 What is it that we're wearing? College in a dorm with cell phones? Excuse me? Double for your money. Oh, your teenagers. Teenagers are so dumb. Real, real happy read. Hey guys, it's Liana and I'm here today with school settings. Oh no, oh no, onto the floor we go. So I know I'm on record as saying that I don't like school settings and that has not changed. That is to say I don't seek out books based on their big setting, which is why I'm making this video because I know a lot of other people do. But generally speaking, when people, like a lot of people will be like, oh school setting, say no more, I'm on board and I'm kind of the opposite. I'm like, um, you need you to sell me on it please because that alone will not do it for me. So I have a list of 10 books today for you, 10 is a nice round number, that have school settings that I like. So if you also are the kind of person who doesn't necessarily automatically go for school settings, maybe these will work for you or not necessarily. Or if you were Tristrash for any school setting, well then this has a school setting. So this should work. I have a combination of adult NYA. There's really no, nothing unifying these books other than the fact that a school is a setting at some point or other in the story. So that's it. I think all the disclaimers and explanations I need to give, let's get into it. First up, I have Vicious by V.E. Schwab. This is a book that took me by surprise, not in a good way the first time that I read it because this is the cover of it that I read the very first time that I read it. And all I knew about it was that there are two powerful individuals who have an immense rivalry that it becomes deadly. And this is the cover. So I got the impression that it would be kind of like their prestige. And so when I started reading it and I was like we're in college in a dorm with cell phones, excuse me. So I was pretty seriously displeased the first time I read it just because like, it was not what I was expecting. And so I just kind of pushed through and I was just like nope. But because I was in the mood for that prestige. And this is not that. But then I read it years later, this time obviously knowing what it was. And I loved it. So Vicious, what is it? It's more, I mean it is magic I guess, supernatural sci-fi, something. I don't know how to classify this but it's the story of two college students, Victor and Eli, and they, because of a college project as well as their own curiosity, they discover a way to unlock latent extraordinary abilities. And in this, in the world of this, the universe of this book, there have been extra ordinaries popping up. And so Victor hypothesizes a way that this is achieved or how this, how it can be tapped into. And then he and Eli said about testing that out and end up unlocking their own extraordinary abilities. And this book plays around with the timeline. So we're not in school the whole time. So as I did say in my intro, these books don't necessarily take place in their entirety at a school. But so we flip back and forth between these young men, how they were friends and became enemies, how they unlocked their extraordinary abilities when they were students, and now later in life, how that rivalry has escalated and become deadly, and how they have used their abilities for various purposes. And we kind of, we flip back and forth, but also not just back and forth. We also, there's a sort of a driving towards zero kind of element where like this all these threads are going to converge at zero hour. And the book is kind of like counting down until we arrive at that point that you know it's driving towards, which I think is a great way to tell the story and makes it feel more like a ticking time bomb. That makes sense. But yeah, there's absolutely a school setting. And I love the sort of dark, very gray morals of the characters because I wouldn't either Victor nor Eli as a hero. But you do end up rooting for certain characters in the story. And I think it's very well written. I mean, once I, now that I know what it is, and go into it expecting that and knowing it, I think it is a really, really excellent book and it's actually one of my favorites now. So I recommend. Next up is a very new addition to my rotation. And that is The Mary Shelley Club by Goldie Moldowski. I literally read this yesterday. I wouldn't say this is like an all time favorite. I definitely think Vicious is a better book. But this is a school setting and it is a school setting the entire time. This takes place at a high school, a very elite high school. And at this high school, there is a Mary Shelley Club. And basically this club, they do elaborate horrific pranks inspired by horror, horror films and the horror genre. And the reason they call themselves Mary Shelley Club is like the way they tell it is they take inspiration from the night on the infamous night on which Mary Shelley came up with Frankenstein when she and Byron and Percy were challenge each other to tell ghost stories, basically. And she came up with the scariest one and she won. So the whole point of this club is to kind of like scare people. However, the club isn't scaring each other, which would be more in keeping with what Mary Shelley and her pals did. They scare random people. And so our main character is new to the school. She's had some traumatic things happen to her. So she's sought horror out the genre out as a mechanism through which to work through her trauma to kind of like get back on that horse, so to speak, where like by forcing herself to encounter horrific things through the horror genre, she can kind of face her fear, so to speak. And so she becomes kind of addicted to the adrenaline rush that horror gives her. That's initially why she sought it out. And then now she's just like into it. So she desperately wants to join the Mary Shelley Club. And then she does join the Mary Shelley Club. And then from there, things kind of escalate and take some dark twists. And it does take a little while to get there. When I first started reading it, I found the