In These Hallowed Halls: A Dark Academic anthology by Paul Kane, M.L Rio, Marie O'Regan, Tori Bovalino, Olivie Blake, David Bell, Helen Grant, J.T. Ellison, James Tate Hill, Kate Weinberg, Kelly Andrew, Layne Fargo, Phoebe Wynne, Susie Yang
Published by Titan Books
Age Group: Adult
Format: Anthologies and Short Story Collections
Genres and Categories: Scottish Authors, Mental Health, Physical Disabilities, Dark Academia, Horror Thriller
My Rating:
Published on: 12th September 2023
Pages: 400
Disability Representation: Adult
Buy this Book! Amazon UK / Amazon US / Barnes & Noble / Blackwells / Forbidden Planet / Bookshop.org US / Bookshop.org UK / Waterstones / BookBeat Audio
Add to Goodreads

ENROLLMENT BEGINS NOW

A beguiling, sinister collection of 12 dark academia short stories from masters of the genre, including Olivie Blake, M.L. Rio, Susie Yang and more!

In these stories, dear student, retribution visits a lothario lecturer; the sinister truth is revealed about a missing professor; a forsaken lover uses a séance for revenge; an obsession blooms about a possible illicit affair; two graduates exhume the secrets of a reclusive scholar; horrors are uncovered in an obscure academic department; five hopeful initiates must complete a murderous task and much more!

Featuring brand-new stories from:

Olivie Blake
M.L. Rio
David Bell
Susie Yang
Layne Fargo
J.T. Ellison
James Tate Hill
Kelly Andrew
Phoebe Wynne
Kate Weinberg
Helen Grant
Tori Bovalino

Definition of dark academia in English:

dark academia

1. An internet subculture concerned with higher education, the arts, and literature, or an idealised version thereof with a focus on the pursuit of knowledge and an exploration of death.

2. A set of aesthetic principles. Scholarly with a gothic edge – tweed blazers, vintage cardigans, scuffed loafers, a worn leather satchel full of brooding poetry. Enthusiasts are usually found in museums and darkened libraries.

This book was provided for free by NetGalley and the publishers in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read this book!

Content Warnings:

Please note
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programmes I earn a small commission from items purchased using links featured in this post at no extra cost to you. Click here to learn more. Every purchase you make through Just Geeking By helps keep this blog running.

Dark Academia is a genre that I’ve been reading more and more of in recent years, so when I heard about an anthology, I jumped at it. In These Hallowed Halls: A Dark Academia Anthology had some stories by some authors I loved, but it failed to hit the mark.

Before you pick up the In These Hallowed Halls anthology, you need to ask yourself one question: What do you consider dark academia? If you consider it to be any story set in an academic setting, then this anthology is for you. If, like me, you’ve always viewed the “dark” part of the genre to refer to something mysterious, gothic, thrilling, monstrous, supernatural and/or paranormal, then you’re going to be sorely disappointed. There’s also the definition of “dark” as pessimistic and melancholic.

Tucked in at the end of the synopsis for In These Hallowed Halls, under the list of authors, is a dictionary definition of dark academia:

Presumably, the editors used this when putting this anthology together. The problem is that even taking these definitions into account, some stories in the anthology do not fit into the dark academia genre. Unless, of course, you consider the mere mention of the word “tweed” criteria enough.

I have to admit I’m slightly biased. After reading Twice Cursed and being very disappointed by the editing choices in that anthology, I chose to avoid the editors. In my excitement and haste to grab hold of the first dark academic anthology, a genre I’ve grown quite fond of, and an anthology featuring authors I like or hoped to read, I didn’t notice who the editors were. I’d hoped the previous book was a one-off… it was not. The introduction of In These Hallowed Halls was promising, asking readers if they were looking for stories of “Mysterious and dangerous occurrences in various seats of learning? Students, and sometimes their tutors, in peril? Murder? Magic? Ghosts? Dusty books in old libraries? Clandestine cults and secret societies devoted to ancient rituals?” Yes, I said to myself with a smile, this is what I’m here for!

Unfortunately, these opening words of propaganda were promptly forgotten by the editors as soon as the first story. The first story in an anthology is often the most read. Unless a reader has picked up the anthology to read something by a particular author, they will start at the beginning of the anthology. If the first story doesn’t impress them, then they are unlikely to keep reading, and that’s why I always consider it an editor’s job as well as their responsibility to choose a good starting story. They need to hook the reader, reel them in so that they make their way to other authors’ stories.

