Dark Academia

🏫 Dark Academia is a subgenre that blends a Gothic aesthetic with a scholarly environment, and often features morally gray characters. A perfect fit for the autumn back-to-school season! 👨‍🏫

Updated July 30, 2025
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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...
The magicians
Grossman, Lev.
Paper Book
Lev Grossman's new novel THE BRIGHT SWORD is out now! 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 a glass of...
If we were villains
Rio, M. L.
Paper Book
"Much like Donna Tartt's The Secret History, M. L. Rio's sparkling debut is a richly layered story of love, friendship, and obsession...will keep you riveted through its final, electrifying moments." --Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, New York Times bestselling author of The...
Babel ; or, The necessity of violence : an arcane history of the Oxford Translators' Revolution
Kuang, R. F.
Paper Book
THE #2 SUNDAY TIMES AND #1 NYT BESTSELLER 'One for Philip Pullman fans' THE TIMES 'This one is an automatic buy' GLAMOUR 'Ambitious, sweeping and epic' EVENING STANDARD 'Razor-sharp' DAILY MAIL 'An ingenious...
My dark Vanessa : a novel
Russell, Kate Elizabeth
Paper Book
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER  "[An] exceedingly complex, inventive, resourceful examination of harm and power." --The New York Times Book Review, Editors' Choice "A lightning rod . . . brilliantly crafted."--The Washington Post Recommended by The New York Times...
The St. Ambrose School for Girls
Ward, Jessica
Paper Book
Ordinary monsters
Miro, J. M.
Paper Book
* THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER * 'An enthralling read' GUARDIAN 'A thrilling blend of fantasy and horror, richly imagined and masterfully executed' SFX 'Terrific . . . A book that creeps up on you, wearing brass knuckles...
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...
The World Cannot Give
Burton, Tara Isabella.
Paper Book
"The Secret History meets The Price of Salt" (Vogue) in this "equal parts dangerous and delicious" (Entertainment Weekly) novel about queer desire, religious zealotry, and the hunger for transcendence among the members of a cultic chapel choir at a Maine boarding...
The Cloisters : a novel
Hays, Katy 1982-
Paper Book
In this "sinister, jaw-dropping" (Sarah Penner, author of The Lost Apothecary) debut novel from the author of Saltwater, a circle of researchers uncovers a mysterious deck of tarot cards and shocking secrets in New York's famed Met Cloisters. When Ann Stilwell...
The plot
Korelitz, Jean Hanff 1961-
Paper Book
** NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! ** The Tonight Show Summer Reads Winner ** A New York Times Notable Book of the Year** "Insanely readable." --Stephen King Hailed as "breathtakingly suspenseful," Jean Hanff Korelitz...
Trust exercise
Choi, Susan
Paper Book
An Indie Next Pick Named to 11 Best Book ListsSet in the 1980s at a highly competitive suburban performing arts high school, Trust Exercise will incite heated discussions about fiction and truth, friendships and loyalties, and will leave readers with wiser understandings of the true capacities of...
The woman in the library : a novel
Gentill, Sulari
Paper Book
USA TODAY BESTSELLER * MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD NOMINEE * 2022 BOOKPAGE BEST MYSTERIES AND SUSPENSE * LIBRARY READS TOP 10 BOOKS OF 2022 * CRIME READS BEST NEW CRIME FICTION "Investigations are launched, fingers are pointed, potentially dangerous liaisons unfold and I was turning those...
The cartographers
Shepherd, Peng
Paper Book
USA TODAY AND LA TIMES BESTSELLER Finalist for the LA Times Book Prize! "The Cartographers is one of those brilliant books you have to read twice." -- Washington Post "There are echoes of Borges and Bradbury, Pynchon and Finian's Rainbow, but Ms. Shepherd's...
The girls are all so nice here
Flynn, Laurie Elizabeth
Paper Book
'Gone Girl meets Mean Girls and The Secret History' Guardian A darkly intoxicating novel of female friendship and obsession that will keep you turning the pages, perfect for fans of My Dark Vanessa and The Virgin Suicides ----------------- Nice girls can do...
The rule of four
Caldwell, Ian
Paper Book

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