<i>Thank you Netgalley and Redbook (Orbit) for providing me an eARC of this book in exchange for a honest review.</i>

This should have been the one that ticked all the boxes: a scholarly main character, fairies, set in a Harry Potter-like magical school, reminiscent of Cambridge and Oxford. Only the historical time period, set during WW1, was not my thing, but that could have worked. Unfortunately (and I am so sorry about this) it did not. Let's get things in order.

During the war, the brother of the main character, Matthew, was struck by a faerie curse while trying to summon one through a door between the human and faerie worlds. Many other people died in the accident, and since then all faerie magic has been banned. Clover, our protagonist, driven by guilt for what happened to Matthew, wants to become a scholar in order to understand what went wrong and save her brother. So she enrols in a magical academy, which usually only accepts male students from families with a blood affinity for magic.
See how cool the premise is? I was sold, of course, and excited to read on.

My one and only major problem with this book was the narrative voice, which felt flat from the very first pages. It would also have benefited from more showing and less telling. I could not relate to the characters. I found myself skimming from one dialogue to the next at 10%. By the time I got to 50% I was wondering: "Does it really make sense to skim to the end just to find out if and how Clover finds a cure for her brother?
The answer was, of course, no, because all I had to do was read a few sentences on Wikipedia or reddit (there aren't any at the moment). If you have read it and would like to tell me, I would be very grateful.

What didn't help was the slow pace of the first half. Normally I would enjoy seeing the characters searching for secret and forbidden books in libraries, as long as the pacing was more balanced. Here and there we are given a hint that the main character is actually older and telling her story in the future, spoiling what would happen immediately afterwards. I didn't mind this aspect, but I found the time jumps a little too clunky. I prefer it when there's a date or something to indicate it.

Clover is a very sensitive and fragile main character compared to Emily Wilde, who lacked empathy. However, her relationship with the other characters lacked emotion. It felt a bit mechanical and the dialogue was sometimes cringe-worthy. I often found it difficult to distinguish the voices of the dialogue from the narrative voice. It felt like the characters had no character (pun intended).

Let's move on to the aspect I appreciated most: the setting and world-building. Although I wrote above that the narrative voice felt flat, the writing was very evocative. I know this sounds like a contradiction. I felt immersed in this Harry Potter-like school of magic, with the sense of wonder that the author conveys about magic and those who study it.

Unfortunately, this aspect alone was not enough for me to enjoy it. Again, this is a shame because I should have enjoyed this book much more than I did because of the many similarities to <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5338666127">Emily Wilde</a> (which I loved).

Recommended for fans of Emily Wilde and A Discovery of Witches.

The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door is a historical fantasy with hints of dark academia. It's a slow burner that's for sure, a story that is more suited to readers who like a stories strength to lie in it's characters over it's plot. But after reading a few of Parry's books now, I think that's just her style of writing, and she makes the ending 100% worth the wait.

Unique in it's telling, The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door is written as if Clover, our MC, is re-telling a part of her past, almost as if she is writing a book and that's the story we are reading. For the most part we are there with her, seemingly as the events occur, but thanks to certain paragraphs dotted throughout we know that this is a story within a story. Clover is allowing us to view her past, the good and the bad, in her way to explain the events that occurred, and to hopefully stop them from happening again.

Parry's strength has always been in her characters, and this book is no different. Though the story is told solely from Clover's POV, Parry never skimps on her exploration and development of her other characters, largely thanks to how tight knit she keeps our group of main characters. We have Clover, someone who only found out about magic as a teenager, but someone who was instantly bewitched by what it could do. Never one to shy away from a challenge she makes it her goal to be accepted into the magical school, Camford, which usually only accepts students from the magical Families, people whom magic is supposed to come easier too. Especially seeing as this could be her chance to help her brother who was cursed by a Faerie in the way. But once there, Clover finds herself seduced, not just by the school and the magic, but by the people she meets there.

Alongside Clover, the stories main focus is on Alden, Hero and Eddie, the friends she meets at Camford. These three are privileged, have grown up with access to magic Clover could only dream of, but somehow she finds herself drawn into their orbit and the four form a seemingly unbreakable bond. The summer they all spend together is truly magical, but by the end, their friendship is in ruins. The four no longer talk, and the events leave a mark on them all that will follow them all long into adulthood. Parry does a fantastic job of writing these characters. Seeing them through Clovers eyes puts an almost golden hue over them, makes them feel untouchable, but as the story progresses we learn just how complex they are, how driven and scheming they can be and how exactly Clover, a scholarship student, ended up in their orbit. And this is where the Dark Academia vibes come into it, seeing these characters that are ravenous for power, willing to risk everything for a chance at it. And Camford itself, the magical school we spend a large portion of the story at, certainly adds to those vibes, with it's wondrous exterior and dark underbelly.

The benefit of this being told from Clover's POV, as well as the fact it is written in an almost biographical style, is that we enter this magical world alongside Clover, someone who has only recently learnt of it's existence, something Parry uses to naturally introduce the history of her world as well as the magic system. It's a world built on hierarchy, where only the Families, aristocratic style people whom magical supposedly comes easier too have access to it. A world built on bargains made with the Fae, until one fateful event during the war which saw the magical world cut off all access to the Faerie world, deeming it too dangerous to access. Clover has her reasons for wanting to study faerie magic, most of all in the hope that it will help save her brother, Matthew, who was cursed by the Faerie who escaped during the war, but that's not the only reason, nor is she the only person interested in researching the doors, and the first 60% or so of the book is solely focused on their research and the inevitable event that occurs.

