And He Shall Appear

by Kate van der Borgh

From a mesmerizing new literary voice comes a story of obsessive friendship, chilling powers, and untimely death for readers of dark academia classics like If We Were Villains and The Secret History.

An unnamed narrator arrives at Cambridge University in the early aughts determined to reinvent himself. His northern accent marks him as an outsider, but thanks to his musical gifts, he manages to fall in with his wealthy classmate, Bryn Cavendish.

A charismatic party host and talented magician, Bryn enthralls the narrator. But something seems to happen to those who challenge or simply irk Bryn—and they aren’t ever the same again.

The narrator begins to suspect that Bryn may be concealing terrifying gifts under the guise of magic tricks. As the tension between them grows, a harrowing encounter is followed by Bryn’s death.

Alternating between their time as students and the narrator’s return to Cambridge years later, where he fears the ghosts of his past are waiting for him, And He Shall Appear performs an astounding slight-of-hand that throws every version of the story into question.

This propulsive novel about the dark power of privilege will haunt readers like a familiar piece of music with endless iterations.

Genres: Horror, Dark Academia, Fiction, Fantasy, Gothic, Contemporary, Mystery

336 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2024

About the author

By day, Kate van der Borgh is a freelance copywriter, and by night, she’s usually composing or playing music. She grew up in Lancashire and went on to study music at Cambridge, so there’s a reasonable amount of her in her narrator—including the fact that she was a pianist and reluctant bassoonist. She has, however, never had reason to suspect that her best friend has occult powers. Her short fiction has been published by The Fiction Desk, and she’s a graduate of Faber’s six-month Writing a Novel course. She is based in London.

source: Amazon

Reviews

[Ceecee · Rating 5 out of 5]

The unnamed male narrator has been musical from birth, his talents securing him a place at Cambridge around the turn of the millennium. A state school attendee, he arrives from a small northern town, the gifted proverbial fish out of water. Maybe this is a chance for reinvention though perhaps Cambridge will put him in his place as he doesn’t really understand the rules, the routines and the game playing. A few weeks in he becomes riveted by the enigmatic, charismatic and magnetic Bryn Cavendish into whose orbit he is lured, charmed, mesmerised and probably bewitched. Bryn is at the centre of the Cambridge universe, a modern day Sun King around whom many orbit. Bryn is from a wealthy background and at the heart of every Cambridge function at which he often performs magic tricks. As the narrator gets deeper and deeper into Bryn’s world, an obsessive feverish friendship develops. Has he given his soul to the devil? Has fate brought them together and what will fate have in store as two worlds collide. The story is told in dual timelines, from the Cambridge days and in the present day which flows as organically as the River Cam.

This is a stunning haunting debut novel which is so powerful with several layers to the storytelling. I love the dark academia trope so this is tailor made for me. It’s perplexing, intriguing and has me in its thrall from beginning to end. It’s a fantastical novel of obsessive friendship, steeped in magic and mystery with a strong ghostly gothic element with a dream like or even nightmarish quality. It has me puzzling and questioning what is real and what is illusion or even delusion but maybe potentially both. The storytelling is vivid, there are moments of high tension, some scenes are electric and for much of the narrative there’s an unsettling, off kilter sensation. It’s all consuming and mesmerising, at times it’s horrifying and certainly haunting and at others it’s sad and tragic.

As well as the dynamic between Bryn and his circle and the narrator there are so many other noteworthy aspects that form the novel. There’s the juxtaposition of the privileged like those surrounding Bryn versus our narrators background and that of his true friend, Tim. There’s a strong musical element too which gives it a very different vibe from other novels in this genre. The narrator’s obsession with the mysterious Peter Warlock is a touch of brilliant as it works so well alongside the unfolding drama between the two young men. Wrapped around the whole is a superb atmosphere, it positively drips with it. There’s not only that of Cambridge itself which provides colour, unease and danger but there’s an ever present elusive ghostly creepiness. In addition, the characterisation is exemplary although some are far from likeable.

Overall, I’m sure this will be one of my books of the year. It gives me so much to think about as it builds to an excellent ending where all the emotions are on display from love to jealousy to guilt. I will continue to reflect on what are true recollections and accurate memories and what are distorted for whatever reason. It’s beautifully written and I’m in awe of what the author has achieved in this stunning debut.

