Books Like The Secret History: Groups Who Did Something Together

Dark academia is a mood, but The Secret History is a structure — a closed circle, a shared act, and the long work of continuing to be a circle afterwards.

1. 1. If We Were Villains

   by M. L. Rio

   Shakespeare students, one death, and the same architecture. The most direct readalike.

2. 2. Bunny

   by Mona Awad

   An MFA cohort, deliberately unhinged. For readers who want the strange version.

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   3. The Boy Who Survived With Me On this site

   by Simran Mehta

   A circle of two rather than six — a blood pact made as children and maintained for twenty years.

4. 4. Special Topics in Calamity Physics

   by Marisha Pessl

   A charismatic teacher, a tight group, and a death. Formally playful.

5. 5. We Have Always Lived in the Castle

   by Shirley Jackson

   A household organised entirely around an event nobody names.