Alexis Henderson Breaks Down the Secrets at the Heart of An Academy for Liars
Author Alexis Henderson has proven herself a talented storyteller with her dark historical fiction The Year of the Witching and her genuinely disturbing horror story House of Hunger. But An Academy for Liars is perhaps her most intriguing tale yet—a trendy dark academia novel that features complicated, morally gray characters, a unique magical system, and the sort of propulsive plot that keeps readers turning pages long into the night.
A twist on the magical boarding school trope, the book follows the story of a down-on-her-luck young woman admitted to a mysterious institution known as Drayton College by way of a mysterious phone call she receives in a mall parking lot. Hidden in Savannah, this seemingly age-old school of magic teaches a select group of students to harness their innate gifts of “persuasion”, an ability which technically isn’t mind control but isn’t terribly far away from it, either. The most skilled of practitioners can, allegedly, even use their abilities to “persuade” matter, and reshape reality itself.
For Lennon, adjusting to her new reality is challenging, and learning to master her powers is exhausting. But she’s determined to succeed, even as she begins to discover disturbing secrets about the secret world she’s willingly made herself part of. The book tackles many themes and tropes that will be familiar to regular readers of this genre—ambition, corruption, a desperate desire to be deemed worthy by a system greater than yourself—it navigates their complexities with refreshingly clear eyes and a perspective we don’t often see represented in this space.
We got the chance to chat with Henderson herself about the inspiration behind Academy for Liars, whether she’d like to tell more stories in this particular fictional universe, what’s next for her as an author, and more.
Paste Magazine: One of the things I love most about your work is that every one of your books is so different in terms of genre and tone—Year of the Witching is historical fiction, and House of Hunger is more overt horror. What made you want to write a dark academia novel?
Alexis Henderson: I was homeschooled from first grade all the way to my senior year of high school. As a result, I didn’t feel super comfortable in classroom settings…they just felt strange and totally foreign to me, especially at first. I wouldn’t say I struggled in school (I’m a natural people-pleaser and a pretty good student as a result), but there was this sense of unease that I felt in academic environments, as if I didn’t belong there as much as everyone else did.
I wanted to write a story about a character who also felt a bit like an outsider in those spaces, albeit for different reasons.
Paste: Do you have some favorite stories in the dark academia genre yourself?
Henderson: Yes! I’m a huge fan of Vita Nostra by Maryna and Serhiy Dyachenko, Babel by R.F. Kuang, Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas, and, of course, The Secret History by Donna Tartt.
Paste: Where did the idea for An Academy of Liars come from and what inspired you to tell this story?
Henderson: My ideas came from a lot of places—my hometown, my own experiences in school, and of course my abiding love for magic school stories.
Originally, this story was supposed to be set in a different world. Many of the main characters were the same (Lennon, Dante, and Eileen were all present), but that version of the story didn’t quite click for me. I think I really cracked this book when I decided I wanted to set it in Savannah, Georgia, where I grew up. I’ve always wanted to write a Savannah book, and when I realized that’s what this story was meant to be, things just fell into place. I was so inspired by the gorgeous southern gothic aesthetics of Savannah, as well as my main character Lennon herself.
Paste: Let’s talk about Lennon’s journey in this book, which definitely goes to some dark and uncomfortable places. What was your main goal with her arc? And where does Dante fit into her story for you?
Henderson: With Lennon, I wanted to explore the jadedness and ennui of a young adult who feels like their life is already over. I conceptualized her as this former gifted and talented kid whose mental health, and by proxy life, took a turn for the worse somewhere around high school. As a result, her adult life is nothing like what she imagined it would be. Her childhood hopes and dreams have been thoroughly dashed, and when we meet her at the beginning of the novel, she’s at rock bottom.
Starting there gave me the opportunity to really watch her grow and evolve—sometimes in dark and pretty terrifying ways. With her arc, I really wanted to explore the metamorphosis that people endure when they go from powerless to powerful. As for Dante, I think that he and Lennon are echoes of each other.
