Dark Academia

Dark Academia is a subgenre of books that features an academic setting and usually has a dark twist or sinister undertones. Books in this subgenre are often either fantasy, mystery, thrillers, or literary fiction.


Updated August 21, 2024
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Bunny
Awad, Mona
Paper Book
THE TIKTOK SENSATION Meet BUNNY: the darkly funny, spellbinding trip of a novel that EVERYONE is talking about 'No punches pulled, no hilarities dodged, no meme unmangled. O Bunny you are sooo genius!' MARGARET ATWOOD We call...
If we were villains : a novel
Rio, M. L.
Paper Book
The secret history
Tartt, Donna
Paper Book
Truly deserving of the accolade Modern Classic, Donna Tartt's cult bestseller The Secret History is a remarkable achievement - incredibly compelling, dramatic and playful. Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at...
Ninth house
Bardugo, Leigh
Paper Book
'Impossible to put down' STEPHEN KING __________________ THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER THE GOODREADS CHOICE AWARD WINNER FOR BEST FANTASY OF 2019 AN AMAZON BEST BOOK OF OCTOBER 2019<...
Hell bent
Bardugo, Leigh
Paper Book
The Atlas six
Blake, Olivie
Paper Book
The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake is the runaway TikTok sensation - a must-read fantasy novel with gorgeous illustrations. If you loved Ninth House and A Deadly Education, you'll love this. Secrets. Betrayal. Seduction. Welcome to the...
A deadly education : a novel
Novik, Naomi
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From the author of Uprooted and Spinning Silver comes the first book of the Scholomance trilogy, the story of an unwilling dark sorceress who is destined to rewrite the rules of magic. FINALIST FOR THE LODESTAR AWARD * "The dark...
My dark Vanessa
Russell, Kate Elizabeth
Paper Book
An era-defining novel about the relationship between a fifteen-year-old girl and her teacher ALL HE DID WAS FALL IN LOVE WITH ME AND THE WORLD TURNED HIM INTO A MONSTER Vanessa Wye was fifteen-years-old when she first had sex with her English teacher. ...
Piranesi
Clarke, Susanna
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE 2021 WINNER OF THE KITSCHIES' 2021 SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA NOVEL OF THE YEAR AWARD A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER CHOSEN AS A BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE THE TIMES,...
The historian : a novel
Kostova, Elizabeth.
Paper Book
A brilliant and gripping tale set to become an international bestseller. When a young girl discovers an ancient and disturbing book in her father's library, she re-opens a dark chapter in his past. Her father turns out to be an expert on the real Vlad the Impaler. He also happens to believe -...
Babel : or the necessity of violence : an arcane history of the Oxford Translators' Revolution
Kuang, R. F.
Paper Book
Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller from the author of The Poppy War   "Absolutely phenomenal. One of the most brilliant, razor-sharp books I've had the pleasure of reading that isn't just an alternative fantastical history, but an interrogative one; one that grabs colonial...
The starless sea
Morgenstern, Erin
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * From the bestselling author of The Night Circus, a timeless love story set in a secret underground world--a place of pirates, painters, lovers, liars, and ships that sail upon a starless sea. Zachary Ezra Rawlins is a graduate student in Vermont...
Vita nostra
Di︠a︡chenko, Marina
Paper Book
"Vita Nostra" -- a cross between Lev Grossman's "The Magicians" and Elizabeth Kostova's "The Historian" [...] is the anti-Harry Potter you didn't know you wanted." -- The Washington Post "Vita Nostra has become a powerful influence on my own writing. It's a book that has the potential...
The magicians : a novel
Grossman, Lev.
Paper Book
Lev Grossman's new novel THE BRIGHT SWORD will be on sale July 2024 The New York Times bestselling novel about a young man practicing magic in the real world, now an original series on SYFY "The Magicians is to Harry Potter as a shot of Irish whiskey is to...
The likeness
French, Tana.
Paper Book
New York Times bestselling author Tana French, author of the forthcoming novel The Hunter, is "the most important crime novelist to emerge in the past 10 years" (The Washington Post) and "inspires cultic devotion in readers" (The New Yorker). ...
Plain bad heroines : a novel
Danforth, Emily M.
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER "A delectable brew of gothic horror and Hollywood satire . . . [and] what makes all this so much fun is Danforth's deliciously ghoulish voice . . . exquisite." --Ron Charles, THE WASHINGTON POST "A multi-faceted novel, equal parts gothic, sharply...
