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These Wounds Never Heal
Not yet published
Expected 24 Oct 26No ISBN/ASIN data
Einar only wants one thing: to have a normal and peaceful last year at Sins, the boarding school where humans teach children of demons to control their powers. It seems like a simple wish, but fate proves him wrong when dead students begin to appear in the hallways and his necklace is found next to one of the bodies. Now, the principal is convinced he's the one who killed them, so he must find the actual murderer or face imprisonment.
But with the help of his prideful sibling, their easily-scared boyfriend, a child with too many secrets, a boy filled with anger, and a girl who hates herself he will realize that imprisonment is actually the least of his problems.
What will break first? His body or his mind?
Einar only wants one thing: to have a normal and peaceful last year at Sins, the boarding school where humans teach children of demons to control their powers. It seems like a simple wish, but fate proves him wrong when dead students begin to appear in the hallways and his necklace is found next to one of the bodies. Now, the principal is convinced he's the one who killed them, so he must find the actual murderer or face imprisonment.
But with the help of his prideful sibling, their easily-scared boyfriend, a child with too many secrets, a boy filled with anger, and a girl who hates herself he will realize that imprisonment is actually the least of his problems.
What will break first? His body or his mind?
360 pages, Paperback
Expected publication October 24, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
Review of advance copy received from Author
Thank you so much Lyan for the eARC! I'd been SO EXCITED to read this book and it was definitely worth the wait!
I have struggled to write this review for some time now because the ending broke me immeasurably, and I have yet to emotionally recover. Lyan, expect a therapy bill sent your way...
The cast of characters were definitely my favourite aspect of the book. I would say the story is equally character and plot driven, but there are quite a number of main characters that you get to spend time with, and you really do feel like you're part of their little found family. I grew attached to the characters, especially Einar, Kai and Solas, and I think they were written VERY well.
I had so much fun with the mystery/who dunnit, even more so that it was in a school setting with DEMON children, and this combo made it a very easy read to get through. Although this was fun, the book does tackle some darker/deeper themes (childhood trauma, abuse, etc, and appreciate the message it instills. I detinitely recommend checking this out if you love fantasy, especially in a school setting!
I have struggled to write this review for some time now because the ending broke me immeasurably, and I have yet to emotionally recover. Lyan, expect a therapy bill sent your way...
The cast of characters were definitely my favourite aspect of the book. I would say the story is equally character and plot driven, but there are quite a number of main characters that you get to spend time with, and you really do feel like you're part of their little found family. I grew attached to the characters, especially Einar, Kai and Solas, and I think they were written VERY well.
I had so much fun with the mystery/who dunnit, even more so that it was in a school setting with DEMON children, and this combo made it a very easy read to get through. Although this was fun, the book does tackle some darker/deeper themes (childhood trauma, abuse, etc, and appreciate the message it instills. I detinitely recommend checking this out if you love fantasy, especially in a school setting!
Review of advance copy received from Author
this review doesn’t have spoilers but a warning just in case (?
*THIS* WOUND WILL NEVER HEAL!!!!!
holy shit, i knew i was going to suffer and that i was going to love it but OMG. seeing this story come to life and ngl knowing some things didn’t stop me from feeling everything as if i were reading it for the first time (which i was, but whatever). i cried, i laughed, i suffered (while the author was laughing at me😡), but most of all i felt this in my heart. and i guess part of my love for it comes from seeing him never give up, for making this dream a reality, but it’s a small part because the biggest reason i love this book is because it made me feel.
now i’m gonna keep crying while i scream at the author and he laughs in my face🙂↕️
*THIS* WOUND WILL NEVER HEAL!!!!!
holy shit, i knew i was going to suffer and that i was going to love it but OMG. seeing this story come to life and ngl knowing some things didn’t stop me from feeling everything as if i were reading it for the first time (which i was, but whatever). i cried, i laughed, i suffered (while the author was laughing at me😡), but most of all i felt this in my heart. and i guess part of my love for it comes from seeing him never give up, for making this dream a reality, but it’s a small part because the biggest reason i love this book is because it made me feel.
now i’m gonna keep crying while i scream at the author and he laughs in my face🙂↕️
September 8, 2026
Thank you to the author for providing me with an ARC in exchange for a review!
