Mental Floss may receive a commission for purchases made through these links. Books belonging to the dark academia genre are usually centered on a place of learning, and often feature secret societies or mysterious codes; they also overwhelmingly skew towards the Gothic, macabre, and bizarre. Down below are six of the best dark academia novels to help get you hooked on this fascinating genre. It sits squarely in the dark academia genre, even inspiring academic papers dedicated to its labyrinthine plot and symbolism. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova; $12"The Historian" by Elizabeth Kostova | Little, Brown and Company / Amazon; Justin Dodd, Mental Floss (background)Author Elizabeth Kostova struck big with her debut, the product of a decade’s worth of work.