Dark Academia

Wikipedia defines Dark Academia as "a social media aesthetic and subculture concerned with higher education, writing/poetry, the arts, and classic Greek and Gothic architecture." Here are the books that fit its bill.
Updated September 19, 2022
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The Secret History
Donna Tartt
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...
If We Were Villains
M.L. Rio
Paper Book
Oliver Marks has just served ten years for the murder of one of his closest friends - a murder he may or may not have committed. On the day he's released, he's greeted by the detective who put him in prison. Detective Colborne is retiring, but before he does, he wants to know what really happened...
Plain Bad Heroines
Emily M. Danforth
Paper Book
'Brimming from start to finish with sly humour and gothic mischief' SARAH WATERS 'Beguilingly clever, very sexy and seriously frightening' GUARDIAN 'Atmospheric, sexy, creepy...totally addictive' KATE DAVIES, author of In At The Deep End'A gloriously over-the-top queer romp' I PAPER ...
Ninth House
Leigh Bardugo
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<...
Ace of Spades
Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
Paper Book
How can you play the game when the cards are stacked against you? AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERWINNER OF THE 2021 BOOKS ARE MY BAG READERS' AWARD FOR YOUNG ADULT FICTIONNOMINATED FOR THE CARNEGIE MEDAL 2022"One of 2021's biggest books." gal-demACE OF SPADES is Gossip Girl meets...
The Atlas Six
Olivie Blake
Ebook
Catherine House
Elisabeth Thomas
Paper Book
'A delicious, diverse, genre-bending gothic, as smart as it is spooky' Chloe Benjamin During your three years at Catherine House you will have no contact with those in the outside world. Each of our students has been selected...
Bunny
Mona Awad
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...
The Raven Boys
Maggie Stiefvater
Ebook
  The first electrifying book in Maggie Stiefvater's The Raven Cycleseries. "There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on St. Mark's Eve... Either you're his true love... or you killed him." Part of a clairvoyant family, Blue has spent sixteen...
The Maidens
Alex Michaelides
Paper Book
We all keep secrets. Even from ourselves. 'A thrilling, heart-in-throat ride' STEPHEN FRY'An absolute jaw-dropper' LUCY FOLEY'Elegant, sinister, stylish' CHRIS WHITAKER'Grips from start to finish' HARRIET TYCE* * * * * From the #1 New York...
The Plot
Jean Hanff Korelitz
Paper Book
The autumn's most thrilling page-turner from the author of The Undoing, the major series on HBO.
A Lesson in Vengeance
Victoria Lee
Paper Book
Age range 14+ The history of Dalloway School lives in the bones it was built on. Five violent deaths in the first ten years of its existence. Sometimes you can still smell the blood on the air. It wasn't...
Never Let Me Go
Kazuo Ishiguro
Paper Book
A story of love, friendship and memory.
Legendborn
Tracy Deonn
Paper Book
SOME LEGACIES ARE MEANT TO BE BROKEN. "I love the feeling of a magical world existing just beneath the surface of our own and this story gave me everything I wanted: incredible characters, ancient lore and secret societies - all grounded in our very real, very flawed world...
Hex
Rebecca Dinerstein Knight
Paper Book
'A really beautiful book about obsession, longing and science' RAVEN LEILANI 'Wise, funny, suspenseful' JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER 'Sardonic and strange ... With its dark humour and loopy lyricism, it bewitches' DAILY TELEGRAPH ...
The Starless Sea
Erin Morgenstern
Paper Book
The spellbinding new novel from the Top Ten bestselling author of The Night Circus. 'Radiates with the excitement of someone discovering a magical world within the pages of a book. An enchanting read... an ode to stories and storytelling itself, and the joy of reading'...

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