Suspiciouly Specific #12: Dark Academia without the Unnessecary Romance
- The Fiction Fox
- 24 hours ago
- 5 min read
Genre: literary fiction, classic
Pagecount: 559 pages
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 they slip gradually from obsession to corruption and betrayal, and at last—inexorably—into evil.
Genre: historical fantasy
Pagecount: 544 pages
Robin Swift, a young orphan on the streets of Canton, China, is adopted by a wealthy English professor who offers him the opportunity that many like him would’ve killed for. A privileged life among Oxfords elite, in exchange for Robin’s full dedication to the art of studying languages in order to enroll in the prestigious Royal Institute of Translation — also known as Babel. What follows is a tale of betrayal, crushed dreams, oppressive academic pressure, colonialism and the use of translation as a tool of empire.
Genre: horror, magical realism
Pagecount: 384 pages
A washed-up stage-actress now makes ends meet as a college-theatre-professor, in the wake of the horrible stage accident that left her with chronic back- and hip-pain, and unable to perform ever again. Although her students would rather perform MacBeth, Miranda is determined to direct the play that cost her her own acting career before: All’s Well That Ends Well. As her student start to rebel more and more, and Miranda’s mental well-being starts to spiral due to the trauma her pain’s put her through, the events in real life start to mirror the play, and the lines between theatre and life begin to blur.
Genre: contemporary fiction
Pagecount: 373 pages
A hardhitting character-exploration centering the toxic relationship between a precocious fifteen-year old and her charismatic but manipulative teacher, 46-years her senior. From the perspective of both teenage-Vanessa and her adult self, looking back, we explore the inner conflict, ruination and lifelong aftermath this affair brought.
Genre: literary horror
Pagecount: 288 pages
Anisa Ellahi, a second generation Pakistani immigrant, dreams of being a translator of “literatures Greats”. Instead, she’s mostly making due with subtitling mediocre Bollywood movies and having to rely on her parents financial support to get by. When her new boyfriend Adam, a man with an extraordinary aptitude for learning new languages, introduces her to The Centre; a secretive language course that promises to teach anyone to speak a language in just a 10-day course, Anisa decides she has little to lose. Skeptical but intrigued, she applies and surrenders herself to The Centre’s unusual methods, immerging 10 days later, fully fluent in German. As Anisa enmeshes herself further within The Centre, seduced by all that it’s made possible, she soon realizes the true cost of its services.
Genre: fantasy
Pagecount: 408 pages
16-year old Sasha is vacationing with her mom at the beach, when she meets a mysterious man who makes her an unusual proposition. The next day Sacha suddenly finds herself vomiting up golden coins… This even kicks off an epic coming of age fantasy novel, involving a magical university (but not in the way you expect), strange characters that seem barely human and at times absolute mind-melting philosophy and metaphysics.
Genre: fantasy
Pagecount: 492 pages
Meet Roger and Dodger; twins who grew up in separate foster families, but have always had an almost supernatural connection to each other. They don’t know it quite yet themselves, but Roger and Dodger aren’t quite human. It may explain his unlikely affinity with words and languages, and her understanding of the structure of the world through maths and numbers. When Roger and Dodger meet up as adults, they find themselves wrapped up in an plot years-long in the making. One that involves alchemical creations, impossible cities and the possibility of power to shape reality itself…
Genre: literary, contemporary fiction
Pagecount: 368 pages
Med school dropout Lena is desperate for a job, any job, to help her parents, who are approaching bankruptcy after her father was injured and laid off nearly simultaneously. In a desperate attempt to pull her family back from the brink of financial ruin, she accepts a questionable job as an assistant to the private physician of Boston’s most elite family. What begins with the care for their ailing son, struck down with a mysterious illness, soon leads into the debaucherous underbelly of Boston’s elite and richest layers of society.
Genre: horror, mystery
Pagecount: 308 pages
Historical scholar Robin Quain has been awarded residency to Hildegarde College; an isolated and prestigious academy, high in the Rocky Mountains. Known for its scientific excellence, sprawling botanical gardens and extensive library, Robin hopes the college’s resources will help her towards a breakthrough in her research on the historical significance of witchcraft and the occult.
She soon learns that Hildegarde harbours some dark mysteries and secrets inside its polished exterior. As Robin searches for answers, an unknown source sends her a series of cryptic messages that makes her question whether she’s the one doing the hunting, or whether someone is hunting her.
Genre: literary, fantasy
Pagecount: 272 pages
Piranesi’s house is no ordinary building: its rooms are infinite, its corridors endless, its walls are lined with thousands upon thousands of statues, each one different from all the others. Within the labyrinth of halls an ocean is imprisoned; waves thunder up staircases, rooms are flooded in an instant. But Piranesi is not afraid; he understands the tides as he understands the pattern of the labyrinth itself. He lives to explore the house.
There is one other person in the house—a man called The Other, who visits Piranesi twice a week and asks for help with research into A Great and Secret Knowledge. But as Piranesi explores, evidence emerges of another person, and a terrible truth begins to unravel, revealing a world beyond the one Piranesi has always known.
Genre: fantasy, horror
Pagecount: 390 pages
Carolyn used to be a normal human like all of us. But that was a long time ago...
Before the time she calls “adoption day,” when she and a dozen other children found themselves being raised by a man they learned to call Father, who could do strange things. He could call light from darkness. Sometimes he raised the dead. And when he was disobeyed, the consequences were terrible.
In the years since Father took her in, Carolyn hasn't gotten out much. Instead, she and her adopted siblings have been raised according to Father's ancient Pelapi customs. They've studied the books in his library and learned some of the secrets behind his equally ancient power. Sometimes, they've wondered if their cruel tutor might secretly be God.
Now, Father is missing. And if God truly is dead, the only thing that matters is who will inherit his library—and with it, power over all of creation.
As Carolyn gathers the tools she needs for the battle to come, fierce competitors for this prize align against her. But Carolyn can win. She's sure of it. What she doesn't realize is that her victory may come at an unacceptable price—because in becoming a God, she's forgotten a great deal about being human.
