I wasn’t a rich kid, I didn’t go to a private school, certainly not one like the fictional Belmont Academy. For Your Own Good is no exception, and that was a deliberate choice I made when writing it. Many Dark Academia books take place at private schools, where the students are wealthy and privileged. It grounds the book in a familiar place, because from there the story usually gets pretty crazy. All of my books take place in a mundane, everyday setting, from the suburbs to a high school. I write thrillers, and most people (hopefully!) can’t relate to murder or psychopaths or the betrayals…but the setting is something different. Dark Academia books always have an element of the familiar, something we can relate to. The cliques, the popular kids, the outcasts…we’ve seen it. Our experiences might be good, bad, or horrific, but school is one thing the majority of people have in common. We may not go to private schools or expensive universities, but we all go to high school. So what do we love about these books? I don’t know, but I have a few theories. Recently there’s been an explosion of Dark Academia books, including The Maidens by Alex Michaelides, Bad Habits by Amy Gentry, and Kill All Your Darlings by David Bell.
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