The Incandescent by Emily Tesh | Thoughts and Discussion (Spoiler)
Listened to the audiobook of The Incandescent during my vacation, and had a wonderful time with it. I finished it yesterday and have some thoughts bouncing around my head that I want to share.
The Incandescent follows the viewpoint of Dr. Waldon, a teacher at a fancy boarding school in modern Britain where she teaches magic, specifically demon summoning, while also being tasked with the responsibility of protecting the school and its inhabitants from said demons. What could possibly go wrong.
General Thoughts:
In terms of the overall picture, the book was a bit of a tension sandwich. We have a nice introduction to Dr. Waldon and her students, and there is a good, steady build up to the first Big Disaster that Dr. Waldon has to deal with. After that... it basically turns into Teacher Slice of Life for the middle part of the book. It only bothers to deal with the fallout of the first Big Disaster in passing, and likewise with building up to the climactic Big Disaster. I did enjoy all parts of the book, but they did not gel super well together, and the transition from one to the other was jarring and left me floundering for a bit. This structure unfortunately also led to some of the more interesting thematic and character elements not getting as much development as I would have liked.
Characters:
I liked Dr. Waldon as a main character. I don't know much of anything about teaching, so I can't really comment on the accuracy of how her experiences are portrayed, but I liked seeing how Dr. Waldon specifically leads her life. I enjoyed the viewpoint of a professional doing her job competently while the narrative picks at the frayed edges of her mentality.
I liked how Dr. Waldon constantly tells herself that her job is her life and that is all she needs to be happy while while it is obvious that is just not the case. The Slice of Life section of the book specifically does a good job showing that she is actually kinda isolated and lonely, and how she can't carry on like that forever. It led to her making some human feeling mistakes that later came back to bite her in the ass (cough cough Mark). She tries to change her circumstances a bit, and in some ways it works, and in other ways her blind spots and preconceptions land her in hot water.
For the most part I liked how well-realized Waldon was as a character. However, I did not understand why she did not talk to anyone about the Phoenix taking more and more control. It's not even that I have a problem with that specifically. I was just missing a more contextual, in-character reason for why she did what she did, whether that be her superiority complex or her need to insist on control due to her trauma.
Speaking of the trauma, it felt pretty clear to me that Waldon's choice to teach at the school where her teenage boyfriend got eaten by a giant demon she summoned as a Bad Idea and not actually good for her. There is a lot you can read into how that impacted her psychologically. For example, how the Phoenix is a response to Waldon's trauma, gaining ultimate control over the thing she failed to control as a teenager, and I think that is super neat. However, Charlie getting eaten really faded into the background during the middle section of the book, which I found pretty disappointing. I feel like there was supposed to be a whole thing of how Waldon needs to move past her trauma and the Phoenix and Charlie and the school altogether, and that is pretty much what happens at the end, but the link between this development of Waldon as a character and the actual events was was pretty thin. There was Old Faithful possessing Charlie's corpse in the beginning, and the site of Charlie's death being the location of the climax, but not enough in-between to really cement it all. It's a shame, because I really really liked this aspect of the book and I wish there was more of it. Ultimately, Charlie does not haunt the narrative enough and it is generally not relevant that Waldon is teaching and living at the school where she got her high school boyfriend killed.
As for the side characters, I thought they were also pretty nice. The students all felt distinct from each other and had a nice dynamic and a good relationship with Waldon. I especially liked how Nicky related to Dr. Waldon and serves as a parallel. However, this is another unfortunate instance of the middle part of the book focusing too much on the relatively cozy Teacher Slice of Life stuff. I wanted to see much more of how Nicky deals with the fallout of her disastrous summoning and have that serve as a direct comparison to Waldon. Unfortunately, that is not what happens. Instead we get a "she went to therapy" and a motivational speech from Waldon. Don't get me wrong, I like how it all ended up tying together, but again, I wanted there to be more.
I do wish we had gotten more closure with the whole Mark thing. I don't know what it would look like, but that part specifically left me feeling unfulfilled. I also think there was a missed opportunity to have Waldon mentally draw a connection between Mark and Charlie and have a whole thing with that.
Laura was there, I guess, which brings me to the next major topic:
The Romance:
The book is marketed as a sapphic romance, but honestly, that is only true on a technicality. Yeah, we end up with a F/F couple in the end, but Laura is completely absent for the most part and the relationship is not very developed. I was really hoping for more lesbian angst when Dr. Waldon made the oath to Laura after Old Faithful's incursion, but that was not delivered. In fact, the oath itself didn't end up doing much at all. Laura didn't even find out about Dr. Waldon's possession through their magical bond, the students went and told her.
From a character development standpoint, I actually found Waldon's "coworkers with benefits" relationship with Mark much more interesting. It did a very nice job highlighting that while Waldon might tell herself that her work is her life and she is happy with it all, she is kinda lonely and lacks human connection. She knows that Mark is an asshole and kinda shady, she readily admits it to herself, but also he is hot and charming and seems nice enough despite it all, so why the hell not? What could possibly go wrong.
Worldbuilding:
The worldbuilding is unfortunately one of the weaker parts of the novel. Yeah, there is magic and demons and all, but that doesn't seem to have had much of an impact on how history or technology developed. There are cursory nods to general precautions that are made in everyday life against demons, and the fact that the military industrial complex is looking into using demons as weapons, but overall the world looks much like ours. In practice, the presence of magic and demons changes the setting from modern British boarding school to modern British boarding school with a sprinkle of magical whimsy.
Themes and Stuff:
Mostly some miscellaneous thoughts here:
- I really like Waldon's motivational speech to Nicky about not punishing yourself for life for your mistakes and instead learning to avoid them in the future and help other people. Not only is that exactly what Waldon did with the Old Faithful incursion, but it is also what Nicky and the other students do when Waldon got possessed. It is thanks to their knowledge and resourcefulness that they figured out what is going on and were able to get help. Heck, it even draws back to the risk assessment the book opens with. Stuff will go wrong, people will make mistakes, but we can also rely on each other to learn and improve and get each other out of trouble. Excellent through line, I appreciated it a lot.
- I already mentioned this above, but I am ultimately unsure why exactly Waldon ended up getting possessed by the Phoenix. This is exactly the king of thing that happens due to a specific fatal character flaw that has been building up throughout the narrative, but I cannot figure out exactly what it is. Idk, maybe my media literacy is just failing me with this one.
- I liked the school setting as an analogy for growth and change. The students grow up into new people by virtue of being teenagers on the cusp of adulthood, and likewise Waldon grows and changes as a person. Ultimately, all of them move on to a new and brighter future, even if Waldon specifically was stuck in the past for a bit. Better late than never, and all that.
Audiobook note: Zara Ramm did a nice job with the narration of the audiobook. Can recommend.
TL;DR: While The Incandescent by Emily Tesh did not quite have enough meat on its bones to properly did into, it was a fun and engaging story with some interesting things to say.