July 15, 2024
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.