For your own good
Downing, Samantha
Paper Book
Teddy Crutcher has won Teacher of the Year at the prestigious Belmont Academy. Everyone thinks he's brilliant. Only you know the truth. They all smile when he tells us his wife couldn't be more proud - though actually, no-one has seen her in a while. They're impressed when he...
Magic for liars
Gailey, Sarah
Paper Book
A 2020 LOCUS AWARD FINALIST FOR BEST FIRST NOVEL Sharp, mainstream fantasy meets compelling thrills of investigative noir in Magic for Liars, a fantasy debut by rising star Sarah Gailey. Ivy Gamble was born without magic and never wanted it....
An Education in Malice
Gibson, S T.
Paper Book
'A delectable jewel of a tale, shimmering with dark, beautiful prose' Tori Bovalino, author of The Devil Makes Three, on A Dowry of BloodLove is sacrifice. One of us was always going to bleed for the other.Deep in the forgotten hills of Massachusetts stands...
A discovery of witches
Harkness, Deborah E.
Paper Book
Book one of the New York Times bestselling All Souls series, from the author of The Black Bird Oracle. Look for the hit series "A Discovery of Witches," now streaming on Netflix "A wonderfully imaginative grown-up fantasy with all the magic of Harry...
A discovery of witches
Harkness, Deborah E.
Paper Book
Book one of the New York Times bestselling All Souls series, from the author of The Black Bird Oracle. Look for the hit series "A Discovery of Witches," now streaming on Netflix "A wonderfully imaginative grown-up fantasy with all the magic of Harry...
The Divines : a novel
Eaton, Ellie
Paper Book
The Elin Hilderbrand Literati Book Club Pick! Recommended by Entertainment Weekly * CNN * Harper's BAZAAR * E! Online * Refinery 29 * Bustle * Shondaland * Vulture * The Millions * Lit Hub * Electric Literature * Parade * MSN * and more! "For when you want a coming-of-age...
The maidens
Michaelides, Alex
Paper Book
**THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER** "Alex Michaelides's long-awaited next novel, 'The Maidens,' is finally here...the premise is enticing and the elements irresistible." --The New York Times "A deliciously dark, elegant, utterly...
The maidens
Michaelides, Alex
Paper Book
**THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER** "Alex Michaelides's long-awaited next novel, 'The Maidens,' is finally here...the premise is enticing and the elements irresistible." --The New York Times "A deliciously dark, elegant, utterly...
In My Dreams I Hold A Knife
Winstead, Ashley.
Paper Book
"[A] mordant debut novel....examines what it means to covet the lives of others, no matter the cost."--The New York Times "Tense, twisty, and packed with shocks."--Riley Sager, New York Times bestselling author of Survive The Night Six friends. One college reunion. One...
The reformatory
Due, Tananarive
Paper Book
A gripping, page-turning novel set in Jim Crow Florida that follows Robert Stephen Jones as he's sent to a segregated reform school that is a chamber of terrors where he sees the horrors of racism and injustice, for the living, and the dead.
I have some questions for you
Makkai, Rebecca
Paper Book
Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2023 by TIME, NPR, USA Today, Elle, Newsweek, Salon, Bustle, AARP, The Millions, Good Housekeeping, and more "Unputdownable and unforgettable." --Andrew Sean Greer, author of Less is Lost...
The god of endings
Holland, Jacqueline
Paper Book
"A new kind of vampire story, and the result is a surprising and spellbinding tale." --Laura Moriarty, New York Times bestselling author of The Chaperone "Great for fans of Interview with a Vampire and The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue." -...
The will of the many
Islington, James
Paper Book
AUDI. VIDE. TACE. The Catenan Republic-the Hierarchy-may rule the world now, but they do not know everything. I tell them my name is Vis Telimus. I tell them I was orphaned after a tragic accident three years ago, and that good fortune alone has led to my acceptance...
The things we do to our friends
Darwent, Heather
Paper Book
What is the cost of an extraordinary life if others have to pay? Clare arrives at the University of Edinburgh with a secret. This is her chance for a blank slate - to finally become who she was meant to be. And then she meets Tabitha. Tabitha is...
To shape a dragon's breath
Blackgoose, Moniquill
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER . WINNER OF THE NEBULA AND LODESTAR AWARDS . FINALIST FOR THE ASTOUNDING, LOCUS, AND BRITISH FANTASY NEWCOMER AWARDS . "My favorite book of the year . . . a coming-of-age story that is cozy and hair-raising in equal measure."-Charlie Jane Anders, The Washington Post

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