I’ve been searching all over internet for such debate but haven’t found anything so I’m posting it here : how to write a dark academia book without poorly imitating Donna Tartt’s debut novel ?
I have read The Secret History two years ago, and I have to admit this book really stood with me ever since.
I’m currently working on my fifth novel and let’s say it : it’s dark academia. It talks about thirst for knowledge, elitism, friendship, sexual frustration or fluidity, mysterious and influential professeurs, secret courses, unreliable narrators and murder…
And I’ve been trying to cut myself from the TSH influence but how is it even possible to talk about elitism and the beginning of adulthood (which is this weird stage of life where you might try to experience your own limits, physically, intellectually and spiritually) without having a result that will be comparable to Donna Tartt’s novel ?
For example, M. L. Rio’s If We Were Villains is often quoted as a good dark academia book for those who liked The Secret History, but is also criticised for being a poor imitation. How is it possible to target such themes without resembling TSH ?
Maybe I have to resign myself and admit it is inevitable, that all dark academia books will be considered as variations around the same core which is TSH, but I’m wondering it there’s a small line (maybe is it the overall morality of the novel) that makes some existing dark academia books singular ?
by lectroground
2 Comments
Stoner, the best novel you never heard of. Dark academia novel, indeed the first. A must read
I don’t know, have some compelling female characters ? Focus on the learning part of uni life? Actually make the charismatic professor some kind of cult leader (that’s what I expected from secret history and I was a bit disappointed)? Rather than a murder coverup story, make it more about the stress of being a student in a very competitive faculty? There are many ways not to be TSH. I like the book but it has many flaws and the genre has a lot more to offer