The Library at Hellebore by Cassandra Khaw
Tor Nightfire (July 22, 2025)
Reviewed by Chandra Claypool (Instagram) (TikTok)
I FREAKIN LOVE THIS BOOK! I can’t believe I’ve waited so long to read Cassandra Khaw. I have 3 other books of theirs on my shelves and I don’t know why I kept skipping over them.
Welcome to The Hellebore Technical Institute for the Gifted — the “premiere academy for the dangerously Anti-Christs and Ragnaroks, the world-eaters and apocalypse-makers.” DONE. SOLD. TAKE MY MONEY. Here we meet Aleesa — she’s been kidnapped and forced to go to Hellebore but is told this is a place where she will find acceptance and a “normal life” after graduation. However, on graduation day, the faculty decides to eat the class. One must be sacrificed every night or everyone will be killed. There can only be one survivor. Or can there?
I can’t speak more highly about this read. It was exactly what I needed and wanted in my reading life. It’s body horror, fantasy, how we are our own monsters but can also be turned into worse. I was a little confused at times with the back and forth timelines but once I caught on, it all came together in my head for a debaucherous delight. Librarians have never been scarier. I absolutely loved learning about each character and their monstrous relish. There are a lot of “big” words within these pages and a couple of times I had to look them up — while I could figure out what they were meaning by the sentence structure, it was still some brain work but I don’t mind. I find it awesome to learn new things within the pages of any book I read.
In a nutshell, if you couldn’t tell already, this was an amazing read. I hope y’all love it too.
