Dark academia is an aesthetic that's become popular on styling and social media sites. Some also use it to describe a collected tone, archetypes, and some specific storytelling aspects in anime.

Free verse flows. From these ancient ’90s roots, the dark academia (see also: “ whimsigoth ”) subculture has waxed and waned since the 2010s, recently resurging during the suitably grim ...

Flash forward to 10 years later, and Victor has broken out of prison and is determined to hunt down Eli. In this story, dark academia turns into a twist on the hero/villain dichotomy in comic books.

Filled with high-academic passages about the history of art, Hays’ novel is for dark academia enthusiasts looking for a narrative which is 50 per cent fantasy, and 50 per cent high academics.