"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthis book is the epitome of being gay do crimehe's fineit's good it's good this is good it's so good just read it you know like  hello hi welcome if you're new here welcome my name is Hannah today I'm very excited to  be bringing you another reading Experiment video and this one is one I've been planning for quite  some time a lot of these books are books I've been wanting to read for years and I finally got around  to them so today I'm going to be reading five dark Academia books to see what I think of them so dark  Academia it's both an aesthetic and a genre that has been around for quite some time I remember  back when I was in high school dark Academia was a really big thing especially on Tumblr and in  the past few years with the growth of tick tock dark Academia has once again become a very popular  now more mainstream aesthetic according to the wiki definition dark Academia is a literary and  social media aesthetic and subculture concerned with higher education writing slash poetry the  Arts and classic Greek and Gothic architecture the subculture is associated with ancient art  and classic literature while all of that is definitely true for mainstream dark Academia  especially in terms of the lifestyle or fashion interpretations of the aesthetic as far as dark  Academia and literature goes I would say that the genre typically tends to offer a critique of  Academia sometimes that can manifest as a deeper look into what college life is like the influence  and effect that that has on students and their mental well-being and the Mystique and exclusivity  that is often attributed to universities other times it can be an even more critical look at  the universities themselves academic systems and who they truly benefit who they exploit and the  systems of Oppression and systems of power that work within Academia and in my opinion that's what  some of the best dark Academia books do and that's why it's one of my favorite genres to read so as I  was reading these books and as I read any dark Academia book I'm always looking for something  that offers that kind of insight and that deeper look in to this romanticized notion of Academia  that we have so it's actually really fascinating how much sometimes the actual physical aesthetic  can kind of juxtapose the themes that are present in the literature that we associate with dark  Academia so while this icon of romanticizes it the literature often offers a critique of it so  yeah I just find that really fascinating I feel like there's just a lot to delve into there but  with all that being said we have five books to get into and discuss and I'm very very excited  I do also quickly want to say because I know I'm going to get questions about this if you're  wondering why a certain book is not on this list even though it's technically more popular than  some of the ones that I am reading it's probably because I've read it I'll leave a list of some  more of the dark Academia books that I have read in the description box if you're curious to know  if I've read them you can check there so that's why they're not included in this video I've read  a decent number of dark Academia but these were some of the other popular ones that I still hadn't  read which is why I chose them for this video before we get into all of the books I have a  couple of quick announcements to make first of all as always my reading journal the Clockwork reader  reading Journal is available it is linked in the description it is currently it should be at least  still when this video goes up on sale on both Amazon and Walmart's websites so if you want to  get a good deal on it I'll be sure to leave those links down below so you can check it out there if  you want to keep track of everything thing that you read this is a great place to do that and  of course my bracelet that I designed with Anna Louisa is as always Linked In the description box  below if you would like to get one for yourself I do also want to thank today's sponsor which  is simple retro I am wearing a couple of pieces from them right now I will get more into them  later in the video and I'll show you some of the dark Academia kind of themed pieces that I chose  to wear throughout the video so we'll get into them a bit later but again thank you to them for  sponsoring this video so without any further Ado let's get into all five dark Academia books that  I read and all of my thoughts on them so the first book that I read was if we were villains by mlrio  this book is incredibly popular so I'm sure most of you have either read it or you know what it's  about but if you happen to not know this book takes place in two different timelines set 10  years apart so in the present day we have our main character Oliver who has just been released from a  10-year sentence in prison and he begins to tell the detective who arrested him the story of what  actually happened 10 years ago and so then we jump between 10 years ago and present day and 10 years  ago he was attending this Arts Conservatory where he was studying to become a Shakespearean actor  and something happens to him and his friends while they are there and obviously he ends up going to  prison for it and so you spend this entire book trying to uncover this mystery set in the tone of  a Shakespearean tragedy hello everyone welcome a book that I started with in this video is if  we were villains by ml Rio as you can see I'm very close to the end I have about like 50 or  60 pages left so definitely not very much to go and I I'm loving this I've had this on my shelf  for like maybe four years or something I just picked it up because I had read the synopsis  when I first bought it and I saw that it was about these actors who were studying Shakespeare and at  the time I was still super into Shakespeare and so it just seemed like the type of thing that I  would like in the past few years it blew up a lot and it's been really popular on Tick Tock  I know and people really love it so yes I have been highly anticipating this and I've also been  really nervous to see what I'm gonna think about it because I'd already set high expectations for  myself however 60 or so pages from the end I'm having a great time I'm loving this and I'm very  curious to know how it's going to end the day that I picked it up I legitimately just like  couldn't put it down I read through the majority of this within like maybe four three hours or so  and then I haven't had time to just read the very end yet to me so far this feels like the secret  history except a lot better I read the secret history in maybe 2018 or 19 and I remember at  the time I really liked it but to be honest with you I barely remember anything that happens in  that book except some random plot twists and the incest I do remember that I enjoyed it at  the time however it really didn't like fully stick with me and that's typically a sign that  I didn't absolutely love it and in order to give you like a full review or like a solid opinion on  it I think I would have to reread the book which I don't plan to do because I don't think I like the  book enough and also I've just heard very terrible things about the author so I'm just not interested  however of the things that I do remember about the secret history I remember that it was extremely  pretentious which obviously the genre lends itself to that like you are going to get these  pretentious academics who think they are better than everyone because um typically dark