Aug. 11, 2025 – As a new semester approaches, we've curated a list of novels with a dark and magical take on the school experience. The Dark Academia genre takes Harry Potter, ages it up, and mixes it with a good dose of dark magic, horror, and sometimes a little romantasy.
Browse the Dark Academia book list below and click the covers to put titles on hold in the library's catalog.
"Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution" by R.F. Kuang (2022)
In 1828, Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he'll enroll in Oxford University's prestigious Royal Institute of Translation – also known as Babel. Babel is the world's center for translation and, more importantly, magic. Silver working – the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation using enchanted silver bars – has made the British unparalleled in power, as its knowledge serves the Empire's quest for colonization.
For Robin, Oxford is a utopia dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. But knowledge obeys power, and as a Chinese boy raised in Britain, Robin realizes serving Babel means betraying his motherland. As his studies progress, Robin finds himself caught between Babel and the shadowy Hermes Society, an organization dedicated to stopping imperial expansion. When Britain pursues an unjust war with China over silver and opium, Robin must decide – can powerful institutions be changed from within, or does revolution always require violence?
"Enigma" by Runyx (2025)
Salem Salazar is fascinated with death. The black sheep of her scandal-ridden, wealthy family, she arrives at Mortimer University as a legacy on the hunt for answers about what happened to her perfect older sister. There, she discovers that her sister is far from the only girl to have gone missing at Mortimer. Salem will do anything to discover what dark forces are killing Mortimer's students ... even if it means using herself as bait.
And Cazimir van der Waal has caught her scent. The mysterious artist and teaching assistant has a dark past, a hidden agenda, and a ravenous appetite for a beautiful, golden-eyed girl who seems determined to risk her life. Where she is ice, he is fire. Where she is organization, he is chaos. Where she is precision, he is passion. Together they are explosive – their fates linked as secret societies and death stalk them both. Enigma is a sensual, epic love story for those who also crave the frightful, the puzzling, the suspenseful, the dangerous and the dark. Welcome to Mortimer.
"The Library at Hellebore" by Cassandra Khaw (2025)
The Hellebore Technical Institute for the Gifted is the premier academy for the dangerously powerful: the Anti-Christs and Ragnaroks, the world-eaters and apocalypse-makers. Hellebore promises redemption, acceptance, and a normal life after graduation. At least, that's what Alessa Li is told when she's kidnapped and forcibly enrolled. But there's more to Hellebore than meets the eye. On graduation day, the faculty go on a ravenous rampage, feasting on Alessa's class. Only Alessa and a group of her classmates escape the carnage. Trapped in the school's library, they must offer a human sacrifice every night, or else the faculty will break down the door and kill everyone. Can they band together and survive, or will the faculty eat its fill?
"Arcana Academy" by Elise Kova (2025)
Clara Graysword has survived the underworld of Eclipse City through thievery, luck, and a whole lot of illegal magic. After a job gone awry, Clara is sentenced to a lifetime in prison for inking tarot cards – a rare power reserved for practitioners at the elite Arcana Academy. Just when it seems her luck has run dry, the academy's enigmatic headmaster, Prince Kaelis, offers her an escape – for a price. Kaelis believes Clara is the perfect tool to help him steal a tarot card from the king and use it to re-create an all-powerful card long lost to time.
In order to conceal her identity and keep her close, Kaelis brings Clara to Arcana Academy, introducing her as the newest first-year student and his bride-to-be. Thrust into a world of arcane magic and royal intrigue, where one misstep will send her back to prison or worse, Clara finds that the prince she swore to hate may not be what he seems. But can she risk giving him power over the world – and her heart? Or will she take it for herself?"
"Blood Over Bright Haven" by M.L. Wang (2024)
For twenty years, Sciona has devoted every waking moment to the study of magic, fueled by a mad desire to achieve the impossible: to be the first woman ever admitted to the High Magistry at the University of Magics and Industry. When Sciona finally passes the qualifying exam and becomes a highmage, she finds her challenges have just begun. Her new colleagues are determined to make her feel unwelcome – and, instead of a qualified lab assistant, they give her a janitor.
What neither Sciona nor her peers realize is that her taciturn assistant was not always a janitor. Ten years ago, he was a nomadic hunter who lost his family on their perilous journey from the wild plains to the city. But now he sees the opportunity to understand the forces that decimated his tribe, drove him from his homeland, and keep the privileged in power. At first, mage and outsider have a fractious relationship. But working together, they uncover an ancient secret that could change the course of magic forever – if it doesn’t get them killed first.
