📜 DARK ACADEMIA BOOKS 📜 Books To Read If You Love The Dark Academia Aesthetic

[@42lucyinthesky]

Most of these are on my tbr, dark academia always somehow feels like an autumn genre to me, so I'm saving a lot up for chilly evenings and candlelight

[@AFrolicThroughFiction]

Yesss absolutely! Perfect for autumn 🙌🏻

[@toribrookss]

here 4 months later literally for this reason!

[@ridaarif9372]

I have watched more than 10 videos on Dark Academia Book Recommendations and I’m surprised that The Cartographers isn’t mentioned anywhere. Not even in comments. Maybe it’s a recent release that’s why? but I want more people to read it. It was amazing!

[@sharylgrangaard8484]

I received this book from Book of the Mounth.Started it but put it aside to read my library books and can't wait to pick it back up👍

[@the_creepy_geek]

I really need to read The Secret History because it sounds so good! I do love a bit of dark academia but I have to be in the right mood!

[@saragouveiaa]

Ashleigh, I've recently read Atlas Six and I loved it! Do check it out, it has magic, a secret society and six very compelling and morally grey characters.

[@AFrolicThroughFiction]

Ooh I haven’t heard of that one I don’t think, shall take a look!

[@callmechrisy]

The Secret History is the gold standard when it comes to the Dark Academia genre. It is the book that really started it all. It's one of my all time favourite books as is When We We're Villains. Five Stars all the way.

[@oliviapillinger7263]

Most of these are on my TBR already lol but these are aweomse! As someone who is falling deep into the dark academia aesthetic i loved this video!

[@eleanorball7906]

Love the combination of new releases, BookTube favorites and lesser-known books! Vicious has been on my tbr foreverrrr and I can’t believe I haven’t gotten to it yet

[@demeldapenkitty7937]

Love the dark academia vibe, great video

[@KristinKravesBooks]

Plain Bad Heroines is one of my favourite books and it definitely has dark academia vibes, but I wouldn't say it is strictly dark academia! There is a book coming out in August called A Lesson in Vengeance that seems to be dark academia and is sapphic! Love this video as always!

[@AFrolicThroughFiction]

I really want to read Plain Bad Heroines! It’s sounds amazing 🙌🏻 also A Lesson in Vengeance rings a bell but I need to look into it some more!

[@peggingmothman]

Yes I second this! It's by Victoria Lee who is one of my favourite authors atm. I read an excerpt is on their blog and the small bit I read was so good!!

[@KristinKravesBooks]

@@peggingmothman ohhh I am going to have to read the excerpt!

[@KristinKravesBooks]

@@peggingmothman read it and just preordered!

[@peggingmothman]

@@KristinKravesBooks yay! waiting until August is gonna be torture! Have you read her first series The Feverwake Duology? They were my favourite books that I read in 2019 would recommend if you like sci fi fantasy I would die for Dara and Noam! 😭

[@peggingmothman]

These Violent Delights is on my tbr at the moment I got it a couple months ago and this video made me remember I need to pick it up soon!

[@FrancescaMulvey]

I've not read any of these - though a few are on my want to read list - but I feel like A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness would fit well into Dark Academia as there is an academic side, part of it is set at a university but the trilogy also focuses on a lost manuscript, and there are creatures of the supernatural involved including vampires :) (I don't think these facts are spoilers as they are mentioned in the blurb of the first book)

[@christineread1685]

I'm currently reading ADoW and I totally agree. I definitely feel it had those DA vibes and I'm loving it 💖

[@FrancescaMulvey]

@@christineread1685 I'm rereading them...for the second time, with a buddy in June near my birthday and I'm so excited! - I'm also hoping to finally watch the second season adaptation as I don't have sky haha

[@starry_worlds]

I have most of these on my TBR. I enjoy reading dark academia but it can be hit or miss so I don't read it that often. One that I'm very excited about that's releasing this year is A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee.

[@mindfulbynicole]

So many good sounding good recommendations! I've been wanting to read more Dark Academia since reading The Secret History last year.

[@aglae1912]

I believe the second book of "A lesson in vengeance", by Victoria Lee is coming up this month, and it is definitely a dark academia series. I haven't started reading it yet but I loved her other duology, "The fever king" ! TW for mental illness issues and sexual abuses though (it gets pretty dark in the fever king series, and even if it is brilliantly written and justified, it is still hard to read)

[@thegoth_librarian]

Plain Bad Heroines definitely has DA vibes- it kind of uses that as more of a jumping off point but I think it worked really well! Special Topics in Calamity Physics was an interesting one & The Historian fits with more of a fantasy/ horror twist!

[@theteentribune3825]

I recently found your channel and I wish I found it earlier and yes dark academia is something I wanted to know more about Thank you!

[@AFrolicThroughFiction]

Ahh thank you! Just means you have plenty of videos to watch when you’re bored aha 💚

[@raijaynehearse]

Great video. I love dark academia and happy to binge any videos about it!!

