🏷️ Dark Academia
8 entries tagged with this trope
The Secret History
Donna Tartt · 1992
Elite classics students get seduced by Greek ideals until it leads to murder. The vibes are immaculate. The morality is questionable. Peak dark academia.
Babel
R.F. Kuang · 2022
Oxford, 1836. Translation is magic — literally. Robin is brought from Canton to study at Babel, the center of the British Empire's power. Then he has to choose: the institution that raised him, or the people it oppresses. Dark academia done RIGHT.
The Atlas Six
Olivie Blake · 2022
Six magicians compete for five spots in a secret society. One of them won't survive. Everyone is brilliant, morally bankrupt, and attracted to the wrong people. Dark academia with teeth.
Ninth House
Leigh Bardugo · 2019
Yale's secret societies practice real magic. Alex Stern — a dropout with a dark past — is sent to monitor them. Then someone dies. Bardugo's adult debut is brutal, weird, and impossible to put down.
The Maidens
Alex Michaelides · 2021
A group therapy therapist becomes obsessed with a secret society of female students at Cambridge and their charismatic professor. From the author of The Silent Patient. Greek tragedy meets academic thriller.
Zodiac Academy: Ruthless Fae
Caroline Peckham & Susanne Valenti · 2019
The Vega twins are back at Zodiac Academy and the Celestial Heirs aren't done with them. The bully romance heats up, the magic deepens, and the plot twists start hitting. This series is addictive.
Hell Bent
Leigh Bardugo · 2023
Alex Stern is going to Hell. Literally. To rescue someone she lost. The second Alex Stern book goes deeper into the magic system and the consequences of what happened at Lethe. Bardugo's prose cuts like glass.
House of Marionne
J. Elle · 2023
Quell hides a dark magic that could kill her. She enrolls in a secret society of debutantes who wield bone magic. Think Bridgerton meets The Secret History with a Black girl lead. The aesthetic alone is worth it.