The 25 Best Dark Academia Books

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Autumn is here, which means it's time for the dark academia aesthetic to shine. What better way to fully lean in than to read as many dark academia books as you possibly can?

Dark academia is a relatively new trend. As i-D noted in 2020, "The moody aesthetic is Kill Your Darlings meets Oxford student in the 30s/40s and is for anyone who wants to dress like a prep school kid and study like the boys in Dead Poets Society." In In These Hallowed Halls: A Dark Academia anthology, the trend is described as "an internet subculture concerned with higher education, the arts, and literature, or an idealized version thereof with a focus on the pursuit of knowledge and an exploration of death." Dark academia, the book also notes, is "a set of aesthetic principles," including (but not limited to) "tweed blazers, vintage cardigans, scuffed loafers, a worn leather satchel full of brooding poetry. Enthusiasts are usually found in museums and darkened libraries."

Here, 25 of the best dark academia books to read now:

Sleepwalking

Meg Wolitzer wrote her first novel, Sleepwalking, when she was still an undergraduate at Brown University. The book focuses on three college students, and their shared fascination with poetry and death. Wolitzer was writing dark academia before dark academia was even a thing.

Portrait of a Thief: A Novel

Will Chen is a senior at Harvard, who sets out on an audacious plan: To steal back five priceless Chinese sculptures looted from Beijing. He recruits fellow Chinese American students, and their mysterious benefactor promises them $50 million if they succeed. Portrait of Thief combines a fast-paced heist story with a tender examination of immigrant identity and a critical examination of academia and museums.

Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution

R.F. Kuang's alternative fantasy history is set at Oxford in the 1830s, in which magical silver bars are fueled by translation. Babel tells the tale of four students—Robin, from Canton; Ramy, from Calcutta; Victoire, from Haiti; and Letty, from England—who gain admission to the prestigious translation school, and must grapple with the cruelties of the British Empire.

Plain Bad Heroines: A Novel

A cursed New England boarding school is the setting of emily m. danforth's Plain Bad Heroines, which is a story-within-a-story of the disappearance of two young girls in 1902, and a century later, when a movie is filmed on the property retelling their story. It's gothic, sapphic, spooky, funny—and a dark academia book through and through.

Ninth House (Alex Stern, 1)

Leigh Bardugo's Alex Stern series, which begins with Ninth House, is set at Yale University, one that seems familiar—except magic exists, and is controlled by secret societies. Alex, a high school dropout with secrets of her own, must navigate the power and privilege as she seeks to understand why she was brought to the Ivy League university.

Bunny: A Novel

The one and only Margaret Atwood described Mona Awad's novel as "Jon Swift + Witches of Eastwick + Kelly 'Get In Trouble' Link + Mean Girls + Creative Writing Degree Hell."Incredible, right? Bunny follows Samantha Heather Mackey, a MFA student at a small New England university, who receives an invite to join a clique of girls who call each other "Bunny." But as Samantha is drawn deeper into their world, she encounters their sinister off-campus world.

The Starless Sea: A Novel

One day, Zachary Ezra Rawlins, a graduate student, discovers a mysterious book in the stacks of his Vermont school—which includes a story from his own childhood. He ends up in a world of secret societies, ancient libraries, and guardians of books. It's a magical tale.

If We Were Villains: A Novel

On nearly every "dark academia" book list you can find on the internet is M.L. Rio's If We Were Villains—deservedly so, as the novel centers on a group of young Shakespearean actors at a conservatory, and what happens when things went wrong their final year. Ten years later, when one of the seven gets out of prison, will the truth finally come out?

A Lesson in Vengeance

The Dalloway School is a centuries-old boarding school in the Catskill Mountains. Felicity Morrow took a year away, after the tragic death of her girlfriend, but has returned to finish her education. But her dorm, Godwin House, is rumored to be haunted by five girls who died mysteriously, and witchcraft and the occult is simmering beneath Dalloway's surface.

Vicious (Villains, 1)

V.E. Schwab's Villains series begins when Victor and Eli are college roommates, and experiment their senior year with a way to help a person develop super powers. Flash forward to 10 years later, and Victor has broken out of prison and is determined to hunt down Eli. In this story, dark academia turns into a twist on the hero/villain dichotomy in comic books.

