THAT DARK ACADEMIA YOU LIKE - BOOKNOOK
I used to be really into anime. My art teachers beat it out of me, as is the tradition in this part of the world, but I remember reading Naruto and wondering what new ninjutsu abilities he'd learn this week, and if it'd be his teachers, his peers, or his enemies that he'd learn it from. Is Naruto part of the dark academia genre? I'm not sure, but diving into the other titles of Shonen Jump, I did notice a trend that ties into today's flavor of book. Across much of the manga and anime I consumed as a nerd during the early 20-teens, I noticed that a lot of the titles I read or watched took place in school settings. Why was that? Why were all of my favorite protagonists struggling with the existential terror of math exams, their heart-eyed crushes, and aliens and demons and guys with terrible pompadours?
Because for many, the education system is a common layer of understanding where we have similar and relatable experiences, making the distance between stimulation and understanding much shorter than with more specific frameworks. School is one of the last places where we're all gathered together before we disperse into the world, no longer concentrated in clusters of generation or interest.
Dark Academia is a term that is loosely draped over a few tentpole ideas that work together to give it some structure and shape. The genre, aesthetic, and subculture exists in a romanticized pre-internet time-out-of-time, where higher education holds both import and power, and those who support its structures can share in its reward. Although much of the vibe's codification can be traced back to its Tumblr days, Dark Academia draws its fashions from early-century European boarding schools to mid-century Ivy college campuses, owing a stylistic debt to the nostalgia for a time that wasn't. (and a very famous and unmentionable author)
Aside from its hauntological aspects, the literary genre has a tendency to drape itself in melancholy and suspicion, which resonates with readers who also felt depressed and repressed during those corresponding years of their lives. Part of the genre's bones (of course it has bones, its dark) is watching your pet insect (protagonist) despair and toil in obscurity until they discover a secret or have their secrets discovered in such a way that their lives are changed, irreparably, forever.
So, is it relatable? Do you romantacize your workaholism, dream of being freed from your gloomy dorm room, and yearn for the approval and structure of an educational system that validates all of your hard work? If the answer is yes, with an extra scoop of spookery on top, maybe check out some of the following titles...
An outcast her entire life, Corvina Clemm is left adrift after losing her mother. When she receives the admission letter from the mysterious University of Verenmore, she accepts it as a sign from the universe. The last thing she expects though is an old, secluded castle on top of a mountain riddled with secrets, deceit, and death. An enigma his entire life, Vad Deverell likes being a closed book but knowing exactly everything that happens in the university. A part-time professor working on his thesis, Vad has been around long enough to know the dangers the castle possesses. And he knows the moment his path crosses with Corvina, she's dangerous to everything that he is. They shouldn't have caught each other's eye. They cannot be. But a chill-inducing century-old mystery forces them to collide. People have disappeared every five years over the past century, Corvina is getting clues to unraveling it all, and Vad needs to keep an eye on her. And so begins a tale of the mysterious, the morbid, the macabre, and a deep love that blossoms in the unlikeliest of places.
Clara Graysword has survived the underworld of Eclipse City through thievery, luck, and a whole lot of illegal magic. After a job gone awry, Clara is sentenced to a lifetime in prison for inking tarot cards--a rare power reserved for practitioners at the elite Arcana Academy. Just when it seems her luck has run dry, the academy's enigmatic headmaster, Prince Kaelis, offers her an escape--for a price. Kaelis believes that Clara is the perfect tool to help him steal a tarot card from the king and use it to re-create an all-powerful card long lost to time. In order to conceal her identity and keep her close, Kaelis brings Clara to Arcana Academy, introducing her as the newest first-year student and his bride-to-be. Thrust into a world of arcane magic and royal intrigue, where one misstep will send her back to prison or worse, Clara finds that the prince she swore to hate may not be what he seems. But can she risk giving him power over the world--and her heart? Or will she take it for herself?