beginning a bit choppy, a bit trite, a bit kind of quippy and modern. And it wasn't absolutely my favorite. And I also didn't think that the pranks they were pulling. I mean, obviously, like if I heard about kids doing that in real life, I'd be like, well, that's not very nice. That's a little fucked up. But it wasn't like for a book. It wasn't all that alarming or compelling. But like in the second half, I'd say maybe before, not it's before the halfway point, but it is later on in the book when things start to get darker and things start to really take a twist and multiple twists. And I really found myself turning the page after that. And they very much feel like high school kids, which I appreciated like their attitudes, their emotions and their logic, the way they approach these situations. You're like, oh my god, that's so dumb. Why are you being so dumb? But it wasn't like a why are you so dumb? I hate this book. It was like, oh, your teenagers, teenagers are so dumb. And it's kind of funny because like the way that they behave is kind of a commentary on about it almost kind of like meta textually is commenting on the logic of characters in horror movies, which like these characters as fans of horror themselves comment upon and make fun of, but then they themselves fall into those traps and behave in those same ways where, you know, you run upstairs and hide instead of running out of the house when someone's come to kill you or as an example, like that's like the biggest, I think most notorious cliche of like stupid behavior in horror movies. So stuff like that where I mean they're dumb teenagers, so they as high and mighty as they think they are while they're in this club, they're also dumb teenagers. So I found it to be quite compelling by the end and you know, a bit creepy, a bit chilling, a bit suspenseful. So if you're into that, I recommend. Next up I have Shadow and Bone, predominantly Shadow and Bone, not really the Grisha trilogy because after Shadow and Bone we're not really in a school setting anymore. But Shadow and Bone is the first book in the Grisha trilogy, also the first book in the Grisha verse. This sets it all off Six of Crows, as you should be familiar by now if you followed me for a while is a spin-off duology in the same universe. But Shadow and Bone follows our main character Alina Starkov and she does not believe that she is Grisha, which is in this sort of like fantasy version of Russia, it's a Russian-esque fantasy world. There is the sort of state army, the regular soldier army, which is the first army, and then the Grisha, which are the second army and they are conscripted basically at birth. As soon as you discover that you have these abilities, they send you to the Little Palace where you're going to start training with other Grisha so that you can be the second army. And so our main character Alina Starkov kind of evades detection as a child and then now that she's a young adult, a teenager, her abilities are discovered and now she's taken to the Little Palace to train and to hone her Grisha skills because she has a rare form of Grisha magic. So a lot of the bookshakes plays in the Little Palace where she is learning how to control her powers, she's learning about other people's powers, she's learning about how like the history of Grisha and the history of the second army, and a lot of that kind of thing. If you like a Russian-esque setting, if you like a training school type situation, elemental magic is basically, Grisha magic is basically elemental magic. So if you like elemental magic, how do you recommend the Shadow? Shadow and Bone in particular, but also just the Grisha trilogy. Next up I have the Raven Cycle by Maggie Speedwater. Now I will say that school is more just kind of like a thing that is a fact of life for these characters and not a thing that was really on page all that much. Like the characters in this book, there's like one scene that I remember where they're actually in class. For the most part, like them being students is part of their identity and it gets its name from that fact. Like the Raven Boys, it's called this because these four boys, teenagers, they attend Aglian B Academy, which the like emblem for the school is a Raven. And so the female main character, she kind of refers to everybody who goes to that school as Raven Boys because they have the Raven on their jumper because they attend that school. So she becomes friends with the Raven Boys, she doesn't attend that school because she's poor and she's a girl. So she attends public school, the local public school, and works like in a diner and resents the privilege of the Raven Boys. But she becomes friends with them anyway. But so the fact of them attending that school and what that means for them and paying for tuition there and having that kind of privilege and etc etc, the fact of that is very significant to these books. But actually being in school, doing homework, that kind of thing is not really a thing in these books. And there's definitely times when I was reading these books and I was like, don't you have class or something? Homework? Nothing. So I like the vibe of like, there's something about young people being students that even if you don't see them in class, like it lends a certain tone to everything going on. It's something that kind of, that's why they know each other. There's like the built in like social constraints and social obligations that come with attending a school. It just, it has a certain vibe to it. The fact that they're students, which is present, even though being in class thing is not so much present. And next up I have a book that you may not have heard of at all unless you've seen me talk about it, which is Don of Wonder by Jonathan Renshaw. This is book one of the awakening. We do not have a book two. We do not have any news on a book two. It's just self published. I know that he is working on book two, but I also believe he's had some health issues. So just fair warning, this is the start to a series that is not finished. But Don of Wonder is adult