Both of them have amassed power as a means of self-protection, and their various traumas inform a lot of their decisions. But where Dante practices control and restraint Lennon is, to be frank, a little unhinged. That stark difference created a lot of tension on the page, and it made their dynamic really fun to explore.
Paste: I am fascinated by the bits of the story where it’s so clear that Lennon has a dark, violent side and is capable of doing some truly disturbing things in the name of survival (whether that means literally fighting for her life or securing her place at Drayton or what have you). How did you kind of figure out where the line is for her, between dangerous and monstrous or not?
Henderson: I’m not sure that I really know what the line is for Lennon. I think that’s what I found so thrilling about her, as a character.
The depths of her—I’ll just say it—depravity, were really kind of unknowable. She made this book impossible to plot because I never really knew what decision she’d make until I was actively writing a scene. She just surprised me at every turn. Ultimately, I think I had to accept that Lennon has the capacity for great violence and harm, but also empathy and loyalty too. She’s all over the place.
Paste: The supporting characters in this book are so rich and interesting. Did you come up with any facts or backstories about any of them that couldn’t fit into this book? (Claude and Benedict, in particular, kind of break my heart.)
Henderson: I did! Lennon’s mom forced her into some acting/commercial work as a child. Claude is old Southern money and was mostly raised by his shopaholic grandmother. One of Benedict’s greatest passions in life is gardening, and some of his first “dates” with Claude took place in his home garden. There’s a brief mention of a romance audiobook that Dante and Lennon listened to (in a car that they stole). Dante enjoyed that audiobook so much he bought the sequel and listened to it on his own time.
Paste: Relatedly, it’s very obvious how much of this book exists outside the book, if that makes sense, how much you as an author had to kind of visualize and map out this world and its characters and its magic system for its story to work. How’d you keep all the lore and histories straight?
Henderson: Honestly…it was kind of chaotic. I gave this book so many passes, and I have to thank my publishing team here because all of us worked so hard to make sure the lore, history, character backstories, and magic system were consistent. I think large parts of this story exist in my head, but I also owe such a huge thank you to my team and my partner, for taking on the burden of this story and helping me ensure that everything in my head made its way to the page coherently.
With a story like this one, I think it’s easy to lose perspective and hit burnout before the book is even complete. I’m so grateful that I had people to keep me grounded and to help me through what turned out to be a pretty challenging writing process.
Paste: Do you think you’d ever write another story in this universe? The ending does a lovely job of feeling like an ending and also like there’s still room for more if you get the itch for it.
Henderson: Thank you! I have no plans to write another story in this universe, but I always like to leave the door cracked open! Writing An Academy for Liars was one of the biggest challenges of my career, but it was also really fun and weirdly cathartic. If the right story comes to me one day, I’m definitely open to writing a sequel.
Paste: What’s next for you as an author? Are you working on anything you can tell us about? (Yes, absolutely this is me fishing for info about that The Year of the Witching sequel, by the way.)
Henderson: I’m working on three books right now but none of them have been officially announced so I can’t say too much! I can drop a few hints though: R.V., bridesmaid, confession.
No news on The Year of the Witching front…but one day I do hope that I’ll be ready to return to that world.
Paste: And my most important question I ask everyone is, what are you reading right now? Anything you’re seen lately that our readers should make sure to keep an eye out for in the coming months?
Henderson: Rachel Harrison’s So Thirsty came out recently, and I stayed up super late (while on deadline!) to finish reading it. I’m also really looking forward to The Scorpion Queen by Mina Fears, The Maiden and Her Monster by Maddie Martinez, and literally whatever Alix E. Harrow writes next.
An Academy for Liars is available now wherever books are sold.
Lacy Baugher Milas is the Books Editor at Paste Magazine, but loves nerding out about all sorts of pop culture. You can find her on Twitter @LacyMB