Author: Cassandra Khaw
Published: July 22, 2025, by Tor Nightfire
Format: Kindle, Hardcover, 278 Pages
Genre: Horror
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
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?
My Opinion: I’m glad I didn’t let the negative reviews steer me away from this novel. I devoured it in two days, and if sleep weren’t a necessity, I’d have read straight through the night. It’s that gripping.
Now, let’s talk about the prose. Yes, it’s dense. Some readers called it “word salad,” and they’re not entirely wrong, but they’re missing the point. This isn’t the kind of dark academia that feels like slogging through a thesaurus for sport. It’s more like being dropped into a gothic fever dream where the language itself is part of the atmosphere. You either lean into the lush, labyrinthine sentences or let them wash over you and trust that the emotional and thematic current will carry you where you need to go. And it does.
The story is a mash-up of dark academia and cosmic horror. The opening chapters feel like a vocabulary test wrapped in dread, but it fits. Cosmic horror isn’t about jump scares or gore for gore’s sake; it’s about the creeping realization that we are small, fragile things in a universe that doesn’t care if we understand it. Khaw nails that existential unease. The horror here is psychological, philosophical, and deeply unsettling. It’s the kind of book that makes you question what’s real, what’s knowable, and whether knowing is even safe.
Plot-wise, it’s a non-linear descent. Told in fragments, before and during the final days at Hellebore. You’ll find yourself flipping back, second-guessing what you thought you knew, and wondering who exactly is speaking. I got so caught up in the plot that I missed some of the character nuance on the first pass. Alessa Li stood out, but the rest? I’ll need a second read to untangle their threads. It reminded me of watching The Sixth Sense with that eerie feeling that something’s been hiding in plain sight all along.
And yes, it’s horror. Real horror. Not the kind that makes you say “well, that was interesting” and move on. This one’s gruesome, gory, and weirdly funny in places. It’s quotable, thought-provoking, and not something I’d recommend reading alone at night unless you enjoy being unsettled.
Cassandra Khaw is new to me, and wow, she did not hold back. I’d never even heard of cosmic horror before this, and now I’m wondering what other literary spaces I’ve been avoiding. Will I read more of her work? Eventually. But first, I need to recover from this one.
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?
My Opinion: I’m glad I didn’t let the negative reviews steer me away from this novel. I devoured it in two days, and if sleep weren’t a necessity, I’d have read straight through the night. It’s that gripping.
Now, let’s talk about the prose. Yes, it’s dense. Some readers called it “word salad,” and they’re not entirely wrong, but they’re missing the point. This isn’t the kind of dark academia that feels like slogging through a thesaurus for sport. It’s more like being dropped into a gothic fever dream where the language itself is part of the atmosphere. You either lean into the lush, labyrinthine sentences or let them wash over you and trust that the emotional and thematic current will carry you where you need to go. And it does.
The story is a mash-up of dark academia and cosmic horror. The opening chapters feel like a vocabulary test wrapped in dread, but it fits. Cosmic horror isn’t about jump scares or gore for gore’s sake; it’s about the creeping realization that we are small, fragile things in a universe that doesn’t care if we understand it. Khaw nails that existential unease. The horror here is psychological, philosophical, and deeply unsettling. It’s the kind of book that makes you question what’s real, what’s knowable, and whether knowing is even safe.
Plot-wise, it’s a non-linear descent. Told in fragments, before and during the final days at Hellebore. You’ll find yourself flipping back, second-guessing what you thought you knew, and wondering who exactly is speaking. I got so caught up in the plot that I missed some of the character nuance on the first pass. Alessa Li stood out, but the rest? I’ll need a second read to untangle their threads. It reminded me of watching The Sixth Sense with that eerie feeling that something’s been hiding in plain sight all along.
And yes, it’s horror. Real horror. Not the kind that makes you say “well, that was interesting” and move on. This one’s gruesome, gory, and weirdly funny in places. It’s quotable, thought-provoking, and not something I’d recommend reading alone at night unless you enjoy being unsettled.
Cassandra Khaw is new to me, and wow, she did not hold back. I’d never even heard of cosmic horror before this, and now I’m wondering what other literary spaces I’ve been avoiding. Will I read more of her work? Eventually. But first, I need to recover from this one.
