We head to the University of Cambridge for the third episode of the season with the literary thriller, Alex Michaelides’ ‘The Maidens’.

This book has been all over the internet since it’s release last summer and with the mixed reviews and tag of being a ‘dark academia literary thriller’, we had to slide it into the lineup for this season of ‘The Dark Academicals’.

‘The Maidens’ takes us to Cambridge when the recently widowed therapist Mariana is called to the aid of her niece, Zoe, following the murder of Zoe’s best friend. Mariana quickly becomes embroiled in the investigation and is determined to prove that Zoe’s charismatic Greek tragedy professor, Edward Fosca, is the culprit.

Will it be a yay or nay for us? And is it dark academia?

In this episode we discuss:

• The male gaze versus the female gaze

• Michaelides’ poor portrayal of mental illness and Mariana’s failure in her duty of care to her patients

• The parallels of Julian and Henry in ‘The Maidens’ with Julian and Henry in ‘The Secret History’

• ‘The Maidens’ by Alex Michaelides

• ‘In Memoriam’ by Alfred Lord Tennyson

• ‘Iphegenia at Aulis’ by Euripides

• ‘The Secret History’ by Donna Tartt

• ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ by Oscar Wilde

If you want a copy of ‘The Maidens for your own, you can purchase one through the link below. We’re affiliated with bookshop.org who support local booksellers, and in turn buying through them supports us too!

The second episode of season two heads to Swarthmore College with Meg Wolitzer’s debut novel, ‘Sleepwalking’.

While Wolitzer is more famous for her more recent novels, ‘The Female Persuasion’ and ‘The Interestings’, we follow Claire Danziger and the other ‘death girls’ as they obsess over the work, life and suicides of three famed female poets: Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton and Wolitzer’s creation, Lucy Ascher. As their personalities merge and darkness closes in under the study of their poets, and Claire’s relationship with upperclassman Julia, Claire must figure out when Lucy ends and she begins.

But it is dark academia?

In this episode we talk about:

• The sideline-ing of the female experience and female trauma and pain

• How a misleading book summary can change your expectations and experience of a novel

• How a small cast of characters creates an insular and almost claustrophobic reading experience

• ‘Sleepwalking’ by Meg Wolitzer

• ‘Belhzar’ by Meg Wolitzer

• ‘The Secret History’ by Donna Tartt

• ‘The Maidens’ by Alex Michaelides

We’re back! And we’re starting off with a bang with dark academia TikTok fave ‘The Atlas Six’ by Olivie Blake.

This book has been all over your socials from Bookstagram to BookTwitter to BookTok, you know you’ve seen it and you’ve been intrigued by it, at least. The term “dark academia” has become synonymous with it, it seems. But is it really a Dark Academia title?

Listen as we dig deep into the pages of ‘The Atlas Six’ on this week’s episode. Does it live up to the hype?

In this episode our discussion included:

• The representation of women within the text

• Why this title is so readily labelled as “dark academia”

• The pros and cons of moving from indie to traditional publication

• ‘The Atlas Six’ by Olivie Blake

• ‘The Secret History’ by Donna Tartt

• ‘A Deadly Education’ by Naomi Novik

• ‘Carry On’ by Rainbow Rowell

• ‘Belzhar’ by Meg Wolitzer

• ‘Sleepwalking’ by Meg Wolitzer

If you want a copy of ‘The Atlas Six’ for your own, you can purchase one through the link below. We’re affiliated with bookshop.org who support local booksellers, and in turn buying through them supports us too! Win/win?

The season one finale of ‘The Dark Academicals’ sees us exploring ‘Catherine House’ by Elisabeth Thomas about a forboding university full of secrets, surpises and a shockingly sinister purpose as our protagonist, Ines, grapples with what Catherine wants from her.

We loved ‘Catherine House’ and we’re so happy to end the season on such a high.

In this episode our discussion included:

• The pseudoscience of plasm and the concentrations of Catherine

• Ines’s trauma response and coping mechanisms and how that influences her narration

• The Gothic motif of the haunted house

We also reveal the six titles in the Season 2 line up!

• ‘Catherine House’ by Elisabeth Thomas

• ‘Madam’ by Phoebe Wynn

• ‘The Great Gatsby’ by F Scott Fitzgerald

• ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

• ‘The Hunger Games’ by Suzanne Collins

We also announced the titles for season 2:

• ‘The Atlas Six’ by Olivie Blake

• ‘Sleepwalking’ by Meg Wolitzer

• ‘The Maidens’ by Alex Michaelides

• ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ by Oscar Wilde

• ‘The Mary Shelley Club’ by Goldy Moldavsky

• ‘The Raven Boys’ by Maggie Stiefvater

(Full bibliography and show notes made available through Patreon)

If you fancy getting your hands on ‘Catherine House’ you can buy it from bookshop.org which both supports us as affliiates, but also supports local bookshops!

This week’s episode of ‘The Dark Academicals’ took us to an exclusive private school with an anonymous texter attempting to bring down the school’s only two black students with escalating methods of cruelty in Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé’s dark academia social thriller, ‘Ace of Spades’.

It’s a heck of a book, and we had some big topics to discuss.

In this episode our discussion included:

• Whether the novel fits into our framework of dark academia

• Institutional racism in society and it’s role in the plot

• Homophobia and Devon’s experience as a gay black teenager

If you fancy getting your hands on ‘Ace of Spades’ you can buy it from bookshop.org which both supports us as affliates, but also supports local bookshops!

(Full bibilography and show notes made available through Patreon)

• ‘Ace of Spades’ by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

• ‘Madam’ by Phoebe Wynne

• ‘The Great Gatsby’ by F Scott Fitzgerald

• ‘Catherine House’ by Elisabeth Thomas’

How is ‘The Great Gatsby’ a Dark Academia book? Well, this is what we discuss in this week’s episode of The Dark Academicals. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s third novel is often coined one of the Great American Novels but there are many elements that have influeced and informed Dark Academia titles that succeed it.

At least, we think so!

In this episode our discussion included:

• How does ‘The Great Gatsby’ stand up against the Dark Academia criteria?

• The portrayal of women and issues of racism within the text

• Character analysis of narrator Nick Carraway, Jay Gatsby, and Daisy Buchanan

If you haven’t got a copy of Gatsby and you’re now intrigued, you can buy it from bookshop.org which both supports us as affliates, but also supports local bookshops!

(Full bibilography and show notes made available through Patreon)

• ‘The Great Gatsby’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald

• ‘The Secret History’ by Donna Tartt

• ‘Wuthering Heights’ by Emily Bronte

Welcome to The Dark Academicals. The podcast that delves into the mythos of Dark Academia, one book at a time.

Episode information and transcript

Instagram

Welcome to The Dark Academicals. The podcast that delves into the mythos of Dark Academia, one book at a time.

Episode information and transcript

Instagram

Donna Tartt’s ‘The Secret History’ is synonymous with the term ‘Dark Academia’. It was the beginning. And if you did not realise that before reading the book, you could be forgiven for thinking that the author had just taken the Dark Academia checklist and inserted it all into one narrative. But what makes ‘The Secret History’ a Dark Academia title? We discuss.

Welcome to The Dark Academicals. The podcast that delves into the mythos of Dark Academia, one book at a time.

Full episode transcripts and text list

Instagram