I really like the cover too.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to 4th Estate for The much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

[Blair · Rating 5 out of 5]

A music student arrives in Cambridge to start his degree, aware his ordinary background marks him out as an outsider. Things start to change when he forms an unlikely friendship with the wealthy and charismatic Bryn Cavendish, a talented magician with a thing for the occult. Yet as their bond deepens, the narrator’s obsession with both Bryn and his girlfriend Alexa threatens to become dangerous...

Yeah, I know: this premise is the stuff of a thousand debuts, and at first I assumed it would be a retread of themes that appear in lots of first novels. In some ways, it is, and that’s fine with me; as long as these books are well-written and not straight-up plagiarism, I almost always enjoy them. In my early notes, however, I was writing phrases like ‘really not doing anything original’. I’d have put it in the same category as, say, The Cloisters): enjoyable, but hardly breaking the mould. Then something started to shift. It begins with the addition of a horror angle, of course – the suggestion, writ large in the title, that Bryn Cavendish might be something a bit more diabolical than just an amateur magician.

But it goes further: this turns out to be a narrative that subverts and rewrites itself, turning all its ideas upside down and shaking everything out. In doing that, it does more than just tell an engaging story: it gets to the heart of why so many of us are fascinated by these stories about academia and privilege. While there are some powerfully creepy scenes, ultimately what sent the biggest chill down my spine was the warning built in to the narrator’s account – one about the dangers of mythologising a person, a lifestyle, or even yourself. How insidious a fantasy can be, how easy to cling to, and what that might look like from the outside. It’s a stunning spin on familiar tropes.

I read And He Shall Appear twice in 2024: the first time, I felt it gathered pace as it went along, building to a crescendo; I finished the book in a daze, intoxicated by it, already thinking about when I’d read it again. The second time, I was so riveted – all the way through – I could hardly bear to break off. The book it reminded me of most was The Bellwether Revivals (it similarly entwines an outsider-at-Oxbridge narrative with hints of the supernatural), with shades of The Party (themes of obsession and manipulation – as well as just how enjoyable it is to read) and Engleby (the narrative approach). It’s also reminiscent of The Little Stranger in its use of supernatural elements. I am predisposed to love books of this type, but I really do think van der Borgh pulls it off with more panache than most. An instant favourite.

I received an advance review copy of And He Shall Appear from the publisher through Edelweiss.

[Booksblabbering || Cait❣️ · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Secret History meets Saltburn and In My Dreams I Hold a Knife.

An unnamed narrator feels out of his depth studying music at Cambridge amidst people moving in a whole other world - separated by class, connection, and finesse.
He becomes entranced by Bryn, the centre of everyone’s life at their college. Our narrator falls into their group, entangling himself in Bryn’s life, cherishing every intimate moment as he neglects other aspects of his life (education, friendship, morality).

However, Bryn’s obsession with magic and deception and identity creates a foreboding sense that something will unravel. Something dark creeping up on our narrator that he has ignored whilst being on Bryn’s good side.

This carried a feeling of jittery danger. Our narrator creates an unnerving equilibrium: feeling inexplicably and inexpressibly unsettled by Bryn while never wanting to leave his side.

The writing was beautiful. It reminded me of The Secret History, where the prose is as enchanting as the story.

'Do you think a person can ever really be happy, being The Lover?'
I shrugged. 'I presume most Lovers don't realise that's what they are. And maybe it's worse to be The Loved, knowing that you don't feel that intense passion that you're supposed to feel. Yeah, The Loved get all the adoration, but they get the guilt too?’
‘I guess both The Lover and The Loved can be happy so long as they can persuade themselves there's no such thing.’

The acts were not as diabolical as TSH or Saltburn.
I did like how you are forced to decide on how representation and interpretation changes the tone of a story. How a retelling can render things different to different people.

Some people say were our true selves when we think nobody is watching. But how do we know our own identities without others confiming gaze? If, like the tree falling in the proverbial wood, nobody is around to hear us, is our story a story at all?

Perhaps some of the suspense and thrill was taken away as this was told from our narrator reflecting back as an adult.

The ending similarly felt lack lustre and I think we also lacked sufficient explanation of our narrator’s current life apart from judging on a music panel which is what brought him back to Cambridge.

