The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door by H.G. Parry is a fusion of dark academia and historical fantasy which delves readers into a mesmerising tale of scholarly dreams, forbidden magic and a sombre reflection on post war Britain. This is a book of opening doors and closing them, of knowledge holding power and of friendships which last a lifetime.

“I hope you saw Camford. I hope you sat up high as we did so often, a strange pale sun at your back. The air was never still, so that the trees rustled and whispered in constant conversation overhead. Sometimes now, when I’m half asleep and I hear the creak of branches outside, my eyes snap open and I’m sure that I’m home.”

The doors to the fae world are closed and faerie magic is no longer permitted to be practiced. Yet during WW1 on the battlefield of Amiens a door is opened and a faerie breaks loose. When Clover Hill’s brother Matthew returns from the war broken and cursed by dark magic she knows she must find a cure before it takes his life. Camford, a secret magical academy, may hold all the answers but it is not a place that would easily welcome a young female commoner with no magical blood such as Clover. Therefore Clover must fight tooth and nail to be accepted into Camford and once there she must find a way to belong. 

Parry has a real skill for bringing her settings to life with elegant, atmospheric prose. Here we are presented a juxtaposition of a Britain recovering from the devastating effects of WW1 and the elusive university of Camford. Oh Camford, how I fell in love with this place, how I longed for it to be real, for me to be able to go there. Camford is best described as the combination of Cambridge and Oxford but catering for education in the Magical Arts. From the labyrinth of corridors to the dazzling library it’s a place of grandeur, a place where knowledge, possibilities and mysteries are endless, a place where futures are made. Yet with every elite institution comes its prejudices and its privileges. In the world of secret magic, only those from the Families, where magic runs through their blood, are readily allowed to study at Camford, rarely are people like Clover permitted and rarely do they accept female scholars. I loved how Parry illustrated the role of women in the 1920s, where they were expected to run a household, take care of their family and eventually marry. This was what Clover’s mother had always expected but this was never the life Clover had wanted, she revelled in learning, reading, broadening her knowledge, and so I became swept away with the story of how she carves her own path despite all the disapproval she faces. 

“Because we were all pretending, weren’t we? It felt like since the war and the epidemic that followed it the world had been irreparably broken, and we were all trampling barefoot through the shattered fragments as though nothing had happened-as though we weren’t all broken too.”

Clover often refers to Camford as home and Parry makes us see why. At Pendle Hill Clover’s responsibilities are endless and when her brother Matthew goes to war, the weight of taking care of younger siblings and running a farm is placed upon her shoulders. When Clover leaves to study at Camford she’s a young woman wrapped with excitement, guilt, loneliness and fear. There is a vulnerability to her, a sense that she isn’t quite sure of her own worth. For who is Clover but a commoner trying to fit into aristocratic society. Yet Camford is like its own little world, far from the struggles of post war, it’s an escapism of itself and it’s where Clover desperately wants to be despite being homesick. I always enjoy a coming of age narrative and Clover finding herself at university, being accepted into a circle of friends and prospering in her studies, was such an enjoyable aspect of this novel. Then as we reach the summer she spends at the Ashfield estate with her friends once again Clover is opened up to another whole new world, one of wealth and care-free days and a place she actually felt immediately accepted in. 

Family and friendship are strong themes throughout as most of the motivations of each character are centred on helping or saving those they love. Initially Clover is determined to go to Camford in order to help her brother but once she’s there she embarks upon a whirlwind friendship which introduces her to a life full of indulgence and possibilities with people she can belong with. Charming Alden, elegant and stylish Hero and gentle nature-loving Eddie become the centre of her world and together they become inseparable as they study forbidden fae magic and seek to uncover long buried secrets. Parry really does superbly capture how those years of Clover’s life were intoxicating, fever-dream-like and the moments she was most happy. Yet eventually all good things come to an end and as the novel spans to when these four characters are now adults they must face the mistakes of their past and put wrongs to right. This part hit me emotionally hard as the tone becomes nostalgic, reflective and of great loss. I’m a person who finds change hard to cope with but as Parry reaches the end of Clover’s story she shows us that change is necessary, that to start anew things must be broken, and that good can still come of it. I absolutely loved this sentiment. 

“Magic was sparking in my blood now, perhaps not as literally as it would be in the blood of one of the Families, but just as truly, and I couldn’t hide it anymore. It was like trying to force myself into ill-fitting clothes, all the while twisting with guilt at not fitting them better.”

The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door showcases Parry’s exquisite ability to bring historical fantasy to life in such an exhilarating way. It’s a novel which immediately enveloped me in a myriad of ways. 

ARC provided by Nazia at Orbit Books in exchange for an honest review. So grateful for the copy!

 The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door is out now! You can order your copy on Bookshop.org