Book Cover
Title: An Academy For Liars
Author: Alexis Henderson
Series: Standalone
Page count: 464 pages
Genre: Dark Academia, Urban Fantasy, Thriller.
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 5
This is a dark academia novel about a girl who gets accepted into this elite academy, Drayden, without ever applying to it. The book has a very gloomy, wintery, cold feel to it. It starts off pretty depressing for our main character, Lennon, as she is struggling with many issues. Her partner is cheating on her, she is feeling very miserable and hopeless and even plans on ending her life.
We are introduced to Lennon on the night of her engagement party, where she looks at herself in the mirror an sees an eyeless distorted image of her reflection staring back. This moment was quite intriguing and set a strong eerie tone for the story. Soon after, something seemingly paranormal occurs and she receives a mysterious call informing her that she needs to attend an interview, and if she passes the tests, she can enroll at Drayden Academy. The entrance process consists of three trials, and once a student completes the course and earns a diploma, their future is practically secured. I love such a high-stake environment in a book where the characters are competing against each other.
Lennon
Source
This world basically has people with magical abilities and Drayden is an institute that helps the candidates with most potential hone their skills. The primary magical ability in this book is the power of persuasion, which was a fascinating aspect. Lennon’s ability to influence anyone to do anything was thrilling as well as unsettling, setting up a premise for moral quandaries and ethical dilemmas.
Another part of the magic system in this world is that Lennon can access other world by calling an "elevator" of sorts. This concept was one of the most intriguing elements of the book, making it feel distinct from other dark academia stories. If not for this particular aspect of the story, I probably would have given up on the book much earlier.
Dante
Source
This book is kind of like a character study of the main character as she's trying to figure out what happened to her, what this college is and about the people that go there. Needless to say, its a heavily character-driven story with magical and fantasy elements intertwined. I enjoyed learning about the magic system, how it affected Lennon, and the various places the characters visited. However, despite these strengths, the book had several frustrating elements.
I was not fan of Lennon as the narrator. Her voice often felt disjointed, and the narrative itself was confusing at time. Many things were left open-ended. Either we do not get answers to the questions that the book itself poses or they tend to be unsatisfactory.
Another issue I found was that many parts of the book read like a high-school drama, which did not make sense considering the ages of the characters in this book. Lennon is in her 20s, which is pretty young so I will let her immaturity slide. But most characters are in their late twenties or older and it did not make sense for them to act the way they did, in a juvenile manner. Their interactions, conflicts, and even dialogue felt more suited to teenagers than adults, which made it difficult to take them seriously at times. The dialogues too were something that normal people in the real world would not say.
I wanted to DNF the book a lot of times but I had already invested so much time in it. I'm not shy of DNFing books, I've done it on several occasions but this one I just wanted to get through, so I settled for skimming through the chapters instead.
Overall, the book had a lot of potential. It had a strong premise, intriguing magical system, elements that made it stand out from other books in the same genre. With a better storytelling and more focus on the plot it could have been something I really loved. Instead, it ended up feeling more like a missed opportunity.
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Not exactly my genre, but the plot is interesting :)
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Thank you! It's not my usual genres either but it got a lot of hype
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Manhattan Transfer by John Dos Passos. Regards.Hi, @yugadi. I liked the review of that book, as you give it a very personal tone, as it should be. It's not one of the books that might interest me; I'm of older tastes, as I am. I've taken to rereading or reading books that had been forgotten in my library in recent times. I am currently reading
Hmmm, I've never read any book from the Dark Academia or Urban Fantasy genre but it sounds interesting. Thanks for sharing!
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It has an interesting premise book and It was my first time reading something in this genre too. I suppose there are much better books than this out there.
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