Academia  if well written is supposed to be a critique of that culture and those systems so uh yes you're  gonna have really pretentious people however in my opinion that book as a whole felt more  pretentious and this one while still definitely pretentious is in my opinion pretentious in the  right ways it really works not my be real notification going off right now hold onsorry okay just had to post that but anyway back to what I was saying in my opinion the  secret history is pretentious in the way the dark Academia should be pretentious without  being overly pretentious and although we're pretentious starting to sound fake We are  following around this group of essentially theater kids in college in like a very exclusive kind of  like Conservatory style artsy school so by Nature you're gonna have a really dramatic  extremely pretentious group of people this one feels like it's criticizing some of what the  characters are doing and their belief systems and everything and while the secret history still does  that I feel like this just does a better job of doing that if that makes sense but anyway enough  of the comparisons to the secret history on its own this book is fantastic it is so well written  and as a person who was super into Shakespeare especially when I was in high school and like  first couple years of college and stuff I feel like this is one of those things that feels like  it was kind of written for me like it's one of those books where I'm like yes this is my type  of thing I would never claim to be the most knowledgeable person about Shakespeare not at  all I've not even read close to all of his plays but I've read a decent amount I loved analyzing  it I loved everything about it and so sometimes the way the characters talk about Shakespeare um  the fact that they literally talk to each other by quoting Shakespeare back and forth to each other  is so incredibly annoying but it's so good if I met them in real life I would probably hate them  but I'm also not gonna lie like some alternate version of me would also be them that's probably  not a good thing to say because there's a lot of lying and deceit and murder in this book so I I  probably shouldn't compare myself to these people but I truly like if I'm being honest I feel like  some other version of me in some parallel universe and some alternate life if I've made different  decisions I could be one of these people I was on the path to be one of these people at some point  in my life I absolutely was and that's what I mean when I say it is my type of pretentious  Shakespeare pretentious I think is just like my thing it's definitely my thing and I either up  I live for it so I'm loving this I'm having such a good time reading it I am so immersed in this  mystery I really need to know what happens so I'm gonna go and finish it up and then come back and  update you all on my final thoughts because my God I am dying to know how this ends pun intendedand give me a minute I don't know what to do with myself oh my God  I can't tell if I want to cry I want to cry I do want to cry actually I might get a crylike that was so good so as I was reading maybe like the last 20 2015 Pages or so I I teared  up quite a few times there were a few lines in there that just really really hurt and the build  up and suspense of the last couple scenes in the epilogue oh it was so intense and at the very very  end no spoilers for anyone who's read it obviously but as you are reading the letter I was expecting  something so different than what we got I was expecting to feel one emotion and then suddenly  it's something else entirely that I was not anticipating it completely flipped my emotions and  I was expecting to just like sob and suddenly I'm full of Hope yeah and I wanted a sequel I don't  actually want a sequel but I want a sequel I'm just going to read a couple of these quotes out  of context they're not gonna make sense but for anyone who's read it you just need to know what  moments just really really hit me really broke me first up uh this one wasn't one of the ones that  made me cry but I just thought it was a really beautiful line I don't know it's like I look at  you and suddenly the sonnets make sense that's that's such a romantic thing to say to someone  then we get to the lines it all started breaking me first we start off with I never wanted you to  look at me the way you're looking at me right now which was a lot then of course we have but this  is how a tragedy like ours or King lears breaks your heart by making you believe that the ending  might still be happy until the very last minute I read that and I was like oh we still have like 20  pages left I'm about to suffer then we have the first of the lines where I was just like okay  I've had enough but like the tears are starting to flow I'm not gonna say anyone's names in case  you haven't read it so you won't be spoiled for anyone except for all of yours obviously because  he's the main character and narrating everything and you know that he's in prison from the very  beginning but two of the characters are talking to him and they're asking him why and he says  it's like Romeo and Juliet he doesn't even give an explanation and then one of them says what are you  talking about he just repeats it's like Romeo and Juliet and I lost it in that moment I lost it likebecause it's like Romeo and Julietis fine I'm fine and then of course we have the classic I  don't understand why and he says you know whyI just don't know what to say I don't know what to say other than phenomenal fantastic five out of 5  10 out of 10 this was everything I could ever want I stand by my original belief that this is the  secret history but better it is also the secret history but actually gay uh so it's better I would  say that this one is more dark Academia in terms of vibe and aesthetic and a little bit less heavy  on the critique of Academia and the systems of Oppression in Academia that's definitely something  that the book does touch on it's not like it's not at all present in the story it absolutely  is honestly this is so much more of a love story a tragic love story and it definitely chooses to  focus more heavily on that but if you're looking to read dark Academia that's more of like a  critique of the system I wouldn't necessarily recommend this for that purpose however I do  recommend it because you should read this because this is now one of my favorite books I've ever  read I Love It I knew I was gonna love this and I will say like for the first 45 50 of this book I  was really enjoying it but I didn't think it was going to become like a favorite favorite and as  I was still getting towards the end I was still thinking you know this might still be like four  stars it's really good but I don't know if it's gonna be a favorite but then you know those last  50 30 pages really just turned it around for me it gave the book what it was missing for me and  it just wrapped everything up exactly in the way that I love and I could not be more happy I love  this group of pretentious dramatic Shakespeare loving thespians I feel like they are going to  stick with me for so long the way that this book discusses relationships friend groups specifically  and how also being in your early 20s in that kind of like an exclusive environment can really like  manipulate your emotions and um especially for them being in such a dramatic environment really  heightened uh everything they were feeling and therefore their actions and reactions to  things were much