Book Review: ‘In These Hallowed Halls’ (a dark academia anthology)
Edited by Marie O’Regan and Paul Kane, and featuring stories from ML Rio, Phoebe Wynne, Kelly Andrew and Olivie Blake, this book was a no-brainer for me.
Though I am kind of sad to report that it didn’t really live up to my expectations. While I enjoyed half of the collection, I only loved a few, and lots of the others didn’t do anything for me. And they also didn’t really hit what dark academia actually is either.
‘1000 Ships’ by Kate Weinberg
I read ‘The Truants’ several years and really enjoyed it, and this story takes us back to events before the novel began. It’s an interesting story from the perspective of someone who has read the full novel and knows what’s to come, but as a story standing alone, there was very little of the dark academia about it - just a general feeling of supreme ickiness about the characters’ situations. I do want to reread ‘The Truants’ though, possibly for our dark academia podcast, The Dark Academicals.
‘Pythia’ by Olivie Blake
I don’t like Olivie Blake’s writing in general, but love her ideas and themes, and yet this was one of my favourites in the collection and the best thing I’ve read from Blake so far.
The structure of a phone interview telling the story of Pythia - a mysterious computer system built in a university - actually reminded me a little of RF Kuang’s ‘Babel’. It was clever, and the main character was both spiky and really engaging.
‘Sabbatical’ by James Tate Hill
This was fine, but it didn’t do much for me. There were lots of characters to grapple with in a short story and ultimately, a story about college professors doesn’t make a story dark academia. I didn’t find much to cling onto and not much stuck with me either.
‘The Hare and the Hound’ by Kelly Andrew
I adore Kelly Andrew and her debut ‘The Whispering Dark’, and this story cemented what an incredible writer she is - it made me excited for what she has to come.
It’s dark and unsettling, tense and gripping story that really captured my imagination. The blend of mythology versus psychology with a student being haunted by a rabbit, and a burgeoning relationship with a new girl really stuck with me. It’s clever and engaging and I would have loved to have read it as a full novel.
‘X House’ by JT Ellison
I really liked the bones of ‘X House’, but I think that it needed a whole lot more development, I wanted to know where it came from? It needed to be a little longer and a bit more developed. A little more being explored and explained would have pushed this from ‘fine’ to ‘really good’ as it reminded me a little of Phoebe Wynne’s ‘Madam’.
‘The Ravages’ by Layne Fargo
A story about the literary archives of a spurned poet? Now that’s dark academia! It’s also querr and filled with revenge and betrayal and up until the every end I really loved this one. There’s a character who knows something about what’s going on (vagueness to avoid spoilers!) and I feel like it would have been more effective if we didn’t know that about them - surprise me!
‘Four Funerals’ by David Bell
This story centres around a teacher in the aftermath of a school shooting as he goes to the funerals of those who died. It’s not dark academia in anyway, it’s not even close. It’s very sad and thoughtful, but I don’t believe it really had a place in a dark academia anthology. This was my least favourite story in the whole collection.
‘The Unknowable Pleasures’ by Susie Lang
I really enjoyed the element of obsession in this story, especially from an outside perspective of observing the relationship of your teacher and a fellow student rather than being a part of the relationship. The tension from the start was palpable, so the anti-climactic ending when the big uumph and the build up to the story was just…walked away from. It felt a little like the whole idea of the story was undermined.
‘Weekend at Bertie’ by ML Rio
This is by far my favourite story in the collection and it was such a joy to read ML Rio again. I want more from them asap.
Finding your dead professor in her house and colluding to steal her money while exploring ideas of class, money and the realities of a life in academia were pitch-perfect - I adored it.
‘The Professor of Ontology’ by Helen Grant
When Phoebe’s boyfriend goes missing on the night of a uni dance in search of the mysterious Department of Ontology, it’s a night that will haunt her for the next 40 years. Until she returns to the college to teach and desperate for closure…
A genuinely haunting story from Helen Grant - I really need to read more of her work! ‘The Professor of Ontology’ is tense, sombre and deeply unsettling; it also goes full horror at the end of the story. This might be very very favourite out of all twelves stories…
‘Phobos’ by Tori Bovallino
‘Phobos’ had a really interesting concept and I enjoyed it a lot - what would you do to join a secret order that will open up the entire world to you - and I so wanted to know more about every aspect of the Order of Prometheus. This is another story that i would have loved to have read as a full novel because there was so much room for it to go deeper. I did, however, adore the ending - what a twist!
‘Playing’ by Phoebe Wynne
This is the story of a strange and quiet scholarship organist obsessed with the recent string of elderly deaths in her university parish. Phoebe Wynne is a masterful writer; the way she builds suspense and keeps the reader on the edge of what’s really going on had me enthralled. The twist of this story, while expected, was incredibly well done and I adored it. It’s easily a favourite from the collection.
This collection was a real mixed bag for me, especially when looking for actual dark academia, but I’m still I read it. I got extra writing from ML Rio and Phoebe Wynne and that is always worth it.
Thank you to NetGalley and Titan Books for the review copy.
Written by Sophie