It was four stars until the ending!⭐️🥺

Thank you to 4th Estate for sending me a physical arc in exchange for a review.

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[Amina · Rating 4 out of 5]

✰ 3.75 stars ✰

“And I realized: magic is conflict. It’s that place where the possible and impossible meet, where belief and disbelief collide like a match against the striking strip.

Maybe this explains why, when two very different people come together, the effect can be—there’s no better word for it—magical.”

A hauntingly evocative debut where magic and macabre, math & music, mystery and mischief, obsession and privilege, envy and pride, possession and power collide in a compelling dynamic that engulfs its readers in its rich dark academia vibes - ensnaring the reader just as much as the unnamed narrator that is entranced by the ever-charismatic, effortlessly beautiful, 'That “B.” Bewitched, bothered, and bewildered. Bryn.' From his first meeting with the Devil, he has been enraptured and enthralled by his presence, helplessly drawn into his orbit, seeking his admiration and approval, and mesmerized by his talent and charm in the ever-hope of earning his respect and reaching his level - for to him, Bryn is the epitome of everything he is not.

Rich and privileged Bryn who settles scores on simply his name and face that exudes a class ever so superior and above all others - even more so, by the grandiose way in which he beguiles his audience with his captivating tricks that seem as otherworldly as the paranormal concepts that behold his mind. It is that certain authoritative hold over the weak - one that commands expectation and heeds approval that has the protagonist become a shadow of an illusion of his own making. But when he challenges that claim - it is the catalyst for the conflict that reels into one of both contrast in class and status blisteringly apparent and he starts to break free of the magical hold Bryn had over him and lose everything in the fallout of their friendship - if it had ever been one?

“And then, a moment when we were frozen in time, spellbound: one stuck with horror and the other with glee, our fates tied together in mad camaraderie by wine and music and a magical sort of danger.”

This was a very immersive read; very gripping, very atmospheric, but best of all, very well-written to the point that it was very easy to be drawn into the plot and impossible to stop. The writing flowed seamlessly and was descriptive with sharp, crisp dialogue and fine attention to detail that did not allow any wasted words. Nothing was superfluous and nothing seemed inconsistent to the story. The dual timeline is captured in such a seamless way that it is not difficult to discern when the unnamed narrator transports back to his memories of his days as a music student on scholarship at Cambridge University and the present of when he returns to the ghosts of his past. '...as if repeating a tricky passage of music. As if he were a skill I might lose without constant and devoted practice.' Despite how smitten he was over Bryn, the narrator still had a part of his personality that still existed - threatening to overtake the foreboding hold that Bryn had over him.

The supporting characters are unlikable, because they are Bryn's friends -because they, too, retain that same level of disdain and scorn over those lesser than them and it shows. I liked how you never quite knew what to expect or when the anvil would fall in when and where their relationship would unravel - when would the magic of his hold over him start to unfurl. The sense of trepidation and tension is prevalent throughout and when it elevates to the point of no return - it is a visceral feeling that I could sense - heightened by the supernatural touch that the author included. 'I was yet to learn that perspective is everything.' Of how he starts to see the cracks in his own behavior that shatters reality, but morphs into the crazed delusion of something sinister and twisted taking hold - the brilliance is in trying to discern if it actually was happening or all in his imagination.

And this part fascinated me; how she envisioned this chilling eerie presence of what terrified the narrator of what horrors Bryn was capable of, and wondering how much was in his own psyche or what actually was happening, while still refusing to believe what he thought to be true. 'Please, I thought. I just want us to be okay.' It is that descent into a darkness of shattering beliefs - that aching confession to salvage a friendship - if it had ever been one - simply to coexist in each other's presence. - aching confession to coexist happily - irrevocably shattered.

“Music is like pain. You forget what it was to experience it in the moment. You only know that there was no such thing as time, and your whole self was splintered into fragments, connected to everything that ever mattered and that ever would.”

The author's own keen passion for music shines in the way she describes with such care the narrator's own passion for music. She alludes to musical references that equate to his own emotions which are channeled into his taut relationship with Bryn - chilling impromptu piano concerto - the dominance to please, as well as assert who holds the most power - was one of my favorite scenes - a powerful performance that also displayed the harsh display of the stark difference in their upbringing, as well as their status. The musical metaphors were so poignant, and it gave a more bittersweet feel to the story, while also heightening the more intense moments, two key instances, which really hurt to read.