[@CartonManetteDarnay]

I’m eager to read These Violent Delights but it’s either hard to find of so expensive in the UK 🙈

[@JulEnglefaris]

Yes! I have had a hard time finding this book, especially because there are actually a decent amount of other books with the same title

[@angelacanedit]

get the ebook!

[@littledevonnook]

Ace of Spades is at the top of my wishlist :) great video!

[@aglae1912]

Oh and thinking about it : I really do not know if it was translated in english, since the author is french, nor if it will perfectly meet your criteria for the dark academia genre, but there is the book "Méto" by Yves Grevet. It takes place in an institution with very strict rules, I really really do not know how to describe this book but it is good. And there is also "Jonah", by Thaï-Marc Le Thanh, which is incredible.

[@BooksNest]

Fab video - can vouch for Catherine House, so good!!

[@jenniedamron5912]

I loved the Secret Maidens. Great read. These Violent Delights is on my TBR as well as The Secret History. I am obsessed with Dark Academia. 😊

[@helenjeindl524]

Don’t know if Ben Eltons ‘Time after time’ has ever crossed your path, it is a great amalgam of dark academia, historical fiction, time travel and thriller. I haven’t liked anything else he’s written but this one really worked for me and raised a lot of great questions that I still ask myself all these years later.

[@Lulubast]

adding a bunch of those to my tbr! and if you ever did want to get into the pros, the cons, the variations, the complications of the genre, that would be so cool! and speaking of cottagecore, have you encountered any books that embody adjacent genres/aesthetics to dark academia?

[@pagesandprose]

I really loved If We Were Villians, and I've been meaning to try The Secret History again. I started it a couple of years ago and couldn't get past the 50-page mark because of how overly pretentious it is (I know that's the point lol). I found Catherine House really atmospheric, but I was really disappointed with how slow and aimless the plot was for most of the book, and by the time stuff actually started happening, I just didn't care anymore. But I really hope that you end up liking it more. Also, Madam was slow-paced, but honestly it was so unsettling and good! And The Maidens is one I'm super excited about too!

[@readbymalja]

Hey Ashleigh! I hope you're doing well ♥️ This is one of my favorite book genres as well! And I'm definitely adding most of these books in my TBR.. 😊

[@TheBookishMom]

i really want to pick up We Were Villains, and I really enjoyed Ninth House!

[@elenichamou1791]

Aaah thank you Ashleigh, I read The Furies and I loved it!

[@AFrolicThroughFiction]

I’m so glad to hear that!

[@toriadz38]

I love dark academia generally. Read some of the ones you talked about, have some of the others to read one day. A few others I would class as dark academia that don’t always make the lists are Queen’s Gambit (the intensive study and focus on chess gives me the same vibes), Name of the Rose, and We Keep the Dead Close (true crime about a woman who becomes obsessed with a murder that occurred 40 years earlier at Harvard)

[@jadyn6291]

The Name of the Rose is my favorite book! I definitely think it’s Dark Academic

[@sharylgrangaard8484]

Reading Summer Sons.Perfect dark academia for the( you guessed it) Summer😎

[@AFrolicThroughFiction]

I have it on my shelves! It came out after this video aha

[@francytrav95]

I love dark academia ❤️ The Secret History is one of my favorite books of all time 😍 I also liked Ninth House, but I didn’t like Bunny, I gave it 2,5⭐️

[@nihad-m]

Any book with beautiful writing and deals with any form of art or academic settings is dark academia to me. This can be the Phantom of the Opera, vicious, or Einstein's Dreams.

[@kialazyeyereader1822]

I looove dark academia and your description of it is spot on for me :) I likes Black Chalk, but I am not sure I understood it properly 🤔

[@forestofpages]

I dont think I've ever read a dark academia book, but I am really curious to try one

[@sukki6052]

The aesthetics in this video 😍

[@Isabella-iu2sf]

Another one coming out in August (on the 8th, I think?) is A Lesson In Vengeance by Victoria Lee! I'm so excited for it

[@sakurahan91]

I haven’t read a Dark Academia book yet. I own Ninth House but that’s it!

[@Mokoko83]

Loved this! I’ve got quite a few on this list - it’s my favourite genre/aesthetic in books and stories! ❤️ 📚 📜💼 excited for The Maidens! Xx

[@AFrolicThroughFiction]

It’s such a good atmosphere to become wrapped up in!

[@Mokoko83]

@@AFrolicThroughFiction Hi! Just popping back to say I bought An Instance of the Fingerpost after reading the first couple pages - the writing is great, the POV is slightly whimsical and it just hooked me! Thank you for the rec! I love finding little known gems 🙂xx

[@confessionofabookdragon]

I am trying to get into Dark Academia!

[@AFrolicThroughFiction]

I hope you find something you love!

