a lesson in vengeance by Victoria Lee

77th book of 2021

Reading period: Sept 19th 2021 – Sept 20th 2021

Summary

Felicity Morrow is back at Dalloway School.

Perched in the Catskill mountains, the centuries-old, ivy-covered campus was home until the tragic death of her girlfriend. Now, after a year away, she’s returned to graduate. She even has her old room in Godwin House, the exclusive dormitory rumored to be haunted by the spirits of five Dalloway students—girls some say were witches. The Dalloway Five all died mysteriously, one after another, right on Godwin grounds.

Witchcraft is woven into Dalloway’s history. The school doesn’t talk about it, but the students do. In secret rooms and shadowy corners, girls convene. And before her girlfriend died, Felicity was drawn to the dark. She’s determined to leave that behind her now; all Felicity wants is to focus on her senior thesis and graduate. But it’s hard when Dalloway’s occult history is everywhere. And when the new girl won’t let her forget.

It’s Ellis Haley’s first year at Dalloway, and she’s already amassed a loyal following. A prodigy novelist at seventeen, Ellis is a so-called “method writer.” She’s eccentric and brilliant, and Felicity can’t shake the pull she feels to her. So when Ellis asks Felicity for help researching the Dalloway Five for her second book, Felicity can’t say no. Given her history with the arcane, Felicity is the perfect resource.

And when history begins to repeat itself, Felicity will have to face the darkness in Dalloway–and in herself.

Trigger warning

Death, murder, alcoholism, blood, forced institutionalization, toxic relationship, grief, anxiety, emotional abuse, mental illness

Rating

Review

I had a great time reading this book. However, there is something that bothers me a little, but I don’t what. That’s why this book is a low four stars for me.

We are following two students, Felicity and Ellis, at Dalloway School. A school that has witchcraft woven in its history with the famous Dalloway Five, and Felicity and Ellis decided to research about them and unravel the mystery surrounding those five girls.

Like most story sets in a boarding school, we have this spooky and dark atmosphere. The ambience is also created by the explanations of the history of the school, various descriptions of the school and its surrounding. Moreover, the different characters help a lot this atmosphere as you don’t trust them a hundred per cent. It’s a lot of details and how they are interlinked that create this beautiful dark academia ambience. I didn’t want to stop reading the book and stay in this mood.

Another important thing is that the story is character-driven. We are following one point of view, Felicity’s one, which makes the story a lot more interesting to read. She has a psychotic depression double up with anxiety and triples up with grief, making her a complex character. Sometimes you don’t know if she imagines things or if it’s the reality; the difference is hard to make. Also, she makes some characters real even if they aren’t here.
Ellis, on her side, is a character that I didn’t trust from the beginning. She has something that helps her have many followers who don’t question anything, but there is something off with her like she has an idea and will do anything to achieve it, even if it means doing a bad thing.

However, as it’s a character-driven story, the plot isn’t at the forefront, so sometimes I was a little lost as I sometimes forgot it. That makes the ending a little complex to understand for me. In the beginning, I didn’t catch it, but then I understood, and I liked it a lot. So for me, the ending was surprising but, at the same time, a good conclusion for those characters.

Liz.