Dark academia books to read, including The Secret History, Ninth House and The Cloisters.

Reading lists

The best dark academia books

The Cloisters

THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP 5 BESTSELLER . . . IN HARDBACK AND NOW IN PAPERBACK! 
 
The Secret History meets Ninth House . . . the discovery of a mysterious deck of tarot cards lays bare shocking secrets within a close-knit circle of researchers at New York's famed Met Cloisters museum. 
 
------- 
 
'Glamour, power, seduction, ambition – The Cloisters has it all. I adored this deliciously gothic, beautifully written novel.' LOUISE O'NEILL, 
 
'Dark and enigmatic . . . a story of academic obsession, Renaissance magic and the ruthless pursuit of power. Captivating in every sense.' SARAH PEARSE 
 
'Elegant and atmospheric and suffused with brooding menace.' LUCY CLARKE 
 
'Sultry and sinister . . . teems with sexual tension, the secrets of divination, and scholarly obsessiveness . . . jaw-dropping.' SARAH PENNER 
 
‘Beguiling and atmospheric, an entrancing and gripping tale.’ KATE MOSSE 
 
------- 
 
Ann Stilwell arrives in New York City, hoping to spend her summer working at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Instead, she is assigned to The Cloisters, a gothic museum and garden renowned for its collection of medieval and Renaissance art. 
 
Drawn into a small circle of charismatic but enigmatic researchers, Ann happy to indulge some of their more outlandish theories, including the museum's curator who is fixated on tarot and the real possibility of predicting the future. 
 
But when Ann discovers a mysterious, once-thought lost deck of 15th-century Italian tarot cards she finds herself at the centre of a dangerous game of power, toxic friendship and ambition. 
 
And as the game being played within the Cloisters spirals out of control, Ann must decide who she trusts . . . 
 
 
Instant Sunday Times bestseller, February 2024

Beguiling and atmospheric, an entrancing and gripping tale.

Elegant and atmospheric and suffused with brooding menace, The Cloisters transports us to the dark corridors of museum life, embroiling the reader in a twisting mystery, while also intelligently exploring the nature of fate versus freewill.

Glamour, power, seduction, ambition - The Cloisters has it all. I adored this deliciously gothic, beautifully written novel.

This is a modern, Gothic masterpiece. Successfully linking modern critical thinking with the divinity of the past, and human nature's desire to believe that there is something else out there. 9/10

The dark and enigmatic world of The Cloisters captured me from the off . . . a story of academic obsession, Renaissance magic and the ruthless pursuit of power. Captivating in every sense.

Sultry and sinister . . . Hays' debut teems with sexual tension, the secrets of divination, and scholarly obsessiveness . . . jaw-dropping.

SARAH PENNER, author of The Lost Apothecary

A sinister slow burn tale of obsession, power, secrets and academic rivalry . . . it's been weeks since I finished the book and I'm still impressed by how much it affected me. ****

'Dark and compelling . . . richly atmospheric and full of historic detail, it draws the reader into its world of the archive and the occult. As its central mystery unfolds amid the stifling heat of a New York Summer it soon becomes clear that nobody in it is quite who they first appear.'

Like the moment before a thunderstorm on a summer afternoon, The Cloisters is sultry, lush, and trembling with menace.

In Hays' hands, the subject of tarot is a fascinating one and the twists and turns come thick and fast. It's full of menace.

The Cloisters blew me away. A one sitting read. Absolutely stunning, brilliant twists and gorgeous sensual writing. Adored it.

HEATHER DARWENT, author of The Things We Do to Our Friends

This sharp, twisty piece of 'dark academia' is like a museum-set 'All About Eve'.

A tour de force by an important new voice . . . a rich tapestry that speaks to issues of privilege, power, and ambition-and, more than anything, the darkness lurking just inside ivory towers . . . incredibly compelling, The Cloisters grabbed me in a way that no book has done since The Secret History.

RACHEL KAPELKE-DALE, author of The Ballerinas

A beguiling, intoxicating tale of obsession. ****

Mesmerizing . . . like the air before a summer storm - thick and sinister, shimmering with tension. A seductive unfurling of lies, envy, and the pull of the occult . . . this sharp, shadowy book held me in thrall from beginning to star-crossed end.

Brimming with intrigue and mystery . . . an atmospheric debut with a gripping premise.

