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And He Shall Appear
A deeply unsettling story of obsessive friendship, dark magic and the ways in which we mythologise our past
When a young man arrives in Cambridge as a first-year student, everything about him marks him as an outsider. There’s the punting and the politics, the wine and the waistcoats, all seemingly familiar to everyone but him. Then he falls under the spell of Bryn Cavendish.
A notorious partier and skilled magician, Bryn is magnetic. To be in his circle is to revel in clouds of ecstasy, untouched by the rules. To be exiled from it is to haunt the peripheries of campus life like a ghost.
As the academic year intensifies and Bryn’s magic tricks become more sinister, one question lingers. Is Bryn’s charisma the source of the influence he wields? Or is his mastery dependent on a much darker and dangerous power?
When a young man arrives in Cambridge as a first-year student, everything about him marks him as an outsider. There’s the punting and the politics, the wine and the waistcoats, all seemingly familiar to everyone but him. Then he falls under the spell of Bryn Cavendish.
A notorious partier and skilled magician, Bryn is magnetic. To be in his circle is to revel in clouds of ecstasy, untouched by the rules. To be exiled from it is to haunt the peripheries of campus life like a ghost.
As the academic year intensifies and Bryn’s magic tricks become more sinister, one question lingers. Is Bryn’s charisma the source of the influence he wields? Or is his mastery dependent on a much darker and dangerous power?
- GenresHorror
336 pages, Kindle Edition
Expected publication October 1, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
September 20, 2024
The unnamed male narrator has been musical from birth, his talents securing him a place at Cambridge around the turn of the millennium. A state school attendee, he arrives from a small northern town, the gifted proverbial fish out of water. Maybe this is a chance for reinvention though perhaps Cambridge will put him in his place as he doesn’t really understand the rules, the routines and the game playing. A few weeks in he becomes riveted by the enigmatic, charismatic and magnetic Bryn Cavendish into whose orbit he is lured, charmed, mesmerised and probably bewitched. Bryn is at the centre of the Cambridge universe, a modern day Sun King around whom many orbit. Bryn is from a wealthy background and at the heart of every Cambridge function at which he often performs magic tricks. As the narrator gets deeper and deeper into Bryn’s world, an obsessive feverish friendship develops. Has he given his soul to the devil? Has fate brought them together and what will fate have in store as two worlds collide. The story is told in dual timelines, from the Cambridge days and in the present day which flows as organically as the River Cam.
This is a stunning haunting debut novel which is so powerful with several layers to the storytelling. I love the dark academia trope so this is tailor made for me. It’s perplexing, intriguing and has me in its thrall from beginning to end. It’s a fantastical novel of obsessive friendship, steeped in magic and mystery with a strong ghostly gothic element with a dream like or even nightmarish quality. It has me puzzling and questioning what is real and what is illusion or even delusion but maybe potentially both. The storytelling is vivid, there are moments of high tension, some scenes are electric and for much of the narrative there’s an unsettling, off kilter sensation. It’s all consuming and mesmerising, at times it’s horrifying and certainly haunting and at others it’s sad and tragic.
As well as the dynamic between Bryn and his circle and the narrator there are so many other noteworthy aspects that form the novel. There’s the juxtaposition of the privileged like those surrounding Bryn versus our narrators background and that of his true friend, Tim. There’s a strong musical element too which gives it a very different vibe from other novels in this genre. The narrator’s obsession with the mysterious Peter Warlock is a touch of brilliant as it works so well alongside the unfolding drama between the two young men. Wrapped around the whole is a superb atmosphere, it positively drips with it. There’s not only that of Cambridge itself which provides colour, unease and danger but there’s an ever present elusive ghostly creepiness. In addition, the characterisation is exemplary although some are far from likeable.
Overall, I’m sure this will be one of my books of the year. It gives me so much to think about as it builds to an excellent ending where all the emotions are on display from love to jealousy to guilt. I will continue to reflect on what are true recollections and accurate memories and what are distorted for whatever reason. It’s beautifully written and I’m in awe of what the author has achieved in this stunning debut.
I really like the cover too.
With thanks to NetGalley and especially to 4th Estate for The much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.
This is a stunning haunting debut novel which is so powerful with several layers to the storytelling. I love the dark academia trope so this is tailor made for me. It’s perplexing, intriguing and has me in its thrall from beginning to end. It’s a fantastical novel of obsessive friendship, steeped in magic and mystery with a strong ghostly gothic element with a dream like or even nightmarish quality. It has me puzzling and questioning what is real and what is illusion or even delusion but maybe potentially both. The storytelling is vivid, there are moments of high tension, some scenes are electric and for much of the narrative there’s an unsettling, off kilter sensation. It’s all consuming and mesmerising, at times it’s horrifying and certainly haunting and at others it’s sad and tragic.
As well as the dynamic between Bryn and his circle and the narrator there are so many other noteworthy aspects that form the novel. There’s the juxtaposition of the privileged like those surrounding Bryn versus our narrators background and that of his true friend, Tim. There’s a strong musical element too which gives it a very different vibe from other novels in this genre. The narrator’s obsession with the mysterious Peter Warlock is a touch of brilliant as it works so well alongside the unfolding drama between the two young men. Wrapped around the whole is a superb atmosphere, it positively drips with it. There’s not only that of Cambridge itself which provides colour, unease and danger but there’s an ever present elusive ghostly creepiness. In addition, the characterisation is exemplary although some are far from likeable.
