"Dusk" Academia

Yes, I made it up!

So here I am with Caged in Silver, my debut, coming out in a less than two weeks, and I’m still not 100% sure of its genre. New Adult? Okay, yes, that’s an easy one; the characters are college kids. Romance? Definitely. Fantasy? Almost. Paranormal? Partly. Urban Fantasy? Mostly (it’s rural). Dark Academia? Yes, because my MCs are bookish and it takes place on a college campus. But no, because it’s not really all that dark.

Dark Academia Defined (unofficially)

Dark Academia, to me, evokes gothic vibes. Misty valleys and ancient, rain-soaked stone libraries. Morally gray professors, courses in magic (with the requisite warnings against the dark stuff), forbidden texts, and secret societies. Caged in Silver has some of these elements, but they aren’t as dark they could be. So what else is a writer to do but make up their own genre? Let me introduce you to Dusk Academia.

• Misty valleys? Yes, but not the on-a-desolate-heath kind. Caged in Silver is set in the Blue Ridge mountains, and where there are mountains there are valleys. But no one remarks on their mistiness.

• Stone libraries? Okay, this is an important one. Brownhill College, the fictional school where the story is set, is known for its gothic architecture, and the library is the supreme example. It’s also the favorite meeting place of Leo and Betts and where much of their slow-burn romance develops. Because what’s hotter than bonding over books? Um, nothing. Teaser: the library is even more important, and gothic-ier, in book two.

Photo by Henry Be on Unsplash

• Morally gray professors? I don’t mention a single one, light or dark or anywhere in between.

• Courses in magic? Nope. This is a mundane school. Students take classes like Econ, Psych 101, and Survey of American Literature.

• Dark stuff? Hmm. This is one complicated. In the novel, no one chooses to use dark magic (if such a thing can be clearly delineated) but when characters do use magic or their supernatural abilities, dark things happen. And the characters make some rather morally gray choices—heather gray, though, not charcoal. For instance, there’s a lot of lying. A lot a lot a lot of lying. And a lot of trying to rationalize it away.

• Forbidden texts? Not forbidden, but significant. Pay attention, because the references always point to something about the characters. Look to book 2 for a more classic example of this trope.

• Secret societies: Sort of. Well, now, come to think of it, Betts is pretty determined to keep her old friends from learning about her new ones. I’ll let you take that for what you will.

Dusk Academia Defined (because I can)

So, is that all Dusk Academia is? A near-miss, a failed attempt, a watered-down version of the OG? No. I want to argue it’s a subgenre of its own. Of course I do. It’s stories about intellectuals—scholars, thinkers, readers—and the trouble they can get into when they think too much. When they’re not satisfied with the status quo. Do they make dubious choices along the way? Do they dabble with darkness? Most likely they do, but they’re not going to linger there. And this, I think, is the main difference between dark and dusk. In the former, the delight is in the pursuit of darkness. In the latter, the darkness is a means to an end, a necessary path to the light. That same cleverness that plunges the characters into the abyss will also be their most valuable tool for extracting themselves.

And I’m hoping readers will love watching them fall and rise.

Caged in Silver releases July 14th! It will be available in ebook or paperback or on Kindle Unlimited.