A gripping debut . . . Hays is a writer who can skilfully navigate the narrow territory between suspense and melodrama.

A sharply smart, engaging debut . . . Hays' smooth narration deftly conjures the complex, sexy webs between her characters . . . a fun, seductive, intelligent read.

NICOLA DeROBERTIS-THEYE, author of The Vietri Project

Prepare to lose your entire afternoon to The Cloisters . . . good luck staying ahead of this one and have a great time poring over the many treasures inside.

MARIA HUMMEL, author of Reese’s Book Club Pick, Still Lives

Atmospheric, intoxicating and original; a stunning debut.

Moody and suspenseful . . . readers will be fascinated by the evocative setting as well as the behind-the-scenes glimpses into museum curatorship and the cutthroat games of academia . . . an accomplished debut.

A teasing, atmospheric mystery set against the background of a hot summer in New York.

The tension and foreboding builds gradually in this outstanding gothic debut, allowing readers to savour Ann's voice. The disturbing account plays with class differences and women friendship, set against a medieval, academic atmosphere sheltered from the city.

Driven by fascinating and creepy power dynamics that anchor it in the Dark Academia trend, The Cloisters offers an enticing glimpse into the history of the tarot, a key trend in fantasy.

Katy Hays is the author of the international bestseller, The Cloisters. In addition to writing, Katy works as an adjunct Art History Professor, teaching rural students from Truckee to Tecopa. She holds an MA in Art History from Williams College and pursued her PhD in Art History at UC Berkeley. Her academic writing has been published by Ashgate, an imprint of Routledge. 
Her fiction explores how far humans are willing to go to believe the unbelievable, strange-but-real worlds, and complex female friendships. When not writing, Katy is a skier, cyclist, trail runner, and reader. She lives with her husband and their dog, Queso, in the Sierra Nevada, California. 
 
Find out more at www.katyhays.com 
Instagram @heykatyhays

THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP 5 BESTSELLER . . . IN HARDBACK AND NOW IN PAPERBACK! 
 
The Secret History meets Ninth House . . . the discovery of a mysterious deck of tarot cards lays bare shocking secrets within a close-knit circle of researchers at New York's famed Met Cloisters museum. 
 
------- 
 
'Glamour, power, seduction, ambition – The Cloisters has it all. I adored this deliciously gothic, beautifully written novel.' LOUISE O'NEILL, 
 
'Dark and enigmatic . . . a story of academic obsession, Renaissance magic and the ruthless pursuit of power. Captivating in every sense.' SARAH PEARSE 
 
'Elegant and atmospheric and suffused with brooding menace.' LUCY CLARKE 
 
'Sultry and sinister . . . teems with sexual tension, the secrets of divination, and scholarly obsessiveness . . . jaw-dropping.' SARAH PENNER 
 
‘Beguiling and atmospheric, an entrancing and gripping tale.’ KATE MOSSE 
 
------- 
 
Ann Stilwell arrives in New York City, hoping to spend her summer working at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Instead, she is assigned to The Cloisters, a gothic museum and garden renowned for its collection of medieval and Renaissance art. 
 
Drawn into a small circle of charismatic but enigmatic researchers, Ann happy to indulge some of their more outlandish theories, including the museum's curator who is fixated on tarot and the real possibility of predicting the future. 
 
But when Ann discovers a mysterious, once-thought lost deck of 15th-century Italian tarot cards she finds herself at the centre of a dangerous game of power, toxic friendship and ambition. 
 
And as the game being played within the Cloisters spirals out of control, Ann must decide who she trusts . . .

Katy Hays

An elaborate game of cat and mouse in which the roles are constantly reversing and the twists keep coming.

The Lingates have it all: prestige, power and the potential to be irrevocably destroyed if long-buried secrets get into the wrong hands . . . Katy Hays' The Vipers is sultry and sophisticated with a menacing undercurrent that keeps you thrillingly unsettled until its final spellbinding twist. Let the languid glamour of Capri gently take you by one hand, an ice cold Negroni in the other, but watch your step—the cliffs are treacherous and so, too, is a family with everything to lose.

RACHEL KOLLER CROFT, author of Stone Cold Fox

A superlative novel packed with bewildering misdirection.

SUNDAY TIMES, Crime Fiction 'Pick of the Month'

Engrossing and sinister . . . has all the elements thriller readers love: dead bodies, deception, and betrayal. But at its core, this multi-layered story delves into the concepts of familial loyalty and generational trauma . . . a must-read!

