Dark Academia Books Set In Fantasy Worlds Full Of Magic & Mystery

Sciona is the first woman ever admitted to the High Magistry at the University of Magics and Industry, but her achievement is quickly overshadowed by sexism, both subtle and blatant.

Further complicating her situation, her assigned research assistant is a janitor called Thomil, a refugee from a neighboring country whose tribe was destroyed by a mysterious affliction called the Blight. 

Despite her own struggles of facing misogyny from the male mages, Sciona initially overlooks the oppression faced by Thomil, who comes from a different race, religion, and social class. However, while working together, Sciona and Thomil uncover a secret conspiracy concerning the true cost of magic. 

This revelation challenges everything Sciona believes and forces her to confront the tension between intention and impact, as well as the cost of pursuing the truth.

Set in a fictitious Victorian Oxford, Babel is a historical fantasy that explores themes of colonialism, race, and power through the eyes of the protagonist Robin Swift. 

Rescued from his cholera-infested home in China by the mysterious Professor Lovell, Robin is taken to England, where he studies languages intensely, preparing to enroll in the Royal Institute of Translation at Oxford University (also known as Babel).

This prestigious institution is the world's center for translation and thus magic: Translators inscribe a word in two languages on a silver bar, and the nuance of meaning lost in translation fuels the enchantment. This silverworking powers society, literally and figuratively, and the British Empire reaches ever further to colonize new countries with different languages so that new translations can be made.

To Robin, Babel is a haven of intellectual pursuit, but despite his skill in Translation, he and other students of color at Babel face constant prejudice.

When the British Empire declares war on China in pursuit of silver and opium, Robin is forced to question his place in an empire that ‘rescued’ him for its own ends. 

Delaney Meyers-Petrov is thrilled to have been offered a place at Godbole University, a mysterious institution where students are taught the secret to accessing parallel universes.

This is her chance to prove herself, and she doesn't want to be defined by her disability; Delaney uses a hearing aid after a childhood fever left her deaf. Except Lane can hear voices whispering to her from every shadow, which makes her fearful of the dark.

Soon, she finds herself drawn to the teacher’s assistant, Colton Price, who can step between worlds effortlessly and who seems determined to avoid Delaney despite the strange connection they seem to share.

When a fellow student turns up dead, Delaney and Colton have to team up to uncover the truth and face a nameless evil that threatens their world.

El Higgins is a student at Scholomance, a sentient school for the magically gifted, where failure means death. Here, young witches and wizards study without teachers and cannot leave until they graduate. 

Even though everyone is somewhat protected from the monsters who are drawn to them as their abilities manifest, demons roam the halls, and students need allies if they want to survive.

The object of a grim prophecy of worldwide destruction, prickly, antisocial El is ostracized by her fearful peers, leaving her with no friends in a place where going anywhere alone is dangerous. 

To her advantage, El possesses a dark magic strong enough to ensure she will make it to graduation—if only the infuriatingly heroic Orion Lake would stop trying to save her long enough for her to save herself.

Bree Matthews is a student in a residential program for bright high schoolers at UNC Chapel Hill, the same university that her late mother attended. 

During her first night on campus, Bree witnesses a demon attack, repelled with magic by a boy named Selwyn, who then tries and fails to erase her memory of the event.

Following this incident, Bree unlocks a buried memory of the night her mother died, when another person altered her memories. Determined to find out the truth about her mother’s supposedly accidental death, Bree discovers and infiltrates a secret society that calls themselves Legendborn—mostly rich, white, powerful men; all things that Bree is not. 

As descendants of the Knights of the Round Table, they hunt demons like the one Bree saw. Mages like Selwyn, known as Merlins, support and serve the Knights.