The Library at Hellebore by Cassandra Khaw

TL;DR: Absolutely loved the idea but this needed so much more meat on it’s bones.
Source: NetGalley, thank you so much to the publisher!

Plot: Take a twisted magical school and put a bunch of very unhinged characters inside. Fun times follow.
Characters: They had a lot of potential for me! But ultimately we didn’t get nearly enough time with them.
Setting: Again, the potential was here! I wish we’d gotten a lot more.
Horror: Oh my gosh, the body horror here was fantastic. If you want something gory and lush, this is it.

Summary:

A deeply dark academia novel from USA Today bestselling author Cassandra Khaw, perfect for fans of A Deadly Education and An Education in Malice who are hungry for something more diabolical.

The Hellebore Technical Institute for the Gifted is the premier academy for the dangerously powerful: the Anti-Christs and Ragnaroks, the world-eaters and apocalypse-makers.

Hellebore promises redemption, acceptance, and a normal life after graduation. At least, that’s what Alessa Li is told after she’s kidnapped and forcibly enrolled.

But the Institute is more than just a haven for monsters. On graduation day, the faculty embark on a ravenous rampage, feasting on their students. Trapped in the school’s cavernous library, Alessa and her surviving classmates must do something they were never taught: work together.

If they don’t, this school will eat them alive.

Thoughts:

Within 15 pages of this I was in love with the idea here. A very ‘magical school’ setting, with all the right trappings but make it as messed up, dark, and gory as you possibly can. The school and the faculty are out to eat the students, pick them off, and they have to fight to survive. I loved the twist on this setting, especially since this seemed to be taking a direct stab at a very specific magical school with some of the machinations it used.

By the end I wasn’t as excited about it, I wanted more. I could have read 400+ pages of this, and honestly it might have needed that. The characters were intriguing, I wanted to know more of their abilities and backstories. What brought them here? The best character by far for me was Johanna who died in the first chapter. Her flashbacks gave us a lot of meat on her character, and that’s what I wanted for the rest.

I would have loved for this to be longer, and I think in the end that’s the biggest flaw I can give it. Everything else I ate up (pun intended). I loved the horror, the fighting, etc. More depth and personality would have gone so far, helped the ending feel concrete and really gave more ‘omph’ to this. Is it worth reading? I think so. But is it perfect? Not quite.