i read the 4 most popular dark academia books (and they broke my heart) | reading vlog

a deep knowledge of dark academia literature is something you might assume is already a part of my personality... but you'd be wrong. here is a reading vlog to fix that. no plot spoilers beyond what can be discovered on the back of the book or in the first couple of chapters (other than general ~vibes~ and my emotions........and there are a lot of emotions...........)

truly nobody expected this to absolutely destroy me and yet. here we are.

🍓s o c i a l s

⏰ t i m e s t a m p s
introduction: 0:00
the secret history: 2:24
the secret history review: 9:43
a deadly education: 15:13
a deadly education review: 16:53
if we were villains: 21:27
if we were villains review: 26:38
babel: 30:39
a brief academic validation-related breakdown: 36:30
babel 2 (2 fast 2 babel): 41:00
babel...review???: 50:09

👒 f a q
• i film using a fujifilm X-S10 and edit with premiere pro.
• i am 23 and currently live in wisconsin :)

[Carly]

Me a 24 year old teenage girl that dropped out of college: this is absolutely my aesthetic I AM dark AND academic

[AJ-iypx]

As someone who went to the same college as Donna Tartt (the one she allegedly based A Secret History off of), TOTALLY understand why you were not vibing with those characters. Rejoice that you didn't have to go to class with them

[mrspreminger]

Ok u definitely convinced me to read Babel because I’m a linguistics major and a big thing people don’t understand is that language and culture are deeply intertwined and killing a language is effectively killing a culture.

[kthxbi]

to me your comments about The Secret History sort of highlight what I feel is the irony of the dark academia aesthetic vs the dark academia genre. The genre is 100% about critiquing the veneer of the world of elite academics, revealing it for all its obsessive, entitled, and dangerous rot. For all their party habits, perfect hair, and endless debates on ethics, when you scratch the surface these hyper intelligent/skilled rich kids are viscous high strung perfectionists who are liable to collapse and take everyone else down with them at the first sign of trouble. That's the point of the genre. Like its literally about the relationship between the high-brow facade of the intellectual elite and their hollow rotten reality, and the damage you can do to yourself by trying to act like one of them...and then the aesthetic is about how to act like one of them for the low low price of a £9.99 cardigan from SHEIN. Its bizarre- the concept and function of the aesthetic is literally the thing the genre is trying to critique.

[animefreakkitty]

"I hate this book- it's so good" is a whole vibe.

[alvinanyholm]

The fact you read The Secret History in two days is actually INSANE! Took me several months

[randostuff]

There's something so incredible about the very emotional review of Babel, and then a bag of Ruffles being in the background

[ghaida]

51:58 when she says "society" while sobbing shouldn't be as funny as it is 😭😭 i have tears in my eyes

[tannerv]

Nobody describes the secret history as what it is….. a cult book. I swear the entire time I was just thinking, is this a cult??? Because it basically was but nobody describes it as that from what I’ve seen

[carolineoneal]

I did not cry whole reading Babel. But then I finished it, I looked up and stared at the wall. And then I started bawling. Truly amazing book

[MintyisOK]

watching this video has made me realize that How to Get Away with Murder had strong dark academia potential

[KatieMac]

As a burnt out, former gifted kid, with anxiety it was comforting to hear you talk about mental health. Reading is one of my favorite activities to calm down and unwind, but at the same time, when I don't reach my reading goals I beat myself up.
Also, I love all of your videos, you talk about every book you read in a really engaging, smart and funny way.

[ANGLVELASCO]

as an actor, the fact that if we were villians characters speak in shakespeare quotes made me feel like they were real actors. like when you are working on a play you engrave in your mind the quotes so much that you use them in your daily life, specially with the rest of cast members, and the quotes end up being like an internal meme of some sort.
i dont know it was done deliverally or it was supposed to mean that they are pretentious but it worked for me in that way when reading it and i'll stick with that detail and defend its efficiency in the character building and storytelling

[karenellison]

I’m an interpreter. And this book WRECKED ME! So mad I can’t find a little silver bar necklace with “Translation” engraved on it.

[smoo]

Babel broke me too. When I had the chance to meet Kuang, despite being a grown-ass adult, I basically drooled all over her shoes

[tmbl]

"a 23 year old teenage girl" ya'll i wanna be friends with her so bad 😂

[mirandavega_]

I remember finishing If We Were Villains and just sitting there crying over my dinner 😭

[mikahbray]

I cried watching you finish Babel because I remember doing the EXACT same thing when it came out last year. “Socieetyyyy😭” was such a mood

[justdianaaa]

babel literally caused me to have a breakdown on if the degree i want to do is ethical and i just … it was beautiful and i just cannot believe it took me this long to read. i love how you can vocalize all my thoughts of the secret history bc i just cannot explain to my friends

[mervicente]

rereading babel after finishing it for the first time hits so much harder 🥲 sending you a hug