It felt alive and still achingly sad; how that sense of unease that something unsettling is starting to take shape between the two. 'Heat seemed to come off him in waves, pulsing like a dark heart.' It's the bewitching power and control he's able to inflict upon him - convincing him to behave or see things differently in a fragmented and disoriented state that has him doubt his own state of mind. That crippling deterioration as well as still this intense and fervent onslaught of wanting to stay in Bryn's good graces was an intense battle, but one that was depicted very well.

“You wondered for a long time, but you finally have your answer, and the answer is that he’s still here. He’s still here, and he’s been waiting for you.”

I had my doubts of whether or not this book would leave a mark on me. I waited for it as I sank deeper into the abyss of the narrator's own undoing - of watching a friendship he wielded with such purpose and expectation - fall apart. It is impossible not to note the slight similarities to The Secret History; whether deliberate or not, I am uncertain. Or simply as an ode to a book that acted as a precursor to so many others. But it is also the final few chapters that delivered a reveal that depicted what the plot had slightly been hinting towards, but never really outspoken about it. 'One thing that never changes in my replayings: this music is about love.' How a dynamic such as theirs - though platonic, often, if not possible, could have been bordering towards something else, which neither of them chose to address, or simply evaded before it came to fruition.

The ending also delivered some of the most heartbreaking and poetic prose - that was both wistful and tragic, reminiscent of times gone and an ill-fated loss of what once was. 'For heights we might have reached. For doors, not yet closed. For everything that might have been...' Words so raw, but emotional, and tied up the story so well, that my heart ached at the simplicity yet beauty in the words. A story about a kind of love that can be both harmful and still wanting to be possessed, for the lengths we go to to not only live up to their expectations, but then the means we go to protect ourselves from it. It was such a painstaking bittersweet ending - the glimpses of a friendship lost - set adrift over bouts of jealousy, spite and scorn. It viscerally hurt, a hollow ache in my chest over what had befallen upon the two - over the impossible dream of what was taken from them and imagining what life could have been, if things had played out a bit differently.

*Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Paromita · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing was good and it was a page-turner. However, it didn't live up to the promise it showed. This was The Secret History inspired dark academia set in Cambridge with some otherworldly elements but the execution wasn't fully there, especially the ending.

Good read, good debut.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dark academia is en vogue at the moment, spawning its own sub-sub-genres all over the place. Kate van der Borgh's debut, And He Shall Appear, is what I shall refer to as classic dark academia, with a direct through-line from The Secret History. Our unnamed narrator arrives at an unnamed Cambridge college (Corpus Christi) in the early 00s (I feel like I can date it precisely to somewhere between about 2002 and 2004, as Facebook and I arrived at Cambridge in 2005, and the narrator tells us this was pre-Facebook). Otherwise, van der Borgh evokes a Cambridge that is exactly, painfully how I remember it, with an attention to detail that is, annoyingly, rare in Oxbridge novels. She hits all the beats of dark academia, but so perfectly that it feels like she is reinventing the genre.

Have we ever really had a properly good dark academia novel set in the real world?* The Secret History might be the sub-genre's source of inspiration, but in many ways after Bunny's death it veers far away from the academic. Van der Borgh writes so well that And He Shall Appear becomes genuinely creepy and unsettling as our narrator becomes obsessed with fellow student Bryn, whom he suspects may be dabbling in dark magic. His obsession with Bryn also feels so much more real than this trope usually does, with a series of beautifully vivid set-pieces: magic card tricks at a room party, a dive from a roof into a swimming pool, occult costumes at formal hall. The novel bounces between influences from The Blair Witch Project to M.R. James's 'Casting the Runes', which worked brilliantly for me (van der Borgh and I clearly share a sense of what is truly frightening). And then there's that ending. 'For me', Bryn says earlier in the novel, 'magic is a reminder that, for some of us, anything is possible. Why should we accept an ordinary life when we can dream of more?' This, van der Borgh seems to be saying, is why dark academia is such a comfort to us, even when it's also horror. Better to believe that our lives are cursed or fated than that we have no meaningful story at all. 4.5 stars.

*my favourite fantasy dark academia will probably forever be Naomi Novik's A Deadly Education

I received a free proof copy of this novel from the publisher for review.

