Meet Dr. Saffy Walden, Director of Magic at Chetwood School. She lives in a campus apartment, teaches one section of advanced Invocation (demon summoning, the field of her Ph.D research), leads a depressing number of staff meetings, and has spent the past few years attempting to reform the school’s risk assessment process, with mixed results. The photocopier in the teachers’ lounge is possessed by a more or less benign imp, as are many of the school’s clocks, not to mention students’ smuggled-in...

Emily Tesh's *The Incandescent* is a sapphic, dark academia fantasy novel. Now, if that sounds familiar (hello *A Lesson in Vengeance* and *An Education in Malice*), don't worry, *The Incandescent* is completely its own thing. What really makes *The Incandescent* stand out from other dark academia books is that it's about a teacher, not a student. The story follows Dr. Walden in her everyday life running a magical school. I absolutely loved following her as the main character. Her love for her s...

Emily Tesh's *The Incandescent* is sapphic dark academia with a sharp wit, consciously nodding to the classic English school story but firmly aimed at adult readers. This award-winning author delivers an entertaining exploration of Sapphire Walden, a stressed-out teacher of invocation – a summoner of demons. The story has a realistic feel, drawing on Tesh's own teaching experiences, where the dangers of magic rub shoulders with questions about education's nature and philosophy. The setting is Ch...

I enjoyed the magical school setting, and I thought *The Incandescent* could be genuinely funny at times. It was a smart move to follow the director of the school, Emily Tesh gives us a good twist since we usually see things from the students' perspective. I also liked that *The Incandescent* follows a 30-year-old character, but I really struggled to connect with Walden. This book is marketed as dark academia, but just because it takes place in a boarding school doesn’t automatically make it dar...

Well, this was pretentious. Pompous, too. And needlessly so, because the message it attempts to transmit is hollow. Grade: a D with lots of corrections in red ink. (I am not a teacher; this just seemed to make me want to channel one, and a pompous one...) This concept – a British boarding school teaching magic but from the PoV of one of the teachers (think Minerva McGonagall) – had me at hello. Yes, please, I want. Wanted - be careful what you wish for. The society is very closely modeled on ...

Let's get one thing straight: this isn't dark academia, and even calling *The Incandescent* a sapphic fantasy is a bit of a reach. It's a story set in a boarding school that teaches magic alongside regular subjects, told from the perspective of Walden, a director-level teacher in her 30s. The majority of the book focuses on ensuring students pass their exams and the school runs smoothly. It's refreshing to see magic so integrated into society that it feels like a niche subject—something someone ...

What a fantastic idea! Dark academia fantasy from the perspective of an elder millennial teacher? I feel like *The Incandescent* was written just for me. Emily Tesh's *The Incandescent* follows Dr. Walden, a bisexual woman in her late 30s who teaches at a magic school and tries to protect her students from demonic incursions. But demons are attracted to technology, and they just can't seem to stay away from cell phones! This is a standalone fantasy set in a magical version of the real world. It'...

A dark academia fantasy almost entirely concerned with the grating mundanity of teaching. If Naomi Novik's Scholomance series asks "Why do schools (and institutions in general) fail?", Emily Tesh's *The Incandescent* provides the answer: Because teachers have been failed. Doctor Walden is a high-ranking professor who takes pride in doing her work and doing it well. Though that work is juggling teacher, parent, and magician, she finds satisfaction in shepherding her students even as she struggle...

Imagine a magical boarding school, but seen through the eyes of the headmaster whose job it is to keep everything running smoothly, especially with a powerful demon eyeing the school for decades. That's the setup for Emily Tesh's *The Incandescent*. We're talking demons possessing electronic devices, a hot butch character running headfirst into danger for her crush, students struggling with their magical coursework (hello, summoning demons!), and all the bureaucratic nonsense you'd expect, but ...

The bookstore employees are terrified and asking me to leave because it’s “not June 2025 yet,” but I'm simply too seated. I guess you could say I'm incandescent with anticipation for Emily Tesh's *The Incandescent*. This is less a book review and more a desperate plea: someone get me a copy of *The Incandescent* before I spontaneously combust from excitement! Seriously, the hype is real, and I'm here for all of it. Consider this your early warning: Emily Tesh is about to blow our minds with *The...