I obtained a overview copy from the writer. This doesn’t have an effect on the contents of my overview and all opinions are my very own.

The Library at Hellebore by Cassandra Khaw

Mogsy’s Score: 2.5 of 5 stars

Style: Horror

Collection: Stand Alone

Writer: Nightfire (July 22, 2025)

Size: 288 pages

Creator Info: Web site | Twitter

Time for an additional unpopular opinion, however regardless of the love I’ve for the darkish academia style, The Library at Hellebore didn’t actually work for me—and for a reasonably elementary cause: I simply couldn’t join with the principle character! Whereas different points of the e book had a number of promise, if I’m struggling to get a bead on the folks residing via all of it, then every little thing else tends to get misplaced, easy as that.

Story-wise, the novel takes place on the titular Hellebore Technical Institute, which really is a jail disguised as a college for the magically gifted who’re just too harmful to be allowed to roam free. Our protagonist, Alessa Li, is one such particular person, forcibly enrolled after a violent incident involving her abusive stepfather. Right here, she and her fellow college students are alleged to be contained at some stage in their “rehabilitation,” the place they study to regulate their powers safely till they’re deemed “regular” sufficient to return to the surface world. However one 12 months later, as an alternative of the liberty they have been hoping for, Alessa and her friends discover themselves hunted down on commencement day as Hellebore’s college fairly actually start attacking and devouring the coed physique.

As a massacre ensues, Alessa and 7 of her classmates handle to flee to the varsity’s library and barricade themselves inside. However even then, they aren’t secure—for they’ve utterly forgotten concerning the Librarian lurking within the stacks, whose starvation is simply as lethal as the remainder of the college’s. Trapped between the horrors outdoors and the monster inside, the group of scholars are pressured into an unthinkable cut price with a view to survive: provide a human sacrifice every night time, or threat being consumed themselves.

First, let’s begin with the positives. The Library at Hellebore delivers an environment that’s each attractive and grotesque. If you happen to’ve learn the creator earlier than, you know the way it goes; Khaw’s writing is at all times sharp and visceral and a bit of surreal, which pairs effectively with the e book’s descent into physique horror. It’s not a straightforward type, nevertheless it does job immersing the reader into the chaos and dread of Hellebore’s world. I additionally appreciated the novel’s distinctive angle on the well-tread darkish academia style particularly when it was filtered via the distinctive tone of the writing, which helped convey the nightmarish nature of the setting.

Subsequent, the so-so: Whereas not utterly deal-breaking, I used to be not loopy concerning the twin timeline construction alternating between Alessa’s early days at Hellebore and the present-day siege. Sure, it helped with constructing tensions as the 2 narratives progressively converged, however finally it was uneven and distracting, structurally damaging its personal influence. We’re additionally pressured to study the characters and the ins-and-outs of the varsity up entrance, making it really feel such as you’re at all times falling behind.

One other factor I used to be ambivalent about was Khaw’s precise prose, which was a bit of too purple in locations. Each paragraph felt prefer it was dressed as much as be a showpiece, full of layers of pretentious metaphors and obscure vocabulary. Likewise, it was as if each massive thought wanted to be communicated in some profound, performative manner, which didn’t really make the story appear smarter—simply tougher to observe. At instances, I discovered myself pondering, had every little thing simply been acknowledged plainly, possibly the studying expertise would have been smoother and felt rather a lot much less prefer it was attempting to be a complicated lit course.

And now, what didn’t work for me in any respect: characters, characters, characters! As a protagonist, Alessa was actually unbearable, vacillating between nihilism and self-righteousness with zero nuance. From the very starting, I simply needed to inform her to recover from herself. Then there have been the others trapped within the library together with her. Proper now, I can’t keep in mind a single one in every of their names to avoid wasting my life and even describe any of their personalities, as a result of they left so little impression. Regardless of the variety within the forged, none of them felt real or emotionally actual, and that’s what I actually care about—not what their id labels are or what sort of fancy powers they’ve.

Ultimately, maybe essentially the most irritating a part of all is that this: on paper, The Library at Hellebore ought to have hit it out of the park. There was a lot about it that I ought to have liked, and but it fell flat. Daring and bloody it is likely to be, however there was simply no spark there to really seize my consideration, no robust characters to hold the narrative, and never sufficient cohesion to floor the worldbuilding or storytelling. Not going to lie, I most likely would have DNF’ed this one had it not been such a fast learn at lower than 300 pages, so there was that, however I sadly nonetheless got here away disenchanted. I’m pondering that Cassandra Khaw simply won’t be for me.