So yes, it is a slow story, and after the 60% (or so) mark we take a jump forward in time that felt a little clunky, but trust that Parry knows what she is doing, because it's in this last part that all the devastating pieces start coming together. Parry's writing style is prosaic and lyrical and easily drags you into her story, but she also has this ability to write the most epic fight scenes, one's that make the hairs on your arm stand on edge. It's the type of story that would usually annoy me, one with so much build up, only for the ending to seemingly fly by, but it works with this story. The build up, allowing us that much time to explore the characters makes the events of the ending that much more emotional, and once the pace started to pick up, I found myself struggling to put the book down, desperate to know how it would end.

This review has already been way longer than I anticipated, sorry about that, but it's just one of those books that I could ramble on about paragraph after paragraph. Parry's exploration of her characters, of the magic system and of the underlying privilege that runs through it all is spectacular to read. If you enjoy uniquely told stories filled with complex characters, one's that stray from the stereotypical beautiful and romantic Fae, and instead make them dangerous and chilling. dark academia vibes and some truly epic fight scenes, I can't recommend this enough. I feel like Parry just keeps getting better, book by book, and I can't wait to see what she brings out next.

3,25

I got into this story a bit blind, expecting magic and scholarship with maybe a dash of romance. Overall it is was I got, minus the romance, which is a rather good point. Sure the relationship between our main character and an other character is quite important, but not what I would qualify as a romance. It isn't the point of story.

I liked how the faeries are portrayed, keeping that sense of otherness and cunning from fairy tales, but not potrayed as villains either. The magic was interesting too, not that much explained but enough to be entertaining and serving the story. The plot is rather simple and straightfoward, good without offering too many surprises, with stakes but much stress. The origin of the Family's abilty to use magic is quite easy to foretell, it is something used often enough currently, but it does its job.

Where I have a bit of a trouble with the story is on the pacing and structure side. It slow. Lots of inner thoughts, keeping the rhythm meandering. And if I usually don't mind slow pacing, this story could have used a bit more of a upper rhythm, to keep the reader entertained beside the main character burgenoing relationships and her trouble, being a student from a farmer family, not one of the Families.
As for the structure, given the blurb, I expected to have the time switch earlier on, but it is only happening around 60% of the story and leaves little to explore next. Sure, learning how Clover became friend with the group at the beginning and seeing how things play out after one event took place is great, but I could have enjoyed it more if it was better executed, quicker, more shown with less internal monologue.

Regarding the characters, they are good enough. Not that compelling, Eddie aside. I feel like I don't have enough of them to care much about their fate, even Clover, whom we have every thoughts (or close to).
This lack of care on my part meant that the ending fell a bit flat. There is a nice little "twist" and an rather interesting ending for one of the character, but it felt incomplete and lacking overall.

All in all, a nice read with a few issues. People who wants a scholar type book, with faeries and touch of the 1920's atmosphere might like this book !

As if the blurb alone wasn't enough to draw me in, the endorsements by Olivia Atwater and Allison Saft certainly were, and The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door lived up to all my expectations!

This was an amazing fantasy story, and now that I've finished it, I feel a bit lost, if I'm honest. I loved the four flawed main characters and how real and complex everyone felt, even the side characters. It had an emotional ending, one that leaves open the possibility of another book set in this world, and if there is one, I'll definitely read it. I wasn't expecting the story to be as emotional as it was, but because the characters felt so real to me, I really felt the impact on them as the story progressed.

This was a story where the academic setting wasn't just for show - what the main characters' academic interests and specialties were actually mattered to the plot. There have been quite a few books I've read over the last year that have been described as dark academia, but the characters could have been in a shopping center or a car park for the whole book for all that the setting contributed to the story. That wasn't the case with this book at all. The magical academy of Camford felt like a real, possible place, and the story wouldn't have been as successful if the school didn't feel so important to all the characters.

I'd definitely recommend this book to anyone who is in the mood for a proper fantasy story that packs an emotional punch. It's a slow burn, but for me, the payoff from the slower pace is the complexity of the characters and how they drive the story forward, rather than the story forcing the characters into position like pieces on a chessboard. This was my first read by H.G. Parry, but based on this, it won't be my last!

Disclaimer: I received an Advance Reader Copy from NetGalley, but this is my voluntary and honest review.

H.G. Parry is turning into a guaranteed 4-5 star read for me. Faeries, magic, and chaos? Yes please.

Parry's best book to date. The characters were engaging and accessible and the plot was compelling. Yes, there are similarities to other books but this is a distinctcwork and if you like those other books - namely magical historical fiction - then you're probably going to love this one too. Really enjoyed this Tam Lin/ grey academia romp.

There was a lot in this book that I just felt I'd read it before. All too similar to other books I'd read.
It took a while to get going, it was almost half way through before much happened, and this is no small book.
There's plenty of action after that, and the fee are nice and menacing at times.
I enjoyed the magic, and the doors between worlds, and I liked how Clover fought so hard to save her brother.
An enjoyable story, but didn't quite live up to my high hopes.