Reviews and Comments

The easiest – though mostly inaccurate – way to describe The Incandescent is "Harry Potter, but from the teacher's perspective". The main character, Dr Walden, is the Director of Magic at a posh English boarding school that, alongside all the usual curriculum of Maths, English, Chemistry, etc., also teaches magical disciplines. And while some people are naturally predisposed to magic, anyone can learn it if they study and apply themselves. This world-building leads to some interesting scenarios, such as "there's an imp in the photocopier again," and "Urgh, I have to complete this risk assessment before tomorrow's demon summoning lab class with my Year 12's".

I really enjoyed this because, as a teacher, the teacher's perspective's felt real and genuine, and not manufactured based on what the author remembered of their favourite teachers and/or wished their teachers were like from ten/twenty/thirty years ago. (For context: the author, Emily Tesh, is – present tense – a teacher, and I think that really makes a difference)

The writing is really good. There is a certain poetic nature that comes forward during internal thoughts that is nice to read, and in my opinion it never felt like an overuse of words. Even when you're reading from multiple internal and external perspectives on the one page, the subtle changes in language make it clear who is narrating without having to explicitly state so.

My only real critique is that the plot was a little bit predictable. By the midpoint I felt like I could guess what was going to happen, and while there were one or two deviations, I was mostly right on the general thrust of it all. However, even with this I never felt bored reading "what I thought was going to happen anyway," which I think says a lot about Tesh's writing and use of language throughout.

I'm thoroughly enjoying this! Though I do wonder how much of my enjoyment is coloured by the fact that I'm a teacher and this is a story written by a teacher. That is to say, it's a realistic representation of teaching, and not an idealised one with no basis in the day-to-day reality of teaching.

That was enjoyable, and a good length, I reckon. I wonder if the joke to horror ratio is too much. I love it, but I've come to accept that if I think that it might be verging on too joke dense (but not for me!)

Incredible writing. Specifically the collection of words formed into sentences to convey meaning. The story is also great, to be clear. But the actual writing is very good, IMO.