The Curator: moody mysteries of the campus novel

my pet peeves and what we are going to read instead

With the exception of the five years I spent bartending and the four I spent too small, my entire life has revolved around the academic year. I currently work as staff at a major university, and so I necessarily have a lot of opinions on media depicting college life.

peeves, list ‘em.

Number one? Students having any kind of access to “the dean.”

Like truly, that’s adorable. Some deans don’t even know all their own staff…

Second is calling a book a “campus novel” just because characters are near one. Many campus book lists stretch the definition, which is fine but also means the recs provided won’t give me that feeling I’m hunting for. What I want from my campus novel is almost like a closed-loop environment or a locked-door mystery; the college should be THE thing that makes the plot work, not somewhere the characters happen to be. Academics must be central to the characters’ lives.

Lastly, the extreme deficit in high-quality literary “dark academia” novels. Whenever I search for something to scratch the itch, I get hit with mostly fantasy or YA novels or something completely off-vibe. Example: this list from Penguin includes Disorientation by Elaine Hseih Chou, which is the clearest example of satire I’ve ever read so nice try Penguin, but no.

Week three of spooky season is really a celebration of fall and of the college read, everything from the dark to the fantastical. These are only my most highly rated, with some qualms at the end. All books can be found here at Bookshop.org.

dark academics or just shady people?

• Stoner by John Williams - the newest edition to the list of my favorite campus novels. Damn this one was DARK, and not in the fun black loafers sort of way, in the depressing I’m not sure if I can do this type way. I am actually surprised this one is so loved on bookstagram because it follows a young midwestern man as he comes to terms with his life decisions, limitations, and eternal solitude. Quite the existential experience, but I truly, truly loved it.

• The Secret History by Donna Tartt - NOTHING COMPARES TO YOU (just trust me).

• The Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis - This one is Reality Bites but college, a satirical black comedy that documents a love triangle gone absolutely bonkers. Set at a small affluent liberal arts college based on the actual college BEE and Ms Donna Tartt attended in the 1980s, this book is only for those willing to navigate the moral vacuum of these 20-something’s party lives.

• The Idiot by Elif Batuman - I loved it, I hated it, I have never laughed so hard reading a novel. The farther away I get from Selin’s deadpan, inexplicable decision-making during her first year of emails at Harvard in the 1990s, the more I look back on it with reverence; however, there were moments I wanted to throw both Selin and the book at the wall. Read it if you dare.

• Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl - Blue van Meer is intelligent and special but friendless. When she encounters an intriguing clique at her new school, she gets sucked into solving a crime that is both a satirical comment on academia and a murder mystery full of cult-like professors and unwitting students.

• The Likeness by Tana French - a criminally underrated police procedural/mystery. When a young girl is found dead, a cop goes undercover as her own doppelganger college student version to discover what happened. One of the most unique plots in all of crime, this novel cemented French as one of my favorite crime writers.

• I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai - It’s about a girl killed at a boarding school and a podcaster who returns years later to teach a course there, becoming inexorably entwined in solving the case. I vacillate on this one, whether I recommend it or not, simply because I think it suffers from doing too much - too much social commentary that could have been more effective with a little focus.

a bit of the fantastical

• Ordinary Monsters by J. M. Miro - A bunch of Victorian children with unique gifts (“talents”) are recruited by detectives on behalf of a special school said to develop and protect them. At the same time, a shadowy figure is hunting a special talent, one whose existence is a mystery. Ordinary Monsters builds us a new world that also feels familiar - a mash of Stranger Things psychic kids, Holmesian detectives, Dickensian orphans, and X-men recruits that somehow works, if not a bit clumsy.

• Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo - Alex Stern comes from trouble, but when she gets to Yale and refuses to take any shit from a bunch of rich, powerful self-serving secret societies, she finds a world of forbidden magic that is more sinister than her shady, drug-dealing boyfriend ever was. Ninth House is dark, occulty, and fun.

• Bunny by Mona Awad - very controversial this one!! It’s weird as hell, but I felt it was a fun balance of (Heathers + Mean Girls^The Craft)/The Lost Boys*My Year of Rest and Relaxation.

a few everyone mentions, but I have reservations

• If We Were Villians by M.L. Rio - A bunch of college kids do Shakespeare - constantly - and get into some interpersonal drama. The extensive Shakespeare passages felt pretentiously superfluous rather than providing context clues or character insight. It also had too many main characters (7!), a bland narrator, and no backstories. The people seem to like it, though, so if you are a Shakespeare head, by all means!!

• Babel by R.K. Kuang - I’ve said enough on this topic, so if you want to know my list of grievances, find them here.

• Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo - this one picks up where Ninth House left off, but that is where the similarities end. While Ninth survived on novelty and rituals, Hell focuses way too much on [literal] hell and devils when what I wanted was more campus hangs, parties with real magic, and actual college learning!

I very much hope to read a few more on the campus novel TBR, including Possession by A.S. Byatt, Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers, and On Beauty by Zadie Smith. I have only heard rave reviews, but then again, maybe that’s all I pay attention to…

Read any of these? Anything you would add to the list??

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reading 📖→

• I just finished Stoner so - what’s next? I feel burned out by trauma (re: Beloved and Stoner), and feel a yearning for something light next. I may have to abandon my TBR for a hot minute and follow that mood to reading town… which just MIGHT be The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. We are going on a road trip next weekend, and this feels like the right thing to bring along (for now).

• BUT also. I got this copy of a book called American Supernatural Tales that has been calling my name - it includes 26 tales of the weird and supernatural by geniuses like Stephen King, Edgar Allan Poe, Henry James, Ray Bradbury, and Joyce Carol Oates. Sounds IMPECCABLE. Yet - why does a short story collection feel so much more daunting than a regular ole chunky novel???

consuming📽️🎧→

• Season 8 of Selling Sunset. I KNOW I KNOW. I don’t watch much reality TV but there is something about witnessing grown women dressed in clubwear attempt to sell a $24M house to an ex-football player that just gets me going. Also the drama and the house porn.

• Marcus finally started paying attention during Gilmore Girls and has asked me to put it on TWICE now. He says he’s “ready for the yapping” when it’s time to watch 😂.

book news and restacks📰→

• Rolling Stone released a list of the 101 best movie soundtracks, and other than qualms about the order I was excited to see all of my favorites with only one missing - Now and Then.

• Petya gently reminds us that minimalist is best when it comes to book lists and book tracking (Substack).

• a case for reading less (

  Marta
  on Substack).

• and a well-rounded list of the best books to read for a cozyish* fall (

  Clara
  on Substack).

and cats 🐈‍⬛→

Minnie is very concerned for my safety anytime I am near a body of water (including one with a pumpkin bath bomb)

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let’s chat 👻→

• did you go to college? tell me something fun about your college days.

• if you could take one class on any topic, what would it be?

• what are you reading currently, and is it any good?

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in case you missed it 🖤

The Curator: gothic tales of hauntings and lovers

the [in]sanity of The Haunting of Hill House

The Curator: welcome to the 8 Weeks of Spooky Season

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See you around the bookshelf!