The Dark Academicals

Sarah Purnell & Sophie Waters
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  • BOOKS
  • EVERY TWO WEEKS

The podcast where we delve into the mythos of dark academia one book at a time.

  1. 14 APR

    Episode 12.6: 'The Library at Hellebore' by Cassandra Khaw

    This is it! The last episode in for this season! Can you believe we’ve done 12 of these now? So we’re going out with a bang with some horror in the form of ‘The Library at Hellebore’. Is it… dark academia though? Well… In this episode we discuss: Body horror and the effects of being a horror-first narrative The technical delivery of the story and what we enjoyed (and how we wished it was longer!) Academic horror, eldritch lore and folk tales, the parts that made us feel queasy

    39 min

  2. 31 MAR

    Episode 12.5: 'The Incandescent' by Emily Tesh

    It’s time for one of our most anticipated books of the season: Emily Tesh’s ‘The Incandescent’. A magic school? Check. Demons? Check. An entirely different perspective? Check. Dr Walden is the Director of Magic at Chetwood School and one of the most powerful magicians in England. Her days consist of meetings, teaching A-Level Invocation to four talented, chaotic sixth formers, more meetings and securing the school's boundaries from demonic incursions. Walden is good at her job - no, Walden is great at her job. But demons are masters of manipulation. It's her responsibility to keep her school with its six hundred students and centuries-old legacy safe. But it's possible the entity Walden most needs to keep her school safe from . . . is herself. Will it live up to our expectations and establish itself among the dark academia canon? In this episode we discuss: - What it looks like when dark academia comes from the teacher rather than the student - An unexpected exploration of what our schools looked like compared to Chetwood - A discussion around how the system is failing schools, students, and teachers

    49 min

  3. 17 MAR

    Episode 12.4: 'Boys With Sharp Teeth' by Jenni Howell

    We’re heading to Huntsworth Academy for this episode of the podcast, and returning to YA, with Jenni Howell’s Boys With Sharp Teeth. Seventeen-year-old Marin James has spent her entire life living in the shadow of the exclusive Huntsworth Academy. So when her cousin’s dead body is found in a creek on school property, Marin knows exactly who’s to blame: Adrian Graves and Henry Wu, the enigmatic, yet dangerous leaders of the school's ecosystem. Swapping her ragged T-shirts for a crisp prep school uniform, Marin infiltrates Huntsworth to exact her revenge. But her quest for vengeance is quickly muddied by a confusing attraction to her new life, and to the two dysfunctional and devastating boys who understand her better than anyone ever has. When Marin uncovers a dark, eerie secret hiding behind Huntsworth's ivied gates, the lines between justice and vengeance, love and hate, and the real and supernatural begin to crumble –and nothing is as it seems. Welcome to Huntsworth Academy. Will we finally get a YA novel that we can comfortably call dark academia? In this episode we discuss: - Our very different feelings about this book… - Does the supernatural elements undermine the dark academia vibes? - An unexpected foray into discussing the ‘People We Meet on Vacation’ movie…

    49 min

  4. 3 MAR

    Episode 12.2: 'We Love You, Bunny' by Mona Awad

    It’s time for our Dark Academia adjacent title of the season! And we’re doing it in Gothic style. ‘The Monk’ is one of those books that both of us have wanted to read for a long time.