more dramatic than say someone who wasn't in their same environment and I feel  like that part of it plus the discussion that the book had of like class a little bit and how  the different characters came from very different backgrounds and had very different families those  um aspects of the story definitely were part of the critique that the book had of Academia because  it definitely discussed that like exclusivity and how being in that type of an environment really  affects you and really kind of puts you on this um pedestal in your own head and I really enjoyed  that I thought it was very nuanced and subtle yet at the same time very clear and it was just really  well done there was one thing in this book that I mean it makes sense to me it was just kind of  like off-putting to read about so Oliver has two younger sisters and the youngest one I believe or  maybe the middle sister has an eating disorder and he like really brushes it off and like does  not care about this girl and he's like really mean to her and to be fair a lot is going on in  his life at this time so like it makes sense that he doesn't care or doesn't feel any kind of like  sympathy for her the point of that was because Oliver didn't think it was a big deal because  he was clearly very self-involved just like a Content warning in general definitely look up  content warnings for this book if you decide to read it because obviously it deals with murder  it's kind of gory and bloody at times anyway uh that was just the one thing I would just note I  would say that this found its own little corner In My Heart and dug a little hole for itself  and just sits there except I don't think that it found a place in my heart I feel like it's always  been there that's the best way I can describe it but something about this just makes me feel like  I have always known this story it has always been with me in some way and I truly feel like in some  parallel world in some alternate reality where I made one or two different decisions with my life  I would have been in their conservatory and been as annoying and pretentious and dramatic as they  are I just feel like there's some version of me living that life right now in some  other world and she's out there and she is so annoying but she's living her best life so I'mhappy we're villains I really just want to cry right now like I do not know how to explain the  weird sense of melancholy and Nostalgia that I'm feeling at the moment I don't know why I  feel so nostalgic but I really really do but I think that's just a testament to how good this  is and how well written it is from beginning to end this feels like a Shakespeare tragedy  and it is it honestly is the author understands Shakespeare on such a deep deep level and that is  so evident throughout the entire book and you can tell how skilled of a writer she is as well and I  I have nothing but praise to give to this book in terms of the writing and the character development  and the suspense built for the plot everything again 10 out of 10 a new all-time favorite book  it is going to be hard for anything else to live up to this but I do have some hopes for  other books in this video the second book that I read was Catherine house by Elizabeth Thomas as  I was compiling my list of books for this video I obviously did some research on some dark Academia  books and tried to find some of the most popular ones that I hadn't read yet and Catherine house  was one that I saw pretty frequently on a lot of dark Academia recommendation lists yet I don't  think it's an extremely popular book and based on the reviews it's a little bit mixed so I was  curious to see what I was going to think about it alright so I just finished reading Catherine house  I'll just start off by saying that I understand the mixed reviews with this one I don't even  really know how to tell you what I think of it other than I just know I didn't like it it's  a very strange book and it's very atmospheric it relies heavily on the inner monologue of our main  character as well as like a bit of a mystery and it's just very character-centric and Atmospheric  which is typically exactly my type of book but for some reason it just did not work with this one for  me this book took me a solid two to three weeks to finish reading and I usually read a book in like  one to two days so that's a long time for me and I would not have finished it if I wasn't filming  this video I genuinely wanted to dnf it like maybe a hundred pages in I was so bored and I stayed  bored until the end the very end did help a bit it picked up and I was more invested than I was  in the beginning in the middle but I still did not care very much and I honestly just don't know how  to place it what the reason is but I just didn't click with this I didn't Vibe with it I don't  think it's a bad book but I don't like it so I feel like I'm in a very strange position right now  trying to talk about it because I don't feel like I can give you any kind of like constructed review  of this so Catherine house is essentially about this very prestigious school called Catherine  house it's a very very exclusive University that basically Cuts its students off from the outside  world so everyone who is there doesn't really have access to the outside world the entire time  they're there and essentially this University is a cult not even essentially it is a cult like it  just flat out is a cult and as you can expect some shady things happen and our main character starts  to become suspicious of the school and what's going on there so she tries to uncover the mystery  of Catherine house and try and find out what the University is doing to its students and yeah based  on that description again I feel like it's the type of thing I should have liked because it  is very atmospheric it's mysterious it's dark and Gothic but something about this just did not click  with me and I really wish it had this one out of the two books I've read in this video so far  has been the one I think to discuss Academia the most so in terms of it being like dark Academia I  would definitely classify it as a dark Academia book Academia is clearly a very prominent theme  in the story and so much of the novel is just a metaphor for how these academic institutions  like universities invite you in to their Inner Circle this exclusive prestigious space that  promises you greatness success wealth status all of these things and gives you access to all of  this incredible information and knowledge but so much of that is dependent upon the exploitation  of others and especially oftentimes exploitation of those students themselves and the cult-like  nature of Catherine I feel like was very obviously a metaphor for that and I really enjoyed that part  of the book The Mystery was one of the only things that kept me reading because I was just curious to  know what exactly it was that the University was doing so that's the only reason I kept going but  yeah I I don't know like I just I feel so strange about this because it feels like the type of thing  I should love but I just didn't again overall in terms of like a dark Academia novel it's dark  and disturbing it's a little bit gruesome it's absolutely a critique of academic institutions and  the university system in general and the influence that that type of an environment can have on your  psyche as a student who is let into one of these exclusive circles so yeah it takes those boxes  but for my personal enjoyment it was like a two out of five so I gave this