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The best dark academia books

A Cruel Twist of Fate

And Then There Were None meets The Inheritance Games, with a heavy dash of The Woman in Black, in this gloriously gothic YA mystery-thriller. 
 
When eighteen-year-old Helena is sent to be a governess at Archfall Manor - a beautiful but crumbling manor house, perched at the edge of a causeway in the North Sea - she feels confident she will know how to deal with the esteemed but eccentric Cauldwell family who own it. But it quickly becomes clear that the Cauldwells are hiding more than Helena could ever have dreamed of. 
 
A series of sinister events come to a head with a gruesome death - swiftly followed by another. Worse still, with the path back to the mainland cut off by a terrible storm, and no way to get help, suspicions and paranoia quickly run rampant. 
 
But the Cauldwells aren't the only ones keeping secrets. Helena has some very important ones of her own - and soon she begins to wonder whether dark powers beyond her control might be forcing her to twist the fate of the family - and her own destiny - forever. 
 
Praise for A Dark Inheritance: "A powerful, heart-racing story of family, fate, and writing your own destiny. Intricately plotted and luminously written - I loved it" Laura Steven, author of The Society for Soulless Girls

Praise for A Dark Inheritance: "A powerful, heart-racing story of family, fate, and writing your own destiny. Intricately plotted and luminously written - I loved it"

Laura Steven, author of The Society for Soulless Girls

When seventeen-year-old Helena is sent to be a governess at Archfall Manor - a beautiful but crumbling manor house, perched at the edge of a causeway in the North Sea - she feels confident she will know how to deal with the esteemed but eccentric Cauldwell family who own it. But it quickly becomes clear that the Cauldwells are hiding more than Helena could ever have dreamed of. 
 
A series of sinister events come to a head the night of a great storm, which washes away the only path back to the mainland - and reveals in the morning that there has been a murder... quickly followed by another. 
 
Suspicions and paranoia quickly run rampant. Someone has dark motivations in mind - and a killer's instinct to enact them. 
 
But the Cauldwell's aren't the only ones keeping secrets. Helena has a very important one of her own - and soon she begins to wonder whether forces beyond her control might be willing her to enact her own dark plan . . . 
 
Just how far will she go to get what she deserves?

A Dark Inheritance

'A powerful, heart-racing story of family, fate, and writing your own destiny. Intricately plotted and luminously written - I loved it.' Laura Steven, author of The Society for Soulless Girls 
 
Once I had four brothers. Three of them are dead. I am next. 
 
Felix Ashe is sure of only one thing. In thirty days, on his eighteenth birthday, he will die. He might be the only one convinced of this, but the gruesome deaths of his three brothers before him seem to point to only one thing: a curse, one doomed to stop anyone inheriting his family's incredible fortune. 
 
Felix doesn't care about money, or himself, particularly. It's hard to have a stake in the future when you know you haven't got one. But he does care about his little brother Nick, very much. And when an opportunity to break the curse appears to present itself, it's impossible not to heed its dark call. 
 
Soon long-buried secrets will take Felix to the darkest underbelly of Jazz-Age New York, to the far-flung wilds of the Yorkshire moors and back again. And bound to everything is a deadly secret society who will either be Felix's downfall . . . or his one chance at redemption. 
 
The Great Gatsby meets The Inheritance Games in this gloriously twisty thriller, perfect for fans of #DarkAcademia and Leigh Bardugo's Ninth House

Once I had four brothers. Three of them are dead. I am next. 
 
Felix Ashe is sure of only one thing. In thirty days, on his eighteenth birthday, he will die. He might be the only one convinced of this, but the gruesome deaths of his three brothers before him seem to point to only one thing: a curse, one doomed to stop anyone inheriting his family's incredible fortune. 
 
Felix doesn't care about money, or himself, particularly. It's hard to have a stake in the future when you know you haven't got one. But he does care about his little brother Nick, very much. And when an opportunity to break the curse appears to present itself, it's impossible not to heed its dark call. 
 
Soon long-buried secrets will take Felix to the darkest underbelly of Jazz-Age New York, to the far-flung wilds of the Yorkshire moors and back again. And bound to everything is a deadly secret society who will either be Felix's downfall . . . or his one chance at redemption.

H. F. Askwith

Haunting, atmospheric and suspenseful, Half A Dark Heart is a completely captivating gothic mystery. I haven’t been swept away by a book like this in a long time and I don’t think I’ve ever had so much fun being utterly terrified.

Bea Fitzgerald, bestselling author of Girl, Goddess, Queen

Half A Dark Heart is the atmospheric horromantasy I’ve been craving! With a devastatingly tender love story, an evocative gothic setting, and a deep exploration of the power of sisterhood, this book is going to stay with me for a long time

Laura Steven, bestselling author of Our Infinite Fates

I absolutely loved Half a Dark Heart! It is such a gripping, multilayered read, [which] evokes Whitby in all its Gothic glory absolutely superbly. It's sinister, poignant, and utterly enthralling. It's taken so many elements of Victorian literature and reimagined them in a way that shows Heather's love for literature, but also a wonderfully innovative approach to the genre. The Otherworld is a truly horrific invention (in the best sense!), and I am absolutely here for Alice and Lucille's future adventures!

Praise for A Dark Inheritance: "A powerful, heart-racing story of family, fate, and writing your own destiny. Intricately plotted and luminously written - I loved it

The Horrors gain strength when things in our world are broken. 
 
A bone. A promise. A heart. 
 
Ever since she first encountered 'The Horrors', Alice has hidden herself safely behind the walls of her family's Whitby guest house. Only her beloved sister, Lucille, knows why: that Alice can see things - gruesome, terrible things - in the darkest corners of our world. Shadow-monsters which will do anything to satisfy their violent cravings - and seemingly nothing can stop them. Of course, no one would believe them if they told them - and so the girls stay silent. 
 
That is, until Lucille goes missing, and the boy she was in love with turns up dead. All of which coincides with the arrival of Austin - a dashing young actor from London, who claims a demon has stolen his voice, and only Alice can help him. 
 
Faced with a world and powers she never even knew existed, Alice must race against time to save her sister, herself, and perhaps the only other person who's ever cared about her. As well as send a demon or two back to where they came from . . .

H. F. Askwith

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