Dark Academia: Where School Isn’t Exactly What It Seems

A current popular trend in literature is the sub-genre of “dark academia.” The definition itself is a little vague — some describe it as an aesthetic, with images of students wearing tweed blazers during fall, walking around an old academic institution; others suggest that dark academia books are ones that feature an academic setting (often high school, boarding school, or college) and some kind of dark twist; and others say it focuses on the pursuit of knowledge and the exploration of mortality and death. Some say it’s all three of those things! It’s a sub-genre that is not limited to a specific genre; it’s been included in realistic fiction, fantasy, horror, dystopian, and much more.

For this month, we’ve put together a list of books that fall in many genres, all with a dark academia twist. You’ll find realistic fiction, fantasy, horror, urban fantasy, dystopian, and even a picture book!

Àbíké-Íyímídé, Faridah
Ace of Spades. 2021 (Teen).
Welcome to Niveus Private Academy, where money paves the hallways, and the students are never less than perfect. Until now. Because anonymous texter, Ace, is bringing two students’ dark secrets to light. Talented musician Devon buries himself in rehearsals, but he can’t escape the spotlight when his private photos go public. Head girl Chiamaka isn’t afraid to get what she wants, but soon everyone will know the price she has paid for power. Someone is out to get them both. Someone who holds all the aces. And they’re planning much more than a high school game…
S. Ab57ac

Chainani, Soman
The School for Good and Evil. 2013 (Middle Grade).
The first kidnappings happened two hundred years before and have happened every year since. At first, it seemed random, but a pattern was soon clear: one was always good, and one was always a bit of an outcast. This year, best friends Sophie and Agatha are about to discover where all the lost children go: the fabled School for Good & Evil, where ordinary boys and girls are trained to be fairy tale heroes and villains. Sophie has dreamed of being kidnapped into an enchanted world her whole life; with her pink dresses, glass slippers, and devotion to good deeds, she knows she’ll earn top marks at the School for Good and graduate a storybook princess. Agatha, meanwhile, with her shapeless black frocks, wicked pet cat, and dislike of nearly everyone, seems a natural fit for the School for Evil. But their fortunes are reversed when Sophie ends up in the School for Evil and Agatha in the School for Good. It seems wrong to both — unnatural — but what if this mistake is the first clue to discovering who Sophie and Agatha really are?
S. C3491sc

Deonn, Tracy
Legendborn. 2020 (Teen).
After her mother dies in an accident, sixteen-year-old Bree Matthews wants nothing to do with her family memories or childhood home. A residential program for bright high schoolers at UNC-Chapel Hill seems like the perfect escape — until Bree witnesses a magical attack her very first night on campus. She then learns about a secret society of so called “Legendborn” students that hunt creatures down. When a teenage mage who calls himself a “Merlin” fails to wipe Bree’s memory of everything she saw and learned, Bree’s own unique magic is unlocked — and so is a buried memory with a hidden connection: the night her mother died, another Merlin was at the hospital. To find out the truth, Bree recruits Nick, a self-exiled Legendborn, and the two search for the society’s secrets. But they find out a magical war is coming, and Bree has to decide how far she’ll go for the truth and whether or not she should use her magic to take the society down or join the fight.
S. D4402le

Douglass, Ryan
The Taking of Jake Livingston. 2021 (Teen).
Jake Livingston is one of the only Black kids at St. Clair Prep, one of the others being his infinitely more popular older brother. It’s hard enough fitting in but to make matters worse (and definitely more complicated), Jake can see the dead. In fact, he sees the dead around him all the time. Most are harmless. Stuck in their death loops as they relive their deaths over and over again. But then Jake meets Sawyer: a troubled teen who shot and killed six kids at a local high school last year before taking his own life. Now a powerful, vengeful ghost, Sawyer has plans for his afterlife — plans that include Jake. Suddenly, everything Jake knows about ghosts and the rules to life itself go out the window as Sawyer begins haunting him and bodies turn up in his neighborhood. High school soon becomes a survival game — one Jake is not sure he’s going to win.
S. D7476ta

