The Best Dark Academia Books
The Secret History
Donna Tartt
The dark academia book that started it all, Donna Tartt’s debut novel is a modern Greek tragedy that details the moral fall of a group of students at a private Vermont college. Classics professor Morrow only admits a handful of select students to study Ancient Greek. After determinedly breaking into this close-knit group, Richard Papen is surprised to find a world of highly flawed characters losing their grasp on morality. Secrets, lies, betrayal, and eventually murder become justifiable actions as they slip further and further in their descent into evil.
Publication Date: September 1992
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book cover Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
Ninth House
Leigh Bardugo
In her first novel for adults, Leigh Bardugo jumps into dark academia books with a dark tale set among the Ivy League elite. After surviving a horrible multiple homicide, Alex Stern is offered a full-ride scholarship to Yale. There she is put in charge of watching the secret societies, who have been dabbling into dark and dangerous magic.
Publication Date: 8 October 2019
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book cover Ace of Spades by Faridah Abike-Iyimide
Ace of Spades
Faridah Ábíké-Íyímídé
One of the best dark academia books in ya, Ace of Spades takes on institutional racism at a private high school. When Devon and Chiamaka are chosen as prefects for their senior year, they think they have it made. Until an anonymous texter, Aces, shares Devon’s private photos and spills Chiamaka’s secrets. But much more than their high school reputation is on the line in this twisty young adult thriller.
Publication Date: 10 June 2021
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book cover Vicious by V. E. Schwab
Vicious
V. E. Schwab
College roommates Eli and Victor have the same intelligence and ambition. Obsessed with adrenaline and near-death experiences, they theorize that under the right conditions people can develop extraordinary abilities. Ten years after their experimentation goes horribly, Victor breaks out of prison to get his revenge on Eli, who is hunting every superhuman he can find.
Publication Date: 24 September 2013
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book cover A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik
A Deadly Education
Naomi Novak
At Scholomance, a cutthroat school of magic, students are expected to graduate or die. The main rule: don’t ever walk the hallways alone for monsters lurk everywhere. A standoffish loner, El doesn’t have the advantages of the bigger cliches, but she does have a powerful magic that tends toward destruction. When she befriends the popular hero of the school, El must balance her survival with the survival of the other students in one of the best dark magic books out there.
Publication Date: 29 September 2020
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Little Monsters
Kara Thomas
3.93
16,575 ratings2,559 reviews
Kacey is the new girl in Broken Falls. When she moved in with her father, she stepped into a brand-new life. A life with a stepbrother, a stepmother, and strangest of all, an adoring younger half sister.
Kacey’s new life is eerily charming compared with the wild highs and lows of the old one she lived with her volatile mother. And everyone is so nice in Broken Falls—she’s even been welcomed into a tight new circle of friends. Bailey and Jade invite her to do everything with them.
Which is why it’s so odd when they start acting distant. And when they don’t invite her to the biggest party of the year, it doesn’t exactly feel like an accident.
But Kacey will never be able to ask, because Bailey never makes it home from that party. Suddenly, Broken Falls doesn’t seem so welcoming after all—especially once everyone starts looking to the new girl for answers.
Kacey is about to learn some very important lessons: Sometimes appearances can be deceiving. Sometimes when you’re the new girl, you shouldn’t trust anyone.
People Like Us
Dana Mele
3.52
18,011 ratings2,610 reviews
Kay Donovan may have skeletons in her closet, but the past is past, and she's reinvented herself entirely. Now she's a star soccer player whose group of gorgeous friends run their private school with effortless popularity and acerbic wit. But when a girl's body is found in the lake, Kay's carefully constructed life begins to topple.
The dead girl has left Kay a computer-coded scavenger hunt, which, as it unravels, begins to implicate suspect after suspect, until Kay herself is in the crosshairs of a murder investigation. But if Kay's finally backed into a corner, she'll do what it takes to survive. Because at Bates Academy, the truth is something you make...not something that happened.