Overall, I’m sure this will be one of my books of the year. It gives me so much to think about as it builds to an excellent ending where all the emotions are on display from love to jealousy to guilt. I will continue to reflect on what are true recollections and accurate memories and what are distorted for whatever reason. It’s beautifully written and I’m in awe of what the author has achieved in this stunning debut.
I really like the cover too.
With thanks to NetGalley and especially to 4th Estate for The much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.
July 8, 2024
I’m planning to reread this later in the year, and will write more then, but for now, I love LOVED it – a stunning spin on ‘dark academia’ tropes, a story that turns itself upside down and shakes everything out. Not only is it a story about privilege and obsession and envy, it gets to the heart of something about why we are so endlessly fascinated by these stories. An instant favourite, to sit next to The Party, The Bellwether Revivals and Engleby.
August 12, 2024
✰ 3.75 stars ✰
“And I realized: magic is conflict. It’s that place where the possible and impossible meet, where belief and disbelief collide like a match against the striking strip.
Maybe this explains why, when two very different people come together, the effect can be—there’s no better word for it—magical.”
A hauntingly evocative debut where magic and macabre, math & music, mystery and mischief, obsession and privilege, envy and pride, possession and power collide in a compelling dynamic that engulfs its readers in its rich dark academia vibes - ensnaring the reader just as much as the unnamed narrator that is entranced by the ever-charismatic, effortlessly beautiful, 'That “B.” Bewitched, bothered, and bewildered. Bryn.' From his first meeting with the Devil, he has been enraptured and enthralled by his presence, helplessly drawn into his orbit, seeking his admiration and approval, and mesmerized by his talent and charm in the ever-hope of earning his respect and reaching his level - for to him, Bryn is the epitome of everything he is not.
Rich and privileged Bryn who settles scores on simply his name and face that exudes a class ever so superior and above all others - even more so, by the grandiose way in which he beguiles his audience with his captivating tricks that seem as otherworldly as the paranormal concepts that behold his mind. It is that certain authoritative hold over the weak - one that commands expectation and heeds approval that has the protagonist become a shadow of an illusion of his own making. But when he challenges that claim - it is the catalyst for the conflict that reels into one of both contrast in class and status blisteringly apparent and he starts to break free of the magical hold Bryn had over him and lose everything in the fallout of their friendship - if it had ever been one?
“And then, a moment when we were frozen in time, spellbound: one stuck with horror and the other with glee, our fates tied together in mad camaraderie by wine and music and a magical sort of danger.”
This was a very immersive read; very gripping, very atmospheric, but best of all, very well-written to the point that it was very easy to be drawn into the plot and impossible to stop. The writing flowed seamlessly and was descriptive with sharp, crisp dialogue and fine attention to detail that did not allow any wasted words. Nothing was superfluous and nothing seemed inconsistent to the story. The dual timeline is captured in such a seamless way that it is not difficult to discern when the unnamed narrator transports back to his memories of his days as a music student on scholarship at Cambridge University and the present of when he returns to the ghosts of his past. '...as if repeating a tricky passage of music. As if he were a skill I might lose without constant and devoted practice.' Despite how smitten he was over Bryn, the narrator still had a part of his personality that still existed - threatening to overtake the foreboding hold that Bryn had over him.
The supporting characters are unlikable, because they are Bryn's friends -because they, too, retain that same level of disdain and scorn over those lesser than them and it shows. I liked how you never quite knew what to expect or when the anvil would fall in when and where their relationship would unravel - when would the magic of his hold over him start to unfurl. The sense of trepidation and tension is prevalent throughout and when it elevates to the point of no return - it is a visceral feeling that I could sense - heightened by the supernatural touch that the author included. 'I was yet to learn that perspective is everything.' Of how he starts to see the cracks in his own behavior that shatters reality, but morphs into the crazed delusion of something sinister and twisted taking hold - the brilliance is in trying to discern if it actually was happening or all in his imagination.
And this part fascinated me; how she envisioned this chilling eerie presence of what terrified the narrator of what horrors Bryn was capable of, and wondering how much was in his own psyche or what actually was happening, while still refusing to believe what he thought to be true. 'Please, I thought. I just want us to be okay.' It is that descent into a darkness of shattering beliefs - that aching confession to salvage a friendship - if it had ever been one - simply to coexist in each other's presence. - aching confession to coexist happily - irrevocably shattered.
“Music is like pain. You forget what it was to experience it in the moment. You only know that there was no such thing as time, and your whole self was splintered into fragments, connected to everything that ever mattered and that ever would.”
The author's own keen passion for music shines in the way she describes with such care the narrator's own passion for music. She alludes to musical references that equate to his own emotions which are channeled into his taut relationship with Bryn - chilling impromptu piano concerto - the dominance to please, as well as assert who holds the most power - was one of my favorite scenes - a powerful performance that also displayed the harsh display of the stark difference in their upbringing, as well as their status. The musical metaphors were so poignant, and it gave a more bittersweet feel to the story, while also heightening the more intense moments, two key instances, which really hurt to read.
It felt alive and still achingly sad; how that sense of unease that something unsettling is starting to take shape between the two. 'Heat seemed to come off him in waves, pulsing like a dark heart.' It's the bewitching power and control he's able to inflict upon him - convincing him to behave or see things differently in a fragmented and disoriented state that has him doubt his own state of mind. That crippling deterioration as well as still this intense and fervent onslaught of wanting to stay in Bryn's good graces was an intense battle, but one that was depicted very well.
