An Academy for Liars
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3.0 • 1 Rating
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
A student will find that the hardest lessons sometimes come from outside the classroom in this stunning dark academia novel from the acclaimed author of The Year of the Witching and House of Hunger.
Lennon Carter’s life is falling apart.
Then she gets a mysterious phone call inviting her to take the entrance exam for Drayton College, a school of magic hidden in a secret pocket of Savannah. Lennon has been chosen because—like everyone else at the school—she has the innate gift of persuasion, the ability to wield her will like a weapon, using it to control others and, in rare cases, matter itself.
After passing the test, Lennon begins to learn how to master her devastating and unsettling power. But despite persuasion’s heavy toll on her body and mind, she is wholly captivated by her studies, by Drayton’s lush, moss-draped campus, and by her brilliant classmates. But even more captivating is her charismatic adviser, Dante, who both intimidates and enthralls her.
As Lennon continues in her studies, her control grows, and she starts to uncover more about the secret world she has entered into, including the disquieting history of Drayton College. She is increasingly disturbed by what she learns, for it seems that the ultimate test is to embrace absolute power without succumbing to corruption...and it’s a test she’s terrified she’s going to fail.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Henderson (House of Hunger) breaks her hot streak with this disappointing spin on the magical school trope. After recently heartbroken Lennon Carter witnesses her eyeless reflection grin at her in the mirror, she receives a mysterious phone call offering her admission to Drayton College, a magical university in a pocket universe once attached to Savannah, Ga. Drayton trains students in the art of persuasion, the power to force their will "not just upon other human beings, but... upon matter itself." After Lennon gets in, she's desperate to prove herself. She's also desperate for the affections of her adviser, Dante Lowe, the college's youngest tenured professor, who knows more than he'll say about Lennon's gift for manifesting elevators that can cross time and space. Unfortunately, this central relationship reads less like a star-crossed romance and more like a toxic cycle egged on by boundary-stomping Lennon. The time devoted to the romance also comes at the expense of Lennon's relationship with her classmates, rendering the climax—which hinges on how willing Lennon's peers are to die for her—bizarre and unconvincing. Henderson's fans will find something to enjoy in the bloody horror sequences as Lennon discovers the limits of her powers, but others will want to scratch their dark academia itch elsewhere.