Stalking Jack the Ripper
by Kerri Maniscalco
Foreword by James Patterson
A Victorian London setting, a highborn lady, and a secret obsession with the gruesome practice of forensic medicine? Ahem, yes PLEASE. What says dark academia than a Victorian lady sneaking off between social teas to her uncle’s laboratory to work on a string of savagely killed corpses? Audrey Rose Wadsworth is what everyone expects of a lord’s daughter except for her penchant for forensics. When her investigation of a serial murderer brings her closer and closer to her own sheltered world, the stakes will be rather high.
strange the dreamer
This book is literally about a fantasy librarian, a lost city, and dead gods, and if that’s not dark academia I will eat my patent leather loafers right now. Throw in an alchemist, a crew of scientists and scholars, and a journey to discover what plagues said lost city, and you’ll have a mystery that doesn’t let up. Then throw in a romance for the ages, and you’ll have yourself have a modern classic that is just so, so beautiful. Laini Taylor writes the most gorgeous sentences that go perfectly with a cup of coffee and a rainy day in the library. Strange the Dreamer is the perfect book to read if you like your dark academia with a bit of colorful fantasy thrown in!
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Dark Academia Books
Dark Fantasy Books
book cover The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake
The Atlas Six
Olivie Blake
Although the Library of Alexandria burned down centuries ago, the Alexandrian Society has always existed in secret, a vast repository of magic. When Libby graduates from a magical university, she hopes to never see her annoying co-valedictorian Nico again. But when Nico and Libby are both selected to compete for an exclusive fellowship with the Alexandrian Society, they join four other candidates vying for five open spots in one of the newest dark academia books.
Publication Date: 1 March 2022
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Babel by R.F. Kuang
Babel book cover
Genre: Historical Fantasy
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This epic historical fantasy novel (set in the early 1800s) follows a group of students at Oxford University’s (fictional) Royal Institute of Translation—also known as Babel, a center for translation and magic.
There, a young trainee finds himself at a crossroads between the pursuit of vast knowledge, and a secret society aiming to cut off Britain’s immense power and stop its thirst for imperial expansion.
book cover The Magicians by Lev Grossman
The Magicians
Lev Grossman
The coming of age story of Quentin Coldwater, a high school senior obsessed with a fantasy book series about the magical land of Fillroy. After Quentin is admitted to an exclusive college of magic in upstate New York, he discovers that Fillroy is real, but it’s a much darker place than he imagined. If you’ve loved the television adaptation of Lev Grossman’s The Magicians trilogy, be sure to try these dark fantasy novels.
Publication Date: 2009
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book cover A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee
A Lesson in Vengeance
Victoria Lee
A year after her girlfriend’s death, Felicity Morrow returns to Dalloway School, a prestigious campus rumored to be haunted by five students, who some claim were witches, who mysteriously died. Felicity wants to forget the dark witchcraft that obsessed her last time but she feels drawn to a new student who is researching the Dalloway Five. But will the past repeat itself?
Publication Date: 3 August 2021
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book cover Legendborn by Tracy Deonn
Legendborn
Tracy Deonn
After her mother’s death, sixteen-year-old Bree Matthews sees the summer residential program at UNC-Chapel Hill as a perfect escape from the memories that haunt her at home. Yet, on the first night, she witnesses a demon feeding on human energies. When a mage tries to erase Bree’s memories of the attack, he accidentally unlocks her magical powers and memories from her mother’s death. As Bree infiltrates the secret student society to find answers, she must decide how far she is willing to go for the truth.
Publication Date: 15 September 2020
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book cover The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
The Raven Boys
Maggie Stiefvater
Blue, the only non-clairvoyant in a family of physics, has always been told that her first love will die when she kisses him. Which has never bothered her, until she meets Gansy, a golden boy from the nearby private school Aglionby. Blue usually stays away from The Raven Boys of Aglionby, but she finds herself caught up with Gansy and his friends on a quest into the supernatural.
