Noctua

5 Star Review

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Editorial Book Review:

By SB Borcy

Some books pull you in with atmosphere alone, and Noctua is one of those rare stories that feels like entering a door you were never meant to find. Dayna Bhatti Roberts delivers a debut that stands out for its emotional honesty, gothic undertones, and its refusal to treat its young protagonist’s pain as anything less than real and transformative.

Reading Noctua is an experience of tension, curiosity, and deep empathy. Roberts builds a world that feels both enchanted and threatening—a place where secrets cling to the walls, where loyalty is fragile, and where identity is constantly shifting. The emotional pull is strongest when Alex Kelton confronts her fractured past, and the book captures the rawness of wanting to belong while fearing the cost of it. There’s a quiet ache running beneath every chapter, balanced with the electric thrill of mystery and dark magic.

The novel’s themes—second chances, chosen family, identity, and the blurry line between truth and myth—extend beyond its supernatural elements. Even with necromancy, riddles, and graveyard secrets, the story ultimately asks the universal question: What proves who we really are—the story we’re told or the one we write ourselves?

Roberts’s prose is evocative and frequently cinematic, particularly in scenes such as Alex struggling for breath in the moonlit lake or uncovering the foreboding letter left in her room. Her dialogue appears juvenile without lacking depth, and her worldbuilding is intricately constructed with sufficient ambiguity to maintain the reader’s engagement. Some pacing in the middle may appear somewhat dense, particularly for readers unfamiliar with fantasy-mystery composites, but the eventual reward justifies the more deliberate progression.

What remains after the final page is the impression that Noctua is more than a supernatural boarding-school mystery—it is a courageous exploration of resilience, self-discovery, and the unwavering faith that even the lost can be reclaimed. This is an inaugural work that merits reading, dissemination, and remembrance.

About the Author 

Dayna Bhatti Roberts

Dayna Bhatti Roberts is an obsessive girl above all else; and what is more methodologically consuming than the self-worship that is writing. She has lived in Illinois, Singapore, New York, and London and hopes to continue bouncing around once she acquires her creative writing degree from Syracuse University. Noctua is her debut novel.