Sarah Purnell & Sophie Waters
The Dark AcademicalsEpisodes
Episodes of The Dark Academicals
Mark All
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Welcome to season 8 of The Dark Academicals!We’re kicking off with ‘Black Chalk’ by Christopher J Yates, a psychological thriller campus novel from 2013, that features on nearly every dark academia reading list out there. It’s much more similar
In this extra special episode of The Dark Academicals, we have Katy Hays, author of 'The Cloisters' discussing fate, destiny, dark academia and more. The conversation flows from Dark Academia tropes, to the pivotal action in 'The Cloisters', as
Can you believe it’s already the season seven finale of ‘The Dark Academicals’? We can’t!For this final episode we’ve got a dark academia thriller set between the 1990s and current day that we think is going to be a surefire hit, and possibly p
It’s Sarah’s first time reading S.T. Gibson, while Sophie has already read ‘A Dowry of Blood’ and so there are already some expectations and intrigue going into ‘An Education in Malice’.We had a lot of fun talking about this book, and we hope y
It’s time for our dark academia adjacent title for season seven and we’re tackling Curtis Sittenfeld’s classic campus novel, ‘Prep’.Sophie read this about a decade ago and has had a lingering love for it ever since, so it has some big shoes to
Welcome to The Dark Academicals, the podcast where we delve into the mythos of dark academia one book at a time. Especially when that one book has a cover like this one... Whoever said you can't judge a book by its cover was wrong. But then a
Welcome to The Dark Academicals, the podcast where we delve into the mythos of dark academia one book at a time. Have you ever come across lunar magic before? We haven’t!With this beautiful cover and the promise of dark academia meeting lun
Welcome to the SEVENTH season of The Dark Academicals!We kick off with a big one. The TikTok favourite 'A Deadly Education'. It has received a lot of hype, and is a copmmon feature on Dark Academia lists... But can it live up to that reputati
There is one TV show that we have discussed, referenced and alluded to throughout the history of The Dark Academicals. It’s ‘Gilmore Girls’. Obviously.It’s synonymous with the dark academia seasons, she’s everyone’s favourite bookworm, and
We’ve reached the finale of season 6! Already! There seems to be a curse within ‘The Dark Academicals’ for the finale books, but we’re confident that we’ve broken the cycle with Ava Reid’s ‘A Study in Drowning’.Can it possibly live up to ou
‘Summer Sons’ by Lee Mandelo is taking us to Vanderbilt and we are so excited about this one!This sounds like everything that we love in a novel and we’re really looking forward to seeing how it measures up against our examinations.A queer Sout
Happy Halloween!To add a little haunting into your day, we’ve got a brand new episode for you! ‘She is a Haunting’ by Trang Thanh Tran has been on our list for a long time and it couldn’t be a more perfect season to feature it on the podcast. W
Our dark academia adjacent book for Season 6 is a classic horror novel from the Queen of the Southern Gothic, Ms Shirley Jackson, and one of Sophie’s favourite authors. It’s officially spooky season so we’re looking at ‘The Haunting of Hill Hou
This week’s episode features a book like nothing we’ve featured before: a spicy TikTok dark romance that the BookTok girlies are shouting from the rooftops and calling dark academia at every chance they get. "If this is madness," she whispered
We’re back for season six (!) of ‘The Dark Academicals’ and we’ve got a line-up full of spooks and scares for the best reading season of the year.Our first pick takes us to a New York magic school and an obsession with a childhood fantasy book
It’s time for the finale of season five already and we can’t believe it! What a season we’ve had.We’re closing out the season with ‘How We Fall Apart’ by Katie Zhao which has been on our radars for a good few years because of the prep school se
‘The Cloisters’ was one of our most anticipated debuts of 2022 but we’ve been saving it to feature on the pod and we are both SO excited to finally be getting to it.With comparisons to ‘The Secret History’ and a setting of The Met in NYC, menti
It’s time for our dark academia adjacent title for season 5! We’re heading back to the world of modern classics to discuss a title that is often cited as a pre-cursor to the campus novel, itself laying the groundwork for dark academia. We’re re
We discussed Phoebe Wynne’s debut novel, ‘Madam’, in the very first season of the podcast and it’s a favourite book of both of ours. The vibes were immaculate and so we had to give ‘The Ruins’ a go too. There’s something about the way that Wy
We are tackling a sequel for the first time on the podcast this week, because who can deny the world a trip to Hell with Leigh Bardugo. It’s time to head back to Yale and fall in love with Alex and Darlington all over again. If they make it out
It’s happening. We’re finally doing it.The book launching Season Five (!!) of ‘The Dark Academicals’ is RF Kuang’s huge 2022 release, ‘Babel’.We’re both new to Kuang and have been completely intimidated by the hype for ‘Babel’, but it’s tim
‘My Dearest Darkest’ seems to have flown a little under our dark academia radar and it’s one of those novels that I’ve seen people haul, but never actually read and review. We’re giving it it’s moment today.‘Wilder Girls’ meets ‘The Craft’ in
This debut is one of our most anticipated books of the year and we jumped at the chance to get it on the line-up for season 4. I mean, have you see that cover?!Clare arrives at the University of Edinburgh with a secret. This is her chance for
It’s already time for our dark academia adjacent title for season 4! And we’re going in BIG. Confession time: Sophie had somehow got to the ripe old age of 30 without reading ‘Interview With the Vampire’, or any of Anne Rice’s novels, so this
Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a completely beloved author of sumptuous, historical novels so maybe you’re wondering why we’re tackling one of her novels for ‘The Dark Academicals’ - well, stick with us. Gothic fantasy can be dark academia, plus it’
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