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Dark Academia Display

August 12, 2025 Julie Iatron

Dark academia titles feature higher education, the arts, and literature--often with a focus on books and libraries!  Pretend like you're heading back to school with one of these titles today:

"My Dark Vanessa" by Kate Russell is definitely dark and disturbing--but also a great read.  "2000. Bright, ambitious, and yearning for adulthood, fifteen-year-old Vanessa Wye becomes entangled in an affair with Jacob Strane, her magnetic and guileful forty-two-year-old English teacher. 2017. Amid the rising wave of allegations against powerful men, a reckoning is coming due. Strane has been accused of sexual abuse by a former student, who reaches out to Vanessa, and now Vanessa suddenly finds herself facing an impossible choice: remain silent, firm in the belief that her teenage self willingly engaged in this relationship, or redefine herself and the events of her past. But how can Vanessa reject her first love, the man who fundamentally transformed her and has been a persistent presence in her life? Is it possible that the man she loved as a teenager--and who professed to worship only her--may be far different from what she has always believed? Alternating between Vanessa's present and her past, "My Dark Vanessa" juxtaposes memory and trauma with the breathless excitement of a teenage girl discovering the power her own body can wield. Thought-provoking and impossible to put down, this is a masterful portrayal of troubled adolescence and its repercussions that raises vital questions about agency, consent, complicity, and victimhood."  

Nothing says dark academia like an elite private school, which is the setting for Rebecca Hanover's "The Last Applicant."  "When Sarah, an overachieving mother, insinuates herself into her life, Audrey Singer, the admissions director of an exclusive Manhattan private school whose power is undeniable-as is her perfect life, finds things taking a dark and ominous turn when she realizes Sarah wants more than just her son's admission."

I enjoyed the fraught pace of "The Society of Lies" by Lauren Brown.  "When a young woman turns up dead on her college campus, her sister doesn't believe it was an accident-and when she starts to dig for answers, her investigations take her closer to home than she ever would have imagined in this thrilling debut novel from an exciting new talent. Every year, Maya loves heading back to Princeton for her reunions-she may have graduated a decade ago, but it's always fun to see old faces and take a walk through her own history. And this year is even more special because her little sister, Naomi, is about to graduate from her alma mater. But what should have been a dream weekend becomes Maya's worst nightmare when she gets a call no one ever wants-Naomi is dead. The police are saying it's an overdose, but Maya knows for a fact that Naomi would never touch drugs. As Maya attempts to piece together the last semester of Naomi's life, she starts to realize there might be a lot of things Naomi never told her. Like the fact that she'd joined Sterling Club, the most exclusive social club on campus-the same one Maya belonged to-despite Maya warning her away. And if Maya had to guess, she'd say Naomi was also tapped for the secret society within it. The more Maya uncovers, the more terrified she becomes that Naomi's decision to follow in her footsteps might have been exactly what got her killed. Because Maya's time at Princeton wasn't as wonderful as she always pretended it was-after all, her sister wasn't the first young woman to turn up dead. And every clue keeps leading Maya back to the past, and to the people she holds nearest and dearest."

"Catherine House" is a school of higher learning like no other.  In this book by Elisabeth Thomas, "hidden deep in the woods of rural Pennsylvania, this crucible of reformist liberal arts study with its experimental curriculum, wildly selective admissions policy, and formidable endowment, has produced some of the world's best minds: prize-winning authors, artists, inventors, Supreme Court justices, presidents. For those lucky few selected, tuition, room, and board are free. But acceptance comes with a price. Students are required to give the House three years--summers included--completely removed from the outside world. Family, friends, television, music, even their clothing must be left behind. In return, the school promises a future of sublime power and prestige, and that its graduates can become anything or anyone they desire."

You'll find these titles and more in our "Dark Academia" display.  For additional title suggestions, see the lists below:

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