[K.M. · Rating 1 out of 5]

This entire thing was morbidly overwrought and incoherent. Everyone was so profoundly dislikable as to engender it impossible to suspend disbelief that anyone could care (long before the point of obsession) about literally anyone in the story.

Maybe Tim is valid but the narrator’s nonsensical ladder-climbing infatuation with someone who is the most unredeemable piece of shit, that when Tim calls him out on it, you’re just exhausted because you’ve already been doing that the entire time in your own head.

The writing is so dramatic. Imagine someone takes a dog eared copy of The Secret History but typed in comic sans and run through google translate 20 times. Then they beat you to death with it. I rolled my eyes when I ran across the words “wine-dark”.

Please!

[Books_the_Magical_Fruit]

This is super creepy and also puts the “dark” in dark academia. There’s occult stuff and devil-worshipping going on, so if that’s not something you want to read about, look elsewhere for your next book. I personally couldn’t really get into the story or the characters, but it’s a decent addition to the ever-popular genre, and lovers of said-genre should find things they like in here.

Thank you to NetGalley and Union Square & Co. for an eARC. All opinions are mine.

[Kieran · Rating 5 out of 5]

yk what hell yeah

[Andi]

Dark Academia is a hit or miss with me. I was excited by this because it seemed like a story where not only a character was going to be sucked in, he was going to be attracted to the 'devil worshiping' character.

He wasn't. He was hardly with the character at 50% of the story. The only magic bits we saw was Bryn (the devil worshiping character), using his deck of cards, making characters somehow doing things.

You also get to see that the character has a rebellious streak and he gets the main character do some some wild stuff - the stuff isn't that wild, unless you lived under a rock and never did anything in your life.

Expected more darkness, more gay, more... temptation? This is just bland, bland, bland.

Out of respect for the author I am not rating this due to not finishing it.

[Lisa Lynch · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was like Saltburn, but dull and boring and endlessly repetitive.

In this version, Jacob Elordi does silly magic tricks while Barry Keoghan dreams of being brave enough to drink his tub water.

Oh, and the end of this was incredibly unsatisfying. I was hoping for something shocking to be revealed, but nothing was revealed at all.

[Ketelen Lefkovich · Rating 5 out of 5]

And He Shall Appear was a novel that affected me profoundly. So much so that I finished it over a month ago and was still unable to convey my thoughts into words and write a review, and even now I fear I will not be able to do the book justice, and express all the levels that it affected and touched me. I have collected all my highlights in my newly inaugurated commonplace book on my Notion and re-reading the passages was a delightful welcome into this story that I already hold so dear and know I will revisit in the future. Let me start at the beginning.

Our unnamed narrator is one of the most curious and enthralling aspects of this novel, one which could render countless academic analysis if one were to dive deep into this aspect of the story. I was fascinated at how such a simple choice, one which has done countless times before, and yet in this scenario here, makes all the difference in how we perceive the story that it’s about to unfold, creating a sense of not-identity, a theme which is recurrent in And He Shall Appear as it is the theme of belonging, the later one which Dark Academia enthusiasts will be familiar with.

The active pursuit of one’s place in the world, the profound longing the characters feel in the chase for the sense of belonging somewhere, or with someone, is one of the key themes in any Dark Academia story, and a great motivator for the outsiders narrators who being their journeys in academia. Our unnamed narrator is one of many, and his desire to belong is the most intense when he meets the equal parts charismatic and enigmatic, Bryn Cavendish.

As talented as he is devious, Bryn becomes a sort of mythical figure in our narrator’s life. He seems to be everywhere, to get everything he wants, and whoever wrongs him seems to be swiftly dealt with, to such an extent that the narrator starts to suspect if Bryn’s magic is really only ever showmanship or something more sinister. The friendship between both characters is going to quickly become the center of the narrator’s life, as well as the focus of story we are being told, however, in more than one occasion, we get glimpses that the narrator is not at all trustworthy. He tells us that his memory is slippery, he questions if he is misremembering something or says that he is “supposed to be telling the truth now.” and all of these statements emerge to conjure up a facet of the character’s personality in the reader’s mind, a feeling of distrust perhaps. Which only contributes to the greatness of the novel, and a testament to the writer’s astounding abilities. I was mesmerized by it. It was definitely one of my favorite writings in recent years, and I wish it could have gone forever, I wish the book was one thousand pages long, I never wanted it to end, and that made me read it so slowly, taking a fortnight to read a book I could have been done with in days, just because the mere thought of parting with it was too much to bear. You could say I got obsessed with it, and you wouldn’t be wrong. I joked with my friends that the center of my world, my whole personality, became And He Shall Appear.

