Dark academia is woefully misunderstood these days. People think that any book set at a school equals good dark academia, but this is not true. Dark academia is meant to inspect and hold to light the elitism and obsession with knowledge as well as the privilege of elite schools. It romanticizes the pursuit of knowledge, beauty and arts, while criticizing it at the same time.
What it’s definitely not is a dark romance set in some sort of a school with a moody professor creeping on a young student, I can tell you that much (ehm, Gothicana).
And I know it’s also an aesthetic and as such can be applied to many books, and that people have the right to define things their own ways, but you know what — I’m here to educate and give you actual dark academia books that you should read.
I love this subgenre so much, and thankfully there are many great books that do the job well, so here they are. I hope you find something to love!
Editor’s Note: This list is constantly updated as I read more books that belong in this genre. I’m only one person, though, so if you have a book you’d like to see featured here (your favorite, mayhaps), feel free to drop a comment below and I’ll put it on the top of my TBR.
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The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Obviously, every respectable dark academia list starts with the OG. A group of classics students at an elite New England college fall under the spell of their eccentric professor and each other, drifting deeper into obsession, secrecy, and eventually murder. You know from page one that they killed one of their own; the rest of the book is spent unraveling exactly how a group of brilliant, pretentious kids convinced themselves it was necessary. I wasn’t sure how I felt about The Secret History initially but it weirdly stuck with me, and I can practically quote some parts word for word, so it did a fantastic job in what it intended.
Possession by A. S. Byatt
Two modern-day academics stumble on a hidden love affair between two Victorian poets and find themselves falling into an echo of that same passion as they race to uncover the truth. This is a literary mystery romance, with a bunch of poems and letters from the Victorian couple, and they’re truly stunning. I found this a little dense, but beautiful nevertheless. It’s meant to be read slowly, I feel like, and there’s nothing wrong with that. If you want more literary romance like this, I have some here.
If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio
Seven Shakespearean-conservatory students spend their days speaking almost entirely in the Bard’s lines and their nights locked in offstage rivalries that mirror the tragedies they perform. When one of them turns up dead, the line between rehearsed drama and real violence blurs completely, and they slowly turn on each other as guilt eats at them. Told from the point of view of the one who took the fall, as he tells the full story to the detective for the first time, this story will grip you and leave you wondering. I liked it even more than The Secret History, probably because it was less philosophical. You can find my full review of it here.
The Unmagical Life of Briar Jones by Lex Croucher
Briar spent their childhood dreaming of Temple, the elite (and possibly magical) boarding school that accepted their best friend, Seb, and not them. Years later, Briar finally gets inside as a summer temp sorting through the attic, only to discover that gentle, sensitive Seb has become the school’s resident villain. It’s a slow burn, building from wistful yearning into a full reckoning with privilege, power, and what institutions like Temple actually do to the people they let in. I loved the prose of this one, but maybe not the plot and the main character. See why here.
S.Ship of Theseus by JJ Abrams
S. (Ship of Theseus) is an unconventional literary mystery unlike anything you’ve seen before. You can only read it as a physical copy, and it looks like a library copy of the fictional novel Ship of Theseus by the mysterious V. M. Straka. The book itself contains handwritten notes, letters, postcards, maps, and other ephemera exchanged between two readers trying to uncover the author’s true identity. Meanwhile, Ship of Theseus itself follows a man with no memories who is swept into a surreal journey of conspiracies, revolution, and shifting identities. It’s almost like a puzzle where you might have to read the book twice or three times to fully get it and experience it. I’ll be honest, I haven’t read this yet, because I can’t find a copy, but I really, really want to!
The Cloisters by Katy Hays
Ann has left her troubled past behind in Washington and is all too happy to move to New York and become the new curatorial assistant at the Metropolitan Museum of Art but instead she finds herself assigned to The Cloisters (which is like a garden and collection of medieval and Renaissance art). She really wants to fit in so she indulges her new colleagues and their obsession with tarot and the occult, even as it seems like it goes beyond academic interest. But then she actually finds a 15th-century deck of Italian tarot cards that was believed lost and she becomes the centre of a lot of bad and toxic stuff. To be honest, this one isn’t my favorite as far as dark academia books go, but it’s an enjoyable read and you might love it too!
Vita Nostra by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko
Sasha is coerced by a menacing stranger into enrolling at the Institute of Special Technologies, a school in a remote town where the “coursework” is bizarre, physically grueling, and makes no sense. The school keeps students in line by threatening their families, and then Sasha goes through changes that make the books and coursework start to make sense. This book is very unsettling and it’s not a light read. There’s the horror of being slowly, irreversibly transformed into something other than human. I was very confused by it, I must admit, and it’s not easy to digest, but definitely an interesting take.
Bunny by Mona Awad
Samantha is an outsider in her elite MFA program, side-eyeing the cluster of wealthy classmates who call each other “Bunny” and speak in saccharine baby talk, until she’s suddenly invited into their circle and their deeply strange extracurriculars. This is like Mean Girls mixed with a little Jennifer’s Body, with a dark academia twist, and it’s very funny, but at the same time so so weird. You’ll either love it or hate it, but I recommend trying it anyways. Personally, I adored the prose and found it so compelling, but maybe not the story in the later parts so much.
Babel by R.F. Kuang
Robin is taken from Canton to Oxford to study at Babel, the tower where translation is magic, and language differences are mined for the British Empire’s power. As Robin grows closer to the institution that’s given him everything, he also starts to see exactly what it costs the rest of the world. It’s a big, angry, meticulously researched book, which I didn’t quite love because the themes are delivered in a heavy-handed way and the whole thing read just a little patronizing. Nevertheless, it’s a beloved book and you might enjoy it! I recommend physical copy for the footnotes.
Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
Alex (whose life has been pretty bad so far) gets a full ride to Yale in exchange for keeping watch over the campus’s secret societies, all of which practice real, dangerous magic. When a townie’s murder gets tangled up with the societies’ rituals, Alex has to use everything she’s learned about surviving on the margins to solve it. This is quite a departure for Leigh Bardugo but I have to admit a blasphemy that I love this book much more than any of her other books.
A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik
El is stuck at the Scholomance, a magic school with no teachers, no safety nets, and monsters that pick off students who aren’t careful or lucky enough. There’s no way to leave except graduate or die. Her goal is to stay off the radar and get through this, but her golden boy classmate Orion is determined otherwise. And she has powerful dark magic that could kill them all. I really liked this series overall, but this first part has a special place in my heart. Give it a go if you want a new take on the magical school trope!
Atlas Six by Olivie Blake
Oh, this is such a weird book. I have bad luck with Olivie Blake overall, but this one I kind of liked while at the same time being confused on what in the world is happening. So, in this one, The Alexandrian Library didn’t burn and there’s also magic, so the best and the brightest are recruited to study to be the protector of it. There’s six people competing for the role and you get points of view for all of them (each weird in their own way). Their goal is to make contributions to their chosen field, but they also get attacked by monsters.
A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid
I didn’t really like this book, for reasons you can see here, but it does what a dark academia should do, and many people love it so much, so I had to include it here. A Study in Drowning follows Effy, a quiet girl who was abused by a professor, as she studies at architecture university (while she wants to study literature, which is forbidden to women). She wins a competition to redesign her favorite author’s crumbling home, but when she gets there, a literature student, Preston, is there as well. She’s jealous of his job, creeped out by the manor and its inhabitants and very afraid, but determined to make it work. And then she makes a pact with Preston where they’d both write the paper on her favorite author together.
A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee
Felicity returns to her elite boarding school after a mental health leave due to her girlfriend’s death. She’s determined to leave the occult and darkness behind, only to be drawn into her new roommate’s obsession with the school’s history of witch trials and dead girls. Unfortunately, the history starts to repeat itself. This one is also very heavy-handed with its themes, where some characters exist just to teach the main characters about racism or pronounts, and the mental health part was handled poorly. Nevertheless, you might enjoy it, so give it a try.
Catherine House by Elizabeth Thomas
Catherine House is an elite, off-the-grid college that asks for a three-year total commitment without leaving or having contact with the outside world in exchange for guaranteed success afterward. Ines just wants to disappear into the routine after living a pretty bad lifestyle before. She sees Catherine House as a kind of home, and finds a friend in her roomate Baby. But Baby really wants to be accepted and when that ends in tragedy, Ines realizes there are much more sinister things happening in this school that she expected. I really enjoyed this book’s atmosphere, but the plot is slow, so if you need something faster-paced, it may not be for you. Still, it’s creepy and well-written, so you might as well give it a go!
Katabasis by R. F. Kuang
I liked this one far more than Babel! It was kind of funny and fever-dreamy but then I do really like fever-dream books. There’s again the issue of heavy-handedness, but putting that aside, this was a good read. So, Alice Law wants to be the best in the field of Magick. Unfortunately, she might have killed the professor that could get her there? So, she uses Magick to go to Hell and find him and bring him back. But also unfortunately, her arch nemesis Peter Murdoch had the same idea and he tags along.
These Violent Delights by Micah Nemerever
These Violent Delights is a dark academia psychological thriller set in 1970s Pittsburgh that explores obsession, desire, and the destructive nature of love. After grieving art student Paul meets the brilliant and charismatic Julian, the two form an intense, all-consuming relationship built on intellectual ambition and emotional dependence. As their bond grows increasingly toxic, they spiral toward an act of irreversible violence, creating a haunting character study of love, identity, and morality.
The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins
This book is super weird and maybe not exactly dark academia as it’s not set at a school, but it does do the job fairly well, so I’m still adding it. I had a blast with it, strange as it was, and you might enjoy it too! It’s very hard to explain, but here’s my attempt: there’s this library that normal people drive away from and in that library lived a dude that kidnapped 12 kids and made them believe he was god (and maybe he is) and each of those kids have specialty powers (just one, cross-learning not allowed). And the story opens with the Father going missing, and his “children” in dissaray, the protagonist Carolyn hunting for vengeance. I hope that gives you something, but my best advice is to just read it and you’ll be forever changed.
Where Sleeping Girls Lie by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
Where Sleeping Girls Lie is a dark academia mystery set at an elite boarding school steeped in tradition and secrets. After transferring to the prestigious Alfred Nobel Academy, Sade Hussein hopes for a fresh start, and is drawn in by the most popular girls at school known as Unholy Trinity, but when a fellow student disappears, she finds herself drawn into an investigation that uncovers long-buried mysteries, dangerous power structures, and the school’s hidden past.
Immortal Dark by Tigest Girma
Immortal Dark is a gothic dark academia fantasy set in a secret university where humans and vampires coexist in a tense, dangerous alliance. Determined to uncover the truth behind her sister’s disappearance, Kidan Adane enrolls at the elite academy and forms an uneasy partnership with a powerful vampire Susenyos whose motives are anything but clear. This one is another fever-dreamy book but I adored it and had so much fun with it. Give it a go if you want something autumny and strange.
How We Fall Apart by Katie Zhao
How We Fall Apart is a YA dark academia thriller set at an elite private school where a group of students becomes the prime suspect after their former friend and school gossip dies under mysterious circumstances. As an anonymous blackmailer begins exposing their darkest secrets, the friends are forced to work together to uncover the truth before they become the next victims. If you want a YA version of dark academia, this is your perfect pick and I really enjoyed reading it!
