Katabasis, noun, Ancient Greek: The story of a hero’s descent to the underworld.

Alice Law has only ever had one goal: to become one of the brightest minds in the field of Magick. She has sacrificed everything to make that a reality: her pride, her health, her love life, and most definitely her sanity. All to work with Professor Jacob Grimes at Cambridge, the greatest magician in the world. That is, until he dies in a magical accident that could possibly be her fault.

Grimes is now in Hell, and she’s going in after him. Because his recommendation could hold her very future in his now incorporeal hands. And even death is not going to stop the pursuit of her dreams….

Nor will the fact that her rival, Peter Murdoch, has come to the very same conclusion.

With nothing but the tales of Orpheus and Dante to guide them, enough chalk to draw the Pentagrams necessary for their spells. And the burning desire to make all the academic trauma mean anything, they set off across Hell to save a man they don’t even like.

But Hell is not like the storybooks say. Magick isn’t always the answer, and there’s something in Alice and Peter’s past that could forge them into the perfect allies… or lead to their doom.

Katabasis – R. F. Kuang – 9780008501907

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MYSTERY. MURDER. REVENGE. WELCOME TO SORROWSONG UNIVERSITY . . .

He’d burn the world down for her . . . but she plans to burn his to the ground. Isolated in the Scottish Highlands, Sorrowsong University only welcomes students from the most powerful families.

Ophelia Winters doesn’t belong, but a rare scholarship grants her the perfect opportunity to investigate her parents’ ‘accidental’ death near the castle grounds. Things get off to a rocky start when she runs afoul of the mysterious Alex Corbeau-Green – son of her prime suspect. As far as she’s concerned, he is just a younger version of his billionaire father.

A monster hiding beneath a beautiful façade. When an unknown tormentor begins to stalk Ophelia, she realizes she may not be able to survive Sorrowsong on her own. Alex becomes her unexpected ally – and alibi for murder.

And as she begins to fall for the soft heart that hides beneath his hard exterior, her hunger for revenge wavers for the first time. Can she really bring herself to destroy everything he’s ever known

Nightshade by Autumn Woods – 9781035084005

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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.

The Incandescent – Emily Tesch – 9780356517193

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Warren University has stood amongst the prestigious elite for centuries, built on the bones – and forbidden magic – of its most prized BIPOC students… Hiding the rot of a secret society that will do anything to keep their own powers burning bright. No matter who they must sacrifice along the way.

Ellory Morgan is determined to prove that she belongs at Warren University, an Ivy League school whose history is deeply linked to occult rumours and dark secrets. But as she settles into her first year, something about the ornate buildings and shadowy paths feels strangely…familiar. And, with every passing day, that sense of déjà vu grows increasingly sinister.

Despite all logic, despite all reason, despite all the rules of reality, Ellory knows one thing to be true. She has been here before. And if she can’t convince brooding legacy student Hudson Graves to help her remember a past that seems determined to slip through her fingers as if by some insidious magic. . . This time, she may lose herself for good.

An Arcane Inheritance is a modern-day dark academia speculative fantasy with a romance twist. It’s perfect for dark academia and romantasy readers alike.

TropesDark : Academia – Dark Magic / Romantasy / Gothic / Mystery Thriller.

An Arcane Inheritance – Kamilah Cole – 9781464266430

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For best friends Nikki and Sadie, college was supposed to be a fresh start, a way to blast Courtney Love from car speakers and leave their youth behind.

But along with sadness-obsessed girls and intrusive professors, a dark story plagues their small all-women’s school. The Sylvia Club, a campus legend surrounding the deaths of multiple Sylvia Plath-adoring students, all written off as suicides. Aspiring writer Nikki finds herself drawn to the tragic tales, so much so that dead girls begin to haunt her dark imagination. As she digs deeper, Nikki soon suspects there’s much more to the story. A suspicion that will lead to a tragedy of its own, one that will tear her and Sadie apart.

It’s been nearly twenty years since Sadie last saw her estranged friend. Now, Nikki is dead. And when Sadie ends up pregnant by Nikki’s grieving husband not long after the funeral, she finds herself stepping into her ex-best friend’s seemingly perfect life. But the longer Sadie lives in Nikki’s eerily preserved home, the more she sees her appear. And soon, she’s convinced that Nikki is sending her clues from beyond the grave.

Because it seems Nikki never stopped looking for answers about what happened to the girls of the Sylvia Club. And she may have been its latest victim. Told in a dual timeline, Doll Parts is a provocative and irresistible debut suspense novel. It is at once an exploration of the dark chasms that break apart friendships, an ode to the aching beauty of girlhood, and a sharp portrayal of grief. The one that can physically haunt you.

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An American teenager joins an exclusive boarding school hidden in the Scottish countryside. New friendships form, but things aren’t as they seem. Drawing on ancient Gaelic myths, this dark academia fantasy is filled with twists, turns, and betrayals. Fans of Ninth House and The Atlas Six will love it.

Page Whittaker has always been an outcast. After a deadly incident ends her only friendship at her old school, she needs a fresh start. When she receives a scholarship to Agathion College, an elite boarding school deep in the Scottish moors, she doesn’t hesitate.

Agathion is everything Page wants: a safe haven with dusty books, tea, and intellectual debates. For the first time, Page begins to make close friends—Cyrus, Ren, Gideon, Lacey, and Oak. The problem is, they’re all hiding secrets from her.

Page soon discovers that Agathion has dark roots tied to an ancient secret society. Not everyone at the school is who they appear to be, especially her new friends.

Unhallowed Halls – 9781835413999 – Lili wilkinson

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One unsolved murder. Ten years after her graduation, Jessica Miller has planned every detail of her triumphant return to Duquette university. Everyone will see who she wants them to see – a confident, beautiful, indifferent woman.

Not the girl she was before, back when Heather Shelby’s murder fractured everything. But not everyone is ready to move on. Someone is determined to make the guilty pay.

When Jessica and her friends are reunited, they are forced to confront not only what happened that night, but the secrets they hide away for so long. Told in racing dual timelines, with a dark campus setting, In My Dreams I Hold A Knife is an addictive, propulsive read you won’t be able to put down.

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