At the novels core, one theme takes the central stage, that of friendship and we are confronted with the very nature of trust, obsession, envy and loyalty. The narrator’s dynamic with Bryn and the role he plays in his life are minutiously observed and then turned upside down.

I often wonder about loyalty. Whether it can be a fixed thing, how it’s earned as well as given. Whether it’s ever offered without conditions. If the friend to whom you’ve been unfailingly loyal behaves in a way that you don’t recognize, what then? Should you be loyal to the person you thought you knew or the person they’ve become? Can you ever do both at the same time? And what if, for better or worse, you’re the one who has changed?

It is not a secret that the Dark Academia genre is one that holds my utmost fascination and devotion, I wrote my master thesis on the topic after all. Which is to say that not only I have read my fair share of titles (over thirty as of this moment) I do not get tired when they take inspiration from one another, as they are won’t to do since the origins of the very genre trace back to the Campus Novel, a genre that works similarly in the sense that all stories transpire in the same manner, and follow the same guidelines. That has never bothered me because I adore them for this very reason. In the many titles I have come across I have encountered both the ones I loved and others that I disliked, and my praises are never given freely. With that in mind, I was thoroughly and completely shattered by And He Shall Appear. It was an instant favorite. And quite frankly the best book of the year 2024 for me. Easiest addition to my lifetime favorites list.

This book manages to take these tropes we are so familiar with and love, the ingredients of what makes a story Dark Academia, and it delivers not only the perfect recipe, but it constructs the outcome with mastery, adding unexpected elements to surprise you when you least expected it, subverting everything you thought was fact in the narrative, and ending on a triumphant note. This book is the reason why I love the Dark Academia stories. To say I am passionate about this story is an understatement, this story made me glad to be alive so I have a chance to read it.

At once a quintessential Dark Academia text, this one is sure to be sitting at the table with the big names that precede it. And it will surely inspire others that will come afterward as well. Reading And He Shall Appear if you love the Dark Academia genre isn’t a need, it is a must. The reader will be transformed, fascinated and enchanted, just as I was.

Thank you to Union Square & Co. for sending me an arc in exchange for my honest opinion!

[Hannah | Reading Under Covers · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think I would have enjoyed this story so much more if the narrator didn’t suck so much as a character.

His obsession and constant praise for his fellow classmate (who is an awful character, but HE CAN DO MAGIC TRICKS!!) gave me such an ick.

I eye-rolled my way through this one and the only moment I cheered was when a former friend of our narrator comes forward and is like, “bro, this dude honestly doesn’t even know who you are”

Just an instance of the “obsessive/toxic friendship” trope only making me angry.

[Ella · Rating 1 out of 5]

This felt utterly derivative of all its comp titles, and not in a particularly fun way, especially because Cambridge (and more broadly, East Anglian) horror is such a tradition, and there’s so much almost riffing on said tradition (Isaac Newton’s interest in alchemy, John Dee, M. R. James references) that the constant pulling back to Saltburn-but-no-depravity, Secret-History-but-no-real-stakes, Brideshead-but-lacking-homoeroticism, If-We-Were-Villains-but-without-the-clear-love-for-the-cultural-references (but still containing the complete disinterest in the inner lives of the female characters) boringness. If anything it reminds me of that one incredibly boring Naomi Alderman Oxford novel, except this one would definitely be improved by the narrator and Bryn having a torrid affair and doing coke in the washroom at the British Museum. It’s just such a book I want to love, with so many hints at being a book I would love, and then it follows none of those threads. Also, while the nameless narrator thing is fine, refusing to name (or even fictionalise the name of) the college pissed me off, because it’s incredibly obviously Corpus Christi and that just makes the namelessness feel like a twee little Easter egg for people who know Cambridge really well (which makes the po-faced explanation of bops even funnier). There’s also a lot about the story the author’s trying to tell that I think would work better at Trinity. Also, the twist is INCREDIBLY stupid and I don’t actually think it worked with the story the author seemed to be trying to tell, nor do I think the balance of past to present was handled well at all. In short, a very disappointing book.