fantasy, as I said, self published. And this follows our main character who is kind of a prodigy but at strategy. He's not like a magical prodigy. It's not like he's overpowered or chosen or anything like that. But he is uncannily good at strategy. And so he ends up through plot events going to a fairly elite military academy. And so a large portion of the book, not the whole thing, because you get a lot of kind of his childhood in the beginning, where before he ever gets discovered. And then the latter half of it, they've left the school setting for a bit. But a large portion of the book takes place at the school setting. And unlike their even boys, they are in class and they are learning. His friends are people at school. And it kind of, for that reason, it does remind me a little bit of the name of the wind. The writing style a bit and also like this young man who's kind of hot headed and attends this school and he's kind of a prodigy, but he's not a magical prodigy like, quote, he's, you know, good strategy. And he definitely has some personal baggage that holds him back. But the parts of being in school are really fantastic. And it's a lot, he gets a lot of different kinds of training, a lot of different kind of classes, you get to know a lot of the different instructors, and the kind of lessons he's learning. Like it doesn't, I feel like a lot of school settings a lot of school type scenes in books, because the author doesn't really have an idea of any specifics about what these people are going to be studying or learning. They'll just kind of gloss over it. That's a lot of the reason why I often don't like school settings is because too often the author will be like, and then we studied this thing and we learned all of the various intricate ways that this is done moving on. And you're like, well, what are those various intricate ways that this is done? Doesn't matter, don't ask questions. We're moving on now to the petty drama occurring in the cafeteria. And you're like, okay, whatever. And down to wonder, you really get to see all of these lessons that he's learning and all of the classes he's taking and all of this knowledge that's being imparted. So I really appreciated and enjoyed that. I also just found a compelling story, a compelling main character, and I really hope that Jonathan Redshaw gets us a book too, because this was really good, and also it ended in a way where I want to know what happens next. So I highly recommend, even though it's unfinished, it is really good. Next up I have The Poppy War by RF Kwong. This is another military academy situation. Now I have not finished this trilogy, but that doesn't matter for the purposes of this video because she leaves the school setting at the end of this book. But so if you haven't heard of this at all, this is a grim dark adult fantasy, very grim dark. Please check out Trigger Warnings if you're at all concerned about that because it is not a light read. But so this takes place in a fantasy kind of, in a fantasy world inspired by China. And the main character, she tests into this, she's kind of poor and from a lower echelon of society, but she tests into this really elite military academy. There is magic in this and she is pretty good at magic, at the kind of magic that she's wielding. But she's very kind of ruthless and part of that is again where she comes from and the fact that she has to be because she doesn't have privilege, she doesn't have money, she has to fight to the nail for whatever she wants and people keep trying to hold her back, either viciously or just you know, because privilege is privilege. But yeah, so a lot of this, it actually also reminded me of the name of the wind, which I wasn't expecting when I first picked this up. And I've talked to a lot of people too and like they agree and all of us were kind of like as we got to the part that reminds us of the name of the wind, we were like, is this reminding me of name of the wind right now? Because if you've written name of the wind, there's sort of an eccentric teacher that kind of demands bizarre things of the main character. And he's kind of like, is this a test to see if I'm worthy of your class? I guess I'll do it. So there's kind of that element to the poppy war where there's kind of this eccentric teacher that Rin kind of is like, final do your crazy things. There's sort of a school bully that really ends up being kind of her nemesis. And there's a lot, I mean, it's not classes in the sense of like, yeah, like it's, I mean, there is book learning, but I mean, it's a lot of learning to fight kind of stuff. So it's more like training, again, more maybe like the Grisha books where I mean, there's another like the Grisha books that don't get me wrong, it's very dark and adult. But again, it's training how to use abilities, training how to fight, training how to do that kind of thing. And not so much like, let's study this ancient text and discern its meaning is like, not so much of that. If you like training, and you like it to be gritty, and you like it to be not just a quick montage of, and then I leveled up over it, then I highly recommend the Pobby War. And I also just generally recommend it is an excellent, excellent adult fantasy book that is again, very, very dark. So do look into the forms of darkness that are contained in this book, because it's not for the faint of heart, which is one of the reasons I haven't gone on with the series yet. I plan to, I'm just every time I think about doing it, I'm just like, not today. Next up, I have Normal People by Sally Rooney. This book is very, very popular, but like not so much on my corner of booktube. And I mean, I think I talked about it. I mean, I must have one in the wrap up when I read it. But I mean, this is not the normal, not the normal kind of thing that I pick up Normal People. I obviously generally read fantasy. This is Litfig. It is very short. And I think incredible. Now, Sally Rooney's writing style is kind of polarizing. One of the reasons it's polarizing is because she doesn't use quotation marks. Now, the