Five Great Books set on Campus – DARK ACADEMIA

7th May 2022

Five Great Books set on Campus

#DarkAcademia #campusnoir

College and University settings make a great backdrop for dark and visceral storylines, young people in the main getting caught up in events that spiral out of control or getting themselves into extremely deep water, helpless or disingenuous, unable to unpick a complex situation of their own making.

The Secret History by Donna Tartt (New England)

This is the go-to title for novels set on campus and truly deserving of the accolade Modern Classic, Donna Tartt’s cult bestseller The Secret History is a remarkable achievement – both compelling and elegant, dramatic and playful.

Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the humdrum existence of their contemporaries. But when they go beyond the boundaries of normal morality their lives are changed profoundly and for ever.

Black Chalk by Christopher J Yates (Oxford and NYC)

A compulsively readable psychological thriller set in New York and at Oxford University, in which a group of six students play an elaborate game of dares and consequences, with tragic results One game. Six students. Five survivors. It was only ever meant to be a game. A game of consequences, of silly forfeits, childish dares. A game to be played by six best friends in their first year at Oxford University. But then the game changed: the stakes grew higher and the dares more personal, more humiliating, finally evolving into a vicious struggle with unpredictable and tragic results. Now, 14 years later, the remaining players must meet again for the final round. A gripping psychological thriller, partly inspired by the author’s own time at Oxford University, this is perfect for fans of “The Secret History,” “The Bellwether Revivals,” and “The Lessons. “Clever, dark, and compulsively readable, this is an ideal book group title: who knows better than your best friends, what would break you? The author’s background in puzzle writing and setting can clearly be seen in the plotting of this clever, tricksy book that will keep readers guessing to the very end.

If We Were Villains by M L Rio (Illinois)

Oliver Marks has just served 10 years in jail – for a murder he may or may not have committed. On the day he’s released, he’s greeted by the man who put him in prison. Detective Colborne is retiring, but before he does, he wants to know what really happened a decade ago.

As one of seven young actors studying Shakespeare at an elite arts college, Oliver and his friends play the same roles onstage and off: hero, villain, tyrant, temptress. But when the casting changes, and the secondary characters usurp the stars, the plays spill dangerously over into life, and one of them is found dead. The rest face their greatest acting challenge yet: convincing the police, and themselves, that they are blameless. Intelligent, thrilling, and richly detailed, If We Were Villains is a captivating story of the enduring power and passion of words.

The World Cannot Give by Tara Isabella Burton (Maine)

When shy, sensitive Laura Stearns arrives at St. Dunstan’s Academy in Maine, she dreams that life there will echo her favorite novel, All Before Them, the sole surviving piece of writing by Byronic “prep school prophet” (and St. Dunstan’s alum) Sebastian Webster, who died at nineteen, fighting in the Spanish Civil War. She soon finds the intensity she is looking for among the insular, Webster-worshipping members of the school’s chapel choir, which is presided over by the charismatic, neurotic, overachiever Virginia Strauss. Virginia is as fanatical about her newfound Christian faith as she is about the miles she runs every morning before dawn. She expects nothing short of perfection from herself—and from the members of the choir.

Virginia inducts the besotted Laura into a world of transcendent music and arcane ritual, illicit cliff-diving and midnight crypt visits: a world that, like Webster’s novels, finally seems to Laura to be full of meaning. But when a new school chaplain challenges Virginia’s hold on the “family” she has created, and Virginia’s efforts to wield her power become increasingly dangerous, Laura must decide how far she will let her devotion to Virginia go.

The World Cannot Give is a shocking meditation on the power, and danger, of wanting more from the world.

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara (New York)

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara is an immensely powerful and heartbreaking novel of brotherly love and the limits of human endurance.

