As someone who has recently semi-retired from a career in education, I must admit that the first term of the school year, from September to Christmas, holds a certain degree of nostalgic charm for me. As the nights begin to get darker earlier and the Summer turns to Winter, my own thoughts remind me of both unlimited opportunities and longer nights of reading, with a good cup of tea close by.
It seems that I’m not the only one to think so. These seasonal changes are for me a sign that another year is nearly over, unless you are a university or college student. There the academic year is a new beginning. For many leaving to go to college and university it is a time of excitement, something both thrilling and even a little scary.
In These Hallowed Halls taps into this nicely. ‘Dark academia’ has now become a genre reference, conjuring up ideas of higher education, the arts, and literature, scholarly learning with a touch of dark secrets, darkened libraries and ancient places of learning. As you might expect in an anthology of Dark Academia, all of this is noted, and what we have is an diverse range of stories here. There are stories set in the past (well, the 1980’s), the present and even the future, dealing with learning of all sorts from ancient arcane knowledge to future AI data.
But most of all it is about the relationships between the characters involved. Quite often here the stories are about the friends and enemies created in these hotbeds of learning. Many of the tales deal with relationships between mentors and students, professors and scholars, students and graduates.
I must admit that generally often none of these groups come off too well. There are teachers cheating with students, students cheating on other students, one story where the students fail to disclose that their mentor has died in order to gain profitably from the situation, all of which emphasise that dark element to the plots. At the same time, I appreciated the point that there’s often a joy of studying, of being able to research, of the excitement caused by the possibilities of discovering things unknown to counterbalance this darkness. University can be fun and exciting, and this too is part of the setting.
Particular favourites for me were The Hare and the Hound by Kelly Andrews, a story that had elements of folk horror entwined with in it, J. T. Ellison’s X House gave me a contemporary update to the frat houses seen in movies such as Animal House, Helen Grant’s The Professor of Ontology, which was a contemporary take on “What’s behind the door?”, Four Funerals by David Bell reminded me that there are many victims in a school shooting, M. L. Rio’s Weekend at Berties rather made me think of Alfred Hitchcock’s stories in its murder-mystery setting, Tori Bovalino’s Phobos was a strong story of secret societies whilst Phoebe Whynne’s Playing finished the collection off strongly with a story with a certain nod to Robert Bloch.
There were none I disliked, but oddly Pythia by current hot-property Olivie Blake, who may be one of the main draws to this collection, was the story I liked least. It didn’t quite work for me, although I liked what it was trying to do. I’m sure others may disagree!
In short, In These Hallowed Halls delivers an eclectic range of stories from many of the newest and brightest genre writers. It is a book ideal for settling down with on a colder Autumnal night, or indeed dipping into as you start that new educational journey. (Cup of tea optional!) If you are a fan already , I think you’ll love it, or if you’re looking for somewhere to start, to try the subgenre, I can think of nowhere better at the moment.
IN THESE HALLOWED HALLS
Anthology edited by Marie O’ Regan and Paul Kane
Published by Titan Books, October 2023
ISBN: 978 180 3363 608
400 pages
Review by Mark Yon
