Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Hatred is the sincerest form of flattery.”

If We Were Villains: A Novel by M.L. Rio

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“If We Were Villains” tells the story of Oliver Marks, finishing his ten-year sentence in prison for murder, met at the gate by Joseph Colborne, the detective on the case. Never believing Oliver was guilty, Colburne wants to know what actually happened all those years ago, back when Oliver was a lower-income student on scholarship at the Dellecher Classical Conservatory, an exclusive and cliquish art school. In on an acting scholarship, Oliver joined the acting set and their obsession with all things Shakespeare, where he […]

“Stop dreaming about the spires. It was a dreadful place and those were dreadful people, and you and I got caught in their games and paid for it.”

Death in the Spires by K.J. Charles

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If you read The Secret History and hated the characters, and the bleak ending made you feel terrible, this might be the book for you! In her first non-romance, we’ve got K.J. Charles trying her hand (and succeeding) at a historical mystery, dark academia style. It’s 1905, and our main character is Jeremy “Jem” Kite, who has just been fired from his job when a letter accusing him of murder showed up in his employers’ mail. This is not the first or even the tenth such letter […]

A Dark Academia Masterpiece

Blood Over Bright Haven by M. L. Wang

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I literally just finished reading this, and wow — what a compelling read! I learned from reading Wang’s first book, Sword of Kaigen, that she is not afraid to do terrible things to her characters or to break your heart without fully mending it, and she does that again here. This dark academia novel primarily follows Sciona, who early in the novel becomes the first female High Mage of the city of Tiran. There’s a lot of sexism in this world and she is not […]

An Atmospheric Gothic Fantasy Novel That Tackles Trauma Deftly

A Study In Drowning by Ava Reid

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CW: Stalking Effy Sayre has always found escape in the works of Emrys Myrddin.  It’s been one of the few things that’s kept the architecture student going.  So when the family of the recently deceased Myrddin announces a contest to redesign the author’s family estate, Effy can’t help but enter.  And when her design is picked it seems like fate.  Once she arrives at Hiraeth Manor, she finds a crumbling disaster as well as an unwelcome companion in a literature student invited there by Myrddin’s […]

It was a relief and a horror to be known so perfectly.

These Violent Delights by Micah Nemerever

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I’m not sure if I can categorize this book as dark academia, but the characters and the story remind me so much of what I enjoyed about “If We Were Villains” and “The Secret History,” it is impossible for me not to draw parallels between them. All three stories are linked by a sudden and violent death, and how those left behind cope with their secrets. Paul is a seventeen-year-old who has recently graduated from high school. He lives with his mother and his two […]

Nowhere Nothing and I Don’t Care All At Once

The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

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Potentially unpopular opinion forthcoming: I didn’t think The Atlas Six was all that great. There is little plot; not much happens in detail except time passing and people wondering what is going on with {insert current person and/or situation of concern here}. Not much happens with characters either; what is {person} hiding from the group and/or themselves? What is being hidden from them that might possibly matter? There is also not a lot of world building; this is a world in which there is magic […]



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