“You wondered for a long time, but you finally have your answer, and the answer is that he’s still here. He’s still here, and he’s been waiting for you.”
I had my doubts of whether or not this book would leave a mark on me. I waited for it as I sank deeper into the abyss of the narrator's own undoing - of watching a friendship he wielded with such purpose and expectation - fall apart. It is impossible not to note the slight similarities to The Secret History; whether deliberate or not, I am uncertain. Or simply as an ode to a book that acted as a precursor to so many others. But it is also the final few chapters that delivered a reveal that depicted what the plot had slightly been hinting towards, but never really outspoken about it. 'One thing that never changes in my replayings: this music is about love.' How a dynamic such as theirs - though platonic, often, if not possible, could have been bordering towards something else, which neither of them chose to address, or simply evaded before it came to fruition.
The ending also delivered some of the most heartbreaking and poetic prose - that was both wistful and tragic, reminiscent of times gone and an ill-fated loss of what once was. 'For heights we might have reached. For doors, not yet closed. For everything that might have been...' Words so raw, but emotional, and tied up the story so well, that my heart ached at the simplicity yet beauty in the words. A story about a kind of love that can be both harmful and still wanting to be possessed, for the lengths we go to to not only live up to their expectations, but then the means we go to protect ourselves from it. It was such a painstaking bittersweet ending - the glimpses of a friendship lost - set adrift over bouts of jealousy, spite and scorn. It viscerally hurt, a hollow ache in my chest over what had befallen upon the two - over the impossible dream of what was taken from them and imagining what life could have been, if things had played out a bit differently.
*Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
“And I realized: magic is conflict. It’s that place where the possible and impossible meet, where belief and disbelief collide like a match against the striking strip.
Maybe this explains why, when two very different people come together, the effect can be—there’s no better word for it—magical.”
A hauntingly evocative debut where magic and macabre, math & music, mystery and mischief, obsession and privilege, envy and pride, possession and power collide in a compelling dynamic that engulfs its readers in its rich dark academia vibes - ensnaring the reader just as much as the unnamed narrator that is entranced by the ever-charismatic, effortlessly beautiful, 'That “B.” Bewitched, bothered, and bewildered. Bryn.' From his first meeting with the Devil, he has been enraptured and enthralled by his presence, helplessly drawn into his orbit, seeking his admiration and approval, and mesmerized by his talent and charm in the ever-hope of earning his respect and reaching his level - for to him, Bryn is the epitome of everything he is not.
Rich and privileged Bryn who settles scores on simply his name and face that exudes a class ever so superior and above all others - even more so, by the grandiose way in which he beguiles his audience with his captivating tricks that seem as otherworldly as the paranormal concepts that behold his mind. It is that certain authoritative hold over the weak - one that commands expectation and heeds approval that has the protagonist become a shadow of an illusion of his own making. But when he challenges that claim - it is the catalyst for the conflict that reels into one of both contrast in class and status blisteringly apparent and he starts to break free of the magical hold Bryn had over him and lose everything in the fallout of their friendship - if it had ever been one?
“And then, a moment when we were frozen in time, spellbound: one stuck with horror and the other with glee, our fates tied together in mad camaraderie by wine and music and a magical sort of danger.”
This was a very immersive read; very gripping, very atmospheric, but best of all, very well-written to the point that it was very easy to be drawn into the plot and impossible to stop. The writing flowed seamlessly and was descriptive with sharp, crisp dialogue and fine attention to detail that did not allow any wasted words. Nothing was superfluous and nothing seemed inconsistent to the story. The dual timeline is captured in such a seamless way that it is not difficult to discern when the unnamed narrator transports back to his memories of his days as a music student on scholarship at Cambridge University and the present of when he returns to the ghosts of his past. '...as if repeating a tricky passage of music. As if he were a skill I might lose without constant and devoted practice.' Despite how smitten he was over Bryn, the narrator still had a part of his personality that still existed - threatening to overtake the foreboding hold that Bryn had over him.
The supporting characters are unlikable, because they are Bryn's friends -because they, too, retain that same level of disdain and scorn over those lesser than them and it shows. I liked how you never quite knew what to expect or when the anvil would fall in when and where their relationship would unravel - when would the magic of his hold over him start to unfurl. The sense of trepidation and tension is prevalent throughout and when it elevates to the point of no return - it is a visceral feeling that I could sense - heightened by the supernatural touch that the author included. 'I was yet to learn that perspective is everything.' Of how he starts to see the cracks in his own behavior that shatters reality, but morphs into the crazed delusion of something sinister and twisted taking hold - the brilliance is in trying to discern if it actually was happening or all in his imagination.
And this part fascinated me; how she envisioned this chilling eerie presence of what terrified the narrator of what horrors Bryn was capable of, and wondering how much was in his own psyche or what actually was happening, while still refusing to believe what he thought to be true. 'Please, I thought. I just want us to be okay.' It is that descent into a darkness of shattering beliefs - that aching confession to salvage a friendship - if it had ever been one - simply to coexist in each other's presence. - aching confession to coexist happily - irrevocably shattered.
“Music is like pain. You forget what it was to experience it in the moment. You only know that there was no such thing as time, and your whole self was splintered into fragments, connected to everything that ever mattered and that ever would.”
