Review of The Academy Outside of Ingolstadt by Damian Murphy

A very readable short novel by one of my favorite living authors. 

I feel like when you say ‘living author’ you’re talking about someone about to keel over. But Damian Murphy may put out dozens of more books in his time. At the rate he is going we can look forward to many more descents into what I like to call cozy occult. I doubt he would approve of this genre label, but this tale, like many of his other yarns, seems to fit that bill. There is a constant tension, a subtle dread in every image and every enigmatic object.

This one takes place in a boarding school, and has a distinctly European atmosphere. The training at the academy is particularly cruel, even sadistic in ways, and its curriculum, while never well-defined by its inhabitants, is decidedly dark and sinister. By facing perils, these people are slowly initiated into sacred rites, older than they can imagine.

The style is impeccable, the prose slides around in your mind like a heady liqueur, wafting deep suggestions, deep meditations, deep and nightmarish visions.

I never tire of plunging into the fascinating and slightly skewed worlds of this author.