Read-alikes
Books Like The Secret History
Elite schools, obsessive friendships and a death nobody can take back.
Updated September 2026 · By Sawyer V.
The short version
The Secret History defined the modern dark academia shelf: an elite school, a clique, a crime. If We Were Villains is the closest match, Ninth House adds the occult, Babel and The Atlas Six add magic, and Brideshead Revisited is the Oxford novel it is most often compared to.
Some links on this page are affiliate links. If you buy through one we earn a commission at no extra cost to you, and it does not change which books are here or the order they appear in. Read the full disclosure.
How we picked
Each pick names which element it matches: the clique, the school, the crime or the atmosphere. Some add magic and we say so, because a reader who wanted realism may not want spells. We have not read all eight.
What we do on every list: read the publisher’s own description rather than a summary of it, check print length and first publication year against library catalog data (last refreshed September 11, 2026), confirm the book is still sold in the format we suggest, and write the match line before the blurb. What we do not do is claim to have read every book here cover to cover. The full method is published, and it is written so anyone can check it.
The short answer
Who each book is for, at a glance. Select a row for the full write-up.
| # | Book | Give this if | Where to buy |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  If We Were VillainsM. L. Rio · 368 pagesThe closest match | they want the same book with Shakespeare instead of Greek | |
| 2 |  Brideshead RevisitedEvelyn Waugh · 336 pagesThe Oxford original | they want the classic that set the mood | |
| 3 |  The LikenessTana French · 466 pagesMatches the house of friends | they want a detective inside the clique | |
| 4 |  Ninth HouseLeigh Bardugo · 480 pagesAdds the occult | they like their academia with ghosts | |
| 5 |  BabelR. F. Kuang · 569 pagesAdds magic and politics | they want an Oxford novel with an argument | |
| 6 |  The Atlas SixOlivie Blake · 397 pagesAdds rivals and magic | they want a clique competing for a prize | |
| 7 |  BunnyMona Awad · 320 pagesThe satire | they want something strange and darkly funny | |
| 8 |  The It GirlRuth Ware · 352 pagesMatches the crime | they want the murder mystery more than the mood |
#ad — buying through these links earns us a commission at no cost to you. No price is printed because we do not run a live price feed, and a remembered number would be a guess.
Eight, by which element they match
1. The closest match
If We Were Villains
M. L. Rio
Give this ifthey want the same book with Shakespeare instead of Greek
Seven acting students at an elite conservatory who speak in Shakespeare, and the death that ends their final year. The clique, the crime and the guilt, all present.
- Print length
- 368 pages
- First published
- 2017
- Formats
- print, Kindle and audio where the publisher offers them
2. The Oxford original
Brideshead Revisited
Evelyn Waugh
Give this ifthey want the classic that set the mood
An Oxford student is drawn into the glamorous, doomed aristocratic family of his friend Sebastian Flyte. No murder, but the same longing to belong to a golden, closed world.
- Print length
- 336 pages
- First published
- 1945
- Formats
- print, Kindle and audio where the publisher offers them
3. Matches the house of friends
The Likeness
Tana French
Give this ifthey want a detective inside the clique
A Dublin detective goes undercover as a murdered student who had been living under an identity the detective once invented. Five graduate students share a house, and she has to become one of them.
- Print length
- 466 pages
- First published
- 2008
- Formats
- print, Kindle and audio where the publisher offers them
4. Adds the occult
Ninth House
Leigh Bardugo
Give this ifthey like their academia with ghosts
A young woman who can see ghosts is admitted to Yale to monitor its secret societies and their occult rituals. Dark, violent and very atmospheric.
One caveat: Contains sexual violence and drug use.
- Print length
- 480 pages
- First published
- 2019
- Formats
- print, Kindle and audio where the publisher offers them
5. Adds magic and politics
Babel
R. F. Kuang
Give this ifthey want an Oxford novel with an argument
An orphan from Canton is brought to Oxford to study translation, which in this world powers the magic of the British Empire. Dark academia with a sharp critique of colonialism.
- Print length
- 569 pages
- First published
- 2022
- Formats
- print, Kindle and audio where the publisher offers them
6. Adds rivals and magic
The Atlas Six
Olivie Blake
Give this ifthey want a clique competing for a prize
Six young magicians are recruited to a secret society, knowing that not all of them will be initiated. All rivalry, secrets and shifting alliances.