When four graduates from a small Massachusetts college move to New York to make their way, they’re broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition. There is kind, handsome Willem, an aspiring actor; JB, a quick-witted, sometimes cruel Brooklyn-born painter seeking entry to the art world; Malcolm, a frustrated architect at a prominent firm; and withdrawn, brilliant, enigmatic Jude, who serves as their centre of gravity. Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride. Yet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he’ll not only be unable to overcome – but that will define his life forever.

BONUS BOOKS

Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld (Massachusetts)

Lee Fiora is a shy 14-year-old when she leaves small-town Indiana for a scholarship at Ault, an exclusive boarding school in Massachusetts. Her head is filled with images from the school brochure of handsome boys in sweaters leaning against old brick buildings, girls running with lacrosse sticks across pristine athletics fields, everyone singing hymns in chapel. But as she soon learns, Ault is a minefield of unstated rules and incomprehensible social rituals, and Lee must work hard to find – and maintain – her place in the pecking order.

The Maidens by Alex Michaelides

St Christopher’s College, Cambridge, is a closed world to most.

For Mariana Andros – a group therapist struggling through her private grief – it’s where she met her late husband. For her niece, Zoe, it’s the tragic scene of her best friend’s murder.

As memory and mystery entangle Mariana, she finds a society full of secrets, which has been shocked to its core by the murder of one of its own.

Because behind its idyllic beauty is a web of jealousy and rage which emanates from an exclusive set of students known only as The Maidens. A group under the sinister influence of the enigmatic professor Edward Fosca.

A man who seems to know more than anyone about the murders – and the victims. And the man who will become the prime suspect in Mariana’s investigation – an obsession which will unravel everything…

The Maidens is a story of love, and of grief – of what makes us who we are, and what makes us kill.

Stargazer by Laurie Petrou

It’s a fine line between admiration and envy.

Diana Martin has lived her life in the shadow of her sadistic older brother. She quietly watches the family next door, enthralled by celebrity fashion designer Marianne Taylor and her feted daughter, Aurelle.

She wishes she were a ‘Taylor girl’.

By the summer of 1995, the two girls are at university together, bonded by a mutual desire to escape their wealthy families and personal tragedies and forge new identities.

They are closer than lovers, intoxicated by their own bond, falling into the hedonistic seduction of the woods and the water at a remote university that is more summer camp than campus.

But when burgeoning artist Diana has a chance at fame, cracks start to appear in their friendship. To what lengths is Diana willing to go to secure her own stardom?

The lines between love, envy and obsession blur in Laurie Petrou’s utterly enthralling, unceasingly tense new novel. A darkly compelling coming-of-age story, perfect for fans of Donna Tartt’s The Secret History or Liane Moriarty’s Big Little Lies.

The Fifth Guest by Jenny Knight

Five friends. One deadly secret.

Five old university friends gather on the eve of their flatmate’s memorial at a beautiful riverside house.

Host Caro is as perfect as always.

Shy, awkward Lily’s now a bestselling author.

Sports hero George loves suburban fatherhood.

Bad-boy Travis only gets his highs from meditation.

And gatecrasher Elle is still a troublemaker.

Estranged for years, they’re finally ready to reminisce over dry martinis and delicious food. But there’s more than that on the menu…

Because each guest is hiding a dark secret about their time at Oxford.

They’re all guilty of something. Is one of them guilty of murder?

The Actor by Chris Macdonald

At long last, Adam Sealey has an Oscar within reach. Working with his controversial former mentor, Jonathan, he’s given the performance of a lifetime, and he almost believes it might be worth the cost.

Because Adam subscribes to “the method”. It’s the secret that the world’s greatest actors swear by – digging into their darkest, most personal traumas to bring a role to life.

And Adam’s greatest trauma is worse than most. Losing his mother when he was just a boy. A forced choice between the success he craved and the girl he loved. And that night back in drama school, the night of Adam’s darkest secret, when everyone knows about the dead body, but nobody suspects the truth.

And then he gets a message: someone knows. And if they tell, everything Adam’s worked for will come crashing down.

If you know of any further titles to add, do drop details in the COMMENTS below

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