The author's own keen passion for music shines in the way she describes with such care the narrator's own passion for music. She alludes to musical references that equate to his own emotions which are channeled into his taut relationship with Bryn - chilling impromptu piano concerto - the dominance to please, as well as assert who holds the most power - was one of my favorite scenes - a powerful performance that also displayed the harsh display of the stark difference in their upbringing, as well as their status. The musical metaphors were so poignant, and it gave a more bittersweet feel to the story, while also heightening the more intense moments, two key instances, which really hurt to read.
It felt alive and still achingly sad; how that sense of unease that something unsettling is starting to take shape between the two. 'Heat seemed to come off him in waves, pulsing like a dark heart.' It's the bewitching power and control he's able to inflict upon him - convincing him to behave or see things differently in a fragmented and disoriented state that has him doubt his own state of mind. That crippling deterioration as well as still this intense and fervent onslaught of wanting to stay in Bryn's good graces was an intense battle, but one that was depicted very well.
“You wondered for a long time, but you finally have your answer, and the answer is that he’s still here. He’s still here, and he’s been waiting for you.”
I had my doubts of whether or not this book would leave a mark on me. I waited for it as I sank deeper into the abyss of the narrator's own undoing - of watching a friendship he wielded with such purpose and expectation - fall apart. It is impossible not to note the slight similarities to The Secret History; whether deliberate or not, I am uncertain. Or simply as an ode to a book that acted as a precursor to so many others. But it is also the final few chapters that delivered a reveal that depicted what the plot had slightly been hinting towards, but never really outspoken about it. 'One thing that never changes in my replayings: this music is about love.' How a dynamic such as theirs - though platonic, often, if not possible, could have been bordering towards something else, which neither of them chose to address, or simply evaded before it came to fruition.
The ending also delivered some of the most heartbreaking and poetic prose - that was both wistful and tragic, reminiscent of times gone and an ill-fated loss of what once was. 'For heights we might have reached. For doors, not yet closed. For everything that might have been...' Words so raw, but emotional, and tied up the story so well, that my heart ached at the simplicity yet beauty in the words. A story about a kind of love that can be both harmful and still wanting to be possessed, for the lengths we go to to not only live up to their expectations, but then the means we go to protect ourselves from it. It was such a painstaking bittersweet ending - the glimpses of a friendship lost - set adrift over bouts of jealousy, spite and scorn. It viscerally hurt, a hollow ache in my chest over what had befallen upon the two - over the impossible dream of what was taken from them and imagining what life could have been, if things had played out a bit differently.
*Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
August 19, 2024
And He Shall Appear was a novel that affected me profoundly. So much so that I finished it over a month ago and was still unable to convey my thoughts into words and write a review, and even now I fear I will not be able to do the book justice, and express all the levels that it affected and touched me. I have collected all my highlights in my newly inaugurated commonplace book on my Notion and re-reading the passages was a delightful welcome into this story that I already hold so dear and know I will revisit in the future. Let me start at the beginning.
Our unnamed narrator is one of the most curious and enthralling aspects of this novel, one which could render countless academic analysis if one were to dive deep into this aspect of the story. I was fascinated at how such a simple choice, one which has done countless times before, and yet in this scenario here, makes all the difference in how we perceive the story that it’s about to unfold, creating a sense of not-identity, a theme which is recurrent in And He Shall Appear as it is the theme of belonging, the later one which Dark Academia enthusiasts will be familiar with.
The active pursuit of one’s place in the world, the profound longing the characters feel in the chase for the sense of belonging somewhere, or with someone, is one of the key themes in any Dark Academia story, and a great motivator for the outsiders narrators who being their journeys in academia. Our unnamed narrator is one of many, and his desire to belong is the most intense when he meets the equal parts charismatic and enigmatic, Bryn Cavendish.
As talented as he is devious, Bryn becomes a sort of mythical figure in our narrator’s life. He seems to be everywhere, to get everything he wants, and whoever wrongs him seems to be swiftly dealt with, to such an extent that the narrator starts to suspect if Bryn’s magic is really only ever showmanship or something more sinister. The friendship between both characters is going to quickly become the center of the narrator’s life, as well as the focus of story we are being told, however, in more than one occasion, we get glimpses that the narrator is not at all trustworthy. He tells us that his memory is slippery, he questions if he is misremembering something or says that he is “supposed to be telling the truth now.” and all of these statements emerge to conjure up a facet of the character’s personality in the reader’s mind, a feeling of distrust perhaps. Which only contributes to the greatness of the novel, and a testament to the writer’s astounding abilities. I was mesmerized by it. It was definitely one of my favorite writings in recent years, and I wish it could have gone forever, I wish the book was one thousand pages long, I never wanted it to end, and that made me read it so slowly, taking a fortnight to read a book I could have been done with in days, just because the mere thought of parting with it was too much to bear. You could say I got obsessed with it, and you wouldn’t be wrong. I joked with my friends that the center of my world, my whole personality, became And He Shall Appear.
At the novels core, one theme takes the central stage, that of friendship and we are confronted with the very nature of trust, obsession, envy and loyalty. The narrator’s dynamic with Bryn and the role he plays in his life are minutiously observed and then turned upside down.
It is not a secret that the Dark Academia genre is one that holds my utmost fascination and devotion, I wrote my master thesis on the topic after all. Which is to say that not only I have read my fair share of titles (over thirty as of this moment) I do not get tired when they take inspiration from one another, as they are won’t to do since the origins of the very genre trace back to the Campus Novel, a genre that works similarly in the sense that all stories transpire in the same manner, and follow the same guidelines. That has never bothered me because I adore them for this very reason. In the many titles I have come across I have encountered both the ones I loved and others that I disliked, and my praises are never given freely. With that in mind, I was thoroughly and completely shattered by And He Shall Appear. It was an instant favorite. And quite frankly the best book of the year 2024 for me. Easiest addition to my lifetime favorites list.