- Print length
- 397 pages
- First published
- 2020
- Formats
- print, Kindle and audio where the publisher offers them
7. The satire
Bunny
Mona Awad
Give this ifthey want something strange and darkly funny
A scholarship student in an elite writing program is drawn into a clique of rich young women who call each other Bunny. Surreal, funny and increasingly horrifying.
- Print length
- 320 pages
- First published
- 2019
- Formats
- print, Kindle and audio where the publisher offers them
8. Matches the crime
The It Girl
Ruth Ware
Give this ifthey want the murder mystery more than the mood
Ten years after her best friend was murdered at Oxford, a woman begins to doubt that the man convicted was really the killer. A more conventional thriller, with the college setting intact.
- Print length
- 352 pages
- First published
- 2022
- Formats
- print, Kindle and audio where the publisher offers them
What dark academia means
Dark academia is the shelf The Secret History created: an elite school, a small group of brilliant students, an obsession with beauty or knowledge, and a crime that exposes what that obsession costs. The best books keep all four; the weakest keep only the setting.
The label has since expanded into fantasy — schools of magic with the same moral darkness — which is where Babel, The Atlas Six and Ninth House belong.
Where this fits
The best thrillers of all time includes The Secret History itself, literary fiction for beginners has more books with prose and plot together, and books for college students is the obvious gift shelf for this genre. Several of these are also excellent in audio, and the subscription panel on this page explains who that suits.
Two ways to read this list for less
If several books here appeal, a subscription usually beats buying them one at a time — but only for the right kind of reader. Here is who each one actually suits.
Audible Premium Plus
For anyone whose hands are busy
Driving, walking, cooking, cleaning. It converts hours that were never available for reading, which is a bigger effect than any discount. Books bought with a credit stay yours after you cancel — titles from the included catalog do not, and confusing the two is the most common complaint about the service.
See Audible plans and current pricingHow Audible actually works — credits, gifting and what happens when you cancel.
Kindle Unlimited
For fast readers who browse
It pays off from about three ebooks a month, in the genres the catalog covers well — romance, romantasy, cozy mystery, thriller, progression fantasy. It does not pay off if you are waiting on a specific new hardcover, because those are usually not included. Everything is borrowed, not owned.
See Kindle Unlimited terms and pricingIs Kindle Unlimited worth it? — the arithmetic, done on your own reading.
#ad — how we are funded. We print no subscription prices anywhere on this site, because they change and a stale figure sends you to a checkout expecting something that is not there. And if you read in silence in a chair, neither of these is for you — buy the book, or borrow it from your library.
What we would skip
Aesthetic lists with no crime in them
Online, dark academia is often an aesthetic — tweed, candles, libraries — and many books sold under the label are campus novels with a mood and nothing more. A Secret History reader usually wants the moral rot underneath. Every book on this list has some; check before buying a pretty cover that promises more than it delivers.
Questions people ask
What should I read after The Secret History?
If We Were Villains is the closest match. Brideshead Revisited is the classic with the same longing, and Ninth House adds the occult.
What is dark academia?
Fiction about elite schools, small cliques of brilliant students and the crimes their obsessions lead to. The Secret History defined it.
Are there dark academia books with magic?
Babel, The Atlas Six and Ninth House all set dark academia in a world of magic.
Should I read Donna Tartt's other books?
The Goldfinch is her other major novel, longer and less of a thriller. Our books like A Little Life page includes it.
Sources
- Open Library Search API — First publication year, median print length and cover art for every book on this page. Queried 8 September 2026.
- Audible Premium Plus membership page — The only authoritative source for current Audible plans, prices and terms.
Read next
- What to Read Next
Read-alike lists that name the element they match, plus the how-to-choose framework.
- Best Thriller Books of All Time
Eight thrillers ranked by what they invented, not by what they sold.
- Books Like A Little Life
Eight devastating novels for a reader who loved A Little Life, with content notes on every pick.
- Best Books for College Students
Seven books for someone already buried in assigned reading, with nothing improving on the list.
- Best Literary Fiction Books
Ten literary novels with what each is offering stated plainly, and no pretence about the label.