Review of The Library at Hellebore

Blurb: The Hellebore Technical Institute for the Gifted is the premier academy for the dangerously the Anti-Christs and Ragnaroks, the world-eaters and apocalypse-makers.

Hellebore promises redemption, acceptance, and a normal life after graduation. At least, that’s what Alessa Li is told when she’s kidnapped and forcibly enrolled.

But there’s more to Hellebore than meets the eye. On graduation day, the faculty go on a ravenous rampage, feasting on Alessa’s class. Only Alessa and a group of her classmates escape the carnage. Trapped in the school’s library, they must offer a human sacrifice every night, or else the faculty will break down the door and kill everyone.

Can they band together and survive, or will the faculty eat its fill?

Review: Alessa Li is kidnapped and enrolled in the mysterious school, The Hellebore Technical Institute for the Gifted. It's to help those with big, dark powers to learn control and earn redemption. Maiming and death are common happenings, and the teachers don't seem to care about that nor grades. Alessa is determined to escape, but the school refuses to let her go. Graduation day brings out the hungry faculty to feast on the student body, and Alessa and seven others lock themselves in the library. Except the library has its own dangers.

This is a horror novel, but it is also a dark academia paranormal romance with great emphasis on the dark. It turns out this is what I've been looking for in the genre. Not the bullying romances or whining teenage drama. Every day is a life or death situation, and sometimes death is preferrable to what else may be offered.

The ever-changing school (which makes Hogwarts look wimpy) and frightening faculty (immensely Lovecraftian) set the stage for the main players which are the incredibly powerful students. The powers some of the students have are fascinating, horrifying, and unique. Alessa has the power to literally rip a person apart with her mind, and her love interest, Rowan, is a deathwalker. Everything living he touches decays and dies in with super fast speed. Another student is the chosen one of the cicada gods and hosts all the cicada gods in his body. Sons of Lucifer, bug people, immortal sacrifices. It's like nothing you've read before.

Then there's the faculty. I won't even try to describe them. The librarian is also a horror beyond imagination. I imagined a shoggoth with a super model's head, and oh, she was quite insane.

And Cassandra Khaw spares the reader no details. Be prepared for lots of gore. While it is viscerally terrifying, there's great suspense with twists and turns in the plot. (Don't look for a happy ending here.) The book goes back and forth between the present and the past, and while that sometimes can be difficult to guess exactly when things are taking place, the reveals are worth it.

You can find Cassandra Khaw on Instagram and buy the book here.