James, Riley
Story Thieves. 2015 (Middle Grade).
Life is boring when you live in the real world, instead of starring in your own book series. Owen knows that better than anyone, what with the real world’s homework and chores. But everything changes the day Owen sees the impossible happen: his classmate Bethany climb out of a book in the library. It turns out Bethany’s half-fictional and has been searching every book she can find for her missing father, a fictional character. Bethany can’t let anyone else learn her secret, so Owen makers her a deal — all she has to do is take him into a book in Owen’s favorite Kiel Gnomenfoot series, and he’ll never say a word. Besides, visiting the book might help Bethany find her father. Or it might just destroy the Kiel Gnomenfoot series, reveal Bethany’s secret to the entire world, and force Owen to live out Kiel Gnomentfoot’s final (very final) adventure.
S. R4534s

Johnson, Maureen
The Hand on the Wall. 2020 (Teen).
Ellingham Academy must be cursed. Three people are now dead. One, a victim of either a prank gone wrong or a murder. Another, dead by misadventure. And now, an accident in Burlington has claimed another life. All three in the wrong place at the wrong time. All at the exact moment of Stevie’s greatest triumph…She knows who Truly Devious is. She’s solved it. The greatest case of the century. At least, she thinks she has. The three deaths in the present; the deaths in the past; the missing Alice Ellingham and the missing David Eastman. Somewhere in this place of riddles and puzzles there must be answers. Then another accident occurs as a massive storm heads toward Vermont. This is too much for the parents and administrators. Ellingham Academy is evacuated. Obviously, it’s time for Stevie to do something stupid. It’s time to stay on the mountain and face the storm — and a murderer.
S. J635trva

Lee, Victoria
A Lesson in Vengeance. 2021 (Teen).
Felicity Morrow is back at Dalloway School. Perched in the Catskill mountains, the centuries-old, ivy-covered campus was home until the tragic death of her girlfriend. Now, after a year away, she’s returned to graduate. She even has her old room in Godwin House, the exclusive dormitory rumored to be haunted by the spirits of five Dalloway students — girls some say were witches. The Dalloway Five all died mysteriously, one after another, right on Godwin grounds. Witchcraft is woven into Dalloway’s history. The school doesn’t talk about it, but the students do. Before her girlfriend died, Felicity was drawn to the dark. She’s determined to leave that behind now; all Felicity wants is to focus on her senior thesis and graduate. But it’s hard when Dalloway’s occult history is everywhere. And when the new girl won’t let her forget.
[On order as of November 2021]

Power, Rory
Wilder Girls. 2019 (Teen).
It’s been eighteen months since the Raxter School for Girls was put under quarantine. Since the Tox hit and pulled Hetty’s life out from under her. It started slow. First the teachers died one by one. Then it began to infect the students, turning their bodies strange and foreign. Now, cut off from the rest of the world and left to fend for themselves on their island home, the girls don’t dare wander outside the school’s fence, where the Tox has made the woods wild and dangerous. They wait for the cure they were promised as the Tox seeps into everything. But when Byatt goes missing, Hetty will do anything to find her, even if it means breaking quarantine and braving the horrors that lie beyond the school’s fence.
S. P8718wi

Talley, Robin
As I Descended. 2016 (Teen).
Maria Lyon and Lily Boiten are their school’s ultimate power couple — even if no one knows it but them. Only one thing stands between them and their perfect future: campus superstar Delilah Dufrey. Golden child Delilah is a legend at the exclusive Archeron Academy, and the presumptive winner of the distinguished Cawdor Kingsley Prize. She runs the school, and if she chose, she could blow up Maria and Lily’s whole world with a pointed look, or a carefully placed word. But what Delilah doesn’t know is that Lily and Maria are willing to do anything to make their dreams come true. And the first step is unseating Delilah for the Kingsley Prize. The full scholarship, awarded to Maria, will lock her attendance at Stanford — and four more years in a shared dorm with Lily. But when feuds turn to fatalities, and madness begins to blur the distinction between what’s real and what is imagined, the girls must decide where they draw the line.
S. T145a