way that I avoided dealing with that is by listening to the audiobook, because you can't see if there's quotation marks or not in an audiobook. So if that's something that would bother you, I recommend doing it on audiobook. So this follows two main characters, a young man and a young woman. They, they said this has two school settings because they get to know each other in the beginning because they both attend the same high school, and then they attend the same university. So again, it's double for your money, two school settings. And this takes place, I believe they go, they're in school in Dublin, yeah, Trinity College in Dublin. Again, the audiobook, they have a nice Irish accent, which kind of lends a certain Genesequant to the whole overall feel of it. And it has a lot of, it is a very like bookie book, it's a very literary book, because in addition to itself, like being in school settings and following students, and I mean, she's, I believe, a literature student. Okay, the book Jagger doesn't say they're literature students, but I'm pretty sure that Marianna is a literature student. But so the book itself also, in addition to having the characters discuss literature, it itself is referencing and paying homage to various pieces of literature. So that's why I mean it, that's what I mean by it's a very bookie book. Because like they're the student, the story is about students, the students are talking about books. And then the book itself is referencing other books. So it's just very like, you know, you know what I'm saying? It is also a dark read. It deals with a lot of kind of triggering topics, including abuse, sexual abuse, self harm, suicidal thought, real, real happy read. Nevertheless, I think it is a beautiful read is it handles those topics in a way that is, it is melancholic, but it is, there's something innately true about it. And it's very like getting into the heart of kind of humans. And the characters feel very human. And the connection between Marianna and Connell, who are the friends that we follow throughout this book, is a very messy, complicated, but very human relationship that I guess you'd say you root for it. But it's not in the sense of like, when you watch like a rom-com, you're like, oh, I really root for them. Like, it's really messy. So at times you wonder like, you know, is it even good that they'd be together in any way? Like, is it more harm than good? And yet there is, I would say on balance, more good than harm in there being connected to each other and then being friends. So it is a harrowing tale of humans being human. And I think Sally Rooney tells it really well. And it's again, for such a short book, spanning so many years, I feel like you really do get to know Marianna and Connell, which is impressive, again, in such a short amount of time. So I highly recommend it. Again, the quotation marks thing was not on your book. And again, do check out turn warnings because no new triggers. Next up, I have another triggering book. I'm at its ninth house by Lee Bardugo. This is Lee Bardugo's first foray into adult fiction. This is Dark Academia taking place in Yale. And it is inspired by Lee Bardugo's own experiences at Yale. She did attend. And Yale is notorious for or infamous for its secret societies, which are real. But in ninth house, these secret societies have like necromantic, magical things going on. It's not just that they're secret. They are darkly magical. And so our main character has, I mean, the the darkness of this book comes from things that happen while she's at Yale, but also from her past and her backstory. And that some of the most triggering content is like flashbacks to her past. So it is, it's a lot. It's, I'm not gonna lie, it's a lot. So if that's something that would bother you, if that's something, if you're generally bothered by things, definitely definitely. I mean, honestly, maybe you don't even check out the trigger warning, just like, don't read those because it's a lot. If you're, if you're willing to put yourself through that, I do think it's pretty good. I think it's a slow start. I think, and when I reviewed it originally, I identified some reasons why I think the opening wasn't as strong as it could have been. And it would have been pretty easy to switch things around a little bit to make the opening much more compelling and to really hook the reader, which I don't know why she didn't do that. But once we get past that, once we're kind of like in the flow of things, then I think it's a compelling read and I really enjoy. Enjoy is a weird word to use for a book that's as dark. I thought it was well written and I had, I was immersed and felt that it was a good read. Once we got over the hump of it not opening as strongly as it definitely could have quite easily. Definitely a school setting. Yale, I would consider a school setting and it does basically take place entirely at Yale other than the flashbacks to the main characters past. So if you like dark academia, if you like dark books, if you don't mind just real, real dark shit, and you don't mind pushing through the beginning. I mean, some people I think have picked it up and loved it from page one. Again, I think the beginning could have easily been stronger. But regardless, if you're only trying to push through a little bit of a dull beginning, then I recommend. Next up I have Name of the Wind, which I've already mentioned like 50 times in this video. Name of the Wind is an amazing book that you should just generally read. But it does take place largely at a school, at a university. I have heard people call it like Harry Potter for adults, which I think is not true. It's like boiling things down to like such an absurd essential component. Like yes, a young man is attending a school for magic. That's it. Like that's the only thing about this, that is like Harry Potter. Otherwise it is nothing like Harry Potter. But I mean, if it gets you to pick it up, then I'm all for it. So this does follow a young man who is a prodigy is kind of I guess a Gary stew, but he's also like