
Best Dark Academia Books to Read this Fall
What Is Dark Academia?
We know most of you probably already know what dark academia is all about, but we figured weâd clarify for those new to the trend thatâs become so popular.
Dark academia is a subculture that romanticizes higher education as it relates to classic literature, poetry, the arts, Greek and Roman mythology, and the gothic architecture which happens to have inspired the setting of Harry Potterâs Hogwarts.
Enthusiasts of the dark academia aesthetic share mood boards on social media platforms featuring academic settings like those found in ivy league colleges and universities. Think gothic buildings, tweed jackets, plaid skirts, and secret societies.
Let's start our own secret society and discuss some of our favorite reads that take on this aesthetic. Here is our curated list of the 12 best dark academia books to read this fall...
How It Started
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The Secret History by Donna Tartt (1992):It all started with a book, this book in fact. Donna Tarttâs The Secret History has unofficially been declared the inspiration for creating the dark academic aesthetic. Because a book club in 2015 took to Tumblr to find more books like The Secret History, the #darkacademia hashtag started to trend, and now we canât get enough! What puts the "dark" in "dark academia," pick up The Secret History to discover all the things that you love about the aesthetic: murder, mystery, college students, and the classics. |
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Dead Poets Society by Nancy H. Kleinbaum (1998):Based on the 1989 motion-picture by Tom Schulman and starring Robin Williams, Nancy Kleinbaum creates a novelization of the very conservative and elite Welton Academy, an all boys prep school located in Vermont whose motto is: âTradition, Discipline, Honor, and Excellence.â When Mr. Keating (Robin Williams in the movie), a new English teacher, arrives, the young men begin to challenge tradition and discipline and their lives are completely changed. The story has so many of the elements that make us long to read the poetry of Tennyson, Byron, Shelley, and Keats in a cave and âCarpe Diem!â After reading, we urge you to watch the movie because weâre pretty sure youâll love it, too! |
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A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray (2003)Libba Brayâs first book in the Gemma Doyle trilogy, A Great and Terrible Beauty takes readers to an all-girls boarding school in 1895 Victorian England. Brayâs gothic fantasy weaves magic, mystery, friendship, death, romance, and yes, a secret society. |
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Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield (2006)Diane Setterfieldâs The Thirteeth Tale tells a tale of a haunted mansion and a plain girlâreminiscent of Charlotte BrontĂ«âs Jane Eyre. Biographer Margaret Lea gets wrapped up in the dark and mysterious storytelling of Vida Winter, a best-selling author and recluse with secrets to tellâŠor hide. A former academic, Setterfieldâs gothic story is said to be a âlove letter to reading, a book for the feral reader in all of us.â |
How It REALLY started: The Classics
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Jane Eyre by Charlotte BrontĂ« (1847)So much of the dark academic aesthetic today is inspired by the gothic tales of long ago, like Charlotte BrontĂ«âs Jane Eyre. A tormented childhood, a boarding school, a gothic-style house, a ghost in the attic, and a love story with lots of twists has generations of readers claiming Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochesterâs complex romance as one of the greatest books ever written. |
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Wuthering Heights by Emily BrontĂ« (1847)Like Charlotteâs gothic romance, her sister Emily creates another dark and twisted love affair. Emily BrontĂ«âs Wuthering Heights spins a tale of a tortured orphan, entitled intellectuals, an impossible love affair, a madman with a warped sense of reality, a haunted house, and a corpse bride. Heathcliff and Catherineâs love is anything but magical even though they may be together in the end. |
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A Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (1891)While there may not be any specific focus on formal education in Oscar Wildeâs The Picture of Dorian Gray, it does focus on the arts and hedonism that turns murderous. Dorianâs inherited gothic-style mansion is his haunted house while Lord Henry Wotton serves as Dorianâs schoolmaster. A romantic and tragic story that any dark academic would enjoy! |
How Its Going
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Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness (2011)Deborah Harknessâs first book in her All Souls trilogy A Discovery of Witches introduces readers to Diana Bishop, a Yale University professor doing research at Oxfordâs Bodleian Library. There, deep in the stacks of the library built in the 16th century with ornate stained glass windows, Diana discovers a lost manuscript and inadvertently stirs up daemons, witches, and vampires of the underworld. This fantasy epic has all the elements for a dark academic aesthetic, even an unlikely romance with the hunky vampire, Matthew Clairmont. |
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The Raven Boys by Margaret Stiefvater (2012)The Raven Boys is the first book in Maggie Stiefvaterâs The Raven Cycle series. Complete with rich, handsome boys that attend an expensive private school (Aglionby Academy) and wear expensive uniforms with cardigan sweaters, the YA fantasy fits well in this category. Especially, when the main character Blue Sargent knows sheâll eventually cause her true love to die. And her mom sees dead people. |
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Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo (2019)Leigh Bardugoâs Ninth House takes on Yale Universityâs real secret societies with a paranormal twist. In it readers meet Alex Stern, a high school drop-out who gets a free ride to the exclusive ivy league school because of her supernatural powers. Bardugo weaves a dark and mysterious tale inspired by her own time at Yale when she discovered the tombs of the schoolâs old secret organizations. |
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A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik (2020)Naomi Novik begins to build the world of Scholomance, a school of black magic in the first novel of her Scholomance trilogy. The story follows Galadriel "El" Higgins, a half-Welsh, half-Indian sorceress whose mission is to survive to graduation and beyond when more than half of the magical students die before they make it out through the gates. Fashioned to be a more realisticâand much less safeâHogwarts without teachers or contact to the outside world, Novik leans into the dark part of dark academia. |
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Ace of Spades by Faridah ĂbĂkĂ©-ĂyĂmĂdĂ© (2021)When it seems like the aesthetic lacks diversity, authors of color step up to turn the genre on its head. Faridah ĂbĂkĂ©-ĂyĂmĂdĂ©âs Ace of Spades presents a thriller in the halls of Niveus Private Academy where Chiamaka Adebayo and Devon Richards are the only two black students in a sea of rich white kids. ĂbĂkĂ©-ĂyĂmĂdĂ© carefully crafts this story with enthralling commentary on race, sexuality, class, and gender. |
This list only scratches the surface of the many dark and twisted tales of dark academia that spans so many genres. Email hello@litjoycrate.com to let us know your favorites!