Blog

The Best Dark Academia Books

Posted on 27th October 2022 by Mark Skinner

Abounding in sinister secrets - sometimes magical, sometimes not - locked in the libraries and halls of mysterious educational institutions, dark academia has become a phenomenally successful literary genre. With its roots in the gothic fiction of Oscar Wilde and Mary Shelley, the modern incarnation of dark academia was kickstarted by Donna Tartt's seminal The Secret History - a magnum opus of intrigue and murder set within a presigious American university - and has gone from strength to strength in the capable hands of authors such as Naomi Novik, Leigh Bardugo and R.F. Kuang. In this blog we celebrate some the finest examples of the genre, from established classics to lesser known titles.  

£18.99
Hardback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 days
One of the leading lights in the visceral grimdark fantasy genre, Kuang's stunningly wrought novel is a compulsive dystopia about the power of language and the evils of authoritarianism, represented by the looming titular tower of translation.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£14.99
Hardback
Out of stock
Penned by an art history professor and combining the rich atmosphere of The Secret History with the sinister thrills of Ninth House, Hays' debut about a mysterious group of art researchers and an invaluable fifteenth-century tarot deck is a mesmerising dark academia classic in the making.

This product is currently unavailable online. Click to be notified when it is back in stock or to collect in store.


£9.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 days
Building an ever-darkening atmosphere of ominous tension, Donna Tartt’s ground breaking college-set thriller casts profound questions of morality and desire in a gripping reverse-murder mystery steeped in allusions to the ancient classics.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 days
Opening the doors to a world of magic, ancient wisdom and secret societies, this slice of richly imagined and unputdownable fantasy follows six uniquely talented young magicians as they are invited to an initiation that will change their lives forever.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 days
An intoxicating blend of thriller, campus drama and Shakespearean tragedy, If We Were Villains tells a twisting tale of passion, desire and jealousy in which drama and reality are dangerously interchangeable.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 days
Multiple homicide, secret societies and some very disturbing occult practices; Bardugo makes the transition from YA superstar to dark adult fantasy with ease, as Ninth House weaves its spine-chilling spell with a sense of ominous foreboding.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 days
Set in an austere school for the magically gifted, A Deadly Education weaves together sorcery, monsters and humour into an intoxicating literary brew.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 days
From the bestselling author of The Silent Patient comes another sophisticated and hugely original literary thriller revolving around Cambridge classicists and secret sororities.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 days
A thrilling blend of dark academia, superhero fable and gothic character study, this electrifying fantasy from the author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue centres on two students who develop extraordinary supernatural abilities which prove both blessing and curse.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£8.99
Paperback
5+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 days
Compelling, intricate and formidably crafted, The Betrayals opens the doors to an ancient, exclusive institution, hidden away high up on the mountains and dedicated to the study of a strange, clandestine game. WINNING WAS EVERYTHING... UNTIL IT DESTROYED THEM
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 days
Both an utterly unique exercise in dystopian fiction and a powerful portrayal of friendship at its most intimate, Never Let Me Go follows three students at the woozily pleasant Hailsham School as their preordained futures begin to unfold.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£10.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 days
Focusing on a quartet of graduates as they embrace the seemingly limitless possibilities of New York City futures, A Little Life descends into a dark and involving tale of toxic relationships and the vicious scars of childhood.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99
Paperback
Out of stock
A saga of subterranean libraries, hidden clues and wildly inventive magic, Morgenstern's breathtaking second novel is also a story of the multiplicity of stories themselves and why they matter in navigating and understanding the choices we face.

This product is currently unavailable online. Click to be notified when it is back in stock or to collect in store.


£9.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 days
At once intricately plotted and richly drawn, the opening book of Harkness' bestselling All Souls trilogy blends thrilling dark academia mystery with racy paranormal romance as an Oxford historian's discovery turns her well-ordered world upside down.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£8.99
Paperback
5+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 days
Buried secrets burst into the open at an exclusive high school in this explosive thriller which doubles as a blistering critique of institutionalised racism.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£8.99 £6.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 days
Pacey, brilliant and extremely devious, One of Us Is Lying is the perfect high school thriller brimming with tensions, twists and unforgettable characters.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£9.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 days
Following a young woman a world apart from the rest of her exclusive creative writing programme peers, Bunny is a subversive, razor-sharp and darkly hilarious exploration of class, ambition and the shady side of female friendships.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£10.99
Paperback
In stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 days
Filled with slow-burning menace and intoxicating atmosphere, this richly imagined debut about a young woman who enters an illustrious institution to get away from the world pays exquisite contemporary tribute to the darkest kind of gothic novel.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£8.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 days
Weaving a rich gothic atmosphere, the author of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell mines a darkly fantastical vision with a tale of a very singular house and its mysterious inhabitants.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£14.99
Paperback
5+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 days
Thoroughly immersive and chillingly atmospheric, Kostova’s remarkably assured debut plunders the Dracula myth to craft a thrilling modern-day mystery with evocative echoes of medieval vampire lore.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout

£8.99
Paperback
In stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 days
In her first year as a student at Dalloway, an ancient ivy-covered institution with a haunted past – and present – a seventeen-year-old virtuoso novelist seeks inspiration from the establishment’s murky history with chilling consequences.
  • This item has been added to your basket
View basket Checkout


Comments

There are currently no comments.