The Library at Hellebore

A deeply dark academia novel from USA Today bestselling author Cassandra Khaw, perfect for fans of A Deadly Education and An Education in Malice who are hungry for something more diabolical. This program is read by Audie and Earphones Award-winning narrator Natalie Naudus.

The Hellebore Technical Institute for the Gifted is the premier academy for the dangerously powerful: the Anti-Christs and Ragnaroks, the world-eaters and apocalypse-makers.

Hellebore promises redemption, acceptance, and a normal life after graduation. At least, that's what Alessa Li is told after she's kidnapped and forcibly enrolled.

But the Institute is more than just a haven for monsters. On graduation day, the faculty embark on a ravenous rampage, feasting on their students. Trapped in the school's cavernous library, Alessa and her surviving classmates must do something they were never taught: work together.

If not, this school will eat them alive...


Also by Cassandra Khaw:
The Salt Grows Heavy
Nothing But Blackened Teeth
A Song for Quiet
Hammers on Bone
The Dead Take the A Train (co-written with Richard Kadrey)

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Nightfire

1146257844
The Library at Hellebore

A deeply dark academia novel from USA Today bestselling author Cassandra Khaw, perfect for fans of A Deadly Education and An Education in Malice who are hungry for something more diabolical. This program is read by Audie and Earphones Award-winning narrator Natalie Naudus.

The Hellebore Technical Institute for the Gifted is the premier academy for the dangerously powerful: the Anti-Christs and Ragnaroks, the world-eaters and apocalypse-makers.

Hellebore promises redemption, acceptance, and a normal life after graduation. At least, that's what Alessa Li is told after she's kidnapped and forcibly enrolled.

But the Institute is more than just a haven for monsters. On graduation day, the faculty embark on a ravenous rampage, feasting on their students. Trapped in the school's cavernous library, Alessa and her surviving classmates must do something they were never taught: work together.

If not, this school will eat them alive...


Also by Cassandra Khaw:
The Salt Grows Heavy
Nothing But Blackened Teeth
A Song for Quiet
Hammers on Bone
The Dead Take the A Train (co-written with Richard Kadrey)

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Nightfire

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The Library at Hellebore

The Library at Hellebore

by Cassandra Khaw

Narrated by Natalie Naudus

Unabridged — 8 hours, 34 minutes

The Library at Hellebore

The Library at Hellebore

by Cassandra Khaw

Narrated by Natalie Naudus

Unabridged — 8 hours, 34 minutes

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Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

The author of Nothing But Blackened Teeth is back with a grim and gruesome tale at the heart of an elite academy where monsters become prey.

A deeply dark academia novel from USA Today bestselling author Cassandra Khaw, perfect for fans of A Deadly Education and An Education in Malice who are hungry for something more diabolical. This program is read by Audie and Earphones Award-winning narrator Natalie Naudus.

The Hellebore Technical Institute for the Gifted is the premier academy for the dangerously powerful: the Anti-Christs and Ragnaroks, the world-eaters and apocalypse-makers.

Hellebore promises redemption, acceptance, and a normal life after graduation. At least, that's what Alessa Li is told after she's kidnapped and forcibly enrolled.

But the Institute is more than just a haven for monsters. On graduation day, the faculty embark on a ravenous rampage, feasting on their students. Trapped in the school's cavernous library, Alessa and her surviving classmates must do something they were never taught: work together.

If not, this school will eat them alive...


Also by Cassandra Khaw:
The Salt Grows Heavy
Nothing But Blackened Teeth
A Song for Quiet
Hammers on Bone
The Dead Take the A Train (co-written with Richard Kadrey)

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Nightfire


Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Khaw has the swagger of a motherfucking rockstar. I’m not being cute—this is the punk rock, eldritch god, carnage-fueled battle royale dark academia that makes partial decapitation look like an amateur sandbox. The Library at Hellebore is more metal than I’ll ever be and too cool for most of you. You’ve been warned.”

—Olivie Blake, New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six

“There’s nothing more delicious for dark academia enthusiasts than Khaw’s latest. Khaw’s writing will have you by the throat and not let you make a sound as you meander through The Library at Hellebore. It’s gory, it’s gruesome, and it’s gloriously gripping!”

—RuNyx, New York Times bestselling author of Gothikana

“As rich and gruesome as a fresh-plucked heart, as sharp as a broken bone, The Library at Hellebore is a perfect horror novel by one of my favorite writers. It's a book that draws a line between the monsters and the monstrous, and reminds us who to root for—and what it costs.”

—Alix E. Harrow, New York Times bestselling author

“Wonderfully inventive and thoroughly engrossing. Khaw takes dark academia to a terrifying new level.”

—Kelley Armstrong, #1 New York Times bestselling author

“Khaw’s gorgeous prose is a visceral symphony of body horror, encompassing nightmarish transformations, cosmically horrific beings, and fascinating lore about this world’s underexplored pantheon of gods and creatures. A treat for the darkest fans of dark academia.”

Booklist

“A gorgeous, gory shuddering heart of a book! Khaw’s prose and storytelling remain god-tier!”

—Katee Robert, New York Times bestselling author

“Khaw’s brutal, blood-soaked world makes even the worst nightmares seem tame. The Library at Hellebore is a horrifying tale with lush and gorgeous prose you can sink your teeth into.”

—Monika Kim, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Eyes Are the Best Part

“Khaw’s brutal novel is more than an action-packed race against time, it is also an honest, endearing, and emotional ode to friendship, as well as a clever story about power. Engaging, visceral, and a lot of fun.”

Library Journal

The Library at Hellebore is a kaleidoscopic spectacle of gothic surreality and absurdity. An infinite hallway of mirrors used to highlight our every flaw, showing us the monster the world turns us into—and the monster they try to make us for their own benefit. It is body horror in all its glory, exploring the numbing exhaustion of loss, along with the seductive pleasures of death.”

—Ai Jiang, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Linghun

"A joyfully gory spin on the magical school, The Library at Hellebore is populated by such deadly characters that you'll wonder how any of them have stayed alive long enough to matriculate. If you thought librarians who shushed were bad, just wait."

—Kendare Blake, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Anna Dressed in Blood

“Libraries are a place for reference, so you could say this book is something like Battle Royale meets The Magicians with some Hateful Eight thrown in ... but the ghoulish delight, the luscious prose, and the batshit imagery are all unalloyed, singular Cassandra Khaw. The Library at Hellebore is devilishly entertaining, thrillingly structured, and full of unexpected blows to the heart. It's the most fun you'll ever have, rooting for Armageddon(s).”

—Nat Cassidy, author of Mary and When the Wolf Comes Home

“Wretched and filthy with gore, delighting in both viscera and human connection in the midst of ugliness, The Library at Hellebore is absolutely killer. If you’re looking for a book that gets its hands dirty, this one’s for you.”

—Andrew Joseph White, New York Times bestselling author of Compound Fracture

“Classic Khaw in its stylish prose and unmatched wit. The Library at Hellebore is dark academia in a twisted, deadly class of its own. In space, no one can hear you scream. At Hellebore—shh!—the librarian will consume you before you even open your mouth.”

—Sofia Ajram, author of Coup de Grâce

"Pure, bloody darkness beautifully lit up with fury, sacrifice, and revenge. Khaw tears open the sins of our past and asks what we have made of them in this supposedly brighter future. It will not be a clean cut—it will be ragged and bloody, and it will hurt. If we cannot escape what we've done, if we cannot escape what we are, what else can we do with our power? We can take it into the Library at Hellebore and turn it loose."

—Premee Mohamed, Nebula Award-winning author of The Butcher of the Forest

"The Library at Hellebore is a beautifully bizarre and grotesque spotlight on our shortcomings. Khaw’s prismatic world is magical, yet glistening with fresh blood. This is glorious body horror at its most prestigious, but it is also an exploration of memory and grief. It’s who was left behind and who we left behind. A marvelous blend of dark academia and horror."

—Cynthia Pelayo, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Vanishing Daughters

“A succulent, gory, ambrosial fever dream of a tale with prose as luscious as an overripe peach and characters as hard and twisted yet hopeful as the juice-drenched pit torn out with greedy fingers.”

—Delilah S. Dawson, New York Times bestselling author

“Frighteningly good! The Library at Hellebore reminds us that revenge is a dish best served cold, alongside a pound of quivering flesh for good measure.”

—P. Djéli Clark, author of The Dead Cat Tail Assassins

“Putting the “dark” in “dark academia”, The Library at Hellebore is a story with teeth and claws, a thrilling cocktail of body horror, surreal humor and riveting mystery.”

—Genoveva Dimova, author of Foul Days

Kirkus Reviews

2025-05-03
What happens when students at a school for the paranormal decide that enough is enough?

Best known for video games, queer horror, and a collaboration with Richard Kadrey (The Dead Take the A Train, 2023), Khaw detours to visit an elite school and the damaged young adults it serves. At 21, Alessa Li wakes up with a start to find she’s been kidnapped from home in Montreal and apparently enrolled in college, simply because she’s incredibly dangerous. In fact, the Hellebore Technical Institute for the Ambitiously Gifted is less an homage to Hogwarts than a gory rebuttal dressed in wizard’s robes. The story moves between two timelines; the first offers Alessa’s introduction to her creepy classmates, while the second finds them all under siege later in the titular library. “Appendage to the main campus, it acted only in the faculty’s interest, which seemed to revolve exclusively around fucking us students over,” Alessa explains. Among the 20-odd students, cult member Portia transmogrifies into some kind of insectoid critter every now and then; Eoan sacrifices himself by feeding his own body to the school’s ravenous hosts in order to protect his friends; Delilah is an “immortal sacrifice,” dying over and over again in the service of the gods; while Rowan is a “deathworker” whose destiny is foretold by prophecy. There are some intriguing elements—and it’s often hard to take. Like other postmodern antiheroines, among them Chuck Wendig’s Miriam Black (Blackbirds, 2015, etc.) and Julie Crews fromThe Dead Take the A Train, Alessa’s primary operating mode is pretty much caustic bitch, and her classmates don’t temper it much. Whether the deadpan violence and body horror is excessive is a matter of personal taste, but there’s no denying that the whole thing is pretty squelchy and it’s not always easy to follow. Proceed with caution.

A secret history that toys with the mythos of dark academia while reveling in its excesses.

Product Details

BN ID: 2940191120188
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Publication date: 07/22/2025
Edition description: Unabridged
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