I was looking for an immersive dark academia esque type novel, and for the first half of this one, I was satiated. I felt the premise was promising; a study in the art of persuasion. Really cool idea, and the author has a natural way of explaining this concept through the character's learning experience which has an authentic energy to it, coupled with a desire from myself, as the audience, to learn more. So there is definitly a talent for narrative in the writing.

So for the first half I was enthralled. It was giving Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo (which to say I LOVED is an understatement), and then literally around the 50% mark, it lost me. I assume that this is probably down to the relationship we find unfolding between Lennon (the main character) and Dante (her teacher basically). Maybe as I myself am a university student, the whole teacher x student thing is tired. Why frame it in the "this is bad we shouldn't do this it's so wrong", and then continues to do it anyway, it just reveals a complete lack of conviction. It's old now and I think there are way more interesting ways to explore character dynamics and progression without the teacher finding a student who is just so 'different' they can't help but being attracted to them. It's boring, and so it bored me, and as a result, the rest of the book became a total bore.

So I think the whole teacher x student pulled me out from enjoying it, and from that point onwards I was basically able to pull apart the book with every other part I marginally disliked. Like a knitted jumper being unfurled- that's what I did with this book. And it's not that i'm not interested by romance in dark academia, it's just more enjoyable and substantive when it's not such a tired and frankly irresponsible trope. And I can appreciate a story that includes plot points that I don't agree with, but more than anything I just felt it read like a cop out from any real development and relationships; which I was desperate to see because omg the concept is a cool idea.

There will definitely be a fan base for this book though, fans of the atlas six will flock to it in an instant, but Im just not the audience.

This book made me feel ALL of the feelings, and I couldn’t put it down! I smiled, I laughed, I gasped, I cried, I raged… not necessarily in that order. The writing was beautiful, totally immersive and the world building was really well done. The characters were all interesting, with their own unique backgrounds - they didn’t just feel like a means to an end, like they were there to serve a purpose and that’s all. It really felt like a lot of time and effort was put into making these characters feel like real people. It was also great to see representation for a number of communities in this book, something that is lacking in the fantasy genre as a whole at times. From memory, there are students of numerous ethnicities and backgrounds attending the academy, as well as LGBTQIA+ representation. Our main character, Lennon, showed a lot of growth throughout the story and had me rooting for her the entire time.

The book includes romance, but its main focus is more on the academy and on Lennon learning about her gifts and their applications in the world. There are some really interesting moral discussions about the ethics of using these gifts to have others submit to your will. The arguments on both sides were well thought out and articulated, which I thought really showed how much work the author put into this book as a whole. I also appreciated that some current, real world issues are brought up in this book, but done in a way that feels natural to the story.

I absolutely didn’t see the twist and the ending coming, although maybe I should have given the title of the book. It really took me by surprise, and retrospectively I can see small hints and foreshadowing peppered throughout the book, again in a way that felt natural and at the time didn’t raise any red flags for me until I looked back. The whole thing was done extremely well.

Overall, An Academy for Liars absolutely deserves 5 stars, a well earned rating by the author. Fans of dark academia, and books such as The Secret History, The Scholomance trilogy or The Atlas Six will love this! I can highly recommend this book, and can confidently say you won’t regret picking it up!

Thank you to Random House UK and Netgalley for providing an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

I can honestly say I've never read anything quite like this book. I was expecting a little dark academia, maybe a little magic... and what I got was a genre-bending speculative fiction that wrapped me around it's little finger whilst simultaneously pulling the rug out from underneath my feet. Don't get me wrong, this is set at a college of sorts, 100% full of magic and has the moody dark atmospheric writing we all know and love, but Henderson clearly had a "hold my beer" moment and added gut-wrenching horror elements, an edge of your seat mystery, time bending science fiction, and an infuriating romance. She also introduces us to an entirely morally grey cast of characters and gives us one of the most surprising found family moments I have ever had the joy to read. Honestly, this book was so twisty and unexpected that at about midway I stopped trying to hypothesize on the outcome and conceded to just blindly gobbling up every well-written morsel being laid before me. And I'm so glad I did because boy oh boy, she was a wild ride! Evocative, immersive and absolutely unique, this book took my expectations, flung them out the window and set a new bar for dark academia fantasy. Seriously, well done.

DNF at 26%. I tried this from 12/07/24 to 15/07/24. It just wasn’t for me. I found the writing to be quite flat and I’m just not finding the story stimulating. I liked the first couple of chapters but after that lost interest. This is a personal issue though as I haven’t had the best luck with this author.