Publication Date: 18 September 2012
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Dark Psychological Books
book cover If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio
If We Were Villains
M. L. Rio
If you want thriller dark academia books, you’ll want to check out Rio’s stunning mystery about seven students studying Shakespeare. While studying Shakespeare at an elite arts college, Oliver Marks and his theater classmates get caught up with dangerous drama backstage. When one student ends up dead, they use all their acting ability to convince the police that they are blameless. After serving ten years for a crime he may or may not have committed, Oliver Marks is released and the soon to be retired Detective Colborne is desperate to know what really happened.
Publication Date: 11 April 2017
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All These Beautiful Strangers by Elizabeth Klehfoth
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At a glance: dark academia mystery, boarding school, secret society, spoiled rich kids
A mystery and family drama with plenty of dark academia vibes — although I’m not sure this book was marketed as such but it definitely filled that craving for me and felt very dark academia-esque.
Charlie was 7 years old when her mother just vanished without a trace from the family’s lake house and Charlie has been left to bear that dark legacy and the questions surrounding her mother’s disappearance.
Charlie has tried her best to move on from the past and has thrown herself into life at her new elite boarding school falling in with the “it” crowd and now she finds herself invited to join the school’s elite secret society.
The group is known for terrorizing the faculty, administration, and their enemies as well as having an ultra rigorous initiation process — including a semester-long, diabolical high-stakes scavenger hunt that could jeopardize everything.
While trying to complete the challenges, she also finds herself unraveling family secrets that are possibly related to her mother’s disappearance.
While all that is going on in the present, we get a perspective from her mother in the past and I just loved how the two stories were intertwined!
book cover How We Fall Apart by Katie Zhao
How We Fall Apart
Katie Zhao
When her former best friend Jamie, the top student at their elite prep school, dies, Nancy Luo is shocked to find that she is among the prime suspects. An anonymous social media user called the Proctor keeps implicating Nancy and her three friends. Somehow, the Proctor seems to know all the secrets that should have died with Jamie. As Nancy and her friends work to uncover the Proctor before too much is revealed, Nancy begins to wonder if her friends have even more secrets than she thought.
Publication Date: 3 August 2021
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Gothikana by RuNyx — fantasy romance + dark academia
A Study In Drowning by Ava Reid
Out September 9, 2023
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At a glance: young adult, fantasy (set in a world inspired by early twentieth-century Wales), academic rivals-to-lovers, fairy folklore, crumbling gothic cliff-side mansion, gothic mystery
Effy Sayre, the only woman architecture student at a prestigious college and facing major discrimination, has been plagued by visions/hallucinations of the Fairy King since childhood. She finds her solace in the page of author Emrys Myrddin’s Angharad — an epic about a cruel fairy king and the mortal woman who brings him down after falling in love.
And then Effy is selected for contest to redesign the late author’s estate, she packs her bags and travels to the estate. Once there, she finds it’s going to be quite the challenge considering the state of the crumbling manor and the irritating presence of an academic with his hidden motives to prove that her favorite book was not authored by Myrddin.
Strange things begin to happen and Effy’s nightmares of the Fairy King intensify which lead Effy and her academic rival on a winding mystery to find out the truth about the author, the manor and the mysterious visions she’s had since childhood.
book cover The Maidens by Alex Michaelides
The Maidens
Alex Michaelides
When her niece’s roommate is gruesomely murdered, Mariana, a therapist still grieving her husband’s tragic death, returns to Cambridge University, her alma mater, to investigate. Quickly, she suspects Edward Fosca, the charismatic professor of Greek tragedy and leader of a secret society of female students called The Maidens.
Publication Date: 15 June 2021
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‘Book of Night’ by Holly Black
Another author I’ve not personally read, although I think Sophie rates them quite fondly. I haven’t really been tempted by her titles… Until this one came along.
A dark and sinister sweeping tale, this is Holly Black’s adult debut. I LOVE when YA authors crossover because I think they make better adult titles for their experience in the YA genre. holds up hands I don’t make the rules, just look at Leigh Bardugo… ‘Ninth House’ is iconic.
6. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
The 1963 semi-autobiographical story of poet Sylvia Plath’s descent into madness isn’t overtly academia, but it contains a combination of tragedy and dark humor that feels fitting of the genre. As Esther Greenwood, struggling to make it in the New York publishing world, falls into anxiety and depression, the novel explores the role of women in society while criticizing the mandates that govern their lives.
'Frankenstein' by Mary Shelley
No classic goes harder at a creepy origin story than Frankenstein, which is debated to come from either Lord Byron's ghost story contest and/or an inspired moment at Mary's mother's literal gravestone, where lore says Mary lost her virginity to her poet husband Percy Bysshe Shelley. And that's just the backstory behind this book, so you can imagine how deep the macabre goes in the text itself.
'They Wish They Were Us' by Jessica Goodman
Cosmopolitan alumna Jessica Goodman wrote a real YA murder mystery thriller in They Wish They Were Us. Tuck into this story about secret societies and uncovering the truth behind a grizzly murder, and when you're done, keep an eye out for the Halsey and Sydney Sweeney-led adaptation called The Players Table which is currently in development for HBO.
'Special Topics in Calamity Physics' by Marisha Pessl
The English class vibes run deep with Special Topics in Calamity Physics, from the names of the chapters (all citing literary works) to the structure of the book itself, which is set up like a lit class syllabus, bonus footnotes included. In a very dark academia-appropriate move, the book follows a clique of genius teens called "the Bluebloods," who are close to one specific English teacher...until she turns up dead and they're left wondering what the hell happened.
'The Picture of Dorian Gray' by Oscar Wilde
This classic is a staple in many a high school AP class, but if you missed out on a "late 1800s gothic fiction" unit, it's still worth a go. The surface level plot is as well-known as Oscar Wilde at this point—a painter creates a self-portrait of a beautiful man, and the portrait ages while he doesn't—but that summation barely skims the surface of the simmering evil and ultimate loss of innocence at play...not to mention Wilde's characteristic wit.
'Piranesi' by Susanna Clarke
While some may (correctly) argue Susanna Clarke's first novel Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell also qualifies as a dark academia book, Clarke's most recent work Piranesi has all the formative building blocks: an intellectual pushing scientific and ethical bounds, revenge, and a strange mystery with as many twists as there are rooms in the narrator's seemingly-infinite museum-like world.
'Mexican Gothic' by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
mexican gothic by silvia moreno garcia book cover featuring a woman in a wine red dress holding yellow flowers sitting in front of a green patterned wallpaper that features flowers
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If you dig those TikToks of women in flowing dresses running away from mansions in slow motion, you might want to pay extra attention to this book. Mexican Gothic features a dark family secret, gothic features galore, and a confident protagonist who actually stands up for herself (and her cousin) despite foreboding danger. While it takes a beat for the pieces to connect—for those of you who have already read it, can we talk about those unnerving bathtub dreams?—but the last 50 pages are "absolutely can't put down" goodness.
book cover Bunny by Mona Awad
Bunny
Mona Awad
At a highly selective MFA program at a New England school, Samantha is repulsed by her fiction writing cohorts, a group of cutesy rich girls who all call each other “Bunny.” When Samantha begins to befriend the Bunnies, she gets drawn into their sweet but sinister world. As reality begins to blur, Samantha’s friendships come into a deadly collision course with the Bunnies.
Publication Date: 11 June 2019
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The Cloisters
Katy Hays
When Ann Stillwell gets a job working for The Cloisters, a gothic museum studying divination, she finds she enjoys discussing the researchers’ outlandish theories on the history of fortune-telling. Until Ann finds a 15th-century deck of tarot cards that may actually tell the future. As the past and future seem to blur, things quickly turn deadly and Ann is in a race to find answers. A Read with Jenna book club pick, The Cloisters is one of the recent dark academia books not to miss.
Publication Date: 1 November 2022
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book cover The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
The Starless Sea
Erin Morgenstern
Graduate student Zachary Rawlins stumbles upon a mysterious book full of fantastical tales, only to find himself in the narrative. He follows hints to a secret library, preserved by guardians intent on protecting it. From there he finds himself swept into a magical mystical world. With a story this complex, you might not be able to settle for just one reading.