    48 min

  5. 17 FEB

    Episode 12.2: 'We Love You, Bunny' by Mona Awad

    Back in season three we dove in Mona Awad’s ‘Bunny’ with no idea what we were getting into, and even less idea how foundational a text it would be for this podcast and our discussions around dark academia and genre. We were both fascinated with how Awad would revisit Sam and the Bunnies, even though it’s not dark academia as we know it. In the cult classic novel Bunny, Samantha Heather Mackey, a lonely outsider student at a highly selective MFA program in New England, was first ostracised and then seduced by a clique of her saccharine sweet, rich girl cohort (who call one another ‘Bunny’). An invitation to the Bunnies’ Smut Salon leads Samantha down a dark rabbit hole (pun intended) into the violently surreal world of their off-campus Workshops where monstrous creations are conjured with wondrous yet deadly consequences.When We Love You, Bunny opens, Sam has just published her first novel to critical acclaim. But at a New England stop on her book tour, her one-time frenemies, furious at the way they’ve been portrayed, kidnap her. Now a captive audience, it’s her (and our) turn to hear the Bunnies’ side of the story. One by one, they take turns holding the axe, and recount the birth throes of their unholy alliance, their discovery of their unusual creative powers ― and the phantasmagoric adventure of conjuring their first creation. With a bound and gagged Sam, we embark on a wickedly intoxicating journey into the heart of dark academia: a fairy tale slasher that explores the wonder and horror of creation itself. Not to mention the transformative powers of love and friendship, Bunny. Frankenstein by way of Heathers, We Love You, Bunny is a prequel and a sequel, and an unabashedly wild and totally complete standalone novel. Open your hearts, Bunny, to a dazzlingly original and darkly hilarious romp in the Bunny-verse from the queen of the fever dream, Mona Awad. How is ‘We Love You, Bunny’ going to reframe our ideas of ‘Bunny’? How on earth will Awad follow up on her landmark fever dream novel? In this episode we discuss: Can a prequel or sequel undermine the original novel? Does that happen with the Bunnyverse? The unexpected link between ‘Katabasis’ and ‘We Love You, Bunny’ - Alice down the rabbit hole The unexpected segway into a slasher

    48 min

  6. 3 FEB

    Episode 12.1: 'Katabasis' by R. F. Kuang

    Season twelve is here and we’re kicking off the season with one of the biggest releases of the latter half of 2025: RF Kuang’s dark academia fantasy, ‘Katabasis’. We had a rocky time wth ‘Babel’, but we’re taking another chance on Kuang for her latest novel about a pair of academics taking a journey into Hell to rescue their professor. Everything about the synopsis ticks our boxes, and even though the reviews have been a bit more mixed than with ‘Babel’, we’re optimistic about this one.

    1hr 1min
  7. Episode 11.6: 'And He Shall Appear' by Kate van der Borgh

    09/09/2025

    Episode 11.6: 'And He Shall Appear' by Kate van der Borgh

    It’s already time for the finale of season eleven! This season has truly flown by and we’re hoping to send it off with another brilliant 2025 release. Kate van der Borgh’s debut novel, ‘And He Shall Appear’, has been recommended for fans of ‘The Secret History’ and ‘Saltburn’ so hello, that’s us! It sounds like a deliciously dark and addictive read and in this episode we have a look to see how well it matches up to our Dark Academia framework. In this episode we discuss: The power of secondary characters The reinvention of the self, especially at university Campus novels

    45 min
  8. Episode 11.5: 'Spoilt Creatures' by Amy Twigg

    26/08/2025

    Episode 11.5: 'Spoilt Creatures' by Amy Twigg

    This episode of the podcast has been an evolution. If you’re a reader of our Substack (if not, um why?) then you’ll probably be confused that ‘Spoilt Creatures’ is making an unexpected appearance on season 11. Let me tell you, it was a journey to get here. The previous title we picked wasn’t right for the podcast and then option two was putting me (hi, it’s me Sophie) into a reading slump and I’d only just escaped one, so we changed tacks one more time. Thankfully it stuck and we both raced through 'Spoilt Creatures’. THEY THOUGHT THEY KNEW EVERYTHING ABOUT US. THE KIND OF WOMEN WE WERE.Iris seeks a different kind of life. Promise comes in the form of Hazel, who lives at Breach House - a women's commune on a remote farm. At Breach House, the women live and eat in abundance, are guided by landscape and ritual, all while under the leadership of their gargantuan matriarch, Blythe.But is Breach House truly the haven it seems? When an unforgivable transgression comes to light and power struggles intensify, the women find themselves hurtling towards an act of devastating violence that will threaten everything they've fought to create. Cult-y sad women making bad decisions in literary fiction with dark academia vibes? Yep yep yep. But how strong are those dark academia vibes? In this episode we discuss: - The intersection of cults, high education and secret societies - The rise and reign of femgore - literary feminist horror - The trend of women creating their own curriculums

    45 min
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About

The podcast where we delve into the mythos of dark academia one book at a time.

Information

  • Creator
    Sarah Purnell & Sophie Waters
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    78
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Show Website
    The Dark Academicals

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