First off, as far as debuts go, I'd say this was a solid one. The premise intrigued me, and the story explored themes of childhood trauma, neglect, abuse well. Each character had their own demons (no pun intended) to deal with, and their approaches to how they handled their issues varied in interesting ways. I think this book would most appeal to those who've had similar experiences in their past, that is, who grew up in difficult homes and understand the struggle of separating themselves from their childhood selves. It can be very difficult to reckon with your trauma and not have it define you, so I think there's a lot of relatability to be found here in that regard. There's also the aspect of not knowing how to fit in with everyone else, or not knowing whether you even want to, and just figuring out who you want to be outside of others' perceptions. There's a lot of heart in this story, and a lot of frustration, and I found it to be very genuine. I definitely think the author is on a great path.
Having all that said, I do think certain aspects could have been improved. Writing such a large cast (six 'main' characters, who all get POV chapters) is a major undertaking, one that's very difficult to pull off well, and so I think this book would have benefited from cutting some of the POVs. Or, in all honesty, a few of the characters kinda blended together in my mind, so it felt to me like they could have been combined and, as consequence, gotten even more fleshed out. Some of these characters had seeds of fascinating relationships, but they just didn't get enough time on the page to develop properly. For example, I was massively compelled by Einar and Solas's relationship, since I'm always a sucker for complicated sibling dynamics, but we just... didn't really get to see much of it, despite how important Einar proclaimed the relationship to be to him. That's another thing - I'd say there was too much telling and not enough showing. Einar kept saying how much he cared for Solas, but we rarely got to actually see that play out.
For the most part, the plot was interesting, as the murder mystery kept me engaged well enough and gave enough hints to let me come to my own conclusions before the final reveal, but, at times, it kinda felt like the author wasn't sure how to fill out the space between the mystery plot points. It's not a long book, so I think we could have spent a little more time exploring the world more. The story has a lot of interesting themes, so it would have been great to really dig deeper into them through actual events. I also felt the descriptions very lacking. I'm not a reader who needs a lot of them, but I genuinely had no idea where we were at any time or how anyone looked like besides one or two general qualities. The writing on a whole would have done well with some additional editing, but it didn't majorly detract from the reading experience.
Overall, I did have fun with this book and read it pretty quickly. I'll be looking forward to see what the author releases next, since, I think, he's definitely got a lot of potential and he's only bound to go upwards from here :))
First off, as far as debuts go, I'd say this was a solid one. The premise intrigued me, and the story explored themes of childhood trauma, neglect, abuse well. Each character had their own demons (no pun intended) to deal with, and their approaches to how they handled their issues varied in interesting ways. I think this book would most appeal to those who've had similar experiences in their past, that is, who grew up in difficult homes and understand the struggle of separating themselves from their childhood selves. It can be very difficult to reckon with your trauma and not have it define you, so I think there's a lot of relatability to be found here in that regard. There's also the aspect of not knowing how to fit in with everyone else, or not knowing whether you even want to, and just figuring out who you want to be outside of others' perceptions. There's a lot of heart in this story, and a lot of frustration, and I found it to be very genuine. I definitely think the author is on a great path.
Having all that said, I do think certain aspects could have been improved. Writing such a large cast (six 'main' characters, who all get POV chapters) is a major undertaking, one that's very difficult to pull off well, and so I think this book would have benefited from cutting some of the POVs. Or, in all honesty, a few of the characters kinda blended together in my mind, so it felt to me like they could have been combined and, as consequence, gotten even more fleshed out. Some of these characters had seeds of fascinating relationships, but they just didn't get enough time on the page to develop properly. For example, I was massively compelled by Einar and Solas's relationship, since I'm always a sucker for complicated sibling dynamics, but we just... didn't really get to see much of it, despite how important Einar proclaimed the relationship to be to him. That's another thing - I'd say there was too much telling and not enough showing. Einar kept saying how much he cared for Solas, but we rarely got to actually see that play out.
