dark academia

May was a bit of a slow month for me, I’ll admit. The general state of the world and some things I’m going through in my personal life made it kind of hard for me to find time to read and when I did find time, I couldn’t focus. However, I still managed to read seven incredible books this month and I wanted to highlight them below. They’re not in chronological order but rather in a ranking from best to worst of the month. I will say, though, all of these books were great and fun to read, I had a super enjoyable month with pretty much no flubs. So, on to the list!

1) Chosen Ones by Veronica Roth

Let me first admit that I haven’t read a single Divergent book. I’m sure I will eventually, it’s just never been a series that piqued my interest and I think it was really a hit sensation when I wasn’t reading as much as I do now. Because of this, though, I think I was able to go into Chosen Ones with a very open mind. It was nothing like what I expected but I ended up absolutely loving it. What I thought was just going to be a book about chosen ones trying to adapt to normal life in their 30s became a book about parallel universes and twists and turns and paradigm shifts. It was crazy and I definitely didn’t expect that much world building.

2) Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Robinson

I picked up Sorcery of Thorns from Book Outlet for less than $5 because I had heard so many awesome things about it and, honestly, who can say no to a book for under five dollars. Also, why is it such a well kept secret that Nathaniel is bisexual. If I had known that I would have read it so much sooner. I also really enjoy Silas and particularly the between relationship Silas and Nathaniel. The magic systems were extremely cool and I loved watching a Young Adult book delve into the subject of legitimate sorcery.

3) The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon

After reading Samantha Shannon’s 2019 fantasy epic, Priory of the Orange Tree, I knew I should probably go back and read her earlier series, The Bone Season. This was also part of my Book Outlet order because they just so happened to have all three, The Bone Season, The Mime Order, and The Song Falling available all for under $5. Knowing nothing about the series, I was immediately drawn into it. The different types of clairvoyance intrigued me right off the bat and then all of the sudden there was an alien race and nothing was as it seemed. I get the feeling there’s still so much about the world that the reader doesn’t know and I can’t wait to read the rest of the series.

4) The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling

My significant other read this first and told me I absolutely had to read it, and I’m glad I finally got around to it. This book is equal parts atmospheric and horrific while still being inspiring and a little manic. Fans of horror movies like The Descent or books like The Annihilation or Wilder Girls will absolutely LOVE this book. It’s a solid addition to the badass female protagonist dealing with subterranean terrors and otherworldly flora and fauna.

5) Date Me, Bryson Keller by Kevin van Whye

Date Me, Bryson Keller isn’t my usual read but I received a free eBook through NetGalley and I ended up loving it. I wrote a full review on this LGBTQ+ Young Adult fiction book here.

6) Nevernight by Kay Kristoff

There’s a few reasons I put Nevernight so low on the list, even though I gave it a five star review. The major reason is that I can tell, very obviously, that the main female character was written by a man. Some of the things she goes through and some of the motivations she has are definitely rooted in the male gaze, as is a lot of the world building and plot development. For example, giving her slightly bigger breasts so that she “blends in”, because, you know, to be an assassin you have to blend in and having a flat chest would just make you too inconspicuous. Having said that, though, I still found myself rooting for Mia and rejoiced every time she ended up steps ahead of her competition. I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

7) Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas

This dark academia book had everything I should have loved, but it ultimately missed the mark for me. The pacing is extremely weird, there is little to no character development, and none of the character motivations seem to ever make sense. I loved the atmosphere and the setting of Catherine House, but this was a miss for me. You can read my full review of Catherine House here.

There you have it, my official ranking of all of my May reads. Be sure to follow me on GoodReads if you haven’t already to stay up to date with everything I’m reading!

Why a Sub-genre about Privilege has such a Cult Minority Following

Dark Academia isn’t new, in fact, it’s centuries old. The genre is predicated on a few things, it involves a school setting (usually college or private in nature), a group of friends, and extremely dark themes such as murder, violence, deceit, suicide, etc… Many Greek tragedies are considered Dark Academia simply because they usually take place in a scholarly setting and examine deep, philosophical questions about nature, humankind, and more. Historically, these themes have only been examined, for the most part, by white males, particularly of European or Anglo-Saxon descent. So why, then, does this genre currently have such a cult following of minorities?

Here are my thoughts on the matter as a queer woman:

Evil isn’t personified but still recognizable

In a lot of other genres a finger can be pointed directly at the thing or person who is evil. It’s a dark force of nature or a malicious deity or a wizard bent on destruction. In Dark Academia, often times, there is no point blank evil force, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t evil. In Dark Academia, evil resides in the people and things we recognize all too clearly, the young college boys who harass and demean women but never face consequences for it, the institution that turns a blind eye to evil acts because it benefits from them. Dark Academia gives us the opportunity to explore those lives we often love to hate. The rich, the elite, the tone deaf, the only difference is, most of the time the evil characters are bookended by characters we HOPE exist in these places, working against the system they were born into. Darlington from Ninth House is a perfect example of this.

Characters face consequences for their actions outside of the law

While the evil is identifiable that doesn’t mean Dark Academia is black and white. Often times characters will act against other characters who have done evil or malicious things in a way that is also evil or malicious, taking the, somewhat, twisted, role of a vigilante. I find this particular plot point so interesting to read because, as minorities, we tend to know that there isn’t much the law will do to help us. Rape kits sit untested in evidence rooms for decades, reports of harassment go undocumented, the list goes on and on. Dark Academia gives us a place to see those privileged, maligned characters get their “just desserts”, even if the revenge is just as morally repugnant. An example of this would be The Secret History by Donna Tartt and also Alex Stern’s revenge blackmail of a college frat boy who raped her friend in Ninth House.

Heavily implied homoerotic subtext

One of the thematic elements that you can find in almost all Dark Academia is homoerotic subtext. Historically there aren’t usually “out” gay characters or gay relationships, but because MOST of the characters tend to be men, there is a lot of subtext and interpretation that could be construed as homosexual in nature. In recent decades, however, that has started to change and writers have begun to include actual LGBTQ+ characters, for instance Ronan and Adam in The Raven Cycle series. But older examples like The Picture of Dorian Gray and Dead Poets Society just heavily imply it.

It’s fun to hate characters sometimes

I don’t always need to like a character and support all their decisions for me to recognize that they are a good (ie well written) character. Sometimes it’s fun to hate characters and watch their actions like an on-going trainwreck. I know this a matter of preference but I think it also really lends itself to why Dark Academia has such a cult following. The characters inspire such strong emotion, it’s hard not to want to talk about it with other people and discuss what happened. If there’s one criticism I see from people who don’t like Dark Academia it’s that none of the characters are likable and I have to say, I just don’t understand that. A character doesn’t have to be likable for me to like them as a character, in fact, them being wholly unlikable usually makes it more exciting.

Dark Academia Recommendations

Interested in trying out the genre? I have a few books listed below that I have personally read that I’ve ranked from “easiest” to “hardest” in terms of how difficult they can be to get into if you’re new to the genre. This is by no means an exhaustive list as it only includes books I’ve read, but I highly recommend all of these.

The Raven Boys – Maggie Stiefvater
Vicious – V.E. Schwab
A Great and Terrible Beauty – Libba Bray
Ninth House – Leigh Bardugo
Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro
Hamlet – William Shakespeare
The Secret History – Donna Tartt
The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde
Frankenstein – Mary Shelley

Citronella Seance Reads

May 2020 Monthly Roundup