At This School, Students Don't Graduate. Their Teachers Eat Them.
Compared with other horror subgenres, dark academia tends to focus on intellectual pursuits and mysteries instead of just straight-up gore. Khaw's THE LIBRARY AT HELLEBORE (Tor Nightfire, 276 pp., $29.99) does the opposite — yes, it showcases a scholarly environment, but one packed with viciousness and covered in bodily fluids.
The novel introduces the Hellebore Technical Institute for the Gifted, a school for young people who have powerful and dangerous abilities that could, if uncontrolled, bring about the end of the world. Hellebore promises that by graduation day, it will have turned these students into people who can live normal lives. The problem is graduation isn't actually a new start for Hellebore's students; it is the end. Because rather than hosting a ceremony, the faculty eat their pupils.
The novel follows Alessa Li, who was kidnapped and taken to Hellebore against her will. Her graduation day is here, and she is trapped in the institute's library, where the 'Librarian' is a monster that feeds on students. To survive, she and her classmates need to work together, but instead, they start turning on one another.
Khaw's style is a peculiar mix of lyricism and brutality. The pages brim with snark and extreme violence. Layered into that are deep discussions about model minorities and gender. But Khaw keeps readers hooked with the strange allure of Hellebore itself (which, in addition to being populated by terrifying beings, is an enchanting and morphing architectural feat in its own right) and with the tension that at any moment, a student could be devoured. This is a story where there is never any solid ground, and that purposeful confusion deliciously intensifies the novel's anxiety-inducing atmosphere.
At one point, Hellebore as an institution is characterized as 'unwholesomely eldritch.' That description also perfectly fits the novel. This book is a treat for horror fans — Hellebore is a perilous place you'll definitely want to visit.
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