This debut is one of our most anticipated books of the year and we jumped at the chance to get it on the line-up for season 4. I mean, have you see that cover?!

Clare arrives at the University of Edinburgh with a secret. This is her chance for a blank slate: to find the right people and reinvent herself.

And then she meets Tabitha.

Tabitha is charismatic, beautiful and intimidatingly wealthy. Soon Clare is sucked into her enigmatic circle of friends and their dizzying world of champagne on rooftops and summers in France.

Her new life has begun.

Then Tabitha reveals the little project they're working on, a project they need Clare's help with. It's reckless, possibly perilous and might finally allow Clare to become who she was meant to be...

But how much is an extraordinary life worth if others have to pay?

An intoxicating feminist page-turner with shades of The Secret History and Promising Young Woman, this novel will take you on a journey from Edinburgh's dazzling spires to the dripping staircases and dark alleyways of its underbelly.

Feminist revenge? Check. Beautiful Edinburgh? Check. Toxic friendships? Check.

In this episode we discuss:

• Dilapidated, moulding, Gothic manors

• The broad intertextuality of the novel and the evocative nature of those comparisons in the genre

• The power and freedom that money provides women

• ‘The Things We Do to Our Friends’ by Heather Darwent

• ‘The Secret History’ by Donna Tartt

• ‘Plain Bad Heroines’ by emily m danforth

• ‘A Discovery of Witches’ by Deborah Harkness

• ‘If We Were Villains’ by ML Rio

• ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ by Charlotte Perkins-Gilman

• ‘Mexican Gothic’ by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

• ‘Call Me By Your Name’ by André Aciman

• The TikTok trend of men illustrating how they view female rage and then being corrected by women

If you fancy getting involved with the goings on at the University of Edinburgh and grabbing yourself a copy of the novel, we’d love it if you considered using our bookshop.org link below which helps us fund ‘The Dark Academicals’ and gives back to independent bookshops at no extra cost to you.

You can also sign up to The Dark Academicals Book Club mailer to be entered for exclusive book club content and giveaways!