1000 shapes - Kate Weinberg

A prequel to her novel set at a university following a female student who is having sex with her progress or who stole her writing.

This story was too short and really had no point. It read more like a first chapter for her book that I don’t plan on reading.

Pythia -Olivia Blake

A cult like university believes that their super computer predicts the future, a psychiatrist alongside priests and rabbis and a historical literature researcher are hired to help figure out what has recently gone wrong with the super computer. The story follows a legal interview that is investigating the psychiatrists involvement with the super computer and the deaths of two female students. 

An interesting dark academia story addressing relevant topics of doom scrolling and the anxiety of being alive with the current state of things.

Sabbatical - James Tate Hill

An old retired professor turns up on campus and starts harassing different professors and students. He’s clearly not mentally well and is looking for a professor who went missing. 

I did not like his writing style and the story was not exciting. It has a vaguely dark academia vibe but is more of a depressed middle aged man holden caulfield vibe. There’s only two women in the whole story and their characters serve 0 purpose. The story has no real message and just seems like the ramblings of a pessimistic man who dislikes academia.

The Hare and The Hound - Kelly Andrew

A boy receives a prophecy at coney island as a child saying that he will chase a white rabbit and end up in the clutches of a wolf and that he is a murderer. He is haunted by bunny iconography hai whole life and called Bunny as a nickname by his friends. In high school he gets in a car crash that kills a girl, now in college he meets a girl who shred uncanny similarities with a white rabbit and Bunny feels that he is slowly loosing his mind.

X House - JT Ellison

An exclusive all girls private school on a cliff side has a reputation of mysterious murders. The new professor appointed attempts to find out what is going on and save her charges. I wish it was longer this one was interesting and spooky!

One of the characters was named Amelia!

The Ravages - Layne Fargo

A sapphic story of revenge when one partner finds out the other has been cheating on her they plan a seance in their London workplace’s archives. A spooky fun little story. The namesake of the collection comes from this one.

Four Funerals - David Bell

A school shooting occurs in an english class after the student had written about a school shooting. Now the professor feels guilt. 

This one was boring tbh

The Unknowable Pleasures - Susie Yang

This one was utterly bizarre featuring a ?perhaps queer relationship between student and eccentric professor? viewed at a distance and bossed over by a female classmate. It was voyeristic and felt sorta homophobic somehow. It also didn’t really feel dark academia at all, being set in a school does not make a dark academia. The ending felt bizarre as well and was an attempt and an open ended cliff hanger but was sorta just weird.

Weekend at Bertie’s - ML Rio

Two PhD students stumble on the dead body of their professors when they are taking care of her house while she is supposed to be away. A spooky and fun little story.

The Professor of Ontography - Helen Grant 

Two university students discover a mysterious department at school that no one will discuss with them. The boyfriend decides to investigate after a night out and never returns. Spooky and interesting. 

Phobos -Tori Bovalino

A student is in a secret society going through an initiation phase. The last step to join is to kill ‘a lesser scholar’. An interesting set up over to quickly and easily.

Playing - Phoebe Wynne 

A student who plays the organ at the university cathedral is faced with playing at frequent funerals after a series of deaths.

Spooky but not shocking.

Overall I feel like this selection of authors was sort of odd. I’d only classify a few of these stories as dark academia. I’m also realizing that writing a short story must be very difficult and only a few of the authors pulled off writing captivating ones. The beginning stories were rough.