two out of 5 stars  um again it is the type of thing I think some people could like I just personally  didn't love it and I can't give it a higher rating than that because I didn't like it  I liked the themes I liked the subjects it was discussing I just did not care about the  manner in which uh we got there because I was bored I'm sorry I wish I liked it  more but I really didn't I think if you like dark Academia and you like atmospheric books  that are mostly no plot just Vibes there is a chance you could like this but again as someone  who loves those things as well I personally didn't love it so yeah I wouldn't dissuade  anyone from reading this necessarily but yeah unfortunately just wasn't my thing and hopefully  I like the next book more I'm really gonna be disappointed if I don't love these next booksall right so a quick interlude from all the dark Academia books to talk a little bit about  some dark Academia fashion and let you know about today's sponsor which is simple retro simple retro  is a fashion brand that focuses on Vintage and retro style pieces and they are kindly sponsoring  today's video and provided me with a few pieces to wear throughout this video and I'm just gonna  do a little haul for you of some of the clothes that I got from them first off starting off with  the sweater that I'm currently wearing which is probably my favorite piece this is this beautiful  brown knit sweater with this like textured little design on it that I absolutely love they kind of  look like flowers it definitely looks very vintage and it's also very much kind of in  line with the dark Academia aesthetic I tried to pick some pieces that I felt like would fit the  aesthetic of this video and also things I would love to wear next I got this gorgeous cable knit  cardigan it has these really beautiful buttons on it with kind of like this gold cross stitch  design and cardigans are definitely an essential in my closet the next piece is another definite  classic and that is this white button up with this really cute Peter Pan collar it has this Rose  embroidery all over it too and these sleeves with little lace detail at the ends as well as these  adorable little Rose buttons so it's very like floral themed so I think it just has a very very  cute look and I love layering this with the last piece that I got from simple retro which is this  espresso colored sweater vest I think it looks so cute together absolutely a dark Academia look and  these two I think just go perfectly together so yeah those were all the pieces that I got from  simple retro I've been wearing them all constantly throughout the fall if you want to check out the  rest of their fall and pre-fall collection I'll have the links down below as well as the links to  all of the specific pieces that I got if you want to check them out as well everything is linked in  the description box but again thank you so much to simple retro for sponsoring this video and  for helping me complete the dark Academia Vibe of this video but now let's get into the next book  that I read the next dark Academia book that I read was these violent Delights by Micah never  ever this is a book that I'd heard almost nothing about before reading it I pretty much took this  on my cousin's recommendation because she'd read it and told me that she liked it and she really  likes dark Academia and I saw it on a few dark Academia recommendation lists as well but I really  didn't know anything about this book so this was going to be a complete surprise for me and  I was going in with essentially no expectations okay so I just finished these violent Delights  and what a strange book I don't know what I was expecting but I was not expecting be gay do crime  but at this point I should have been expecting it because let's be honest the majority of dark  Academia seems to be BK do crime like they're all gay and they're all committing murder  don't know why uh but again not complaining it's fun even more so than the other books that I've  read in this video and other dark Academia books I've read in the past like the secret history this  book is the epitome of being gay do crime this is just about these two boys in the 70s in college  together who fall in love and then we're just committing crimes that's the whole book and even  with that knowledge of dark Academia and how this is like a very common theme in the genre this book  was still like on a different level of that like this was really about the murder and the crime it  was honestly more of like a thriller mystery kind of suspense novel more than dark Academia I would  say I definitely see why people would categorize it as dark Academia but personally I feel like it  fits a bit more into like the Thriller of suspense kind of genre because again it's far more heavily  focused on the like interpersonal turmoil of these characters and the uh murder that was happening if  if you like really delving into the mind of a character trying to pick apart their brain and  knowing every single weird disgusting thought that kind of crosses their mind no matter how  disturbing and you also really like morally gray characters I don't think it gets much more morally  gray than the two of them this book follows the story of our main character Paul who is a freshman  in college and he meets another freshman named Julian and the two of them click instantly and the  story is also set in the 1970s so obviously being openly gay in the 1970s is not really an option  for these two 17 year olds who come from won a religious background where Paul's family is Jewish  and in Julian's family a very like conservative uh privileged wealthy background so you know  they can't really be in an open relationship so they're both very repressed in a number of ways  and for Paul this repression kind of leads to these violent outbursts that he eyes and so this  kind of leads the two of them to be in this very very intense very passionate obsessive violent and  codependent relationship it is so toxic like so toxic you want to talk about toxic relationships  this might top it all except for the fact that the book acknowledges that this relationship is  toxic so that's what sets it apart from other toxic relationships that you might have watched  or read in other things by the end you could cry um because it's emotional but also you don't even  know who you're rooting for because what they were feeling and thinking a lot of the time while based  in Noble beliefs and ideologies the way they went about Seeking Justice was at times questionable  and the way that they were just so unbelievably infatuated with one another and obsessed with one  another was both extremely disturbing to watch and completely mesmerizing so the book Comes  This amalgamation of obsessive toxic codependent love and passion that is then externalized through  murder it's very much the epitome of are they gonna kiss each other or kill each other so if  that's your thing I think you'll really love this but just know it's very violent at times um so  definitely look up some content warnings and also homophobia is very prevalent in this story again  it's the 70s these two kids are very repressed their families are not the most accepting so you  know that's going to be a theme in the story as well so just be aware of that before you decide  to read it but my God like my eyes were glued where my ears I was listening to the audiobook my  ears were glued to my headphones like I just had to keep listening because I had to know what was  