This book manages to take these tropes we are so familiar with and love, the ingredients of what makes a story Dark Academia, and it delivers not only the perfect recipe, but it constructs the outcome with mastery, adding unexpected elements to surprise you when you least expected it, subverting everything you thought was fact in the narrative, and ending on a triumphant note. This book is the reason why I love the Dark Academia stories. To say I am passionate about this story is an understatement, this story made me glad to be alive so I have a chance to read it.
At once a quintessential Dark Academia text, this one is sure to be sitting at the table with the big names that precede it. And it will surely inspire others that will come afterward as well. Reading And He Shall Appear if you love the Dark Academia genre isn’t a need, it is a must. The reader will be transformed, fascinated and enchanted, just as I was.
Thank you to Union Square & Co. for sending me an arc in exchange for my honest opinion!
Our unnamed narrator is one of the most curious and enthralling aspects of this novel, one which could render countless academic analysis if one were to dive deep into this aspect of the story. I was fascinated at how such a simple choice, one which has done countless times before, and yet in this scenario here, makes all the difference in how we perceive the story that it’s about to unfold, creating a sense of not-identity, a theme which is recurrent in And He Shall Appear as it is the theme of belonging, the later one which Dark Academia enthusiasts will be familiar with.
The active pursuit of one’s place in the world, the profound longing the characters feel in the chase for the sense of belonging somewhere, or with someone, is one of the key themes in any Dark Academia story, and a great motivator for the outsiders narrators who being their journeys in academia. Our unnamed narrator is one of many, and his desire to belong is the most intense when he meets the equal parts charismatic and enigmatic, Bryn Cavendish.
As talented as he is devious, Bryn becomes a sort of mythical figure in our narrator’s life. He seems to be everywhere, to get everything he wants, and whoever wrongs him seems to be swiftly dealt with, to such an extent that the narrator starts to suspect if Bryn’s magic is really only ever showmanship or something more sinister. The friendship between both characters is going to quickly become the center of the narrator’s life, as well as the focus of story we are being told, however, in more than one occasion, we get glimpses that the narrator is not at all trustworthy. He tells us that his memory is slippery, he questions if he is misremembering something or says that he is “supposed to be telling the truth now.” and all of these statements emerge to conjure up a facet of the character’s personality in the reader’s mind, a feeling of distrust perhaps. Which only contributes to the greatness of the novel, and a testament to the writer’s astounding abilities. I was mesmerized by it. It was definitely one of my favorite writings in recent years, and I wish it could have gone forever, I wish the book was one thousand pages long, I never wanted it to end, and that made me read it so slowly, taking a fortnight to read a book I could have been done with in days, just because the mere thought of parting with it was too much to bear. You could say I got obsessed with it, and you wouldn’t be wrong. I joked with my friends that the center of my world, my whole personality, became And He Shall Appear.
At the novels core, one theme takes the central stage, that of friendship and we are confronted with the very nature of trust, obsession, envy and loyalty. The narrator’s dynamic with Bryn and the role he plays in his life are minutiously observed and then turned upside down.
I often wonder about loyalty. Whether it can be a fixed thing, how it’s earned as well as given. Whether it’s ever offered without conditions. If the friend to whom you’ve been unfailingly loyal behaves in a way that you don’t recognize, what then? Should you be loyal to the person you thought you knew or the person they’ve become? Can you ever do both at the same time? And what if, for better or worse, you’re the one who has changed?
It is not a secret that the Dark Academia genre is one that holds my utmost fascination and devotion, I wrote my master thesis on the topic after all. Which is to say that not only I have read my fair share of titles (over thirty as of this moment) I do not get tired when they take inspiration from one another, as they are won’t to do since the origins of the very genre trace back to the Campus Novel, a genre that works similarly in the sense that all stories transpire in the same manner, and follow the same guidelines. That has never bothered me because I adore them for this very reason. In the many titles I have come across I have encountered both the ones I loved and others that I disliked, and my praises are never given freely. With that in mind, I was thoroughly and completely shattered by And He Shall Appear. It was an instant favorite. And quite frankly the best book of the year 2024 for me. Easiest addition to my lifetime favorites list.
This book manages to take these tropes we are so familiar with and love, the ingredients of what makes a story Dark Academia, and it delivers not only the perfect recipe, but it constructs the outcome with mastery, adding unexpected elements to surprise you when you least expected it, subverting everything you thought was fact in the narrative, and ending on a triumphant note. This book is the reason why I love the Dark Academia stories. To say I am passionate about this story is an understatement, this story made me glad to be alive so I have a chance to read it.
At once a quintessential Dark Academia text, this one is sure to be sitting at the table with the big names that precede it. And it will surely inspire others that will come afterward as well. Reading And He Shall Appear if you love the Dark Academia genre isn’t a need, it is a must. The reader will be transformed, fascinated and enchanted, just as I was.
Thank you to Union Square & Co. for sending me an arc in exchange for my honest opinion!
August 16, 2024
3.5 stars. RTC!
Read
September 23, 2024This is super creepy and also puts the “dark” in dark academia. There’s occult stuff and devil-worshipping going on, so if that’s not something you want to read about, look elsewhere for your next book. I personally couldn’t really get into the story or the characters, but it’s a decent addition to the ever-popular genre, and lovers of said-genre should find things they like in here.
