The Incandescent is an absolutely brilliant dark academia novel, written by Emily Tesh, and published by Orbit Books. A story that totally changes the usual focus of the genre, putting it on the mundanity of teaching in this contemporary fantasy, with a lot intricate details and care, showing much love to the labour of teachers and also examining class inequality as part of a plot with an excellent and well-rounded cast of characters.

Doctor Walden is the Director of Magic at Cheetwood Academy, one of the most prestigious boarding schools for magicians; a really powerful mage herself, who spends her days between teaching A-Level invocation to four talented and chaotic students, meetings and protecting the school from demonic incursions, as Cheetwood with all the young students is quite a beacon for those. Balancing that with personal life is a real struggle for Walden, quite a disaster in being human for somebody in her 30s; and maybe, the biggest danger for the school comes from inside the own Walden.

Honestly, having a main character such as Doctor Walden is the breath of fresh air that the subgenre really needed; while she's absolutely brilliant at her role, we see how she's totally a disaster in the task of being human. It might not be the most relatable character, but it's impossible to not empathize with her, especially as she's a damn good teacher: caring for her pupils, protecting them not only from demons but also from other dangers; but at the same time, we see how somebody in her 30s is practically lost at navigating people (she's quite the bisexual disaster). 
It is true that I was quite not so fond of the love interest at the start (especially due to her role), but it slowly grows into the reader; the students play a key role in the plot, and most of them could be tied to classic archetypes that could be seen in education, but with enough space to be themselves.

Contemporary fantasy is a difficult beast to tame, but Tesh manages to do marvels with the setting: not only it is rich and detailed, but it has a life of its own, being the novel just one more story alongside the history of Cheetwood. With such a setting, the reader is also invited to examine how class inequality can impact the individuals, and how the system is at many points rigged against those with lower origins, but that there is also space for some hope.
The pacing is relatively slow, in retrospective, but Tesh's prose makes the pages fly while she's introducing us to the complex world behind this novel, and the action scenes are outstanding.

The Incandescent is absolutely brilliant, a contemporary fantasy that plays the best to its strengths, putting a new focus to dark academia, giving us a memorable main character and inviting us to think long after finishing it. Simply excellent.