“After all, everyone’s entitled to be the hero of their own story. So I must be permitted to be the hero of mine. Even though I’m not. I’m the villain.”
Is there a more fitting subgenre for the Fall season than dark academia? Complete with gothic school settings and complex scholarly characters, all bound together by their obsessive pursuits of knowledge, dark academia so often blurs the lines between fantasy, mystery and thriller. One of the best genres in fiction for evoking a particular feeling in readers as well as enthralling them with richly-layered plots, it’s that sensation of knowing things are not quite as they first seem that we’re paying homage today at What We Reading. Join us as we present the best mystery, thriller and fantasy dark academia books!
What Is Dark Academia?
Before we kick off our list, what do we mean by ‘dark academia books’? Dark academia is a genre and an aesthetic that has seen a surge in popularity in recent times, especially in the Fall and Winter months. As a genre, it tends to encompass a dark and moody college or campus setting, with academic figures in the pursuit of knowledge usually playing central roles. These settings and characters often have sordid and grizzly pasts readers uncover as they go through the book. Whether it’s a paranormal occurrence, a disappearance or a gruesome discovery, things then tend to spiral awry.
They Never Learn – Layne Fargo
Scarlett Clark is famous as a brilliantly smart English professor. However, if there’s one thing that’s better than her academic skills, she can get away with murder. She is constantly stalking the grounds of Gorman University, hunting down the men most deserving of meeting a grizzly fate. To date, she’s never come close to being caught.
Elsewhere, Carly Schiller is attempting to navigate the pitfalls of being a freshman at Gorman. Looking to escape her abusive past at the hands of her father, she strikes up a strong friendship with her roommate, Allison. But, when Allison is assaulted at a party one evening, Carly’s obsessive fantasies of getting revenge soon become a reality. Layne Fargo’s East Coast They Never Learn is a feminist twist on tales like Dexter, and perfect for any fans of the dark academia aesthetic.
The Atlas Six (The Atlas #1) – Olivie Blake
The Alexandrian Society are the caretakers of lost knowledge from the greatest civilisations from the age of antiquity and are the most eminent secret society of magical academics. A life with the Alexandrians promises a life of wealth, power and prestige. In Olivie Blaker’s The Atlas Six, readers meet the latest candidates looking to become a part of this society. These candidates all possess remarkable abilities, ranging from the manipulation of the natural world to the minds and emotions of those around them.
Having been recruited by the mysterious Atlas Blakely, the six initiates are told they have a year’s worth of access to the society’s archives. In return, they are expected to contribute to the six topics of impossibility: time and space, luck and thought life and death. Only five of the six will be selected. The one initiate who misses out on selection will be eliminated.
The Maidens – Alex Michaelides
Nominated for Best Mystery & Thriller in the 2021 Goodreads Choice Awards, The Maidens is a dark academia book by Alex Michaelides. The author of The Silent Patient introduces readers to the handsome and charismatic Cambridge professor, Edward Fosca. Edward is beloved by his students, especially the young girls in The Maidens secret society. He is also a serial murderer.
When Mariana Andros’ niece becomes the latest victim of a murder on the grounds of the university, she becomes obsessed with uncovering the truth behind this society, and the guilt of Fosca. She is determined to prove Fosca’s guilt, even if it means the destruction of her credibility, her relationship and, possibly, even her own life.
Babel – R.F. Kuang
One of the best dark academia books with a historical fiction spin, Babel is another Goodreads Award nominee from award-winning author R. F. Kuang. Set in the early 1800s, Kuang introduces readers to alternate Oxford University and its Royal Institute of Translation. Also known as Babel, it is renowned as the world’s centre for translation and magic.
As a young Chinese boy who has grown up in the shadow of Babel, the tower represents the ultimate utopia dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. However, as Britain’s colonisation continues to spread across the world, he finds himself at a crossroads. He knows that serving Babel is to betray his motherland and help fuel Britain’s imperialistic ambitions. And when war breaks out, he is forced to ponder whether institutions can be changed from within, or whether revolution always requires violence.
Ghosts Of Harvard – Francesca Serritella
Cadence ‘Cady’ Archer arrives on the grounds of Harvard hellbent on understanding why her genius brother took his own life there. Having been left with a huge hole in her life since her brother Eric took his own life, she risks the relationship with her remaining family by retracing his steps on the college’s grounds, hoping to make sense of what led to his eventual suicide.
Armed only with a blue notebook filled with Eric’s scribblings, she is immersed in the pressurised environment of Harvard, as well as the array of paranoias and enemies that seemingly tipped him over the edge. But, when Cady too begins to hear voices belonging to past students, she begins to wonder whether she shares the same illness as her brother, or whether she has tapped into something altogether more eerie. Filled with suspense and paranormal creepiness, Francesca Serritella’s Ghosts of Harvard is one of the best mystery dark academia books.
The Bellwether Revivals – Benjamin Wood
Care worker Oscar Lowe is bright, but belongs to an entirely different world to the students and academics surrounding him in Cambridge. One evening, however, he is coaxed into the chapel at King’s College by the sound of an organ. There, he meets the beautiful and mysterious medicine student, Iris Bellwether and her enigmatic brother, Eden.
Eden was the source of the music that lulled him in, and he soon revealed his belief that his music could heal others. As Oscar finds himself more and more immersed in the Bellwether’s world of wealth and privilege, he soon becomes ensnared in Eden’s increasingly ambitious experiments designed to put his skills to the test. To potentially devastating consequences.
Check Out Our The Bellwether Revivals Review
A Deadly Education – Naomi Novik
Noami Novik welcomes readers to Scholomance in A Deadly Education. At Scholomance, a school for the magically gifted, survival is more important than any grade. There are no holidays, no teachers and only friendships forged out of strategy. There is just one rule: don’t walk the halls alone.
Monsters lurk everywhere in this school and no student is allowed to leave until they graduate or die trying. El is equipped with a dark power that has the power to level mountains and eliminate all the threats the school can throw at her. The only problem? Losing control of such power may lead to the annihilation of all her classmates.
In My Dreams I Hold A Knife – Ashley Winstead
Told across two pulsating timelines in a dark campus environment, Ashley Winstead’s In My Dreams I Hold a Knife is a dark academia book that explores friendship, love, ambition and obsession.
Ten years after graduating, Jessica Miller has organised the ultimate reunion at Duquette University. Eager to show her five friends that she is no longer the shy and introverted girl they used to know, the one whose life was derailed following the murder of her friend, Heather. However, upon arriving back at Duquette, it soon becomes clear that someone still hasn’t moved on from that fateful night, and has planned to make the guilty party pay. One by one, all of the friends are forced to confront what happened that night – as well as the secrets they would do anything to keep buried.
Part-time reader, part-time rambler, and full-time Horror enthusiast, James has been writing for What We Reading since 2022. His earliest reading memories involved Historical Fiction, Fantasy and Horror tales, which he has continued to take with him to this day. James’ favourite books include The Last (Hanna Jameson), The Troop (Nick Cutter) and Chasing The Boogeyman (Richard Chizmar).
