Hey There!
Thanks to global warming, nothing is changing even though Fall is technically really close. None of the leaves have changed out near me, and two weeks into September, it is still about 80 degrees, but will that stop me from experiencing autumn and getting ready for the truly spooky season? Never.
I have three favorite genres of novels that I love to read. Mysteries, Thrillers, and Horror. Dark Academia is becoming increasingly popular even though it is still considered a trope and not a genre. I have so many dark academia novels joining my physical tbr. I only have a handful of arcs due for the rest of the year, and since I just consider Winter to be a colder extension of fall, I have a few extra months to get some books knocked off the list.
It’s been so long since I’ve done any Monthly or even season hopefuls, so here’s hoping it’s been long enough that bringing it back won’t immediately trigger my brain into saying no. Here’s what I’m hoping to get to and looking forward to for the next three -ish months. I’ve been on a dark academia craving for the last like 4 years, so I’ve got a decent pile stacked up.
Here are a few of the arcs I’m looking forward to getting to before the end of the year:
Darling, You’re next by Marlee Bush: Her second novel that I got as an arc, and I was obsessed with her first one, so I can’t wait to see the wild ride her second one takes us on, plus it’s nice and short! A Dark Feminist thriller about a woman who meets the perfect man, but he may be a serial killer, and can she find out if she’s correct before getting got?!
Tylor Whitlock Just Won’t Die by Kendall Arnette: Groundhog Day meets a lovelorn Blogger. Over love and ready to talk about Tylor writes a scathing exposé; someone decides the best way to shut her up is murder. But they weren’t the most successful and are now doomed to repeat the day until she solves the murder, and I’m so excited to see who dunnit.
Lethal Kiss by Taylor Grothe: Sapphic. Dark Academia. Horror. Professor looking for tenure. Student just wanting to survive being a monster. The usual rat race of Academia until bodies start dropping.
Here are books that I own physically that I’m hoping to get off my shelf.
Immortal Ruin by Tigest Girma: This has been on my tbr for years, but I realized that I was over Vampires right after I bought it, and I’ve been putting it off. I’m hoping that Black Characters, Culture, and dark academia will be enough to bring it home. I have beautiful editions of books one and two, and three comes out in January, so it would be nice to be ready for the finale and culminate in the purchase of the third one in a matching pretty edition.
Immortal Consequences by I.V. Marie: A YA Dark Fantasy that has me hooked, as it is full of students who are dead and attend a school that will allow them to either ascend or reap souls, and it makes my macabre heart so happy. I’ve actually already started reading this physically, and I am 40 pages in.
Katabasis by R. F. Kuang: I got caught up in life even though I pre-ordered the US version, and then not even a few days later I ordered the UK version, and yet I still did not get a chance to finish this novel. The struggle is so real; I am hoping to finish it this year, or I will start Babel instead, but I really, really want to read a Kuang novel. I’m determined.
Lucien by J.R. Thornton: What I’m taking to be a queer take on If We Were Villains with/without the possibility of a murder. A talented but poor art student is taken in and obsessed with a rich art student with a dark academia backdrop. I am hoping that it is openly queer and that the representation will be good, but I love a book about obsession, so I’m very excited about it.
A Stage Set for Villains by Shannon J. Spann: She Haunts Me Still really sharpened my taste buds for a theatre trope, and now I need more. This magical world has to deal with these god like players, who are theater-esque and who bleed gold, and an academy to prepare you to slay them; it’s been calling me since I pulled it off the shelf earlier this year.
Good For Her by Tylor Page: This is a buddy read that I’ve been working on since the end of July, and I am determined to finish it before the end of September. A Scream queen’s daughter, obsessed with horror herself, is on a one-way mission to murder the six men who murdered her mother. I’m currently 50% in, but put it aside for She Haunts Me Still, and I just haven’t picked it back up again.
The Secret History by Donna Tartt: THE QUINTESSENTIAL DARK ACADEMIA novel, the one that started it all, I’ve heard many an incendiary thing about this classic, but I haven’t read it, and I can’t join the discourse about it without studying it first. Plus I’m dying to read a murder mystery where the men flirt with latin phrases, Cmon now.
Silver Cloak by L.K. Stevens: This is undoubtedly big girl fantasy, so I am nervous, but I think the thing that will pull me through is that at its core, it’s a murder mystery and we have a sarcastic main woman character. So here’s hoping it’s what caused me to pull it off the shelf and bring it home, and hopefully enough for me to survive this high fantasy novel that’s over 300 pages.
Do you have any books set up for the fall season? Tell me about them below. No spoilers, though!
Until Next Time,
Gabs
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