Genre: Dark Academia

What if it was just you and me, in an eerie library, with a demon haunting our hopes and dreams, not two but three? More successful than my poor excuse for poetry, the Devil Makes Three by Tori Bovalino is a YA fantasy book that mixes and matches a variety of inspirations from across various genres. Part dark academia fantasy, part psychological suspense thriller, part paranormal horror, this book blends together its different elements to tell a story about two private academy lone wolves who accidentally unleash a demonic presence while navigating the challenges of their family life. Set at a prestigious private academy, the overall story revolves around the unexpected release of a demon-like entity from the depths of an academy library that Tess and Eliot work and study at respectively. When taken at face value, the Devil Makes Three sounds like it’s going to be about occultic research and evading said devil. While the book certainly follows this expected storyline to a certain extent, the rest of the book revolves around Tess and Eliot’s personal struggles, conflicted home environment, and familial difficulties that had led to their attendance at the school. For Tess, her story is about her…

“Mirror mirror on the wall, give me a tale, creative from them all.” (please excuse the clunky line, I thought it would make a fun opening). Anywho, pitched as an original Snow White-inspired fantasy story, Hemlock & Silver is a novel that’s fun and light-hearted in tone with a very creative plot. While classified as a retelling book, T. Kingfisher’s standalone novel is a retelling only by the loosest criteria due to the fairytale source material used. Rather than reinventing or putting a new spin on the classic tale, Hemlock & Silver is almost an entirely original work that reads like a fantasy mystery story as opposed to a fairytale one. Featuring ambitious concepts, creative narrative allusions to Snow White, not to mention an entertaining and lovable main character, this novel was an unexpectedly great read for me that was only hindered by its meandering and underwhelming start and occasional lag in pacing. Rather than following the typical retelling premise of reinventing its source material with a genre swap, modernization, or flipping the story from a new point of view, Kingfisher’s approach is a bold one that follows an original character, scholarly poison expert Anja who is requested by the…

Atmospheric, imaginative, but most importantly emotionally heartfelt, Don’t Let the Forest In is a stunning book that effortlessly mixes genres to tell its tale of teenage fears, longing, and pain. Blending dark fantasy, psychological horror, and romance wrapped up with a literary fiction touch, C.G. Drews’ novel takes the best elements of each genre and connects them to a grounded, character-centric story that’s as compelling as it is nuanced. Despite being classified as a YA book due to its characters’ ages and high school academy setting, this novel is a master class example of delivering a complex and impactful story without dumbing down its content for its intended readers. Ambitiously written, well-plotted, and featuring an ending that is both devastating and open to interpretation, Don’t Let the Forest In is easily one of the most impressive books I’ve read this year. Before breaking down the book’s more technical elements, there’s a few important points worth mentioning for those that are considering reading this book. Are you a sensitive reader that finds triggers upsetting? I’m not mentioning them specifically for spoilers here but do check your triggers as there are some difficult ones included. How about mild body horror and moderate…

Is there such a genre as romcomantasy? Despite being a mouthful fitting for this book’s very long title, Brigitte Knightley’s traditionally published debut novel is a light-hearted, nonserious romantasy that’s a lot of fun. Marketed as enemies to lovers, slow-burn romance, the Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy is exactly that in addition to incorporating the recent romcom trend of women in STEM within a romantasy wrapping. True to its synopsis and blurb, this book is full of amusing banter by lovable idiots, though much of its advertised romance is purposely left off for its planned sequel novel. While the pacing occasionally drags and its narrative material outside of the banter is inconsistent in quality, the Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy is a pleasantly comedic read for those looking for something less serious, passionate, or steamy than the romantasy genre norm. Before I get into my review for this book, there’s an important note to highlight about this book and author. While Brigitte Knightley is well-known for her fanfiction writing, specifically the Harry Potter fanfiction Draco Malfoy and the Mortifying Ordeal of Being in Love, I’ve seen a lot of confusion and booktok readers criticizing that this…

In recent years, certain book genres or topics have become marketing fodder material that have taken on a considerably different impression and expectation from what they once were. Take for example “dark academia”. Once known for scholastic themed narratives rich in literature or academic theory, the term is now often associated with common romantasy publishing trends of spice, stories that have geeky main characters, magic research, or worse, any fantasy story that has some loose book or library motif. However, when it comes to Ava Reid’s YA debut novel A Study In Drowning, all of the common booktok/influencer associations of dark academia are thrown out the window. Meticulously crafted, nuanced, unhurried, yet beautiful and poetically written, A Study In Drowning is an impressively crafted story that returns to the “academia” part of the genre. The novel blends fantasy elements, scholarly pursuits, and metaphorical socio-political commentary presented through a light historical fiction lens. While not for everyone due to its notably slow pacing and the plot focusing on literary works vs more common, in-your-face fantasy concepts (not to mention it’s uncomfortable material to read though), I thoroughly loved this novel and found it to be brilliant. “I know you think I…