Unhallowed Halls

Host Poppy and young reader Raph discuss Unhallowed Halls with author Lili Wilkinson.Unhallowed Halls is Shortlisted for the 2026 CBCA Book of the Year Awards for Older Readers.--Page Whittaker has always been an outcast. She's too smart, too quiet, too weird. And after the deadly incident that destroyed her only friendship at her old school, she needs a fresh start.Agathion College is everything Page has ever wanted: a safe haven of wood-panelled halls and dusty books, on a remote Scottish moor. And for the first time in her life, she has a close group of friends. Cyrus, Ren, Gideon, Lacey and Oak help her feel at home at Agathion; the only problem is, they're all keeping secrets from her.Page doesn't know it yet, but her perfect new school has a crooked foundation, rooted in an ancient clandestine society with rumoured ties to demonic magic. Soon, Page will learn that not everyone at Agathion is who they say they are. Least of all, her friends.Agathion claims to teach its students history…but some histories are better left buried.A wonderfully captivating dark academia fantasy from the award-winning author of A Hunger of Thorns and Deep is the Fen.