[Adrian Dooley · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’m sorry but this is a DNF for me. I got to 30% and just couldn’t be bothered to go on.
Narrated by possibly the most uninteresting character I have ever had the displeasure of reading, I just couldn’t face another 70% of the book in the characters company, no matter how the book went.

His fawning over a charismatic magician in college was uncomfortable to read and bizarre in the extreme. The whole shtick just felt unnatural and incredibly boring.

I’m sorry that I didn’t finish this having had the publisher supply a review copy but I just couldn’t continue with this one.

Thanks to the publisher for the ARC through Netgalley.

[Kobe · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. RTC!

[Petra · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*
Disappointed this wasn't gayer

[Alexandra Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

The concept was so cool and it reminded me of the secret history and saltburn but I’m so sorry wtf was this book. It was so confusing and kept jumping from the past and present in a really badly written way and I’m so sorry I just couldn’t keep up. The idea is very very cool though, I just wish it was written better. Wait also why were there so many gaps in the plot and random characters appearing and dying? Ok I’m gonna stop now.

[Miranda · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was one of those books that was kind of about nothing. The author never fully committed to any certain plot, and I did need her to choose one and land it. Essentially we have a narrator, nameless, with a non persona. He has an obsession with Bryn who we are told rather than shown his enigma-esque magnetism. He is dark and depressive, at times dangerous. He does creepy magic tricks that have a satanic flair. There were the half ass connections to The Secret History and Saltburn in the generic sense. The narrator is from a working class background, his peers elite. Is he in love with Bryn? There was one moment that had the potential to be sexually charged but not really. Does he want to be him? Maybe? I found myself not really caring. I didn’t understand the pull Bryn had on everyone. I didn’t feel the tension he created in others, his popularity that surrounded him. Honestly if anything I found him to be lame. Between the magic tricks and the cringey occult vibes he would randomly rave about, I was never finding him to be the sensual, alluring character the author definitely had envisioned. And I’m a fan of The Prestige okay?

[Paige · Rating 5 out of 5]

scrumptious! delectable! dark academia served on the finest platter!

[Khin (storyatelier_) · Rating 4 out of 5]

“And what else can we do with the notes of our lives? In replaying even the most insignificant memory, simple as a nursery rhyme, there is an aesthetic choice, an interpretation. And yes, when I replay the music of my college days, there are all kinds of truths to discover.”

The unnamed narrator returns to Cambridge as one of the judges for a musical scholarship, named after an old friend of his from his own undergrad days, Bryn Cavendish. Being back in Cambridge brings the narrator back, to when he was a poor music student at an elite university, trying desperately to get into the “in” circle that revolved around the star of their year, Bryn. In the present, the narrator seems literally haunted by Bryn now that he’s back to where it all began.

It’s apparent that the narrator has an unhealthy obsession with Bryn that distorts his interpretation of him, past and present alike. Bryn isn’t just charming and enigmatic, he’s also cruel and manipulative, toying with people who displease him even the slightest bit. The narrator is aware of this, and he also suspects that Bryn’s crowd-pleasing magic tricks are a misdirection, that Bryn dabbles in the occult just like his absent father—but given how unreliable our narrator’s perspective of Bryn is, that might just be another byproduct of a romanticised retelling. The closest we might get to the truth is only towards the end, when the narrator’s actual friend Tim recounts his version of events with Bryn, one that almost completely upturns what the narrator had been telling us.

AND HE SHALL APPEAR is an examination of toxic friendships and delusion-driven nostalgia, occasionally bordering on eerie. It plays with unknowns and presents readers with fragments; the past is as much up for our interpretation as it is for the narrator. It is perhaps also roundabout a character study of the narrator himself, a man who tries to render himself invisible and in the process, reveals truths about himself in slant. I think his non-upper class background in an elite university may have driven him to idolise his year’s star and try to squeeze himself into that rich kids’ in-crowd, a detail that props up now and again throughout the novel.

Thank you NetGalley for sending me an advance copy in exchange for a review.