Thank you to NetGalley and Union Square & Co. for an eARC. All opinions are mine.
Thank you to NetGalley and Union Square & Co. for an eARC. All opinions are mine.
Shelved as 'gave-up-on'
July 30, 2024Dark Academia is a hit or miss with me. I was excited by this because it seemed like a story where not only a character was going to be sucked in, he was going to be attracted to the 'devil worshiping' character.
He wasn't. He was hardly with the character at 50% of the story. The only magic bits we saw was Bryn (the devil worshiping character), using his deck of cards, making characters somehow doing things.
You also get to see that the character has a rebellious streak and he gets the main character do some some wild stuff - the stuff isn't that wild, unless you lived under a rock and never did anything in your life.
Expected more darkness, more gay, more... temptation? This is just bland, bland, bland.
Out of respect for the author I am not rating this due to not finishing it.
He wasn't. He was hardly with the character at 50% of the story. The only magic bits we saw was Bryn (the devil worshiping character), using his deck of cards, making characters somehow doing things.
You also get to see that the character has a rebellious streak and he gets the main character do some some wild stuff - the stuff isn't that wild, unless you lived under a rock and never did anything in your life.
Expected more darkness, more gay, more... temptation? This is just bland, bland, bland.
Out of respect for the author I am not rating this due to not finishing it.
September 22, 2024
With thanks to Netgalley and Fourth Estate for the arc.
This ticked all the boxes for me, I absolutely loved it and devoured it from beginning to end.
Set in Cambridge, this is the story of young musician from a working class background and his obsessive attempts to befriend a group of charismatic, privileged (entitled) wealthy students.
It’s hard to believe that this is Kate van der Borgh’s debut novel as she writes with such a sure hand, weaving a gripping narrative that includes elements of the supernatural, psychological thriller and dark academia over a dual timeline.
If you enjoyed Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, S.T. Gibson’s Evocation and Saltburn, then you will love this book.
This ticked all the boxes for me, I absolutely loved it and devoured it from beginning to end.
Set in Cambridge, this is the story of young musician from a working class background and his obsessive attempts to befriend a group of charismatic, privileged (entitled) wealthy students.
It’s hard to believe that this is Kate van der Borgh’s debut novel as she writes with such a sure hand, weaving a gripping narrative that includes elements of the supernatural, psychological thriller and dark academia over a dual timeline.
If you enjoyed Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, S.T. Gibson’s Evocation and Saltburn, then you will love this book.
Read
May 29, 2024When I saw this ARC on the shelf at Parnassus, the comp titled drew me in. If We Were Villains, The Secret History, & Bunny.
My initial thought was too good to be true.
Then I started the first page, and had to tear through my apartment to find a pen just so I could underline the entire first paragraph.
Now, five hours later, my heart is in my throat, my pen is out of ink, and I’m staring at the wall, stuck in the thrall of obsessive, violent love.
My initial thought was too good to be true.
Then I started the first page, and had to tear through my apartment to find a pen just so I could underline the entire first paragraph.
Now, five hours later, my heart is in my throat, my pen is out of ink, and I’m staring at the wall, stuck in the thrall of obsessive, violent love.
July 27, 2024
And He Shall Appear is a novel about a young musician's obsessive friendship with a fellow student, a charismatic magician who seems to tread a line between life of the party and dark power. The narrator, who remains unnamed, starts at Cambridge as an outsider, but he quickly discovers Bryn Cavendish, a powerful presence who does magic tricks like his occultist father. As the narrator is drawn into Bryn's world and away from the academic drudgery, he starts to believe that Bryn holds far more power than it first appears, and as the narrator tells the story years later, this power might be still lingering.
This book is immediately going to fall into the 'dark academia' category, and admittedly, for once it actually lives up to that name in some ways, as it is very much focused on a dark side of being a student at Cambridge, and the narrator's obsession with a particular musician lends it more of the 'academia' element that many books labelled dark academia seem to forget. The story is told to us from a present day, in which the narrator is returning to Cambridge for an event, but most of the book is set in the past of his first couple of years at Cambridge as he unfolds a particular story. As with many dark academia books clearly taking inspiration from The Secret History, he is an unreliable narrator, and indeed the book is preoccupied with ideas of the stories we create, leading to an ending in which we come to understand that there's more than one way of telling a story, as with playing a musical piece.
I enjoyed reading this book, with its accurate Oxbridge detail and the undercurrent of dark magic and hauntings that are always meant to be a little mysterious, and the narrator's obvious hiding of certain characters' identities or their exact fates is fairly predictable, but still works pretty effectively to get across how he is potentially rewriting the past. However, at times it felt a bit 'dark academia by numbers' in its choices, and I do find it hilarious that so many books in the sub-genre tend to have a less posh/outsider-type person suddenly finding themselves at a fancy university and throwing off the regular people to find some mesmerising yet dark people (having done the former personally, it didn't turn into any kind of dark academia set up, I have to admit). This book fits that stereotype and doesn't do very much with it, and I do feel like the whole 'outsider tries to make themselves part of the narrative' thing felt too predictable given that I've read other similar books that do a similar thing.
