Renaming Genres Based On Their Cover Trends

Dark academia can be an aesthetic and a subgenre. According to many people, dark academia originated with Donna Tartt’s 1992 novel The Secret History. Mystery, slipstream, horror, fantasy, and more fiction genres can have dark academia elements. These novels often contain cults, revelries, and charismatic, murderous professors. Many are set in English and Classics departments at old, prestigious boarding schools, colleges, and universities. So, fittingly, books like The Secret History and The Maidens have classical marble statues on their covers.