I Can’t Wait For…Lovely Dark and Deep by Elisa A. Bonnin
Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted over at Wishful Endings to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about but haven’t yet read. Most of the time they’re books that have yet to be released, but not always. It’s based on the Waiting on Wednesday meme, which was originally hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.
This week my Can’t-Wait-For Book is Lovely Dark and Deep by Elisa A. Bonnin!
Lovely Dark and Deep by Elisa A. Bonnin Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, YA
Representation: Filipino-American MC
Published on: 25th March 2025
Goodreads
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From author Elisa A. Bonnin comes Lovely Dark and Deep, a YA dark academia novel exploring magic, loneliness, and the power of found family.
Hidden off the coast of Washington, veiled in mist, there is an island that does not appear on any map. And on that island is Ellery West.
Ellery West has always been home for Faith. After an international move and a childhood spent adjusting to a new culture and a new language, the acclaimed school for magic feels like the only place she can be herself. That is, until Faith and another student walk into the forest, and only Faith walks out.
Marked with the red stripe across her uniform that designates all students deemed too dangerous to attend regular classes, Faith becomes a social pariah, an exile of Ellery West. But all she has to do is keep her head down for one more year to graduate, and she gets to keep her magic. Because when students fail out of Ellery West, they have their magic taken away. Forever. And Faith can't let that happen.
Except terrifying things are still happening to students, and the dark magic that was unleashed in the forest still seems to be at work. To stop it, Faith and the other Red Stripes will have to work together, risking expulsion from the magical world altogether.
Magic school stories are so hit and miss – I yearn for them, but I don’t often find ones that interest me. Partly because the main characters tend to be similar – so I was DELIGHTED to discover that the main character of Lovely Dark and Deep is Filipina! My fingers are crossed that she can bring a perspective to the usual magic school set-up that we don’t often get.
There seem to be four ‘branches’ of magic in Faith’s world, but WAY more magical abilities than just four – it’s just that they’re all categorised under one of four umbrellas. I’m interested in seeing how that system manifests in practice – I especially hope we get to see a lot of classes!
Which seems likely, because this is a dark academia story, and that usually comes with a hunger/passion/obsession for learning or knowledge – usually knowledge you’re not supposed to have. (Is that how Faith’s friend ended up dead??? PERHAPS.) That being said: if Red Stripes aren’t allowed in classes with everyone else…do they have classes of their own? That seems like a very bad idea, putting all the students with dangerous magic together in one classroom! So maybe that’s not it – or maybe Ellery West doesn’t have a good set-up for dealing with difficult students…
I’m so hoping this actually gets dark, and I’m genuinely interested in meeting all the Red Stripes and seeing them band together!
What are you looking forward to this week?
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