going to happen next I was very invested in the story when I read a dark Academia book I feel like  the school setting and the atmosphere that I get from the school setting is a very significant part  of what makes the book dark Academia the academic setting is almost its own character that's how  heavily present it is in the story whereas in this book I feel like it didn't have that the academic  setting was obviously still like relevant to the story and it wouldn't be the same without it but  it wasn't as conspicuous as it has been in some of the other books that I've read and to me that's  such an important part of a dark Academia book the setting just has to be its own character in the  story and this one didn't have that which is again why I think it aligns a lot better with something  more like a thriller or a suspense mystery kind of Novel that doesn't necessarily make me  dislike the book or anything it's just it kind of re-categorizes it for me that's where I was like  thrown off a little bit because I was expecting some more of that but we got a lot more of  um the being gay and doing crimes so you know it's a fine trade-off I have no problem with that  I just was expecting something a little different which is okay it's the type of thing where I feel  like I have to go back and reread it in order to fully fully grasp every single detail because  this was extremely intricate the writing was really beautiful full and it was also extremely  detailed so if you weren't paying attention to something you would miss something later  on because everything was connected to each other and the very last line of the book is just genius  in my opinion and it was it was the type of thing that gives you like Goosebumps and I feel like I  would want to go back and reread everything just so I can connect everything perfectly I really  did enjoy it I gave this book I think a 3.5 out of 5 Stars it's almost four stars it's not my  favorite thing I would definitely recommend it if this is your type of thing I don't think it's bad  by any means but again in terms of dark Academia if you're looking for something that has that very  intense academic Vibe this one doesn't have that so much but if you're looking for that morally  gray inner turmoil will they won't be kiss me or kill me Vibe then I definitely think you would  enjoy this and I would absolutely recommend it it was a very interesting book unlike anything  I've ever read but I am very glad that I read it alright so the next book I read was the one  and only babble by RF Quang this was probably the book that I was the most excited to read in  this video because I'd been anticipating it ever since it was announced I'm sure you've heard so  much about it at this point um it just came out a few months ago and everyone has been talking  about it everyone's been giving it so much praise and so I was incredibly incredibly excited to  read this book all right hello everyone so I'm currently in the middle of Babel and I have so  much to say first of all if you're wondering which Edition I have this is the fox and wit Edition I  believe they did like a special dust jacket the book underneath is exactly the same as the US  hardcover I had never heard of them before but I saw a photo of this cover and I immediately  ordered it I hadn't read the book the book wasn't even out yet I pre-ordered this just because I  liked this cover so much anyway the cover aside this book is fantastic I am not surprised I had  very high expectations for this very very high expectations I've had this feeling that this is  probably going to be one of my favorite books of the Year potentially a new favorite book of all  time and so far I was not wrong I feel like books very seldom live up to the hype that is built  around them especially when it's to this scale but this one definitely does I'm I'm loving it I  genuinely feel like I need to sit down and write a paper on everything that I am just absolutely  Amazed by In This Book because there's so much there's so much here to dissect I'm currently  about to start book four so I have like this much left essentially this story takes place in the  1800s in England at Oxford and we follow around this group of students who attend the University  as translators for Babel which is like their translation Department it's the most prestigious  department and the majority of these students in the translation Department are foreign-born  students most of them were born in different countries and then brought here when they were  young given an English upbringing and then sent to the university to study as translators that's not  every student at Babel but it's a solid number of them and our main character Robin is one of  these students and he was born in what was known as Canton at the time in China and he was brought  over to England very young by this professor who becomes his guardian and then years go by and he  starts attending Babel and he meets a few of his classmates his cohort Remy Victor and Letty Remy's  from Calcutta and letting Victoria are two of the only women who attend the University but in  this world there is a very like light magic system there's just one kind of magical element in this  world and that is through silver working typically in this world at least mostly what they've talked  about so far is that they use silver for healing but you can do a variety of things with it it's  not just meant for that so yeah it's based on like silver which I also find really fascinating  because obviously if you know anything about this period in history silver was a very significant  commodity because it was very big in trade at the time so her use of silver works perfectly in the  story it makes the historical aspect of this even more more believable set in this fantasy world so  it really does almost feel like you're actually reading history but there's just this little tweak  obviously there are some things that are still changed up but for the most part she's really  sticking to what actually historically happened during this period of time and then of course the  main component the main theme of this story is colonialism imperialism and the British Empire  and their impact on the entire world we have these young people kind of like realizing that  for the first time realizing just how pervasive the British Empire has been globally how they  have had their hand in everything everywhere and the way that that hits different countries  against one another but it can all always lead back to the Empire and a lot of it is about the  characters like guilt trying to Grapple with that given the Privileges that they've been afforded  how uh Robin always feels like super guilty because he knows that he's benefited a lot from  what the British Empire is doing and he doesn't not want to give all of that up but at the same  time he knows that what they're doing is so evil that he can't ignore it before I started reading  it I was kind of expecting something that was going to feel very academic in terms of the text  itself like I felt like it was going to be a bit more dense and a bit more like an academic read  um but it is not actually it is very very easy to read I feel like this is extremely accessible  for anybody who wants to read a fantasy novel anyone who wants to like learn a little bit about  British imperialism oh another thing that I have absolutely loved in this book The depiction of  Letty as this white woman who is obviously facing a lot of obstacles being one of the