Dark Academia and Horror: A Bloody, Perfect Marriage

I still think about this book in all its facets; the pressure the students have at this elite school, the research going on behind closed doors, and the tower — *shudders*. It follows Ines Murillo, who is invited to attend the secretive yet super elite school Catherine House. Catherine House is the only home Ines has ever had, but the expectations Catherine House has of its students is fierce, and there is a cult-like quality about the small group of students who conduct research around the very fabric of reality in exclusive labs. It is a claustrophobic, terrifying read exploring the twisted heights and abuses of power and prestige.

This book has it all for horror fans: Hollywood, a curse, and a gothic academic institution. It takes place in multiple eras. In 1902, Flo and Clara, students at Brookhants School for Girls, are obsessed with each other. Along with fellow writer Mary, they establish their only club called the Plain Bad Heroine Society. They meet in a nearby orchard, which becomes the site of their disturbing deaths. Fast forward about 100 years into the future, Merritt Emmons publishes a book about Brookhants and its queer feminist history, which is set to become a film. Two young stars are cast as Flo and Clara to retell their macabre story, and this story within a story starts to blur the lines between curse and reality.

This story is set in a middle school and focuses on teacher Yuko Moriguchi, who has turned in her resignation as teacher.

But she’s not done yet.

She gathers her students and begins her last lecture, telling a story that puts in motion Yuko’s final revenge for what happened to her daughter. This book is told in multiple voices, covering a tragic event that ends up with a final confrontation between teacher and student. This is the ultimate book of building dread.

This 2022 YA release is a great addition to the dark academia horror sub-genre. It follow Tess and Eliot, who discover an ancient book found in a hidden tunnel underneath their school library. That’s a lot of red flags.

Sure enough, they accidentally release the devil from a book-bound prison. The devil will stop at nothing to stay free, taking everything and everyone out of his way. From possessed ink to murder, Tess and Eliot have to find a way to put the devil back before he comes for them.

This book takes inspiration from the setup of Shirley Jackson’s Haunting of Hill House and goes maximum horror. It follows a physicist and two mediums who are hired to find out about life after death in a the most depraved of haunted houses, the Belasco house.

Needless to say, they find a lot of data.

Definitely check up on the TWs in this book because there are a lot of them, including rape.

I will never look at rabbits/hares/bunnies the same.

This is a great retelling of Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher,” following Alex Easton, a retired soldier who goes to the ancestral home of the Ushers when they find out their childhood friend Madeline Usher is dying.

The dark academia horror branch of this story comes in the form of the British mycologist neighbor visiting an American doctor, both of whom are pulled into the investigation of Madeline’s and the Usher house’s affliction. It was a terrifying delight to read these two scholars of science react as they perform an autopsy on a rabbit they thought was dead.

Similar to Hell House, Nothing But Blackened Teeth is about a group of old school friends who get together in an Heian-era haunted house in Japan to make up for lost time, marry two of them, and also investigate the history of the house, where a bride was buried, with bodies of girls sacrificed to keep her company in the walls.

What could possibly go wrong?

Not only is this a great example of an investigation gone horribly wrong, it’s an incredible exploration of grief, the buildup of resentment and old wounds, and relationships that have festered over time.

This is an example of dark academia horror, where knowledge is literally ingested in the pages of books. Devon is part of The Family, a long line of people for which books are food, and they are able to retain the knowledge of the pages they eat. While her brothers devoured adventures and tales of bravery, Devon, like the other women in the family, were fed cautionary tales and fairytales.

Things take a much darker turn when Devon’s son is born, and he hungers not for the pages of books, but human minds. This is dark academia horror in its potency, where knowledge itself can be taken into the body.