"An Academy for Liars" by Alexis Henderson (2024)
Lennon Carter gets a mysterious phone call inviting her to take the entrance exam for Drayton College, a school of magic hidden in a secret pocket of Savannah. Lennon has been chosen because – like everyone else at the school – she has the innate gift of persuasion, the ability to wield her will like a weapon, using it to control others and, in rare cases, matter itself. After passing the test, Lennon begins to learn how to master her devastating and unsettling power. Despite persuasion’s heavy toll on her body and mind, she is wholly captivated by her studies, by Drayton’s lush, moss-draped campus, and by her brilliant classmates.
But even more captivating is her charismatic adviser, Dante, who both intimidates and enthralls her. As Lennon continues in her studies, her control grows, and she starts to uncover more about the secret world she has entered into, including the disquieting history of Drayton College. She is increasingly disturbed by what she learns, for it seems that the ultimate test is to embrace absolute power without succumbing to corruption ... and it’s a test she’s terrified she’s going to fail.
"On Wings of Blood" by Briar Boleyn (2024)
A half-fae in a school of highblood vampires? That's a recipe for torment. I'm Medra Pendragon – last of the dragon riders, or so they tell me. Funny thing is, there are no dragons left. Not a single one. But somehow, that hasn't stopped the vampires from deciding I'm worth capturing. Now I'm stuck at Bloodwing Academy, where the highbloods run everything – and blightborn like me? We're just blood in their veins, pawns in their games. But that's not even the worst part. Enter Blake Drakharrow. Cold, arrogant, and way too gorgeous for his own good. He's been tormenting me since the moment we met, and now, thanks to some ancient ritual, we're betrothed. He acts like he owns me, but I'm not going down without a fight. Bloodwing isn't just a school – it's a battlefield. Highbloods fight for power, and if you're weak? You're dead.
"The Incandescent" by Emily Tesh (2025)
Doctor Walden is the Director of Magic at Chetwood School and one of the most powerful magicians in England. Her days consist of meetings, teaching A-Level Invocation to four talented, chaotic sixth formers, more meetings, and securing the school's boundaries from demonic incursions. Walden is good at her job – no, Walden is great at her job. But demons are masters of manipulation. It's her responsibility to keep her school with its six hundred students and centuries-old legacy safe. And it's possible the entity Walden most needs to keep her school safe from is herself.
"Ninth House" by Leigh Bardugo (2019)
Galaxy "Alex" Stern is the most unlikely member of Yale's freshman class. Raised in the Los Angeles hinterlands by a hippie mom, Alex dropped out of school early and into a world of shady drug-dealer boyfriends, dead-end jobs, and much, much worse. In fact, by age twenty, she is the sole survivor of a horrific, unsolved multiple homicide. Some might say she's thrown her life away. But at her hospital bed, Alex is offered a second chance: to attend one of the world's most prestigious universities on a full ride. What's the catch, and why her?
Still searching for answers, Alex arrives in New Haven tasked by her mysterious benefactors with monitoring the activities of Yale's secret societies. Their eight windowless "tombs" are the well-known haunts of the rich and powerful, from high-ranking politicos to Wall Street's biggest players. But their occult activities are more sinister and more extraordinary than any paranoid imagination might conceive. They tamper with forbidden magic. They raise the dead. And, sometimes, they prey on the living.
"Sanctuary of the Shadow" by Aurora Ascher (2024)
Harrow was born during a war between two of the five capricious Elemental Queens. It's a war of fury and attrition, and exacted its price in blood. In one grim night, almost all of the water Elementals – the Seers – were killed. All but Harrow. Years later, she's taken refuge in anonymity, hidden within an unusual circus run by a centuries-old Enchanter. No one can know who she really is or about the magic she wields. Now the circus has acquired a new 'attraction.' A creature dark as night, with wings, and inky black eyes that dance with fire. An elemental with no recollection of who he is. Some think he's a monster. Others think he's a myth come to life. But Harrow's magic knows he's something else ... if she can unlock his memory.
"A Deadly Education" by Naomi Novik (2020)
Enter a school of magic unlike any you have ever encountered: There are no teachers, no holidays, and no friendships save strategic ones. Survival is more important than any letter grade, for the school won't allow its students to leave until they graduate ... or die. The rules are deceptively simple: Don't walk the halls alone. And beware of the monsters who lurk everywhere.
El is uniquely prepared for the school's dangers. She may be without allies, but she possesses a dark power strong enough to level mountains and wipe out untold millions. It would be easy enough for El to defeat the monsters that prowl the school. The problem? Her powerful dark magic might also kill all the other students. So El is trying her hardest not to use her power ... at least not until she has no other option.
Meanwhile, her fellow student, the insufferable Orion Lake, is making heroism look like a breeze. He's saved hundreds of lives – including El's – with his flashy combat magic. But in the spring of their junior year, after Orion rescues El for the second time and makes her look like more of an outcast than she already is, she reaches an impulsive conclusion: Orion Lake must die. But El is about to learn some lessons she never could in the classroom: About the school. About Orion Lake. And about who she really is.