Ink Blood Sister Scribe

Joanna and Esther's family has long protected a collection of ancient and rare books, but the half-sisters have been separated for years, struggling with the burden of this safekeeping. But when their father dies suddenly, they are thrown into a web of intrigue and magical mystery. It's not set at a school like other dark academia books, but libraries play a huge role in the plot, so we're counting it here.

Catherine House: A Novel

The titular Catherine House is a secluded, elite university where the world's best minds study under a highly experimental curriculum. Following Ines, an incoming student, Catherine House quickly begins to feel like a gilded prison—and she's worried the institution is hiding a dangerous agenda.

These Violent Delights: A Novel

Honestly, we can't describe These Violent Delights better than this, from the publisher: These Violent Delights is a "feverishly taut Hitchcockian story about two college students, each with his own troubled past, whose escalating obsession with one another leads to an act of unspeakable violence."

The Cloisters: A Novel

Set at the Met Cloisters, a group of researchers, including new associate Ann, uncover a deck of tarot cards and dive into the history of fortune telling. Could they predict the future? Ann begins seeking answers in a dangerous, deadly race. The Cloisters begins: "Death always visited me in August. A slow and delicious month we turned into something swift and brutal. The change, quick as a card trick..."

White Ivy: A Novel

Ivy, a Chinese American girl raised by her grandmother and taught how to be a thief, is now a restless young woman teaching elementary school. When she bumps into her childhood crush, she schemes how to enter his life. As Crime Reads notes, "White Ivy gets at the heart of the American fascination with prep schools and Ivy League colleges: by emulating British customs and fetishizing white Anglo-Protestant history, they produce a caricature of whiteness for anyone who can afford the price tag."

Truly Devious: A Mystery (Truly Devious, 1)

Young adult series Truly Devious (though all ages will appreciate, and enjoy it), follows true-crime aficionado Stevie Bell after she's admitted to Ellingham Academy in Vermont, declaring she's going to solve the unsolved kidnapping of the founder's wife and daughter from a century ago. It's a page-turner mystery set at an elite school—perfect for dark academia fans.

Black Chalk

Six students at Oxford University take part in an escalating game of dares—with tragic consequences. But 14 years later, the remaining friends reunite for a final round. Black Chalk is a thriller, and it's best read not knowing too much about the plot.

Ace of Spades

Ace of Spades is described as Gossip Girl meets Get Out, and set at Niveus Private Academy. When Devon and Chiamaka are selected to be senior class prefects, a mysterious person going by Aces starts revealing secrets about them, threatening their futures. Can the two stop Aces before things pass the point of no return?

A Discovery of Witches (All Souls Series)

The All Souls Trilogy begins when Diana Bishop, a historian, discovers a bewitched manuscript at Oxford. She's pulled into a magical world, and falls in love with vampire Matthew Clairmont. It's a contemporary fantasy series, but due to its academic setting at the start, we think fans of dark academia would also enjoy it.

Hex: A Novel

Nell Barber is an expelled PhD candidate in biological science, but is determined to continue exploring poisons and antidotes. Her path keeps bringing her to her mentor, Dr. Joan Kallas, whom she dedicates the notebooks she fills with poisonous plant research.

The Secret Place: A Novel (Dublin Murder Squad)

Tana French's hit Dublin Murder Squad series goes to St. Kilda's, a boarding school, in the fifth book, where detective Stephen Moran tries to solve the cold case of a boy found murdered.

A Deadly Education: A Novel (The Scholomance)

The first book in Naomi Novik's Scholomance series follows El, a sorceress, who must survive to graduation and fight monsters at her school, and Orion, another student, keeps saving her. If you're looking for more romantasy recommendations, click here.

The Swallows: A Novel

Alex Witt is new to the faculty at Stonebridge Academy, a New England prep school, and soon, she's wrapped up in an investigation of the mysterious "Darkroom," a misogynistic message board used by boys at the school. Kirkus calls The Swallows "an offbeat, darkly witty pre–#MeToo revenge tale."

In These Hallowed Halls: A Dark Academia anthology

Perhaps the first-ever dark academia anthology (based on our Googling), In These Hallowed Halls features short stories by many of the authors on this list, including M.L. Rio and Susie Yang.

The Secret History

If you're into dark academia, we have to guess you've already read The Secret History by Donna Tartt, a cornerstone of the aesthetic/trend/world of dark academia. The New York Times called this novel "Dark Academia’s essential text."

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