Dark Academia Fantasy Books For Lovers Of Magic And Mystery

Ninth House, Bardugo’s first adult novel, just happens to be a dark academia fantasy that follows Alex Stern, a freshman at Yale University despite being a high school dropout. She was offered a full scholarship by a mysterious benefactor, not for any academic prowess, but because she has a special talent: Alex can see ghosts. A handy skill to have when the university's secret societies regularly perform arcane rituals that catch the attention of the dead—and worse.

Alex works for the titular Ninth House, Lethe, tasked with managing the messes made by the other eight. But when someone from town is murdered on campus in a ritualistic manner, only Alex and her Lethe mentor, Daniel Arlington, are willing to investigate the rich and powerful figures who control New Haven.

There are some heavy trigger warnings for this book, so proceed with caution, but the vibes are on point, and the mystery is intriguing, so this is one to add to your TBR.

Set in a fictitious Victorian Oxford, Babel explores themes of colonialism, race, and power through the protagonist Robin Swift. Rescued from his cholera-infested home in China by the mysterious Professor Lovell, Robin is taken to England, where he studies languages intensely, preparing to enroll in the Royal Institute of Translation at Oxford University (also known as Babel).

This prestigious institution is the world's center for translation and thus magic: Translators inscribe a word in two different languages on a bar of silver, and the nuance of meaning lost in translation fuels the enchantment. This silverworking powers society, literally and figuratively, and the British Empire reaches ever further to colonize new countries with different languages so that new translations can be made.

To Robin, Babel is a haven of intellectual pursuit, but despite his skill in Translation he and other students of color at Babel face constant prejudice.

When the British Empire declares war on China in pursuit of silver and opium, Robin is forced to question his place in an empire that ‘rescued’ him for its own ends. It’s telling that the book’s alternative title is The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution.

Sciona is the first woman ever admitted to the High Magistry at the University of Magics and Industry, but her achievement is quickly overshadowed by sexism, both subtle and blatant.

Further complicating her situation, her assigned research assistant is a janitor called Thomil, a refugee from a neighboring country whose tribe was destroyed by a mysterious affliction called the Blight. Despite her own struggles of facing misogyny from the male mages, Sciona initially overlooks the oppression faced by Thomil, who comes from a different race, religion, and social class.

However, while working together, Sciona and Thomil uncover a secret conspiracy concerning the true cost of magic. This revelation challenges everything Sciona believes and forces her to confront the tension between intention and impact and the cost of pursuing the truth.

El Higgins is a student at Scholomance, a sentient school for the magically gifted where failure means death. Here, young witches and wizards study without teachers and cannot leave until they graduate.  

Even though everyone is somewhat protected from the monsters who are drawn to them as their abilities manifest, demons roam the halls, and students need allies if they want to survive.

The object of a grim prophecy of worldwide destruction, prickly and antisocial El is ostracized by her fearful peers, leaving her with no friends in a place where going anywhere alone is dangerous. 

To her advantage, El possesses a dark magic strong enough to ensure she will make it to graduation—if only the infuriatingly heroic Orion Lake would stop trying to save her long enough for her to save herself.

Delaney Meyers-Petrov is thrilled to have been offered a place at Godbole University, a mysterious institution where students are taught the secret to accessing parallel universes.

This is her chance to prove herself, and she doesn't want to be defined by her disability: Delaney uses a hearing aid after a childhood fever left her deaf. Except Lane can hear voices whispering to her from every shadow, which makes her fearful of the dark.

Soon, she finds herself drawn to teacher’s assistant Colton Price, who can step between worlds effortlessly and who seems determined to avoid Delaney despite the strange connection they seem to share.

When a fellow student turns up dead, Delaney and Colton have to team up to uncover the truth and face a nameless evil that threatens their world.

16-year-old Bree Matthews is a student in a residential program for bright high schoolers at UNC Chapel Hill—the same university that her late mother attended. During her first night on campus, Bree witnesses a demon attack, repelled with magic by a boy named Selwyn—who then tries and fails to erase Bree’s memory of the event.

Following this incident, Bree unlocks a buried memory of the night her mother died, when another person altered her memories. Determined to find out the truth about her mother’s supposedly accidental death, Bree discovers and infiltrates a secret society that calls themselves Legendborn—mostly rich, white, powerful men; all things that Bree is not. As descendants of the Knights of the Round Table, they hunt demons like the one Bree saw. Mages like Selwyn, known as Merlins, support and serve the Knights.

When Bree meets a Scion of the line of King Arthur himself, Nick Davis, who is disillusioned with society but agrees to help Bree find the truth, she enters an initiation to become his Squire. But more buried memories start to surface for Bree, and a magic she didn’t know she possessed starts to manifest, connecting her to the Legendborn—and to her mother—in ways she could have never imagined.

Soon, Bree has to decide whether she will use her newfound powers to join the Legendborn in fighting evil, or if she will bring the whole society down as a magical war looms.