I’ve really missed doing Friday Favorites, and since no one was currently hosting it, Cait @ Functionally Fictional decided to jump into the gap. Each week, she provides a prompt, and I get to talk about my favorite books that fit the topic. Feel free to join in – the more the merrier!

Today’s prompt is dark academia books, and this is such a buzzy topic lately. I feel like everyone loves dark academia both in books and as an overall aesthetic, but what is dark academia really? According to a post by Celadon Books, “these books are moody and mysterious narratives that usually take place within the confines of an esteemed university or boarding school. Think: darkened libraries, cloak-and-dagger campus societies, looming Gothic towers, and college quads buzzing with intrigue.”

Now that this is squared away, here are some of my favorite dark academia books:

1. Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo. This is the follow up to Ninth House, and I found that I liked it even more than the first book. It’s set on the grounds of Yale University and deals with secret societies.
2. A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness. I don’t know what’s more dark academia than a university professor getting caught up in life-changing research and realizing that there is a lot more to her academic world than she ever realized.
3. A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik. I loved this series, and this is a great example of dark academia with a hefty dose of fantasy.
4. Vicious by V.E. Schwab. This is another incredible read, and it all stems from the interaction between roommates in college.
5. The Will of the Many by James Islington. This is one of those sci-fi/fantasy crossover books that absolutely blew my mind, and after reading it, it exemplifies the dark academia sub-genre.
6. I Have Some Questions For You by Rebecca Makkai. This takes place at a New Hampshire boarding school, and has an unusual format—it’s more like a podcast, so I suggest the audiobook version if you read this one.
7. The Witch Hunt by Sasha Peyton Smith. I picked this one up on a whim at a sale, and I haven’t heard much about it. This story about young women at a special boarding school for witches was fantastic!
8. Babel by R.F. Kuang. This story merges historical fiction and fantasy in the setting of Oxford, where students are trained in the arts of translation and silver working, but discover the dark side of their education.
9. Vita Nostra by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko. This one absolutely fits into dark academia, but it’s impossible to explain further than that. Just trust me when I say to read this one.
10. One For All by Lillie Lainoff. This gender-bent telling of The Three Musketeers involves a special finishing school for young women, but my favorite part of it was the fact that the MC has a disability but doesn’t let it hold her back more than she has to.

What are some of your favorite dark academia books?