[@debbieg.4882]

I am obsessed with dark academia. Have you read A Deadly Education? That's a recent one I've read and loved.

[@AFrolicThroughFiction]

Yes but I personally wouldn’t class that as dark academia entirely, more just fantasy in a school setting as mentioned at the beginning! ☺️

[@countrycrossstitcher3573]

Whenever Dark Academia is mentioned I immediately think ‘Rick Payne’ although he might be more supernatural genre being that that’s the genre of the Tv show he’s in. Whoever knows who Rick Payne is, you are my people 😁

[@jackiesliterarycorner]

I love Professor Payne!

[@tiffanyanne7861]

Bunny is wild lol.

[@profearthurito6993]

Greetings and blessings from San Juan de Lurigancho, Lima, Perú.

[@victoriaparr6745]

Can I ask what the brown book behind you is 👀 I have the Irish folk and fairy tales 🥰

[@AFrolicThroughFiction]

It’s Le Morte d’Arthur!

[@victoriaparr6745]

Thank you! I screenshot and zoomed in and I was like nope...I’ll have to ask 🤣

[@caitlyn.m.t9618]

I personally really like dark academia, as an aesthetic and...is it a genre of sorts? I don't know but there is a section on my shelf dedicated to dark academia. But for me, it is not about the setting. You don't have to be on a campus for it to be dark academia but there has to be a focus on academia. That could something artistic, something scientific and more. There are some things that I think that are dark academia because of this and yet you will never see it on a list because the vibe and aesthetic just doesn't match with it. There is a book coming out that I desperately want to read called Lesson in Vengeance (Victoria Lee). It is about 'a boarding school haunted by its history of witchcraft and two girls dangerously close to digging up the past' which is a direct rip from goodreads. I also want to read that may have dark academia themes or vibes....but I don't know enough about it to know that. It is a retelling of The Picture of Dorian Gray but genderbent and sapphic and we are following an artist and a photographer. It is called She's Too Pretty to Burn (Wendy Heard).

[@JayGTheAwkwardBookworm]

Gaaaah I need to read ace of spades so badly!!!

[@Books_BrewsandBeyond]

It's a great book you won't regret it!

[@LadetteM]

Just casually rewatching this video to make sure I didn't miss any for my owned TBR 👀

[@AFrolicThroughFiction]

I’ll need to do some kind of DA video this autumn, I have loads more since 😂

[@LadetteM]

@@AFrolicThroughFiction well I know there are books on this list you've read since then but Tiepolo Blue looks good so I shall *try* to wait patiently until Autumn hahah

[@AFrolicThroughFiction]

There’s a story highlight on my insta for any I knew of last year, and my recent book haul has any new ones I got recently!

[@LadetteM]

@@AFrolicThroughFiction oh I've been all up in it hahah don't worry!

[@JulEnglefaris]

To this list I would also like to add: A Separate Peace Never Let Me Go

[@angelacanedit]

who's the author of never let me go?

[@JulEnglefaris]

@@angelacanedit Kazuo Ishiguro. Same author who wrote Klara and The Sun, although I really didn't like NLMG.

[@agnes4606]

I actually got a lot of dark academia vibes from A Little Life, though in a kind of different way than the "traditional" dark academia story🤷‍♀️

[@angelacanedit]

YES. Reading A Little Life is actually what reignited my interest in DA, even though that's not really what it is

[@bobybobbyjr291]

What would you say the age range would be for "These Violent Delight"?

[@AFrolicThroughFiction]

I can’t remember exactly but there wasn’t anything explicit as far as I remember , I’m fairly sure most scenes were the “fade to black” sort or just suggestive

[@bobybobbyjr291]

@@AFrolicThroughFiction Brilliant! Thank you so much !

[@AbiofPellinor]

You said you hope they publish These Violent Delights here "properly", how have they published it so far?

[@AFrolicThroughFiction]

The last time I checked it only had/has a US publisher, so while you can get it in the UK it tends to be more expensive and takes longer to order into bookstores etc - could have changed now re. prices and where it’s available! Saying “properly” was poor word choice on my part so apologies

[@AbiofPellinor]

@@AFrolicThroughFiction ahhh I get it, and no don't worry! It totally works for the situation, I was just being nosey cause I didn't know haha

[@openwindows101]

.The First Love Codex

[@jimsbooksreadingandstuff]

Interesting video. I recently enjoyed Leigh Bardugo set in the dark academic fantasy world of Yale University.

[@niamh4546]

ahh i love dark academia as a genre so excited to watch this!

[@AFrolicThroughFiction]

Hope you enjoy!!

[@MaryJoHeadrick]

i want to get into dark academia but i'm just so easily annoyed by pretentious characters, i'm not sure how i'd cope

[@autumnritchie1473]

🖤🖤🖤

[@GothicKin]

It just hit me... Danganronpa is Dark Academia