only women to  be studying at Oxford she definitely faces a lot of sexism but she uses her whiteness as a shield  and a defense constantly especially against Victor when Victor faces both sexism and racism because  of that interest sectionality in her identity Letty doesn't want to acknowledge the fact that  Victoria is black and how that also contributes to the way that she's discriminated against in  a way that is different from Letty and I feel like this book just does such a good job of having that  nuanced discussion because you do not find that in everything and it's done so brilliantly I was  not expecting that in here I don't know why oh I didn't know what characters were in the book so I  guess that's why but I was not expecting it and the second that Letty started opening her mouth  I was like oh I see how this is gonna go and I'm loving where we're going with this like it's just  done so well that's both such a common experience that a lot of women of color understand on a very  personal level and also historically extremely accurate because during this time the abolition  movement was extremely big and what was right on the heels of the abolition movement the women's  rights movement and a lot of the early women's rights movement language and writing and the laws  that were eventually put into place were heavily based on the language of the abolition movement  and that's often a piece of history that is overlooked or forgotten or just blatantly ignored  but historically white women have used people of color especially black people to then push forward  the women's rights movement and there was a lot of racism within those groups and within those early  movements because white women believed that they deserved those rights over people of color often  times and I think that depicting Letty the way that she does in this book is absolutely a nod to  that and I completely respect her for it because it is not something that a lot of people talk  about but you won't find that a lot in fiction and to have that in such a popular fantasy book  just brilliant uh props to her I love it chef's kiss amazing this book is amazing  um yeah anyway I am very excited to continue reading and get to the end I will hopefully  finish it today and get back to you all with my final thoughts which I'm sure will be very similar  to what I'm feeling right now there's no way that I think that this will end up becoming anything  less than at least four stars right now it's gonna be a five um I think it will maintain that statusforeignI don't have a review for this book I I don't have I don't have anything to say I just I Just Wanna  Cry I wasn't expecting this like grave to hit me oh my God I haven't cried like this in a whilejust just laugh it off but I can't you know that was so heartbreak  it's so good honestly I'm crying because it's so good it Unearthed some deep deep rooted emotions  and feelings that I have not been able to express for a really long time and it put it into words  in a way that I just I expected this book to be amazing okay but I did not expect to relate  to it in a way that I didn't know my needed to relate to something like oh my God I'm so sad now  it's good it's good this is good it's so good just read it you know like oh my God  I just can't stop crying wait this is just another side effect of colonialism and capitalism you know  it makes me cry okay I need to I need to collect myself I need to collect myself these tears are  not gonna go away and um I I can't do anything about it and now my camera is running out of  space because nothing can go right right now because I'm just I'm too overwhelmed I don't  think that I can give any kind of logical review of this right now you're just gonna get emotional  Hannah okay you're gonna get all of the emotions that I'm feeling because I cannot articulate a  single thing that I'm feeling at the moment other than overwhelming emotion uh grief and a sense of  being understood in the best and worst way I think you just need to read it this book  speaks for itself nothing is unclear and I fully mean this as a compliment there's no digging you  need to do to like get underneath something to like figure out what they're saying like it is  just there it is laid out for you so clearly in terms of dark Academia this is the truest truest  and purest form of dark Academia nothing is more true to the actual like core of what this genre is  meant to represent it's unbelievable it's perfect it's brilliant it's every adjective insert every  single positive adjective you can possibly think of it's that it's everything it is one of the  best things if not the best thing I've read I keep saying that about things that I've read this year  because I've read some really really great books but oh my God the oh my God I can't I can't I'm  not gonna be able to talk about this without any spoilers so I'm gonna put an icon on the screen  and once this is gone I have stopped talking about the spoilers so if you don't want to be spoiled  you can come back and watch from that point on I'll also leave a time stamp in the description  box so you can skip over any spoilers but I just I need to talk about this one very important part  that I kind of touched on earlier and we have to revisit it because I knew it I knew it and  I will always trust my gut and of course I'm talking about none other than Letty Letty oh  my God the depiction of letty's character in this book I think is probably one of the best things  about the book I'm sure that there's fiction out there I have not read everything obviously that's  not possible but of everything I have read I have never read any fiction where I have seen a better  section of the self-victimization of white women it's unbelievable like she went there she went  there and she said what needed to be said and it was just oh my God I could feel it from Letty and  I was like you're just being judgmental Hannah you're being judgmental you don't know you don't  know that she wouldn't agree with them or that she wouldn't help them but I had this gut feeling the  way Robin had this gut feeling the way Rodney had this gut feeling so I can't even talk about Remy  I'm gonna cry and the way that Victoria had this gut feeling they all knew and I knew  it I could feel it but I didn't want to believe it and then of course it happens of course it happens  of course she kills Remy and of course we know why it was Remy that she chose to kill and Robin says  it plain as day because a brown man rejected her and she could not bear the shame of that I have  been so sad this whole time and from the time that Remy died I have been expecting him to come back  I was like he's he's got to come back there's no way I was in such denial and then I finally  get to the very last page of course he's actually dead I still haven't fully accepted this the way  Robin like never fully processed it I don't think I'm ever gonna fully process it it's that feeling  where you know when someone will like talk around a subject and they'll never like fully honestly  say the truth and you know what the truth is because either you were there you witnessed it  you experienced it whatever like you know what the fact of this matter is but they won't say  that thing like they'll just say things adjacent to it but we'll never fully admit that like actual  truth that's what this book felt like it felt like admitting the truth I don't have a better way to  describe it I feel simultaneously so much smarter after reading this book