For the most part, the plot was interesting, as the murder mystery kept me engaged well enough and gave enough hints to let me come to my own conclusions before the final reveal, but, at times, it kinda felt like the author wasn't sure how to fill out the space between the mystery plot points. It's not a long book, so I think we could have spent a little more time exploring the world more. The story has a lot of interesting themes, so it would have been great to really dig deeper into them through actual events. I also felt the descriptions very lacking. I'm not a reader who needs a lot of them, but I genuinely had no idea where we were at any time or how anyone looked like besides one or two general qualities. The writing on a whole would have done well with some additional editing, but it didn't majorly detract from the reading experience.
Overall, I did have fun with this book and read it pretty quickly. I'll be looking forward to see what the author releases next, since, I think, he's definitely got a lot of potential and he's only bound to go upwards from here :))
Review of advance copy received from Author
I've been trying to add more dark academia to my TBR in honor of the new school year, so when I received the opportunity to apply for the ARC team for These Wounds Never Heal, I was more than happy to!
Billed as the story of six teens investigating a series of murders at their school for demon children, I found that some of the six got much more page time than others. That's to be expected, with a cast of characters so big; unfortunately, as a result, two of the four characters seemed a little underdeveloped compared to their counterparts.
The two main characters, though, Einar and Solas, are absolutely solid. It was hard not to get attached to Solas in particular, cold as they are, because of the author's attention to detail regarding their chronic pain. As a disabled individual myself, seeing representation of my conditions and symptoms is important to me, and that meant Solas was important to me as I read, too.
For the most part, the main plot was solid. There were a few plot holes (one regarding inconsistencies with a character's power, another regarding the reappearance of a character who was supposedly elsewhere with no in-character questions as to how he came back), but the plot twist at the end of the novel was great. For a murder mystery, that's very important; I was genuinely amazed at the sudden turn of events that ramped up the end of the novel.
These Wounds Never Heal absolutely hits its stride in its final chapters. The big bad reveal is incredible, as is the fight that follows, and the ending is genuinely heartbreaking in all the right ways. In all honesty, though, I found myself struggling to get to the ending because the book definitely needed a round of external editing. There were mismatched verb phrases, incorrect words, and major grammatical errors throughout that made the book difficult to parse for me personally.
That isn't to say the author doesn't have talent. There are excellent turns of phrase that make the writing, and the bones of the novel are genuinely really good. It's clear the author is talented and just needs a little guidance, but what new author doesn't, especially when they're multilingual and writing in more than one language (which is more than most of us can say)? If you're someone who doesn't mind grammar errors, loves dark academia, and wants a genuinely touching novel on childhood trauma, I recommend this book to you.
Billed as the story of six teens investigating a series of murders at their school for demon children, I found that some of the six got much more page time than others. That's to be expected, with a cast of characters so big; unfortunately, as a result, two of the four characters seemed a little underdeveloped compared to their counterparts.
The two main characters, though, Einar and Solas, are absolutely solid. It was hard not to get attached to Solas in particular, cold as they are, because of the author's attention to detail regarding their chronic pain. As a disabled individual myself, seeing representation of my conditions and symptoms is important to me, and that meant Solas was important to me as I read, too.
For the most part, the main plot was solid. There were a few plot holes (one regarding inconsistencies with a character's power, another regarding the reappearance of a character who was supposedly elsewhere with no in-character questions as to how he came back), but the plot twist at the end of the novel was great. For a murder mystery, that's very important; I was genuinely amazed at the sudden turn of events that ramped up the end of the novel.
These Wounds Never Heal absolutely hits its stride in its final chapters. The big bad reveal is incredible, as is the fight that follows, and the ending is genuinely heartbreaking in all the right ways. In all honesty, though, I found myself struggling to get to the ending because the book definitely needed a round of external editing. There were mismatched verb phrases, incorrect words, and major grammatical errors throughout that made the book difficult to parse for me personally.
That isn't to say the author doesn't have talent. There are excellent turns of phrase that make the writing, and the bones of the novel are genuinely really good. It's clear the author is talented and just needs a little guidance, but what new author doesn't, especially when they're multilingual and writing in more than one language (which is more than most of us can say)? If you're someone who doesn't mind grammar errors, loves dark academia, and wants a genuinely touching novel on childhood trauma, I recommend this book to you.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews