Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Posted August 29, 2026 by Nicky in General / 5 Comments

Hello everyone! Back at home, and I have plenty of books to show for my journey! It was lovely to have a break and get away from the usual routine, but it’s also nice to be home.

Books acquired this week

Now the birthday book haul really begins, ahaha. Here are the books my parents got me for my birthday, both non-fiction books I’ve been very interested in reading:

In the case of Beyond Belief, I’d been intrigued since I read New Scientist‘s review, while I’ve generally loved Sue Black’s other books. I’ve finished Beyond Belief already!

As for the book spree, I’m going to break that up into a couple of different posts, mostly by bookshop, because I visited several indies and that gives me a good chance to talk about them. First up, though, the books I got in Forbidden Planet on our first day in Bristol. It’s not as big a shop as in London and there definitely wasn’t as much danmei as I’d hoped, but I still got some new treasures! This spree was a gift from my wife for my birthday, and I took full advantage of the offer, ahaha.

Tammy and Mogsy made me curious about Teddy Bears Never Die, while The Feywild Job has been on my list for a while since it’s by C.L. Polk, so I was glad to pick that up. The Library of Amorlin was a random choice: I’ve heard nothing about it, but it had lovely sprayed edges and the word “library” in the title, so it caught my eye. One of the joys of bookshopping in person is getting to pick up random books you’ve never heard of and just give them a shot.

As for the danmei, I’ve been meaning to try all three of these for a while, and of course I had to pick up the next volume of the Heaven Official’s Blessing manhua.

Not bad for a first day, right? But the next day of the holiday was intended as the real spree over in Bath, and we started at Mr B’s Emporium of Reading Delights. The staff are always good for a chat about books, though I would warn that the shop is definitely not accessible for anyone in a wheelchair (very narrow with steps), and the neurospicy might not enjoy the fact that all fiction novels are shelved together regardless of genre.

Anyway, I found myself a few new friends in Mr B’s, as expected! My wife covered these as well, because I’m super spoiled.

The first three are non-fiction; I’d wanted The English House and This Golden Fleece for a while… while of course Everybody’s Perfect is Jo’s latest, and there’s no way I could resist.

I’ll call a halt there, and tell you next week about Topping & Company (also in Bath) and the new-to-me Love Stories (in Cardiff).

Posts from this week

Despite being away all week, I had plenty of posts queued up ready for me to just hit “post”, so there’s lots to round up as usual! Starting with reviews:

Poetry: Obit, by Victoria Chang (3/5 stars, “liked it”)
Non-fiction: A History of Booksellers and the Bookshop, by Jean-Yves Mollier (3/5 stars, “liked it”)
Fantasy romance: Wooing the Witch Queen, by Stephanie Burgis (3/5 stars, “liked it”)
Sci-fi mystery: The Album of Dr. Moreau, by Daryl Gregory (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
Non-fiction: How Queer Bookshops Changed the World, by A.J. West (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
Poetry: Eleanor Among the Saints, by Rachel Mann (2/5 stars, “it was okay”)
Fantasy/romance manga: The Other World’s Books Depend on the Bean Counter, vol 6, by Kazuki Irodori (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)

And of course, the discussion posts/linkups/etc:

Oof, that was a lot!

What I’m reading

Despite the travel, I have managed to fit in some reading time, because we planned our days with lots of downtime for reading. I did struggle to settle down to the book choices I’d brought with me, and ended up abandoning both my BookSpinBingo list and my 20 Books of Summer, and just letting myself read whatever, which helped me get unstuck.

Here’s a quick peek at the books I finished this week:

You can click the thumbnails to get a view of the full covers!

As for this weekend ahead, I’m a bit tired from the travel and because I wasn’t well on Thursday night (just a flare-up of complications from my long-ago gallbladder removal, I’m okay now!), but we’ll see… I’m in the mood for more classic crime, and have added a couple more by authors I haven’t tried yet on Kobo Plus. And then, of course, there’s all the new books!

Linking up with Reading Reality’s Stacking the Shelves, Caffeinated Reviewer’s The Sunday Post, the Sunday Salon over at Readerbuzz, and It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? at The Book Date.

Tags: books, Stacking the Shelves, weekly roundup

Review – The Other World’s Books Depend on the Bean Counter (manga), vol 6

Posted August 28, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

The Other World's Books Depend on the Bean Counter

by Kazuki Irodori, Yatsuki Wakutsu

Genres: Fantasy, Manga, Romance
Pages: 176
Series: The Other World's Books Depend on the Bean Counter (manga) #6
Rating: four-stars

Synopsis:
It was just a normal day when a workaholic office worker was dragged through a portal to another world. Of course, the first thing he requested was a job—which is how Kondou’s career in the Royal Accounting Department began. Now, as Vice Director, Kondou finds himself out of his depth, embroiled in a plot involving the church’s finances and state secrets, all the while missing his dashing knight captain. But when Aresh returns from a successful expedition only to mysteriously collapse, it might be up to our intrepid bean counter to save the day…

Volume six of Kazuki Irodori’s manga adaptation of The Other World’s Books Depend on the Bean Counter contains some really really sweet moments, as Seiichirou discovers that Aresh’s absence makes his own feelings very clear. The fact that Aresh is a big romantic is no surprise, and Seiichirou will always be a pragmatist above all… but the imbalance in their feelings is starting to even out, and there are some super cute scenes.

The plot also continues apace, of course, with Seiichirou targeted by someone from within the church, and Seiichirou’s investigation beginning to reveal that something’s off about all of that.

It’s still apparent that Aresh thinks they’re in a romance novel (not even realising that the attack on Seiichirou is targeted until it comes up as a matter of course in conversation) while Seiichirou is in a fantasy novel with political intrigue, which is also kind of funny. I’ve forgotten exactly how the situation plays out in the church and how it leads into Aresh’s dramatic next actions, from the light novel, but I look forward to getting there in the manga too.

(Still, in the meantime… maybe a little reread.)

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

Tags: book reviews, books, Kazuki Irodori, manga, romance, SF/F, Yatsuki Wakutsu

Book Blogger Hop: The Hook

Posted August 28, 2026 by Nicky in General / 6 Comments

It’s Friday, so it’s time for the Book Blogger Hop again, hosted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer. I’ve made my own image from a stock photo (credit: Anna Shvets) to avoid adding images created via generative AI to my blog. Feel free to use it too if you would like!

This week’s prompt is about what grabs you in any given book:

What grabs you and keeps you hooked in a book?

With non-fiction, generally the topic matters most. I’ve found myself interested in food history and fashion history, less because I’m interested in food or fashion per se, and more because you can get a surprising amount of contextual understanding of a given period/culture/etc by reading about its food and fashion. So, when it comes to non-fiction I love books that use things like that to show me a bigger slice of history than you’d expect — like using poems to do a history of England (like A History of England in 25 Poems), or carpets to do a history of the world (like Threads of Empire, although I haven’t finished that yet).

When it comes to science, given my background I’m pretty much always going to be hooked by human biology, microbiology, virology, etc.

I went with non-fiction first because that felt easier to answer, but when it comes to fiction… I think it comes down to something I complain about sometimes with books that don’t convince me: make me believe there’s a meaningful world outside of your story. I often talk about this when talking about fantasy worlds: I don’t need to see the magic schools of the main city of your fantasy, but a few references to them help flesh out your world. I don’t need to see weird creatures in the story, as long as I know they’re there — or might be.

But really, the same goes for any fiction: I don’t need to know who the girl at the corner shop is dating, but I ought to be able to believe she does something other than ring up the protagonist’s purchases — if not because of detail about her specifically, then just because the background characters as a whole give that impression. We don’t need to know the protagonist’s family tree in detail, but the author ought to know it, or convince us that they do in the way they write and the details they do give.

All of these things help give life to the action and help the reader suspend disbelief.

That said, it’s not the only component of a compelling read for me: the main characters are also super important. I don’t have to like them, and they definitely don’t have to make consistently good choices, but I have to believe they are people who have thoughts and feelings, and whose fates matter.

That said, likeable characters help a lot.

In the end, sometimes sheer writing skill alone can hold me: when I first read Raymond Chandler’s work, I barely followed the mystery plots, but I was all-in on his prose and his “shop-worn Galahad”, a phrase which has stuck with me as being perfect ever since (though it’s far from his only great line).

Maybe the key is just doing something really, really well, and demonstrating it early.

Tags: Book Blogger Hop, books, discussion

Review – Eleanor Among the Saints

Posted August 27, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Eleanor Among the Saints

by Rachel Mann

Genres: Poetry
Pages: 80
Rating: two-stars

Synopsis:
In her second collection, Mann wrestles with the questions and possibilities raised when trans identity, faith and the limits of myth and language intersect and are tested. Eleanor Among the Saints is a study in the queer joy found in counter-factuals and fantasy, shaped through the prism of the disputed story of Eleanor Rykener, a medieval trans woman, seamstress and sex worker.

I got very irritated by aspects of the style in Rachel Mann’s Eleanor Among the Saints (omitting many definite and indefinite articles, for instance), but there were times it definitely managed to borrow the sound of scripture very effectively, and it often felt like it’d be very rich to read aloud, and to dig deep into and dissect with close reading — even if I didn’t enjoy it very much per se in and of itself.

I did love learning a little about John/Eleanor Rykener as a result of having read this; I appreciated the explanatory note afterwards, and the exploration of the details we know about Rykener’s life and what that might’ve been like. What she (I say she though it is always difficult to know how someone may have identified if they’d had the modern conception of gender to begin with) thought and felt, how she may have conceived of herself… we know very little, and Mann embroiders a lot.

I guess overall this is one I found more interesting than likeable, but I’m glad I gave it a shot.

I’m also feeling confirmed in this opinion because I watched Rachel Mann’s appearance on last year’s alumni University Challenge and found her so annoying in the way she behaved toward her team members. Not as annoying as people who break the rules and confer when they aren’t allowed to, but pretty dang annoying.

Rating: 2/5 (“it was okay”)

Tags: book reviews, books, poetry, Rachel Mann

Review – How Queer Bookshops Changed the World

Posted August 27, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

How Queer Bookshops Changed the World

by A.J. West

Genres: History, Non-fiction
Pages: 336
Rating: four-stars

Synopsis:
The remarkable tale of how queer bookshops built communities, nourished minds, redefined literature – and changed the world.

For over a century, LGBTQ+ bookshops have been the unsung heroes of queer liberation.

Home not only to books but chaotic community noticeboards, vicious rescue cats and countless meet cutes, queer bookshops have always been more than just bookshops, offering friendship, solidarity and sanctuary.

Travelling the world – Shakespeare and Company in Paris, Gay’s the Word in London, the Oscar Wilde Bookshop in New York – A. J. West explores the remarkable history of these bookstores. Tracing their evolution from under-the-counter operations to beloved out-and-proud institutions, West reveals how the queer bookshop stood at the vanguard of LGBTQ+ rights, offering support and vital information through the AIDS crisis and bringing the fight to Section 28 and book bans.

A powerful testament not only to bookshops but to the courage of queer booksellers, from Sylvia Beach hiding books from the Nazis in laundry baskets to Craig Rodwell facing off against the police at the Stonewall riots, A. J. West celebrates the shops and booksellers that brought queer literature and lives into the mainstream.

Bookshops covered include: The Highlander & Dove, The Librarie Parisienne, Shakespeare and Company, City Lights Bookstore, The London Underground, Adonis Bookstore, The Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop, Glad Day, Lambda Rising, Giovanni’s Room, A Different Light, Amazon Bookstore Cooperative, A Woman’s Place Bookstore, Womanbooks, Sisterwrite, Modern Books, Housmans Bookshop, Prinz Eisenherz, Gay’s The Word, Lavender Menace & West and Wilde, Vrolijk, Silver Moon, London, The Bookshop Darlinghurst, Paperxclips, Gay-on-Wye, Gayberystwyth Books.

A.J. West’s How Queer Bookshops Changed the World is a history of the concept of the queer bookshop, as well as a chronicle of how queer bookshops have changed the world. The back of the book has a bit of a run-down of queer bookshops that exist now — hopefully non-exhaustive, but still including some queer bookshops I personally know of, like Portal Bookshop — while the chapters deal with mostly one or two bookshops at a time, discussing their impact on their communities and the people around them.

Inevitably, it’s an emotional journey, because it touches on homophobia, transphobia, sexism, racism, etc. It shows how queer bookshops have been at the heart of things all along, from Stonewall to AIDs to section 28 (which shouldn’t have applied to bookshops as they were not local authorities!) to now. Sometimes it’s easy to feel like things are secure now, that those were the bad old days, but I know that queer bookshops receive homophobic and transphobic abuse right now.

A.J. West recounts the history with sympathy and awe, highlighting the ways queer bookshop owners and operators have gone above and beyond, have been key to the political push for queer equality, and have held their communities together — and even supported others, as in the case of the queer collective who supported the miners’ strikes.

A few sections made me choke up a bit, discussing Gay’s the Word’s persecution by the police, the responses of various queer bookshops to dealing with AIDs, the queer man in Aberystwyth who never came out except to the owners of the queer bookshop. But it’s not all grim: the book celebrates the successes and the radical kindnesses too. All of it must be remembered, because we’re not done yet.

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

Tags: A.J. West, book reviews, books, history, non-fiction

Review – The Album of Dr. Moreau

Posted August 27, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 4 Comments

The Album of Dr. Moreau

by Daryl Gregory

Genres: Crime, Mystery, Science Fiction
Pages: 176
Rating: four-stars

Synopsis:
Daryl Gregory's The Album of Dr. Moreau combines the science fiction premise of the famous novel by H. G. Wells with the panache of a classic murder mystery and the spectacle of a beloved boy band.

It’s 2001, and the WyldBoyZ are the world’s hottest boy band, and definitely the world’s only genetically engineered human-animal hybrid vocal group. When their producer, Dr. M, is found murdered in his hotel room, the “boyz” become the prime suspects. Was it Bobby the ocelot (“the cute one”), Matt the megabat (“the funny one”), Tim the Pangolin (“the shy one”), Devin the bonobo (“the romantic one”), or Tusk the elephant (“the smart one”)?

Las Vegas Detective Luce Delgado has only twenty-four hours to solve a case that goes all the way back to the secret science barge where the WyldBoyZ’ journey first began—a place they used to call home.

I got surprisingly into Daryl Gregory’s The Album of Dr Moreau; I don’t actually remember where I heard about it or why I picked it up, but I know I added it to my Kobo Plus a while ago, and decided to read it on something of a whim. I expected something… I don’t know, less serious, even given the source material and the fact that it’s a sci-fi murder mystery: given the concept of a boyband of animal-human hybrids, which the story fully leans into, it could have been considerably wackier.

But no, it goes for something sincere, even while there are silly animal puns and cutesy bits with Bobby O, the ocelot band member, and with the detective’s kid. By sincere, I definitely don’t mean that it’s po-faced or anything like that: at times it is silly.

But it also engages with the darkness of the original story of Doctor Moreau’s island, and with the seriousness of a murder mystery (even as it rejects T.S. Eliot’s “rules” for detective fiction, which, good). The band members were abused and have been exploited, and the solution to the story comes out of the darkness of the past, one which looms up behind them slowly even as the detective sometimes seems to be dealing with an entire circus.

I don’t think I should say more about the resolution of the story, but overall, I found it pretty satisfying and well done!

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

Tags: book reviews, books, crime, Daryl Gregory, mystery, SF/F

WWW Wednesday

Posted August 26, 2026 by Nicky in General / 2 Comments

What have you recently finished reading?

I didn’t get much reading done yesterday, but on Monday night I finally finished reading Emma Southon’s Servus, which I originally received as an ARC. It’s pretty thorough on the topic of slavery in the Roman Empire, but with Southon’s usual style, which is fairly light and flippant. I mostly enjoyed it, though of course the topic is a heavy one.

What are you currently reading?

I’ve cleared the decks a bit and now have only one book on my “currently reading” shelf… for now, at least: The Villain’s White Halo vol 1, by Hao Da Yi Juan Wei Sheng Zhi. Irritatingly, no bookshops around here seem to be stocking volumes two and three, so if I want to continue (which so far I think I will), I’ll need to order them when I get home.

So far I’m not totally in love, but I am curious where it’s going and how things work out, now that I’m a bit over halfway through volume one.

What will you be reading next?

Not a clue. I brought all my remaining 20 Books of Summer picks with me, but I think I might be about to let go of that list and just try to encourage myself to read anything, because I’m pretty fidgety and not settling to any given book, and it’s a sad waste of my deliberately chill vacation, designed with plenty of time for reading!

The amount I’m reading doesn’t look like a slump to most people, but it isn’t normal for me, and it makes me feel preeeetty restless, so I really hope I find something that grabs me.

Tags: books, WWW Wednesday

Top Ten Tuesday: Best Bookshops

Posted August 25, 2026 by Nicky in General / 44 Comments

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday prompt is about bookish places I’ve visited! I think the emphasis is more generally on cool places from books, author residences, etc, but somehow that’s not a thing that really excites me and I can’t think of much right now!

So… time to talk about my favourite bookshops! After each I’m listing their locations that I’ve visited and can personally recommend, not their full list of shops.

Portal Bookshop (York).
From when Lali saved my bacon with a copy of one of Martha Wells’ books at a signing at Worldcon, I’ve been a big supporter of Portal Bookshop, and was so happy when they managed to set up premises in York — which is close enough to be a good day trip. They stock a range of queer books and diverse SF/F works, and I have them to thank for my love of authors like Jordan L. Hawk and much of my collection of KJ Charles’ books in print.
Topping & Company (Bath, Edinburgh, Ely).
This is a growing chain of indie bookshops, but I first met them in Edinburgh, where the shop is downright magical. I swear there are more rooms than physically make sense with the footprint of the shop, and every time I turned around there was somehow another one. The ladders on wheels and wooden shelving add to that experience a lot. They’ve recently opened a shop in York too, though I just visited their shop in Bath yesterday as part of my birthday trip!
Mr B’s Emporium of Reading Delights (Bath).
I love the name of this bookshop; the whimsy is definitely part of why I went there. I did find the organisation of the shop a bit bewildering, since all fiction is shelved together without distinction by genre: maybe it sounds weird, given the range of genres I read, but I don’t really like that. It makes my job browsing the shelves harder, when I don’t know if a dragon on the spine means a dragon or just a literary thing. If you’re looking for a bookish conversation or some bookseller recommendations, though, it’s a good one.
Gay’s the Word (London).
Gay’s the Word is the oldest queer bookshop in the UK, and I visited it recently on my graduation trip to London. The shop feels pretty small, but I carried away a sizeable pile of books anyway. I recently read and cried a little over the history of the shop and persecution against its owners and workers in A.J. West’s How Queer Bookshops Changed the World, which is a book I definitely recommend.
Forbidden Planet (London, Bristol).
I know, this is somewhat less potentially niche, but the London store is amazing, with a selection of comics, manga, danmei, and SF/F books that really have to be seen to be believed. I can never leave without new books, and the sheer number of books they showcase means I often find temptations that Waterstones don’t seem to stock. I found a few treasures in the Bristol shop, too, though it’s considerably smaller.
Troutmark Books (Cardiff).
This secondhand bookshop was vital to me in my teens and twenties. Whenever I went home to Wales in my teens, and when I lived there as a student, I loved turning up to look at the SF/F section, poke my nose into the comics, etc. It’s been a long time since I visited, but I imagine it pretty much unchanged, with the high shelves still packed to the ceiling. Maybe I’ll pop my head in today, since I might be in the area…
Paramount Books (Manchester).
In the same vein, this secondhand bookshop in Manchester impressed me so much that at one point I actually wrote a review of it on this blog. I don’t buy secondhand books much at the moment, but if that changes I’ll definitely make return visits — perhaps not too regularly, as Manchester isn’t super convenient… but when I can!
Criminally Good Books (York).
On my last trip to Portal Bookshop, I also heard about this shop and had to take a look. I was admittedly more impressed by their non-fiction selection, since I’m a fan of classic crime and there wasn’t a lot of that to be seen (and what they had, I’d read), but I did enjoy the selections of non-fiction and inevitably left with a few books.
The American Book Center (Amsterdam, The Hague).
When I lived in Belgium, we made semi-regular trips to get me English-language books to keep my engines running. The selection (particularly at the Amsterdam location) was unbelievable, though it was mostly the SF/F that drew me. I haven’t visited since we moved to the UK in 2018, but I’m sure it’s still amazing.
Bookshop.org (online).
If you want to support indie bookshops, then this is an indispensable resource in the UK, and almost as quick as getting your books off Amazon — just as quick, if you pay a little extra for first class delivery, at least in the UK! You can choose a specific bookshop to support with your purchases, or it’ll be divided up between signed-up bookshops.

There are a few others I would’ve mentioned but found out they’ve closed since — don’t forget that an independent bookshop can be a fragile thing and needs the support of its enthusiastic community!

Tags: books, Top Ten Tuesday

Review – Wooing the Witch Queen

Posted August 24, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 8 Comments

Wooing the Witch Queen

by Stephanie Burgis

Genres: Fantasy, Romance
Pages: 294
Series: Queens of Villainy #1
Rating: three-stars

Synopsis:
Queen Saskia is the wicked sorceress everyone fears. After successfully wrestling the throne from her evil uncle, she only wants one thing: to keep her people safe from the empire next door. For that, she needs to spend more time in her laboratory experimenting with her spells. She definitely doesn’t have time to bring order to her chaotic library of magic.

When a mysterious dark wizard arrives at her castle, Saskia hires him as her new librarian on the spot. “Fabian” is sweet and a little nerdy, and his requests seem a little strange – what in the name of Divine Elva is a fountain pen? – but he’s getting the job done. And if he writes her flirtatious poetry and his innocent touch makes her skin singe, well…

Little does Saskia know that the "wizard" she’s falling for is actually an Imperial archduke in disguise, with no magical training whatsoever. On the run, with perilous secrets on his trail and a fast growing yearning for the wicked sorceress, he's in danger from her enemies and her newfound allies, too. When his identity is finally revealed, will their love save or doom each other?

I’ve been meaning to try Stephanie Burgis’ Wooing the Witch Queen since forever, seeing other people’s enthusiasm about the series — and there is indeed a lot to love! The introduction is a little heavy, with Felix fleeing his kingdom due to being essentially a puppet ruler, manipulated and outright abused by the man who actually controls the kingdom… and Saskia’s back story is also a tragic one, with betrayal and the murder of her parents by her uncle behind her before she managed to take her own throne. Despite all that setup, the story has a relatively light touch.

The misunderstanding/mistaken identity thing at the beginning didn’t entirely work for me in that I just wanted Felix to come clean already and avoid the horrible third act breakup I could see coming from a mile off… but ultimately, Burgis subverted my expectations there somewhat. She does have to have Saskia wilfully insist on ignorance on more than one occasion in order to play things out the way she wants to, but it mostly works, and I was relieved that the relationship didn’t have the breakup I’d expected.