Yolen, Jane
Monster Academy. 2018 (Picture Book).
Where do monsters go to school? Monster Academy! And anything can happen when your teacher is Miss Mummy. Come along with Principal Frank N. Stein into a bright, energetic classroom where the class pet is a big purple boa constrictor, recess is in a swamp, and class bats help build a Creepy Castle in the Monster Maker’s Lab. When Tornado Jo, a new student, roars into class, a storm is brewing. Who could ever guess that her new best friend will be a vampire, and she’ll help him find his missing fang?
Q. SE. Y78mon


Magic and Math: Schools for Sorcerers

These fantasies are about magical schools, where the everyday becomes fantastic. Many of these fantasies pre-date the wildly popular Harry Potter series, but all contain similar elements, including magical teachers, and magic as part of the curriculum. Some of these stories portray schools in a magical world, where students must deal with magic as well as normal school issues such as bullying or self-esteem.

To find more books like the titles below, begin with a subject search of “schools — juvenile fiction” and a keyword search of “magic.”

Alexander, Alma.
Gift of the Unmage. 2007.
As the seventh child born of the union of two seventh children, fourteen-year-old Thea has not fulfilled her parents’ hope of having special magical powers, and they try a last, desperate measure before sending her to a school for those with no magical ability. However, the students can’ escape magic, and it finds its way into the Wandless Academy. Begins the Worldweavers series.
[SSHEL S Collection S. Al262g]

Chainani, Soman.
The School for Good and Evil. 2013.
With her pink dresses, glass slippers, and devotion to good deeds, Sophie knows she’ll earn top marks at the School for Good and graduate a storybook princess. Meanwhile, her best friend Agatha, with her shapeless black frocks, wicked pet cat, and dislike of nearly everyone, seems a natural fit for the School for Evil. When the girls’ fortunes are reversed and Sophie is at the School for Evil and Agatha at the School for Good, the girls are convinced that a mistake has been made, but in trying to remedy it they learn more about themselves and fairy tale conventions than they bargained for.
[SSHEL S Collection S. C3491s]

Duey, Kathleen.
Skin Hunger. 2007.
In alternate chapters, Sadima travels from her farm home to the city and becomes assistant to a heartless man who is trying to restore knowledge of magic to the world, and a group of boys fights to survive in the academy that has resulted from his efforts. A sequel, Sacred Scars, was published in 2009.
[SSHEL S Collection S. D869sk]

Horowitz, Anthony.
Groosham Grange. 2008.
After being expelled from school, thirteen-year-old David Eliot is sent to Groosham Grange, a spooky and sinister boarding school where ghosts and ghouls rule the school and the students study witchcraft. Originally published in 1988 it is followed by Returned to Groosham Grange: The Unholy Grail.
[SSHEL S Collection S. H785g]

Jones, Diana Wynne.
The Lives of Christopher Chant. 1988.
Chronologically, this is the first Chrestomanci story. Chrestomancis are nine-lived wizards, each of whom live at Chrestomanci Castle. Their children are joined by other magically-talented children to form a kind of boarding school where the students learn about themselves and their powers. Some members of the school venture to other worlds or the current Chrestomanci travels to other worlds to deal with problems.
[SSHEL S Collection S. J713L]

Jones, Diana Wynne.
Year of the Griffin. 2000.
This is the sequel to Dark Lord of Derkholm. In this tale, younger siblings and new characters come together at the University to study magic and encounter all kinds of trouble and adventure.
[SSHEL S Collection S. J713y]

Lackey, Mercedes and Rosemary Edghill.
Legacies. 2010.
After her family is killed, Spirit White is taken to Oakhurst Academy, a combination orphanage and school for those with magical powers, where she and her new friends investigate when students start mysteriously disappearing. Sequels Conspiracies, Sacrifices, and Victories continue the Shadow Grail series.
[SSHEL S Collection S. L118le]

