The Incandescent

[hebethen]

The marketing that I've seen for this book has been fairly buzzword-heavy, which I think does both it and potential readers a disservice. It's not a vibes-forward romance with "dark academia" aesthetics as the taglines imply, but rather a surprisingly grounded deep dive into the head of a brilliant, passionate, overworked and above all overproud educator -- three doors over from the hubris of Greek tragedy if anything, and firmly rooted in the complexities of being a person. As someone who loves an immersive POV, this was very much fine by me, but someone going in looking for, say, a love story might be a little disappointed: our bisexual protagonist does dally with a couple of characters and there is an endgame couple, but this is very much not the main focus. She probably spends more time thinking about pedagogy than about paramours (and I love that for her, because that's who she is).

Overall, I found The Incandescent a compelling read with a cast of engaging characters, interesting modern worldbuilding, and a very strong sense of self (heh), albeit a little oddly paced in a way I can't quite put my finger on. My recommendation is to ignore all marketing and just give it a sneak-peek read to see if it feels like your cup of tea.