Back to School with Books
Back to School
Sometimes this phrase conjures up all sorts of bad memories but schools in books are something else entirely! Dark Academia is a particularly good literary setting to get immersed in as the nights grow darker. But there’s plenty of stories set in all manner of schools and school activities- haunted grounds, mean girls in halls and…no please no…PE lessons.
You wouldn’t want to go to any of the following in real life but in a book, BOY are they some of the best days of your (reading) life:
Exclusive boarding schools, dark corridors, mean girls….bring it on!
These Mortal Bodies by Elspeth Wilson
Exclusive boarding school
Girl arrives and feels out of place
Everyone else seems to come from money apart from her
The hallowed halls within and the bodies of water outside have secrets to share….
Nightshade by Autumn Woods
Another exclusive school for you – Sorrowsong University this time which only welcomes students from the most powerful families. Ophelia Winters doesn’t belong, but a rare scholarship grants her the perfect opportunity to investigate her parents’ “accidental” death near the castle grounds. Now what could THAT mean..And when the author name is as apt as this one, you’ve got to read it!
Back to school from a teacher perspective now:
A Match to Remember by Helen Hawkins
Now, memories of traumatic PE lessons aside, this spins the trope of troublesome school days on its head. A teacher and a football tournament plus a generous dose of romance. Might even be enough to banish memories of having to do PE in your pants if you forgot your kit. Oh , just me then?
From sport to murder 😉 and this time we head back to a school just for girls (why is it always girls schools where trouble happens 😉
You can go here to learn how to commit murder it would seem. Not really but..
A Schooling in Murder by Andrew Taylor
A teacher disappeared or so they say. turns out she died and is haunting the grounds….and the dead can see things that people at the school thought well dead and buried….
The Reunion by MJ Arlidge and Steph Broadribb
If school days are the best of our lives, then what about a reunion? One that ends memorably….in this case, maybe not. If you have ever wanted to kill someone at school though, you might well sympathise with the characters in this book:
A teenage girl’s remains have been found on the grounds….
So, best days of your life? In books – definately – the books above are some of the most unsual and unique revisits to schools you will ever read about.
Oh listen, the bell has rung…go to the bookstore!
Other books set in schools –
