The quick verdict
Nocticadia had me pausing dinner mid-stir because the plot had suddenly decided to become everyone’s problem.
This standalone dark academia gothic romance from Keri Lake gave me a forbidden professor, a gothic island university and a medical mystery with actual teeth. The audiobook performances were incredible, Stella Hunter was excellent, and Aaron Shedlock doing multiple accents was on another level.
It is a proper slow burn, and my attention did wander in the middle stretch. Somehow I still followed everything happening, which probably says a lot about how well the mystery was structured.
The rundown
Lilia Vespertine enrols at the prestigious Dracadia University to investigate the mysterious parasite that killed her mother.
Dracadia University is a secluded school on an isolated island off the coast of Maine, rumoured to be built on the bones of exiled mental patients. It is not exactly a reassuring campus tour.
Instead of simple answers, Lilia finds hidden laboratories, disturbing medical secrets and Devryck Bramwell, the university’s brilliant, severe pathologist known on campus as Doctor Death. He runs the midnight lab. She should stay away from him. Neither of them appears especially committed to that plan.
As Lilia navigates a toxic, obsessive student-professor dynamic with Devryck, the two of them uncover human experimentation, hidden labs and a deadly cover-up surrounding the disease that killed her mother.
Real talk
I genuinely recommend listening to this one rather than reading it. The narration adds so much to the atmosphere and to Doctor Death himself, and Aaron Shedlock shifting between accents made the whole thing feel bigger than a single performer doing a dual narration job.
There were enough plot twists, forbidden tension and carefully timed spicy scenes to keep me invested. One twist at roughly 40 per cent made me stop cooking dinner entirely and stare into the middle distance while reconsidering everything I thought I knew.
Also, the lecture-phone incident was a choice. The mirror scene was another choice. Both required headphones and a functioning sense of discretion.
Devryck calls Lilia “Little Moth,” and the book’s recurring line, “Mortui vivos docent,” the dead teach the living, ended up doing a lot of quiet, creepy heavy lifting for the mystery.
It did not quite reach five-star territory for me because parts of the middle felt slower than I wanted. But the setting, the mystery, the narration and the Doctor Death energy comfortably earned four stars.
Tropes & vibes
- Professor and student
- Forbidden romance
- Dark academia
- Gothic island setting
- Age gap
- Slow burn
- Morally grey professor
- Medical mystery
- Secret societies
- Grumpy and determined
- Hidden family secrets
- “Little Moth”
The tiny details that did the damage
- “Little Moth”
- “Mortui vivos docent,” the dead teach the living
- The lecture-phone incident
- The mirror scene
- The 40 per cent twist that stopped dinner in its tracks
- Aaron Shedlock’s accent range
- Midnight-lab tension
- The Noctisoma parasite mystery
- An “I’m a sickness” dynamic that refused to stay contained
Read this if…
Pick this up if you enjoy forbidden professor romance, gothic university settings, medical mysteries, morally grey men and atmospheric slow burns.
Audiobook listeners should prioritise this one for the narration alone, but plan your listening environment carefully. This is not a speaker book.
EmberSas ratings
- Story: 4 / 5
- Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️ / 5
- Emotional damage: 💀 (1 skull). Some scenes were spicy, but I was not left crying in my car.
- Format: Audiobook (Podium Audio)
- Narration: Aaron Shedlock and Stella Hunter
- Runtime: 18 hours 37 minutes
- Favourite problem: Devryck Bramwell, also known as Doctor Death
- Public-listening safety: Headphones mandatory, especially around lecture halls and mirrors
- Final vibe: Dark academia. Midnight laboratories. One extremely suspicious professor.
Group chat verdict
A pathologist called Doctor Death ran a midnight lab, called his student “Little Moth,” and I stopped cooking dinner over a plot twist at 40 per cent.
The narration carried this book. Stella Hunter was excellent, and Aaron Shedlock doing multiple accents turned Devryck into someone I will not be forgetting quickly.
The middle stretch dragged slightly for me, which is the only reason this landed at four stars instead of five. But the mystery, the gothic island setting and the mirror scene more than made up for it.
Four stars. Three chillies. One dinner temporarily abandoned.
Comfort-level note
This is a dark gothic romance featuring graphic violence and gore, including murder by immolation, a detailed autopsy scene and torture. It also includes medical horror involving a fictional parasite, human experimentation, explicit sexual content, a depiction of third-party sexual assault not perpetrated by the hero or heroine, child abuse and neglect, suicidal ideation, self-harm, hallucinations, grief, secret-society rituals and choking or breath play. Check the author’s full trigger warnings and your comfort level before reading. Dark romance is not a surprise party.
Final vibe
Midnight labs. Forbidden lectures. Little Moth behaviour.
