with dark academia. I think I want to like it but it may just not be for me. I found the premise of "persuasion" really interesting but found the main character of Lennon unlikeable and the pace really slow and those are the two main reasons I decide to DNF books for. .
I enjoyed Gothikana and from the description that's what made me pick this one up as it sounded similar. However, I felt it more comparative to the Atlas Six so if you enjoyed this one then you may also like this but I wasn't a fan.
This is easily one of the most unique dark academia stories I’ve read. It’s hard not to become enthralled with this academy when you’re experiencing the lessons of persuasion right alongside Lennon, all while being thoroughly wrapped within messy and morally grey dynamics that you can’t look away from. The ambition, the power struggles, the yearning to be someone all proved authentic as we enter an endless grapple for the top-spot. And with gothic/horror elements to add an extra sprinkling of tension, it was hard not to avidly read this in the late hours of the night.
By 100 pages I expected to be wanting more and excited but I just found this hard to get into and enjoy. Didn't want to continue unfortunately.
A mysterious, twisty dark academia with an intriguing magic system involving ‘persuasion’ magic and very morally grey characters. This book was indeed fully of lying characters! 😂
I really enjoyed this refreshing take on the genre with a diverse cast! Need to see more like this in the future!
Something you should know, I am nothing if not impatient. It’s sad but it’s true. So a book that sounds this amazing coming out in September? I’m basically incapable of waiting two months. So when the US publisher declined my arc request, I was determined to find another way to read this. Turns out a simple google search and the UK publisher were the solution to my problems.
Also turns out I would find a whirlwind of new problems as soon as this book starts.
I’ll start by getting the positives out of the way first, because this book really isn’t all bad, even if I’m not quite sure it lived up to its potential.
The concept behind this book really was amazing. Having the book center around studying the art of persuasion was such a creative and unique thing to read. Since the concept was so cool, even when I was having my issues with this book, I was still interested in what would happen next and found this very easy to read.
Another thing I really enjoyed was the writing style. I can say for sure that I would 100% pick up another book by this author. Some people just have the ability to completely immerse you in the world they create with just one paragraph, and this was a perfect example. This also had an atmosphere that I really loved, it felt weird and confusing but in a good way…most of the time.
Which brings me to the not so good. Because you see, if you want to get to the good parts of this book, you have to make it through the first 20%. And for me, that was honestly a struggle that took days.
I think in order to properly enjoy this book right off the bat there is a certain suspension of disbelief required. If you’re capable of that you may love this from the jump. If you’re like me however, and find yourself scratching your head at characters ridiculous decisions, then you may have some trouble getting into this.
Let’s play a quick game of choose your path, featuring the scenarios the main character is put in at the beginning of the book, so you can see what I mean.
***Warning because I’ll be spoiling things that happen in the first 12% of the book***
➸ Scenario A:
↳ After you see what you believe to be a monstrous version of yourself in the mirror you flee and end up in an abandoned parking lot. You then hear an old payphone ringing nonstop nearby and decide to pick it up. On the other end of the line you hear a voice - or what sounds like many voices at once - and it knows personal details about you. It tells you if you want your life to change, you should go to this address eight hours away to interview for a college you have never heard of or applied to. The decision doesn’t really require much thought from you and so you…
ⓐ Drive away immediately and go literally anywhere else
ⓑ Go to stay with a family member and tell them what has happened, possibly consider checking into a psych ward because you may be experiencing hallucinations
ⓒ Listen to the creepy voice and go on the full drive in the middle of the night without telling anyone where you’re going
Now let’s think: what would a sensible person do. If you chose option A or B…sorry but you would be incorrect. You may have too much common sense I fear.
If you chose option C then congratulations, your journey continues.
➸ Scenario B:
↳ You arrive at the address in the middle of nowhere and discover it is a strangers house. Curious still, you knock on the door. A man in his forties answers and he seems a bit creepy. Immediately you…
ⓐ Run, start the car, and drive as far as you have the energy to make it. Nothing can be worse than whatever is going on in there
ⓑ Follow his instructions when he says to enter his house, and let him lead you to a back room
It’s pretty easy to figure out what a logical person would do. So imagine my surprise when she does the exact opposite.
I think you get the gist of what I mean now, right? Even though I like the confusing atmosphere of the story and the way that it makes you wonder what’s happening, in the beginning all that confusion stemmed from wondering how a person can be so stupid. This does ease up once the mc actually arrives at the college, and that’s where this book actually entertains, but I still couldn’t forget how we had gotten there.
After struggling through that though, I was pleasantly surprised by how much it improved. The pacing in the middle really picked up, and I was much more engaged and curious about what was going on than I thought I would be. However, once the truth was revealed, I found myself ready for the story to wrap up. It’s not that the ending was bad, I just felt like it could have been stronger.
For context, this book has a pretty large cast of characters. I'm mentioning this because watching seventeen dangerous situations unfold, only to have all these characters repeatedly come out of nowhere to save the day, got annoying quick. Then some more of them pop up and cause trouble while I try and figure out where they’ve been for the past one hundred pages. The repetition became frustrating and I started rolling my eyes each time someone new was yelling at the main character to run while they fight off whoever is now on the floor.
Overall, I can’t remember the last time I finished a book and felt this conflicted. This definitely had its strengths but I had a hard time enjoying it at more than one point. I definitely think this book is going to have a certain audience that it going to do very well with though, so if it sounds interesting to you I would still recommend you to give it a try.
Thank you to Netgalley and Random House UK for providing me with an e-arc in exchange for an honest review!
🄾🅅🄴🅁🄰🄻🄻 🅁🄰🅃🄸🄽🄶: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆.75~
Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for the ARC! This was such a delicious dark academia read that reminded me a lot of Ninth House! The relationships were so well done and the dynamic was so fun to read! I loved it and devoured the story very quickly. 4 stars.
This is one of the best dark academia books that I have ever read.
Original and captivating, I was hooked from the very first chapter. You are thrown straight into a situation and watch as Lennon has to find herself out of it.
The power of persuasion and the magic of influencing people is a really interesting concept and I was constantly questioning and intrigued by where the story was going.
Loved every single page.
I was so excited to read this arc. And now, I’m just really disappointed.
2 Stars
The concept was there, the idea was quite interesting, but the execution just didn’t happen for me.
An Academy for Liars follows our main character, Lennon. At the beginning of the book, Lennon experiences something that causes her to want to end her life. She reaches out, asking for something to make her reconsider. In an eerie parking lot, a phone booth covered in ivy starts to ring. She answers the phone, and is told to head to Ogden, Utah for her interview for Drayton College the very next morning. She goes (who on earth would drive to a stranger’s house lol) and ultimately gets accepted into Drayton College, where she will learn the art of persuasion and influencing one’s will.
This concept of persuasion was very intriguing to me, but I personally did not appreciate how it was executed. The book was very fast paced and confusing at times, and we never really stopped to explain things. I think this had potential to have excellent worldbuilding, but there wasn’t much given. I was hoping for a very atmospheric, dark academia novel.
I also didn’t necessarily find this to be “dark academia”, which is the whole reason I wanted to read this! It wasn’t moody or atmospheric; it was really weird, grotesque, and more horror-esque at times.
This book definitely recycles its words often. I’d find the same unique word used multiple times within a few pages, and then there would be a new word that stuck out. This might just be me nitpicking, but it’s something that really takes me out of a story.
I am quite tired of the “I’m not good at anything” trope girl who is shocked when someone is jealous of her and her terrible life.
Also - I know this is an arc, so hopefully this gets fixed before publication, but the amount of hyphens splitting up words was absurd and very distracting. My review is completely based on the story, but the format was completely jacked up. The wo-rding was li-ke th-is for the entire-ty of the bo-ok.
*Spoilers Ahead*
Lennon - Our FMC is in her mid-twenties and is one of the most powerful persuasionists in awhile, due to her ability to “open gates”. I feel like Lennon made stupid decisions left and right through this book, and it just became infuriating to me. She purposefully overdoses on cocaine to see if it’ll open up gates. And later, we discover she’s quite the murderer. Lennon is incredibly whiny and pick-me throughout the book, and I simply did not like a single thing about her.
Dante - Our mystery man. The thirty-something year old professor who says he can’t get with the younger student, but then one night he magically changes his mind (Sorry, I really hate the professorxstudent trope). Supposed to be morally gray, but not much going for him. We learn he has a dark past, but then we never get to dive into it at all. His character was incredibly one dimensional, and I also had no feelings toward his character.
Lennon and Dante have a weird romance in this book. I feel like it can’t even be classified as a slow burn because there are no sparks between them at all. The chemistry is not there at all - there are no elements available for chemistry to even happen. They get together in Dante’s house in South Carolina, and it was really, really awkward. Here’s a direct quote: “From then on, they did what they did in silence”. They did what they did? And silence? You’re telling me I’m supposed to believe these characters have chemistry!?
I was so disappointed by this book. I wanted the dark academia vibes with some forbidden romance, and I was left empty handed. It didn’t stand out in any way to me, and the whole story felt one dimensional. The potential for an incredible world and story was there, but was poorly executed.
Thank you NetGalley for providing me with this arc!
I thoroughly enjoyed An Academy For Liars - a novel that perfectly embodies the Dark Academia genre.
The story starts with introducing us to Lennon just as her life begins to unfurl, before she is whisked away to the mysterious, and seemingly non-existent, Drayton College. Whilst here she learns about developing her ability as a persuasionist and how this new-found power impacts her own nature, her relationships and her strength.
I was gripped from start to finish and absolutely devoured this novel.
It was well written, with just the right amount of world and character building. I think the author managed to perfectly capture the fact that no one is perfect - all the characters were flawed, some more so than others.
The pacing was a bit slow to begin with (probably my only negative) but I still found myself compelled to keep going. The payoff was 100% worth it as the story was fantastic.
This was the first book by Alexis Henderson that I've read, but it won't be the last!
I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who likes a darker book, as some of the themes could be a bit heavy. Please check content warnings.
Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for the ARC!
My thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK for a free eARC of "An Academy for Liars" by Alexis Handerson.
A Dark Academia with some Paranormal ellements. Think something between "The Secred History" and "Vita Nostra".
I was so excited to read this, bit I guess I went into it with the wrong expectation. I was hoping for something like "Babel" or "Blood Over Bright Haven", but this was more like "The Secret History" but with more inclusive atmosphere.
My struggle here was that I was not made to care, to get attached. While the main herione is somewhat complex, the setting and everyone else feels muted.
I apreciated the author's prose , so I will try her future works.
As a number one fan of dark academia and secret societies this book was like a warm hug after a long day for me. I loved following Lennon's journey as she tries to deal with her powers in the right way and the setting added even more points to my reading. For me the only flaw was that the book starts a little slowly, making it a little more difficult to immerse yourself in the story but after that the reading flows really well.
Alexis Henderson’s An Academy for Liars is a great entry into the dark academia genre. Henderson wastes no time in getting main character Lennon to Drayton College—a hidden school dedicated to the study of magic. I loved learning about the type of magic at play, which is essentially an enhanced version of persuasion, but there’s far more layers to it than that.
The academic atmosphere was also a strong point and if anything I wish the novel indulged in that atmosphere even more, giving even more detailed descriptions of the classes and the school’s buildings. The same goes for Lennon’s classmates—I liked the characters that we were introduced to, but wish we got more of them!
I will say that the romance in the book doesn’t really work for me, partly because it’s a student-teacher relationship (albeit one that is age appropriate and consensual) and partly because my appetite for romance in fiction is limited.