My first review for February and what a book.
Unhallowed Halls
Lili Wilkinson
A teen girl travels to an exclusive boarding school located deep within the Scottish moorlands after a deadly incident at her old school, but the wood-paneled halls of Agathion are built over centuries of secrets—including an ancient society which may have ties to demonic magic—in this dark academia fantasy perfect for fans of Curious Tides.
Page Whittaker has always been an outcast. And after the deadly incident that destroyed her single friendship at her old school, she needs a fresh start. Which is why when she receives a scholarship offer from Agathion College, an elite boarding school folded deep within the moors of Scotland, she doesn’t even consider turning it down.
Agathion is everything Page has ever a safe haven full of dusty books, steaming cups of tea and rigorous intellectual debate. And for the first time in her life, Page has even managed to become part of a close group of friends. Cyrus, Ren, Gideon, Lacey and Oak help her feel at home in Agathion’s halls–the only problem is, they’re all keeping secrets from her.
Page doesn’t know it yet, but her perfect new school has dark roots–roots that stretch back to its crooked foundation, and an ancient clandestine society with rumored ties to demonic magic. Soon, Page will be forced to learn that not everyone at Agathion is who they say they are. Least of all, her friends.
Agathion claims to teach its students history…but some histories should stay buried.
Bookshop.org | Goodreads | The StoryGraph | Amazon
I have been looking forward to this book ever since I heard about it because I enjoyed the last book I read by the author. I knew this book was likely to be the perfect mix of tense and atmospheric and it definitely lived up to those expectations.
The setting was fantastic a school in a secluded Scottish setting, so it’s mostly damp and cold, in an old building that happens to be built between a ring of standing stones. I could feel the chill in my bones just reading about it and of course, it added to this mysterious and elitist school, who seem to only deal with Greek scholars and doesn’t seem to have a set graduation.
I won’t lie a lot of the academic references on the different philosophers went over my head but I could feel the research in the pages and it helped to give the school its exclusive feel. It also adds to the mysterious quality that you feel as soon as Page arrives there because you feel like all the students are in on a way of life that the rest of us couldn’t comprehend.
That quality is what caught my attention and made me eager to devour this book, there were so many questions that I had and more unusual things kept happening which propelled me further into the story. There comes a stage, after a lot of strange occurrences, where the story adds some fantastical elements, which I enjoyed and gave me a lot more questions and a bit of a chilling feeling about where the story was headed.
I would never have predicted where this story was going there are so many twists and turns it certainly keeps you on your toes once the action starts to pick up. I won’t say too much about the plot because I don’t want to spoil it but I will say that the pace ramps up and there are a few things that happen that I felt I didn’t get enough time to digest before the next thing happened. I felt like I didn’t get the chance to invest myself as fully in the characters in the second half of the story because everything was happening so quickly.
The characters were all pretty intriguing, they all had a brilliance about them, I quite liked that in a school that is supposed to be an equaliser in terms of outside status and privilege, there still managed to be groups and some hierarchies. I enjoyed the relationship between Gideon, Ren, Oak, Lacey, and Cyrus, they seem at the same time tight-knit but also very separate people, which makes for some interesting dynamics. Page is quite a curious and complex character we hear things from her perspective but she is also a bit of a puzzle, which makes for an interesting protagonist.
Unhallowed Halls is both a mysterious and exciting story, I almost read it in one sitting because I didn’t want to put it down. I’m looking forward to what the author comes up with next because I love the dark, chilling, and tense atmospheres that she creates.
Lili Wilkinson is the award-winning author of eighteen books for young people, including The Erasure Initiative and After the Lights Go Out. Lili has a PhD from the University of Melbourne, and is a passionate advocate for YA and the young people who read it, establishing the Inky Awards at the Centre for Youth Literature, State Library of Victoria. Her latest book is A Hunger of Thorns.
Website | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads
To see the other hosts and follow the tour, click here.
Reviews of other books by Lili Wilkinson
A Hunger of Thorns
everywhere-and-nowhere.com 
[…] 17theverywhere and nowhere – ReviewNever Hollowed By The Stare – Promotional PostWine Cellar Library – Review, Journal […]
LikeLike