but also really dumb  because I can't articulate a single thought that I'm having I can't form sentences I can barely  form words right now this is one of just the most honest books I have ever read there's this moment  that I marked down because it was it I feel like epitomizes what I'm trying to describe and this is  right when they tell Letty about what the Empire is trying to do and what Babel is trying to do  um with the Opium in Canton and like the war that will inevitably start and at first she doesn't  believe them and she doesn't want to accept what's going on and then she starts crying and she's  sobbing and they say Remy and Robin watched unsure what to make of this on someone else it would have  been performative sickening even but with bloody they knew it was not a charade Letty could not cry  on command she could not even fake basic emotions on command she was too stiff too transparent they  knew she was unable to act in any other way than how she felt so it felt cathartic seeing her break  down like this knowing that at last she understood how they all felt it was a relief to see that in  her they still had an ally usually a book will stop there but ARA Quang doesn't do that because  she said we're gonna we're gonna pay the whole picture We're not gonna leave anything out and  the next passage says still something did not seem right and Robin could tell from Victorian  Remy's faces that they thought so too it took him a moment to realize what it was that graded on him  and when he did it would bother him constantly now and thereafter it would seem a great Paradox  the fact that after everything they had told Letty all the pain they had shared she was the one who  needed comfort I dressed where do I send my love letter to RF Quang because holy this is  how you write about intersections of privilege and power and identity and do it well the differences  in the way that Victoria Remy Robin and Letty experience their lives at Oxford as students  and as people is written so intricately with so much nuance and so much Clarity that you can fully  understand the minds of each of these characters and why they believe the things they believe and  why they make the choices that they make Letty has fully convinced herself that her betrayal of  her friends and her murdering Remy was justifiable because her belief system reinforces that and the  society and culture and Empire that she lives under reinforces that every day so there was  never going to be a time where she was actually going to join them and actually going to support  them and fight for them because she would never benefit from that because she had everything to  lose and nothing to gain that feeling of betrayal from somebody who you hope will be on your side  is such a prolific feeling that people of color experience on a daily basis it may not be to this  scale but you feel it in the everyday interactions that you will have with a person and RF Quang does  such a beautiful job of depicting that in this book it's unbelievable it was so realistic and I  think it is part of the reason why this book made me feel so emotional because I could understand so  many of the things these characters thought felt and experienced anyone who has recommendations of  more fantasy books and more books in general that are told from like an anti-colonialist  Anti-Imperialist perspective please give them to me I need to read them this has such Mass Appeal  most people are not going to sit there and read anti-colonialist theory in their free time it's  just not like fun you know for the majority of people but a lot of people will read this a lot  of people will read a fantasy book published by a New York Times best-selling author who's written  another very popular fantasy series they will read this and you will get the same messaging out of  this that you will get reading those articles and those journals but stuff like that is far  more academic it's far more inaccessible to a lot of people I'm not saying that those things are not  valuable they absolutely are and if you want to learn more about these things absolutely I think  it's something you should study read nonfiction about these things but in terms of just like the  General Media we get out to people this is how you do that you're not going to do that through  like academic readings you're gonna do that through this because this is something that  far more people have access to this is the type of book that I think regardless of who you are  it will force you to reevaluate some things it's going to force you to look at things a little bit  differently from a perspective that you might not have had before even if you are somebody who is  fairly well read in imperialism and colonialism even if you know a fair bit about that you have  so much to gain from reading this book if nothing else just witnessing the emotions and experiences  of these characters and that alone I feel like is just a story that needs to be told and it  I uh I just I'm sorry like I really just can't talk about this properly there's a line in here  that I think it's probably the first thing that I even marked that just really messed with me  but he says it just doesn't feel it doesn't feel like I have the right to be alive and  I'm trying so hard not to cry that feeling the not feeling like you have a right to be alive  it sounds so morbid and so sad but it is so true I have felt that so often in my life and like I  oh my God he's later talking to a different character about the same thing saying that he felt  like he didn't have a right and then he continues on to say and what did I do I lived a life I  shouldn't have I had what millions of people didn't all that suffering and the whole time I was  drinking champagne Siri plays champagne Problems by Taylor Swift please it broke me that line broke  me so much so much of this book just utterly broke me I feel like I simultaneously had a history  lesson and a therapy session the guilt that Robin feels being a student at this institution knowing  what the institution is actually doing and how it's exploiting these people his people and  other people and not knowing what to do with this guilt it was a feeling that I don't think I've  known how to express for a long time and RF Quang did that for me and now I don't need to so thanks  that's what I mean like I really feel like I had a therapy session with this one this was cathartic  on so many levels probably my favorite book I read this year I'm gonna go sit and cry a little bit  more over my feelings about Babel um really wasn't expecting Those Tears I I don't know where that  came from actually I know exactly where that came from but I don't want to go into that five stars a  million stars infinite Stars infinite Stars okay if you only read one more book this year make it  this one read this book do yourself a favor it's essential it is required reading on a Clockwork  reader's YouTube channel this book is now a required reading I'm gonna make a required reading  list for you all you know that's what I'm gonna do next I'm gonna make a video where I make my list  of required reading books if you want to know who I am if you want to know what this Channel  and me and our community and everything stands for we're gonna have a required reading list um  and it's a prerequisite to like join the club but yeah this is now A Clockwork reader required read  so get on it read this if you haven't yet um you'll thank me later and finally the very last  book I read was Ace of