The Incandescent by Emily Tesh [Wyrd & Wonder Review]

Summary 💬

“Look at you, eating magic like you’re one of us.”

Doctor Walden is the Director of Magic at Chetwood Academy and one of the most powerful magicians in England. Her days consist of meetings, teaching A-Level Invocation to four talented, chaotic sixth formers, more meetings, and securing the school’s boundaries from demonic incursions.

Walden is good at her job―no, Walden is great at her job. But demons are masters of manipulation. It’s her responsibility to keep her school with its six hundred students and centuries-old legacy safe. And it’s possible the entity Walden most needs to keep her school safe from―is herself.

Goodreads

Review ✍🏻

A few years back, my sister and I buddy read Silver in the Wood. I didn’t totally love it but couldn’t recall anything particularly bad about it. It was simply a novella when I’d prefer a novel. So when The Incandescent came onto my radar with a promising premise, I decided to give Emily Tesh another shot.

Harry Potter Fans, Take Note

The Incandescent at first read feels like a tailor-made story for Harry Potter fans who have grown up. (The jacket copy comps to Scholomance and Plain Bad Heroines; I haven’t read either. And maybe both of those books are better comps than HP, but I can’t help but imagine if Rowling wasn’t such an asshat, there would be more comps to HP in the marketing.) I think you’d be hard pressed to find a reader of The Incandescent who hasn’t read HP. It’s easy to cry “HP comp” about any story set at a magical school, but the similarities were greater than I expected: the story’s set at a boarding school (with some day students) and takes place over the course of one academic year. The first chapter, focused on our protagonist educator developing a safety plan for a magic lesson, feels like a dig at HP. That’s also the first clue that The Incandescent offers many improvements and fresh twists on the HP model/magical school model in general to better appeal to adult sensibilities.

A Story for Adults!!

(Moving on now…I didn’t mean to harp on about HP for an entire paragraph.) To reduce The Incandescent to “a Harry Potter-esque story for the grown up millenial” would be an injustice. I was never a big HP fan and I enjoyed this book. Protagonist Doctor Walden, the Director of Magic at Chetwood Academy, differentiates this book from other contemporary magic school stories. Her perspective as a late-thirties career woman gives a fresh take on this setting. She’s not just an observer of youthful shenanigans (though her role as mentor has a key place in the story). She has her own challenges to manage, with a central conflict driving the plot. The commentary on schooling, teaching, and education she provides feels grounded in reality. I thought, “A teacher must have wrote this book.” Indeed, Tesh posted on Bluesky, “Between my own education and my teaching career I spent a solid thirty years of my life At School. I have some thoughts. Also some jokes. Here’s a book about that.”

I love that this really feels like a story for adults. And that’s not simply because it has more sex and violence than a YA book (which it doesn’t even really.) In additional to the reflections on education and academia noted above, you get other ‘adult’ topics such as reflections on youth, managing one’s career and relationships, and working through past trauma.Not just a compelling fantasy story, The Incandescent speaks on a number of topics of concern to the modern thirty-something year old.

Assorted Comments

I enjoy this writing style and have been tossing around adjectives to try to describe it: descriptive, observant, reflective, third-person narrative? Doesn’t quite do it justice… here’s a wee example that I think conveys it well:

It was just unfortunate that the most effective way Walden had of connecting with young people, by a long way, was to tell them about something fascinating that she was an expert on, and then show them how to do it themselves. She had good relationships with her students because she was a good teacher, not because she was a naturally warm and empathetic person. She would have been absolutely delighted to have a short academic chat with [Student] about literally any branch of magic at all. They could have gone through the bookshelves pulling out old journals and reference texts together.

The Incandescent, 77%

Incidentally, I recently read a middle grade novel (Clare Edge’s Accidental Demons) which is also about witches who summon demons to do their bidding. This is a new concept to me. I’d like to learn about the real-world history/context for this type of magic.

The plot went in took a different direction with slightly different pacing than I anticipated. Once I understood that, I settled in for the ride.

I was grateful that there wasn’t any “how do we keep this all secret from normal people” dance in this book. Magic is common knowledge in this world. Normie academics are also taught at Chetwood.

“Dark Academia”?

I do have a wee bone to pick with a phrase being using to market this book: dark academia. The Incandescent is not really dark academia. In fact, I would say there isn’t anything more ‘dark’ about it than any other contemporary fantasy story. I haven’t read a ton of true dark academia myself but I have read The Secret History so I am practically an expert lol. I’ve deleted a few sentences in which I further explain my stance on this but they were a bit spoilery so I’ll leave it at this. I’m getting pretty tired of buzz word genres or tropes being used inaccurately for marketing. I get it why it’s done… but it shouldn’t suprise anyone that an avid reader like myself would prefer accurate descriptions rather than hypable ones. Personally to me this book leans more towards ‘cozy fantasy’ than ‘dark academia, but it’s truly neither. It’s more character-focused and hopeful than anything I’d ever call ‘dark academia’.

The Bottom Line 💭

A must read for any fans of magical school stories, The Incandescent makes for a stand-out read given its adult protagonist.

Further Reading 📰

🍂 Read an excerpt
🍂 Author website
🍂 Reviews: Mark @ SFF World
🍂 Related: I’ll have to shout out my favourite magical school series, Jessica Townsend’s Nevermoor. (Although middle grade, Nevermoor was also heavily comp’d to HP.)

What’s your favourite magical school story?