I find it disappointing when editors seem to select stories for an anthology that have the thinnest of connections to the theme/topic. Sometimes it’s clearly just a difference of opinion, and that’s fair enough. But in the case of In These Hallowed Halls, I’ve no idea what the editors were thinking when they selected ‘1000 Ships’ by Kate Weinberg for the anthology, especially not for the first story. It has the loosest of connections to dark academia. It is a story about a student in a relationship with her teacher, told from her perspective as she watches him from the window as he stops to talk to another female student. He is on the way to speak to the board, his career on the line, and as she watches him, she reflects on their time together.

While there is a level of peril for the professor, the only connections to dark academia are the academic setting and the tweed-wearing professor. At a push, you could refer to this story as being slightly dark, but otherwise, I personally feel that it doesn’t fit in any definition of dark academia. Also, keeping in mind that the first story is a privileged position, I found it distasteful that this was the only story in the anthology that had an author’s note promoting the author’s other books at the end.

The second story in In These Hallowed Halls should have been the first in an anthology for dark academia, in my opinion. It’s by an author that many of us automatically associate with the genre: Olivie Blake. ‘Pythia or Apocalypse Maidens: Prophecy and Obsession among the Delphian Technomantic Elite’ is a brilliant tale of magic and technology set in a futuristic academic setting. Blake expertly merges so many different genres in this story that I don’t even know where to begin. If you’ve never read anything by her and want to know what all the hype is about, then this is an excellent starting place. She really pushes the genre of dark academia to the limits in this one, and ‘Pythia’ has the delicious, sinister style that I’ve come to recognise in Blake’s work.

The second story that I was very interested in is ‘The Hare and the Hound’ by Kelly Andrew. I’ve had my eye on Andrew for a while now and have yet to get my hands on her book, The Whispering Dark. I’ve heard many good things about her writing, and this story confirmed them. ‘The Hare and the Hound’ is a wonderfully gothic urban fantasy story about a college student who is haunted by a prophecy he received as a boy.

The final story that I was looking forward to is by Helen Grant, who has become a firm favourite of mine since I read her novel Too Near Dead. Grant never fails to deliver deliciously dark horror, and ‘The Professor of Ontography’ is another horror masterpiece that fully explores the darker side of dark academia.

These three stories alone make this anthology worth reading. Additionally, ‘Phobos’ by Tori Bovalino,  ‘Sabbatical’ by James Tate Hill, ‘The Ravages’ by Layne Fargo (although the academia setting is a bit of a stretch in this one), ‘X House’ by J. T. Ellison and ‘Playing’ by Phoebe Wynne are interesting reads. The other stories, although well written, fail to convince me that they belong in an anthology for dark academia.

‘Four Funerals’ by David Bell is about a teacher who chooses to attend the funerals of his students after he is blamed for not seeing the violent potential in a school shooter. It was a dark subject, just not the right type of dark in my opinion.

Susie Yang’s story ‘The Unknowable Pleasures’ is about a female student who recognises a fellow student and her professor falls in love. Their relationship appears to be a secret, one that only she knows about. This story left a nasty taste in my mouth as the young woman is essentially gaslighted by her boyfriend, told that it is all in her head and that she is becoming obsessed. Instead of helping a friend, she decides that he’s right and, at the last minute, decides not to go to a meeting. And she suddenly feels magically better. If this had been better written as an actual obsession, then I could see this fitting in the genre; however, it wasn’t, and it just felt icky.

One that almost got there was ‘Weekend at Bertie’s’ by M.L. Rio. I felt that there was a hint of something supernatural that the author was trying to get at, and yet it ended up being a story about two people stealing from a dead woman (a professor).

It was hard to rate In These Hallowed Halls when only three of the stories were of excellent quality to me. While I considered five other stories interesting, my exact ratings for each of them vary, with their saving grace only being that they actually fit in the dark academia genre. Whether this is an anthology you’ll enjoy will depend on your personal reading habits, and as I said at the start of this review, what you consider the definition of dark academia to be. For me, this wasn’t it.

Thanks for reading my review of In These Hallowed Halls. How do you define dark academia?

Don’t forget to check out the rest of my reviews if you’re looking for some more book recommendations 🙂 You can also now sign up for my newsletter to get an email each month with a list of my new reviews!

Support Just Geeking By

I hope you enjoyed this post! If you did, please consider sharing it on social media using the nifty buttons at the end of this post <3

If you enjoyed this content, please consider supporting my blog. You can do this in multiple ways (click here to find out how!) or by donating via Ko-Fi to help me reach my current goal.