a kind of a little shit. He's very cocky and blockheaded and stubborn and he gets in his own way and he causes a lot of his own problems. But he is brilliant. He is like so brilliant at the magic stuff. So I mean part of like his legend, which is on the back is that I was expelled from you from the university at a younger age than most people are allowed in. So he is a child prodigy that attends this like elite university for the type of magic in this universe. And he's very good at it. And you do again kind of like what I praised on a wonder for that like you really do get to see his classes and you get to see it's not just the book keeps telling you that he's just really good and you just kind of take it on faith that the author is telling you that they're good at it. So I guess they're good at it. You really see the sort of nuances to how this magic is applied and why it would be difficult to wield by other people and why it is so impressive that Kvoth is able to do what he does. You really get a sense for how this magic is supposed to work and how he's testing its limits and why he's impressing his professors. And you get a sense for the personalities of the professors who some of them are big fans of his and some of them are definitely not. And just like the politics of the school, same thing with the students, some of which become Kvoth's friends, others resent him. Some become his, there's one that becomes his anemesis. He has some best friends. He's also a musician. So like this isn't really so much about a school setting, but I mean he does play music and a lot of nearby taverns. So to me, it's still as reminiscent of a school setting because I think of kind of the pubs that are near Oxford kind of vibe except it's fantasy and he is playing a lute and whatnot. But it kind of reminds me of that. Like it feels very cozy to have taverns near a university where a student from the university is playing for his summer. So definitely lots of school vibes, definitely lots of magic, definitely lots of fall vibes, but for sure a school setting. So, highly recommend. And last but most certainly not least is the book that no list about school settings would be complete without and that is The Secret History by Donna Tartt, which is a very polarizing book. I know a lot of people find the writing style to be too pretentious and too, I guess, slow. I think it's mainly the pretension that people take it she wins. I love it. So if you're gonna be irked by a pretentious writing style, I'm telling you right now don't pick it up. But if you don't mind a book that is self-awarely pretentious, which is why it doesn't bother me, because I really feel like the book is intentionally over-delivering on pretension because it's a commentary on the very characters that the story follows who are themselves extremely pretentious and take themselves seriously much to their, like that is partly the reason for their demise. Might say their demise as though they all died and just not the case. But this does follow a group of classic students at the small university who become obsessive in their studies and obsessive in the way that they want to sort of like emulate what they are studying. You know at the outset they've murdered one of their number and so now you're kind of following to see how that ended up happening and why. So it's not a spoiler, you know that from the get-go. And it is a story just about obsession, about messy humans, about sort of darkness within, about how people can take things too far because of obsession, because of peer pressure, because of their young age, because of undue influence from would-be mentors. It is a work of genius. There's a reason this book has the reputation that it does and it's again not maybe everyone's cup of tea. I get it, if pretentious writing style is just like, irk you to no end, then don't read it. But I personally think, because I have been irked by pretentious writing styles, if I feel like the author isn't even aware of how pretentious they're being, if I'm reading it going you're being pretentious versus this book where I feel like Donna Tartt is like, this needs to be written pretentiously to comment upon the very story that I'm telling. Like it's an intentional use of pretension is how I interpret it and how I read it, which is why it works for me. Also she's better at it. So like people who write pretentiously and are not very good at it, I'm like kind of reminds me of it in stories when people will, like the text is telling you that this character is funny and then the character makes a joke which is not funny. And you're like, well that's awkward because you're just, you're counting on the fact that I agree that that's funny and I don't. So similarly a pretentious writing style that isn't actually intellectual in any way. I'm just like, ooh, oh no. So I feel like she's actually like can walk the walk. So she's being pretentious but it's kind of earned. If you don't mind to dark read, again I would look up trigger warnings because I mean these are students doing dark things to each other but they also obviously they're internal struggles. They're sort of psychological and emotional states are not the healthiest. I mean they murdered one of their friends so if that's going to be triggering for you, obviously I don't recommend you pick it up. But if you don't mind that if you love a school setting, if you love dark academia, this is kind of like the granddaddy of dark academia. This is kind of what started the trend. So if you want to read the grandfather of dark academia, then the secret history is the one. Let me know in the comments down below if you have read any of these books. If you like them, if you agree or disagree with me about my assessment of them. If you like school settings, if you dislike school settings, if you're neutral on school settings, whatever you want to let me know. I post videos on Saturdays, other random times as well, but I think Saturdays so like and subscribe and join my Patreon if you feel so inclined and I'll see you when I see you. Bye.