Publication Date: 5 November 2019
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book cover Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Frankenstein
Mary Shelley
When Mary Shelley and Lord Byron had a competition to write the best horror story, Shelly came up with the idea for Frankenstein. Grieving his mother, young ambitious scientist Victor Frankenstein conducts a series of unorthodox experiments to create life and ends up creating a creature 8 feet tall. Horrified by his creation, Frankenstein spends the rest of his life haunted and trying to destroy the thing he has made.
Publication Date: 1818
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book cover Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Never Let Me Go
Kazuo Ishiguro
In Ishiguro’s imagined future, carer Kathy H reminisces about her childhood at the English boarding school Hailsham. Right away, you know something is off about these kids and this school. Although raised with plenty of luxuries, the students are not told anything about the outside world, until they begin to discover the truth for themselves. One of my least favorite books, Never Let Me Go gets a mention among the dark academia books because it’s one of the most popular dystopian novels among adults.
Publication Date: 5 April 2005
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The Maidens by Alex Michaelides
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
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From the author of the blockbuster hit The Silent Patient comes a new thriller about a handsome Greek Tragedy professor at Cambridge University, who’s also a leader of a secret society of women known as The Maidens. But one woman believe’s he’s a killer, and she’s determined to prove it – no matter what it takes.
Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson
Truly Devious book cover
Genre: YA Mystery/Thriller
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When true crime lover Stevie Bell starts her first year at the mysterious Ellingham Academy (a private school in Vermont), she’s determined to solve the school’s decades-old cold case. Years ago, the wife and daughter of the school’s founder were kidnapped, and it appears the perpetrator has returned.
If you love puzzles and riddles, this is a perfect series to read!
Plain Bad Heroines
Plain Bad Heroines
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Emily M. Danforth's adult debut, Plain Bad Heroines ($28), is a horror comedy with all of the best elements: a cursed boarding school, young lovers, and a Hollywood production. Not to mention, there are stunning illustrations throughout the book.
My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell (2020)
At a private high school, 15-year-old Vanessa enters a secret love affair with her charismatic 42-year-old English teacher.
Decades later, during the #MeToo movement, Vanessa is contacted by someone else who was also groomed by the same man. She must try to understand the truth behind what really happened in the relationship that she perceived as her first love.
The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson (2011)
Rory Deveaux is an American teenager at a boarding school in London. As she arrives in England, she finds herself surrounded by a series of gruesome murders, which seem to be imitating the murders committed by Jack the Ripper.
She's the only one who's seen the prime suspect, and she has to figure out how to stop him before he comes for her next.
. Legendborn by Tracy Deonn (2020)
The descendants of the Knights of the Round Table in the legend of King Arthur are still alive today, and they call themselves the Legendborn.
Bree Matthews is a young Black girl who enrolls at UNC Chapel Hill and learns that she's one of these Legendborn. In this propulsive debut novel, Bree must fight for her right to have a seat at the table while also preventing magical war from breaking out.
A discovery of witches
wilder girls
melmoth sarah perry
'Melmoth' by Sarah Perry
'Melmoth' by Sarah Perry
The Essex Serpent author Sarah Perry published this work of dark academia in 2018. Here, a British translator working in Prague comes face-to-face with a grim legend when her colleague uncovers a strange letter before vanishing without a trace. Was Karel compelled to leave by the legendary Melmoth the Witness, or is there some other evil force afoot?
A little life
In this bestselling novel, four classmates move to New York after they graduate from their small Massachusetts college. Their friendships are competitive, intimate, and addictive.
As the decades pass, their dynamic changes further, and past traumas continue to haunt them.
One of Us Is Lying
'One of Us Is Lying' by Karen M. McManus
'One of Us Is Lying' by Karen M. McManus
When the creator of a high-school gossip app dies in detention, four of his classmates come under harsh scrutiny. Who killed Simon, and why? Bronwyn, Addy, Nate, and Cooper all had reasons. They all had a motive. Only one of them is guilty... right?
Dark Academia