Laybourn, Emma.
Missing Magic. 2007.
Thanks to his influential uncle Kelver, Ned’s gotten into an elite new school. But there’s a problem — everyone there can do magic. And Ned? Not a lick. Amid whispers of the terrifying Necromancers, Ned struggles to adjust to his new situation. Then, just as he’s getting accustomed to having his hair turned into snakes and his books into bricks, the Necromancers strike! Ned and his classmates are kidnapped. But without magic, how can he possibly help them escape?
[SSHEL S Collection S. L451m]

Lidell, Alex.
The Cadet of Tildor. 2013.
At the Academy of Tildor, the training ground for elite soldiers, Cadet Renee de Winter struggles to keep up with her male peers, but when her mentor is kidnapped to fight in illegal gladiator games, Renee and best friend Alec struggle to do what is right in a world of crime and political intrigue.
[SSHEL S Collection S.L6196c]

Murphy, Jill.
The Worst Witch. 1981.
It’s Mildred’s first year at Miss Cackle’s Academy for witches; but already she knows she’s the worst at everything. When she makes a particularly disastrous mistake, Mildred decides to run away. On her way she makes a shocking discovery and must overcome her problems to save the school. The Worst Witch returns in several sequels.
[SSHEL S Collection S. M954W]

Neff, Henry.
The Hound of Rowan. 2007.
After glimpsing a hint of his destiny in a mysterious tapestry, twelve-year-old Max McDaniels becomes a student at Rowan Academy, where he trains in “mystics and combat” in preparation for war with an ancient enemy that has been kidnapping children like him. Begins the Tapestry series.
[SSHEL S Collection S. N298h]

Nimmo, Jenny.
Midnight for Charlie Bone. 2002.
Charlie is reasonably happy, living with his impoverished mother and paternal grandmother. But when his father’s strange family observes his uncanny talent, he is sent to a strange school with a sinister headmaster. Soon Charlie and his new friends become part of an ancient battle that continues in the other books in the Children of the Red King series.
[SSHEL S Collection S. N617m]

Pierce, Tamora.
Alanna: The First Adventure. 1983.
Alanna’s dream is to be a knight; so she takes her brother’s place and travels to the palace of Tortall as a page. But she must learn to accept herself and her magic before she can defeat her enemies and become a lady knight. Alanna continues her journey in the Song of the Lioness series.
[SSHEL S Collection S. P611A]

Pierce, Tamora.
First Test. 1999.
Keladry of Mindelan is determined to be a lady knight, like her heroine Sir Alanna. She must prove herself to the other boys and her instructors as well as overcoming physical and magical challenges before she can become a page. Read more about Keladry in the Protector of the Small series.
[SSHEL S Collection S. P611f]

Pierce, Tamora.
Sandry’s Book. 1997.
Four children, outcast and misfit among their families and peoples, are brought to Winding Circle to learn a new way of life and discover their hidden talents. Tris, Daja, and Briar’s books follow in the Circle of Magic series.
[SSHEL S Collection S. P611sa]

Rowling, J. K.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. 1998.
Harry Potter has a miserable life with his relatives until magical things begin to happen and he finds himself at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. In his first year, he makes new friends and enemies and faces a terrifying challenge. Harry Potter continues his studies and faces greater evils in six sequels.
[SSHEL S Collection S. R797h]

Sherman, Delia.
The Magic Mirror of the Mermaid Queen. 2009
In New York Between, a parallel Manhattan that is home to various creatures of folklore, Neef meets her counterparts at Miss Van Loon’s school for human changelings, where Neef learns the basics of diplomacy and soon gets into trouble.
[SSHEL S Collection S. Sh553m]

Stevermer, Caroline.
A College of Magics. 2002.
Teenager Faris Nallaneen, heir to the small northern dukedom of Galazon, is still too young to claim her title, so her despotic Uncle Brinker insists she be sent to Greenlaw College, where all students major in magic. Sequel A Scholar of Magics continues the tale.
[SSHEL S Collection S. St488c]

Yolen, Jane.
Wizard’s Hall. 1991.
Poor Henry. It’s not enough that his mother has sent him away from home to learn magic. It’s not enough that everyone at his new school calls him Thornmallow because he’s “prickly on the outside, squishy within.” It’s not enough that the only talent he shows at Wizard”s Hall is an ability to make messes of even the simplest spells. Now, when Wizard’s Hall is threatened by a cruel sorcerer’s fearsome beast, it is up to Henry — er, Thornmallow — to figure out how to save not only his new friends but also the entire school for wizards.
[SSHEL S Collection S. Y78W]