A captivating island-set murder mystery perfect for fans of The Fury and The Guest List . . . thrilling.

The White Lotus meets Patricia Highsmith.

Brilliantly written in scintillating prose . . . an Italian Opera for the modern age, in which a daughter of fortune desperate to escape her monstrous family digs up the skeletons of the past, setting off a serpentine chain reaction that will leave you breathless. Superbly plotted and deftly executed, this searing takedown of the upper crust is one to savour!

Stellar . . . a powerful, surprise-packed study of family, wealth, and consequences . . . Hays uses the island setting to brilliantly exploit locked-room mystery tropes, and doles out jaw-dropping reveals at just the right moments. This masterful suspense story has all the momentum of a runaway train.

Exhilarating . . . sleuthing minds will cavort with acrobatic prowess, reeling from one unexpected twist to another . . . Hitchcockian in its film-noirish malevolence, Hays’ second novel also deviously channels Patricia Highsmith’s cunningly and sympathetically flawed characters to deliver an absorbing read.

NINA SIMON, author of Mother-Daughter Murder Night

Beguiling and atmospheric, an entrancing and gripping tale.

I adored this deliciously gothic, beautifully written novel.

This is a modern, Gothic masterpiece. Successfully linking modern critical thinking with the divinity of the past, and human nature's desire to believe that there is something else out there.

From the bestselling author of The Cloisters comes this electrifying thriller about an affluent family whose annual retreat to Italy is shattered when a decades-old murder resurfaces . . . think The Talented Mr Ripley meets Succession meets The White Lotus . . . 
 
On the glittering island of Capri, anything can be a mirage. But one thing is true: there's nothing deadlier than a family with everything to lose . . . 
 
The world was shocked by playwright Sarah Lingate’s death thirty years ago at an opulent, 
white-washed villa on the island of Capri. Absolved of the crime, the Lingate family maintains that what happened that night was a tragic accident. And every July they return to Capri to prove it’s true. 
 
This time, Helen Lingate - sole heir to the family fortune - has a plan. Tightly controlled by her father, she enlists the help of the family assistant, Lorna Moreno, to free herself from her family’s stranglehold on her life. And yet, behind closed doors, the legendary Lingate family unity is at breaking point. Upon arrival at the villa in Capri, an anonymous gift awaits them: the necklace Sarah was wearing the night she died. 
 
In the aftermath, the paranoid, insular Lingates begin to unravel. As the investigation into her mother’s death is reopened, Helen begins to lose trust in everyone around her: her controlling father Richard, drug-addled aunt Naomi, aloof uncle Marcus, and even Lorna, whose past she realizes is frustratingly opaque. And as the family fractures, the long-hidden truth about that night and the secrets they’ve kept from one another boil to the surface - and they might not leave the island alive. 
 
'Sultry and sophisticated with a menacing undercurrent that keeps you thrillingly unsettled until its final spellbinding twist. Let the languid glamour of Capri gently take you by one hand, an ice cold Negroni in the other, but watch your step — the cliffs are treacherous and so, too, is a family with everything to lose.' 
RACHEL KOLLER CROFT, author of Stone Cold Fox 
 
'Engrossing and sinister . . . a must-read for 2025.' JULIE CLARK, author of The Last Flight

Katy Hays

Praise for The Vipers

An elaborate game of cat and mouse in which the roles are constantly reversing and the twists keep coming.

The Lingates have it all: prestige, power and the potential to be irrevocably destroyed if long-buried secrets get into the wrong hands . . . Katy Hays' The Vipers is sultry and sophisticated with a menaci ...

A superlative novel packed with bewildering misdirection.

An elaborate game of cat and mouse in which the roles are constantly reversing and the twists keep coming.

The Lingates have it all: prestige, power and the potential to be irrevocably destroyed if long-buried secrets get into the wrong hands . . . Katy Hays' The Vipers is sultry and sophisticated with a menaci ...

A superlative novel packed with bewildering misdirection.

An elaborate game of cat and mouse in which the roles are constantly reversing and the twists keep coming.

The Lingates have it all: prestige, power and the potential to be irrevocably destroyed if long-buried secrets get into the wrong hands . . . Katy Hays' The Vipers is sultry and sophisticated with a menaci ...

A superlative novel packed with bewildering misdirection.

Books by Katy Hays

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