The obsessive friendship element I did enjoy, though I felt that the book's ending was the only place where this was really delved into very much, and there was never really enough space to say much other than 'you can obsessively love someone platonically' and then not really go anywhere with that. There might be something in the idea that these kinds of obsessive friendships are often depicted in fiction in ambiguous ways that could make them queer or not, and in this case it is meant to explicitly not be, and what that might mean for the book, and generally for how male obsessive friendships might be seen as weirder than female ones generally in pop culture and society.
Generally, this is a solid example of a dark academia novel and will appeal to people who like them, with enough accurate detail and sinister-seeming happenings to warrant it that title. For me, I found that it was often too predictable, not really delving into anything that might make it different or stand out in the category, so though I had fun reading it, I wasn't captivated by it like I have been by books like The Secret History or The Lessons.
This book is immediately going to fall into the 'dark academia' category, and admittedly, for once it actually lives up to that name in some ways, as it is very much focused on a dark side of being a student at Cambridge, and the narrator's obsession with a particular musician lends it more of the 'academia' element that many books labelled dark academia seem to forget. The story is told to us from a present day, in which the narrator is returning to Cambridge for an event, but most of the book is set in the past of his first couple of years at Cambridge as he unfolds a particular story. As with many dark academia books clearly taking inspiration from The Secret History, he is an unreliable narrator, and indeed the book is preoccupied with ideas of the stories we create, leading to an ending in which we come to understand that there's more than one way of telling a story, as with playing a musical piece.
I enjoyed reading this book, with its accurate Oxbridge detail and the undercurrent of dark magic and hauntings that are always meant to be a little mysterious, and the narrator's obvious hiding of certain characters' identities or their exact fates is fairly predictable, but still works pretty effectively to get across how he is potentially rewriting the past. However, at times it felt a bit 'dark academia by numbers' in its choices, and I do find it hilarious that so many books in the sub-genre tend to have a less posh/outsider-type person suddenly finding themselves at a fancy university and throwing off the regular people to find some mesmerising yet dark people (having done the former personally, it didn't turn into any kind of dark academia set up, I have to admit). This book fits that stereotype and doesn't do very much with it, and I do feel like the whole 'outsider tries to make themselves part of the narrative' thing felt too predictable given that I've read other similar books that do a similar thing.
The obsessive friendship element I did enjoy, though I felt that the book's ending was the only place where this was really delved into very much, and there was never really enough space to say much other than 'you can obsessively love someone platonically' and then not really go anywhere with that. There might be something in the idea that these kinds of obsessive friendships are often depicted in fiction in ambiguous ways that could make them queer or not, and in this case it is meant to explicitly not be, and what that might mean for the book, and generally for how male obsessive friendships might be seen as weirder than female ones generally in pop culture and society.
Generally, this is a solid example of a dark academia novel and will appeal to people who like them, with enough accurate detail and sinister-seeming happenings to warrant it that title. For me, I found that it was often too predictable, not really delving into anything that might make it different or stand out in the category, so though I had fun reading it, I wasn't captivated by it like I have been by books like The Secret History or The Lessons.
August 18, 2024
I will surely not be the only person to comment on the Saltburn vibes here, there are definitely similarities, the main one being the obsessive friendship.
The NEED to be in Bryn's circle.
I very much enjoyed this book, it had me wondering a lot, what was real, what was imagined.
What was lying in the depth of our main characters mind??
It had its creepy moments, and a nice build up to what should have been quite dramatic, but I felt underwhelmed by.
Non the less, the final chapters put everything to rights.
A very good debut.
The NEED to be in Bryn's circle.
I very much enjoyed this book, it had me wondering a lot, what was real, what was imagined.
What was lying in the depth of our main characters mind??
It had its creepy moments, and a nice build up to what should have been quite dramatic, but I felt underwhelmed by.
Non the less, the final chapters put everything to rights.
A very good debut.
July 19, 2024
The unnamed narrator in Kate van der Borgh’s debut novel And He Shall Appear is a music teacher and choir director who returns to Cambridge University, where he was a student in the early aughts, after being invited to be one of the judges in auditions for a music scholarship. The scholarship has been set up by Frances Cavendish in memory of her son Bryn, one of the narrator’s classmates at University. Unlike the narrator, who came from a working class background, and whose northern accent immediately marked him as an uneasy outsider, Bryn was wealthy and had the right connections, making him one of the most glamorous students around. Darkly charismatic, Bryn also knew how to be the soul of every party, delighting and spooking his coterie of admirers with impressive and inexplicable magic tricks. Through a shared musical connection, the narrator becomes an unlikely member of Bryn’s circle of friends. His initial unqualified admiration for his larger-than-life companion dampens when he starts to suspect that Bryn’s magic is much more than a party piece. There are clues that Bryn is dabbling in the occult, and using it to wreak revenge on those who stand in his way. Dark things happen wherever he goes, and whoever crosses him ends up haunted and cast aside. The narrator’s present-day visit to his old university brings back recollections of the ultimately tragic events of the time, and awakens harrowing ghosts which may have better been left undisturbed. Defeating death might be Bryn’s ultimate sorcery…
I had first come across Kate van der Borgh’s fiction through The Fiction Desk, a journal that had published two of her well-crafted short stories. While those pieces had an understated realism, her first novel is a work of supernatural fiction – an atmospheric ghost story with a decidedly “dark academia” aesthetic. And He Shall Appear delivers all the thrills one would expect of the genre. It starts off with a bang with a really unsettling scene, and there are plenty of nail-biting passages before the sleight of hand of its final part. The narrative is satisfying, even though, as in the best ghost stories, it does not provide neat answers and there is, throughout, an underlying ambiguity as to whether the supernatural trappings are all in the narrator’s mind. The campus setting – Cambridge around 2001 – is lovingly recreated, inspired as it is by the author’s own experiences as a music student at the University.