Immigrant School Stories

Summer is over — it’s officially September, and the K-12 school year is starting up again to the chagrin of the children and the relief of the parents. But what about when school doesn’t just mean the end of summer, but a new, sometimes scary, beginning? Being the new kid in class can be hard on anyone, but the following books focus on the experiences of immigrant children and adolescents from around the world as they begin their education in a new country…with all the challenges and triumphs that entails. Encourage the young readers in your life to try a new kind of school story this September — one that might change the way they think about the new kid in their class.

To find school stories like those below, try keyword search terms like “immigrant” and “school” combined with a subject search of “juvenile fiction.”

Picture Books

Aliki.
Marianthe’s Story One: Painted Words / Marianthe’s Story Two: Spoken Memories. 1998.
Two separate stories in one book: the first telling of Mari’s starting school in a new land, and the second describing village life in her country before she and her family left in search of a better life.
[Center for Children’s Books and SSHEL S-Collection Q. S.Al44m]

Colato Laínez, René.
René has Two Last Names / René Tiene Dos Apellidos. 2009.
In this story based on the author’s childhood, a young Salvadoran immigrant is teased for having two last names until he presents his family tree project celebrating his heritage.
[SSHEL S-Collection Q. SE. C673r]

Cox, Judy.
Carmen Learns English. 2010.
Newly-arrived in the United States from Mexico, Carmen is apprehensive about going to school and learning English.
[SSHEL S-Collection SE. C839c]

Nobisso, Josephine.
In English, of Course. 2002.
Josephine tries to tell her new American class about her life in Naples, Italy, but her teacher misunderstands what she is saying and thinks she grew up on a farm.
[SSHEL S-Collection Q. SE. N6641i]

Recorvits, Helen.
My Name is Yoon. 2003.
Yoon’s name means “shining wisdom” in Korean, but in an American school, she wants to try out English names, including ‘Cat,’ ‘‘Bird,’ and ‘Cupcake.’ Will Yoon find a way to be herself in a new place?
[Center for Children’s Books and SSHEL S-Collection SE. R2453m]

Intermediate to Advanced Readers

Applegate, Katherine.
Home of the Brave. 2008.
Kek, a young refugee from Sudan, finds himself alone in foreign, snowy Minnesota. There he begins school, where he struggles to fit in in his ESL class. Along the way he befriends a cow, learns to navigate the grocery store, and discovers that he can find family in any country.
[Center for Children’s Books and SSHEL S-Collection S. Ap52h]

Castellanos, Jane
Tomasito and the Golden Llamas. 1968.
In order to get a better education, a young Peruvian boy leaves his homeland to live in California with his sister and brother-in-law, but finds the adjustment to school and a new way of life extremely difficult.
[SSHEL Oak Street; Choose pick up: SSHEL]

Himelblau, Linda.
The Trouble Begins. 2005.
Vietnamese Du Nguyen has lived in the Philippines with his grandmother his whole life. Now it’s time to join the rest of his family in California…and the trouble begins. How will Du survive in an American school where the other kids call him “Doo-Doo Head?” Can Du find his inner strength?
[SSHEL S-Collection S. H571t]

Lombard, Jenny.
Drita, My Homegirl. 2006.
When ten-year-old Drita and her family, refugees from Kosovo, move to New York, Drita is teased about not speaking English well, but after a popular student named Maxie is forced to learn about Kosovo as a punishment for teasing Drita, the two girls soon bond.
[SSHEL S-Collection S. L838d]

Tolliver, Ruby C.
Sarita, Be Brave. 1999.
When political unrest in Honduras forces twelve-year-old Sara to flee with her family and make the dangerous journey north to Texas, she faces the challenges of starting a new school and a new life.
[SSHEL Oak Street [Choose pick-up: SSHEL] S. T579s]