I did find the insta-attraction a little bit much, but over time the connection between the two did grow on me, as well, particularly when Felix time after time just supported Saskia and her needs, her right to make decisions and make a different world than her First Minister thinks she should, her right to be a queen.

The warmth felt by Saskia for her staff and they for her is lovely, too. The way that the “evil queen”‘s castle is essentially a big family (or at least a well-run and employee-friendly company) is pretty sweet; I do feel that the fact that they insist on Felix eating and sleeping and having company, things a person needs, isn’t played for as much as it’s worth (though that decision does avoid things getting too heavy). Given his trauma, it’s a hell of a gift to be somewhere that his needs are met in that way.

I’m definitely interested enough to read more, even if I didn’t love Lorelei from what I’ve seen so far; I expect she’ll grow on me when we get to understand her backstory more.

Rating: 3/5 (“liked it”)

Tags: book reviews, books, romance, SF/F, Stephanie Burgis

Fantasy with Friends: Dark Academia

Posted August 24, 2026 by Nicky in General / 12 Comments

Monday’s back again, but look, here’s one I made earlier! I’m on a trip right now to celebrate my birthday (today is indie bookshop spree day!) so comments might be slow, but I’ve got a Fantasy with Friends post anyway. All the prompts are hosted at Pages Unbound, if you’d like to join in. This week’s prompt is on dark academia in fantasy:

Do you enjoy dark academia fantasy novels? What are some themes you enjoy seeing discussed in dark academia (ex. ethics in academia, corruption, classism, etc?) Do you think the genre does a good job exploring such themes in general, or are many books focused mainly on the aesthetics?

I don’t think I’ve read a lot of dark academia, not enough to really form an opinion on it as a genre. I’m not opposed to the idea, it’s just not the way my interests have taken me. I think the best of it grows out of and reflects the real dark sides of academia, where people are pitted against each other for limited funding or limited numbers of places, and privilege can get you a long way. Thinking about e.g. R.F. Kuang’s Katabasis, which I’m in the middle of, it feels like a lot of it is a response to those pressures and the sometimes unfair situation gifted people are placed in, struggling against each other for limited opportunities when the opportunities are a bit of a poisoned chalice anyway.

It is not my experience of academia, to be clear; I’m an enthusiastic and serial student, with a BA, MA, BSc and MSc now… but having to get into departmental politics is definitely one reason why I haven’t done a higher degree (the other major one being that I prefer to synthesise over doing something new, and synthesis is not rewarded in academia — despite being essential to scientific and medical consensus).

Another aspect of dark academia is the importance of acknowledgement that academia has done some very dark things indeed. I studied at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, a school founded in order to train doctors for colonial service. The whole point was to keep white enslavers healthy for the sake of Empire. It was engaged in “decolonisation” initiatives by the time I enrolled, and continues to be, but that fundamental attitude ripples through the whole course of study. We were taught (in 2020-2025) about the importance of keeping African people healthy so they can study and later earn more… and yes, that is going to benefit them in the sense of helping them get jobs and make informed choices around drug treatments, but there’s also a high degree of “capitalism is the one and only answer, and we must help them do it properly because they won’t if we don’t intervene”.

This blog isn’t a good place to delve into the ethics and complications of all that, but the point is that LSHTM isn’t alone, and many academic institutions are mired in that kind of history, and a history of extracting knowledge without credit and without benefit to the peoples and areas studied. I don’t think I’ve read anything yet that really engages with that, though I think one or two of the books on my TBR do (like Kuang’s Babel).

Anyway, I think what I’m interested in when I do read dark academia is a bit of awareness of the tensions there and how they can particularly impact minorities, and/or of the dark history of many academic institutions. I prefer the “darkness” to mean something rather than rely on vibes to provide a background to an “enemies-to-lovers” story or something. Not that I’m against an enemies-to-lovers story, but I’d like the “dark” part of the academia to make sense and drive the plot, rather than just be an aesthetic.

Tags: books, discussion, Fantasy with Friends, SF/F