Beyond the tropes of the genre, which it uses to great effect, the novel also provides thoughtful social and psychological commentary. Through the contrast between the self-assurance of Bryn and the narrator’s self-effacement, van der Borgh highlights the remnants of a class system that still makes itself felt in contemporary society, including in tertiary education. As the author points out in her introduction, some students seem to have all the right connections. “Privilege” is, in itself, a kind of sorcery, which allows “people from certain backgrounds to move through the world differently”.
In this respect, the novel is also a psychological study of a student who, because of his inferiority complex, seems ready to metaphorically sell his soul to the devilish “Bryn Cavendish” in exchange for acceptance and glamour. I liked the smart touch of having the narrator “unnamed”, as if he has given up his own personality. More than that, in two instances in the novel, Bryn gets to give the narrator an invented name. The act of “naming” suggests “ownership”, and there is a poignant symbolism behind Bryn “taking possession” of the narrator. (which, the narrator suspects, he might literally be doing through occult practices).
One of the special things about this novel is that it is haunted by music. Music shapes the plot – it is what brings the narrator, and Bryn (and other key characters) together. It lends authenticity to the voice of the musician-narrator, who often resorts to musical metaphors to express himself. The musical references also provide an oblique counterpoint to the story. Thus, for instance, the recurring figure of Peter Warlock (1894-1930), a favourite composer of the narrator’s, is a particularly apt choice. Warlock famously dabbled in the occult and shocked more conservative friends with his debauched lifestyle. He stands in for Bryn, of course, but also, in a way, represents the insecurities of the narrator (“Peter Warlock” was a pseudonym for the decidedly more mundane “Philip Heseltine). The narrator’s choir, “Voices from Before”, specialises in English music of the early twentieth Century, repertoire which evokes an idea of a lost idyll, shattered by the tragedies of war. There are references to Shostakovich – who himself lived through a reign of terror (albeit, unlike our narrator, not of a “supernatural” kind). And it certainly cannot be a coincidence that the song which Bryn and the narrator perform together is Butterworth’s Is my Team Ploughing, which sets a Housman poem featuring a conversation between the ghost of a man and his friend, who is still alive.
And He Shall Appear is an assured debut which can be enjoyed at so many levels. Full review, including link to Spotify playlist at:
https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/20...
I had first come across Kate van der Borgh’s fiction through The Fiction Desk, a journal that had published two of her well-crafted short stories. While those pieces had an understated realism, her first novel is a work of supernatural fiction – an atmospheric ghost story with a decidedly “dark academia” aesthetic. And He Shall Appear delivers all the thrills one would expect of the genre. It starts off with a bang with a really unsettling scene, and there are plenty of nail-biting passages before the sleight of hand of its final part. The narrative is satisfying, even though, as in the best ghost stories, it does not provide neat answers and there is, throughout, an underlying ambiguity as to whether the supernatural trappings are all in the narrator’s mind. The campus setting – Cambridge around 2001 – is lovingly recreated, inspired as it is by the author’s own experiences as a music student at the University.
Beyond the tropes of the genre, which it uses to great effect, the novel also provides thoughtful social and psychological commentary. Through the contrast between the self-assurance of Bryn and the narrator’s self-effacement, van der Borgh highlights the remnants of a class system that still makes itself felt in contemporary society, including in tertiary education. As the author points out in her introduction, some students seem to have all the right connections. “Privilege” is, in itself, a kind of sorcery, which allows “people from certain backgrounds to move through the world differently”.
In this respect, the novel is also a psychological study of a student who, because of his inferiority complex, seems ready to metaphorically sell his soul to the devilish “Bryn Cavendish” in exchange for acceptance and glamour. I liked the smart touch of having the narrator “unnamed”, as if he has given up his own personality. More than that, in two instances in the novel, Bryn gets to give the narrator an invented name. The act of “naming” suggests “ownership”, and there is a poignant symbolism behind Bryn “taking possession” of the narrator. (which, the narrator suspects, he might literally be doing through occult practices).
One of the special things about this novel is that it is haunted by music. Music shapes the plot – it is what brings the narrator, and Bryn (and other key characters) together. It lends authenticity to the voice of the musician-narrator, who often resorts to musical metaphors to express himself. The musical references also provide an oblique counterpoint to the story. Thus, for instance, the recurring figure of Peter Warlock (1894-1930), a favourite composer of the narrator’s, is a particularly apt choice. Warlock famously dabbled in the occult and shocked more conservative friends with his debauched lifestyle. He stands in for Bryn, of course, but also, in a way, represents the insecurities of the narrator (“Peter Warlock” was a pseudonym for the decidedly more mundane “Philip Heseltine). The narrator’s choir, “Voices from Before”, specialises in English music of the early twentieth Century, repertoire which evokes an idea of a lost idyll, shattered by the tragedies of war. There are references to Shostakovich – who himself lived through a reign of terror (albeit, unlike our narrator, not of a “supernatural” kind). And it certainly cannot be a coincidence that the song which Bryn and the narrator perform together is Butterworth’s Is my Team Ploughing, which sets a Housman poem featuring a conversation between the ghost of a man and his friend, who is still alive.
And He Shall Appear is an assured debut which can be enjoyed at so many levels. Full review, including link to Spotify playlist at:
https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/20...
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