The Incandescent

By: Emily Tesh

Length: 11 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

Naomi Novik's Scholomance series meets Plain Bad Heroines in this sapphic dark academia fantasy by instant national and international bestselling author Emily Tesh, winner of the Hugo and World Fantasy Awards.

"Look at you, eating magic like you're one of us."

Doctor Walden is the Director of Magic at Chetwood Academy and one of the most powerful magicians in England. Her days consist of meetings, teaching A-Level Invocation to four talented, chaotic sixth formers, more meetings, and securing the school's boundaries from demonic incursions.

Walden is good at her job—no, Walden is great at her job. But demons are masters of manipulation. It’s her responsibility to keep her school with its six hundred students and centuries-old legacy safe. And it’s possible the entity Walden most needs to keep her school safe from—is herself.

©2025 Emily Tesh (P)2025 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"A searingly brilliant fantasy. This is magical school with teeth. Warm-hearted, terrifying and clever, Tesh's examination of magical school through the eyes of an unforgettable - and properly grown up - heroine is an unmissable read."—Tasha Suri, award-winning author of The Jasmine Throne

"The Incandescent is the grown-up answer to the magical boarding school tale, a glorious shout of vindication for anyone who has ever worked in education. Every book Emily Tesh writes is a magic trick, and this is no exception. Fantastic in every sense of the word."—Freya Marske, bestselling author of The Last Binding trilogy

"An absolute flex of a book, empathetic and passionate and deeply thoughtful. Above all, Tesh will make you care: about place, self, and the brave, impulsive, vulnerable, curious, incandescent young lives that are our future. A gorgeous evocation of what it means to have a calling."—Shelley Parker-Chan, author of She Who Became the Sun