[Cara · Rating 4 out of 5]

took me a while to get through because of the deep second-hand embarrassment I experienced constantly with this narrator but I enjoyed it's musings on perspective and interpretation of past events. The writing was very clever. Reading it, you feel like something is not quite matching up with the narrator's interpretation of the events happening and I found it satisfying to have these moments recontextualized at the end - although you are still left with the ambiguity that other people's interpretations are subjective as well and not strictly the "correct" version either.

[LX · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not entirely sure on the rating atm maybe a 2?? purely for the early salt burn obsession vibes that was 🤌✨️mwah!!!!

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this tale of Cambridge students and dark magic, although the ending wasn't what I wanted.

The initial third of the book was a bit slow, and I was tempted to put it aside. The main character, and narrator, is such a pathetic wet-wipe, which is clearly intentional, but it was making the book tough going! Thankfully, the pace picked up and I became engrossed in the main relationships, the descriptions of Cambridge Uni life, and most of all, by the spooky goings on. The main character is pitifully hung up on the big man on campus, Bryn, a charming, larger-than-life jerk who also seems to be into black magic. The author created some really nice spooky moments and I was looking forward to how it would all pan out...

...but the ending wasn't what I personally wanted. There was a twist, which was cool in it's way, but I felt it undercut a lot of what I'd enjoyed about the book.
I think the author was going for: "The narrator is unreliable and so everything he said is cleverly open to interpretation" but for me it was more like: "The narrator is unreliable and all the supernatural stuff you were enjoying might be made up - haha, sucker!".

3.5 stars but I'll round up in case I get hexed.

[Natalie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I decided to give this a try when I saw it on a staff picks shelf at a book store, but should have known better when I saw it comped to Saltburn and classified as dark academia. As a side note, can we please cease with these comp and aesthetic/genre systems entirely, I hate that writers are pushed to market their work as it compares to other work or fits a certain well-trodden vibe. It’s an indictment of our laziness and cowardice as readers, and a recipe for the exact kind of derivative drivel that is “And He Shall Appear”. I considered a DNF, but it’s a quick enough read and frankly I wanted to pan it with authority.

The narrator is, as others have noted, insufferable. Being from his point of few, I can’t tell if the stilted & pretentious writing style was a choice by the author or inadvertent. The storyline flirts with sexiness and horror elements but never really commits to the bit. Even the *potential spoiler alert* Shutter Island-esque ending is left too vague to be impactful.

If you’re looking for something familiar and predictable, I hope you like this better and I did. That’s just not what I want to spend my time reading.

[su ୨୧ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pure and utter trash. In hopes of being something great; something majestic, it ended up being pretentious in the most lame way ever.

If this was a satire driven book, it would be rather entertaining. Otherwise, it’s just an annoying iteration of so-called intellectual books.

I just feel sick of replicas, and would dearly appreciate something brand new and original; something with its own charm.
Imagine if, in the synopsis, there wasn’t an “Inspired by THE SECRET HISTORY”. Instead, something raw and unseen, no matter how bad it is?

And while I don’t have anything against taking inspiration; against books being derivative, it gets tiring sometimes, when exploring certain genres, you keep bumping into familiarity.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

With thanks to Netgalley and Fourth Estate for the arc.
This ticked all the boxes for me, I absolutely loved it and devoured it from beginning to end.
Set in Cambridge, this is the story of young musician from a working class background and his obsessive attempts to befriend a group of charismatic, privileged (entitled) wealthy students.
It’s hard to believe that this is Kate van der Borgh’s debut novel as she writes with such a sure hand, weaving a gripping narrative that includes elements of the supernatural, psychological thriller and dark academia over a dual timeline.
If you enjoyed Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, S.T. Gibson’s Evocation and Saltburn, then you will love this book.

[Rachel Randolph]

When I saw this ARC on the shelf at Parnassus, the comp titled drew me in. If We Were Villains, The Secret History, & Bunny.

My initial thought was too good to be true.

Then I started the first page, and had to tear through my apartment to find a pen just so I could underline the entire first paragraph.

Now, five hours later, my heart is in my throat, my pen is out of ink, and I’m staring at the wall, stuck in the thrall of obsessive, violent love.

[Mallory (onmalsshelf) Bartel]

DNF

It’s October 2024 and I already have go deal with too many loud, annoying men right now. I can’t stand this character 😫

[Brianna Fenty · Rating 1 out of 5]

it's a no from me, dog