A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik
I decided that Orion Lake needed to die after the second time he saved my life. Everyone loves Orion Lake. Everyone else, that is. Far as I'm concerned, he can keep his flashy combat magic to himself. I'm not joining his pack of adoring fans. I don't need help surviving the Scholomance, even if they do. Forget the hordes of monsters and cursed artifacts, I'm probably the most dangerous thing in the place. Just give me a chance and I'll level mountains and kill untold millions, make myself the dark queen of the world.
At least, that's what the world expects me to do.
Most of the other students in here would be delighted if Orion killed me like one more evil thing that's crawled out of the drains. Sometimes I think they want me to turn into the evil witch they assume I am. The school itself certainly does. But the Scholomance isn't getting what it wants from me. And neither is Orion Lake. I may not be anyone's idea of the shining hero, but I'm going to make it out of this place alive, and I'm not going to slaughter thousands to do it, either.
Strixhaven: Omens of Chaos by Seanan McGuire
Strixhaven University welcomes you. Begin your magical studies on a faraway plane, encountering new friends, mysteries, and dangers, in this fantastical dark academia. Eula Blue was supposed to be a mage. That was before the war came--before the fight for the Multiverse devastated Eula's home, and with it her hopes for a magical education. But the destruction of the war also brought something new: the ability to travel to other planes. And when Eula receives an invitation to study magic at a distant school called Strixhaven, she leaps to take it. Eula's journey brings her closer than she ever thought possible to her fellow students, including the mysterious Segante, a boy whose secrets Eula longs to share. But not everyone is thrilled by the arrival of the new class, and Eula and her new friends quickly become targets. To make it through their first semester, they'll have to fight for their place in this new world--or else they'll be dead before their final exams.
The Last Hope School for Magical Delinquents by Nikki Pau Preto
A middle grade magic school fantasy perfect for fans of The School for Good and Evil and Witchlings, in which a girl with unparalleled power must work with her misfit classmates to save her new school. Lavinia "Vin" Lucas is out of control and out of options. Stranded by parents who would rather use their average magical abilities to study dung beetles than raise her, Vin's been on her own for years. But she's never been able to corral her own powerful, unpredictable magic. After years of detention, suspension, and expulsion from magic schools far and wide, she's now being sent to the Last Hope School for Magical Delinquents. If she gets expelled, it's the end of the line. Now, Vin is determined to behave. Except no one at Last Hope seems to want her to. Her new teachers--particularly the school's kind headmistress--push her to explore her magic, and her mischievous classmates delight in every accident. And all the while, a mysterious fire sprite, a suspicious instructor, and her overwhelming abilities might just sabotage Vin. But for the first time, she is not alone. So when a former student begins attacking the school, Vin must question just how much she knows about the headmistress and her new home. Is this place worth saving? And are her budding abilities--and every trick, trap, and deception in her friends' delinquent arsenal--enough to protect Last Hope?
In 1928, Emily Locke's final year at the isolated Briarley School for Girls is derailed when Violet, the school's brightest star (and a cunning beauty for whom Emily would do anything), falls to her death on her eighteenth birthday. Emily and her buttoned-up rival Evelyn are, for once, in agreement: Violet’s death was no accident. There's an obvious culprit, the French schoolmistress with whom Violet was getting a little too close—they only need to prove it.
Desperate for answers, Emily and her classmates turn to spiritualism, hoping for a glimpse of wisdom from the great beyond. To their shock, Violet’s spirit appears, choosing pious Evelyn as her unlikely medium. And Violet has a warning for them: the danger has just begun.
Something deadly is infecting Briarley. It starts with rotten food and curdled milk, but quickly grows more threatening. As the body count rises and the students race to save themselves, Emily must confront the fatal forces poisoning the school. Emily's fight for survival forces her to reevaluate everything she knows: about Violet, Evelyn, Briarley, and, ultimately, herself. Avery Curran channels the indelible ambience and intrigue of the classic boarding school novel while turning the beloved genre on its head in this visceral, exuberant debut.
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Ben Doane has been a member of the Pandemonium Team since 2019, and has been playing Wargames, RPGs, and TCGs since 2004 and earlier. In addition to running the Blog, she also Runs the Wargaming and Shipping departments, is the store's Art Director, and is in charge of the Newsletter. Her favorite book is currently Joe Golem and the Drowned City.