Spades by farida abike imide Ace of Spades is a book that I've heard a  decent amount about online I didn't really know what the plot was about but I just knew that a  lot of people really liked it and it's gotten a lot of Praise ever since it was released it's a  dual perspective story that follows around these two students at this very prestigious school  and they are the only two black students at this predominantly white high school and the story is  quite literally a combination of Gossip Girl and get out the book actually opens with an epigraph  that quotes Gossip Girl and get out so I'm not just saying that like that was intentional and  so it's a mystery as these two students try and figure out who is targeting them and why okay so  I finished reading Ace of Spades and first thing I will say that epigraph tells you everything  you need to know the book first opens with a quote from Gossip Girl they say life is full  of surprises that our dreams really can come true then again so can our nightmares and then  immediately followed up with a quote from get out all I know is sometimes if there's too many white  folks I get nervous and I have never in my life seen a more relevant epigraph because everything  that follows is exactly what that just told you this book is exactly Gossip Girl mixed with get  out with a little bit of Pretty Little Liars sprinkled into there that's it like I wouldn't  need to tell you anything else that's the whole book it's a good vibe there were some scenes and  moments that I feel like were almost verbatim from something that happened in Gossip Girl or  something that happened in get out and it really just felt like watching a CW drama except this  time the characters are actually people of color and they're not all white for once I feel like if  I had read this when I was in high school I would have absolutely loved it I have some like mixed  feelings about this and not about the book itself exactly but kind of about my experience of reading  the book only because I think that this book reads a little bit too young for me personally  just based on like my taste now and like what I like to read it felt a little bit younger to me  which makes sense because it's a Hawaii novel so I'm not knocking the book itself for that kind of  like early Gossip Girl and early Pretty Little Liars where it feels a little bit more youthful  which again is not a problem it's just not what I personally prefer to read anymore because  story-wise I think it's great it's well put together it was entertaining and I think it has  a really important message just for me personally I didn't find it really suspenseful or even that  mysterious like a lot of the things were easy for me to guess and I think that's just because I have  watched get out watched Pretty Little Liars and watched Gossip Girl all multiple times so if you  put all those three things together you can kind of predict what's gonna happen in this you know if  you know Gossip Girl and you know get out you know where this story is going so yeah for that reason  it was a bit predictable for me it was still a good story and I just think that this book is  an important book and an important why a book to have because get out is obviously for adults and  while Gossip Girl is definitely targeted towards a younger audience um it's lacking a lot of the  Nuance the representation in that people want in their trashy fun rich kids school stories and Ace  of Spades offers you all of that I think also of all the books I read in this video this was  definitely one of the ones that would sit higher on the list in terms of a dark Academia book that  actually criticized the system and criticized the exploitation and racism that exists within  Academia which as I've said at the very beginning is something I deeply appreciate in dark Academia  I think it's an essential part of the genre and this one definitely had plenty of that the main  female character chiamaka is kind of like a Blair Waldorf type she's like the it girl at the school  and then the main male character Devon is kind of like Dan Humphrey if Dan Humphrey wasn't you know  a creepy stalker and the worst like Dan if he was the good kid he's the scholarship kid and so he  kind of has like a different place in this school and he feels very much Outcast not just because  he's black but also because he's a scholarship kid the story is also queer and both of the main  characters are queer so yeah you really get great reps presentation wrapped up with a bit  of nostalgia for anybody who really loved Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars and get out as well  I think we deserve more dark Academia both in y and adult with people of color as the main cast  of characters because if we're really going to be critiquing Academia as an institution we do  need to put the people who are affected most by it at the Forefront and that is oftentimes  um students of color I think it's great to have that perspective and it's great to have it in  Hawaii book too so yeah for this one I think I would give it about three to three and a half out  of five stars it's not my personal favorite but I see the Merit in it and I think that if you like  why a mystery novels and you like dark Academia and you want the Perfect Blend of Gossip Girl  and get out you just have to read it but there you all have it that is it for all of the dark  Academia books that I read for this video I had a great time making this video this is probably one  of my favorite experiment videos I've done just because this is one of my favorite genres but it  was also one of my favorite videos because I now have two new all-time favorite books and I love  when that happens all around I call this video a success as far as my experiments go this was  definitely one of the better ones for me that is you might not have laughed as much because I  wasn't suffering the entire time hating when I was reading um but for me it was it was a good  time let me know in the comments down below if you have read any of the books that I mentioned  in this video what are your thoughts on them what are your thoughts on dark Academia as a genre in  general and the aesthetic as well do you like it do you dislike it what are your criticisms  of the aesthetic I would love to hear all of your thoughts and I would also love to hear some more  of your dark Academia book recommendations probably something more in line with Babel  or if we were villains as those are the two that I definitely loved the most in this video but I will  gladly take all of your recommendations again a huge thank you to simple retro for sponsoring this  video and for providing me with the clothes to make this video truly complete if you would like  to follow me on any of my social media to keep up with what I'm reading and everything else that I'm  doing because despite the fact that I have been a bit absent I have been doing a lot of things  and things that I can tell you about eventually I will hopefully be a little bit more present it's  just been a busy couple of months so I'm sorry for the delay in videos um it was unplanned but it was  necessary so I hope this one was at least fun for you to watch but yes as always my links are  in the description box below so please go ahead and follow me on there so we can talk about all  the dark Academia looks and all of the other books because I have many more things I plan  to read before the end of this year very excited for them all but again thank you all so much for  \n"