Should You Read the Dark Academia Novel Set in St Andrews?

Last year marked the arrival of a new ‘dark academia’ novel set in St Andrews: When We Were Killers by C. F. Barrington. The novel found a home in bookshop window displays for months, and was even named Waterstones’ Scottish Book of the Month in May 2025. When We Were Killers certainly received a positive marketing push, but is it actually worth your time?

Window display in Topping and Company, (January 2026)

The novel’s protagonist is Finn Nethercott, an ‘outcast’ first-year at the University of St Andrews. He soon finds himself drawn into a new friend group, whose night-time rituals pull Finn into a dangerous world of secrets and obsession. This already feels familiar: an outcast protagonist, an ‘elite’ educational institution and a group of enigmatic friends. Although these tropes can be found scattered throughout literary history, it was only in recent years that the term ‘dark academia’ was coined for this subgenre.

‘Dark academia’ is defined in the Collins Dictionary as ‘a social media aesthetic and subculture concerned with higher education, writing and poetry, the arts, and classic Greek and Gothic architecture.’ The trend has gained traction in the last few years when the internet developed an obsession with categorising and labelling different aesthetics, fuelled by the popularity of microtrends and niche ‘-core’ aesthetics on TikTok. Dark academia provided an outlet for individuals to romanticise higher education, particularly for young people craving escapism during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The trend sparked a renewed interest in pre-existing media, such as the novel The Secret History by Donna Tartt. Published in 1992, the novel is widely credited as the ‘blueprint’ for the dark academia subgenre, and its influence on subsequent works is noticeable. 

Dark academia has become a lucrative subgenre that seems to promise a certain level of success for anyone who pursues it. As the latest addition to this popular fiction subgenre, I was curious to see whether When We Were Killers  would cover new ground or stick to the safety net established by its predecessors.

‘Dark academia’ search result on Pinterest

First, let’s start with the reasons why you might want to read this book.

1 - The University of St Andrews setting

St Andrews makes a great setting for a novel, with numerous films and TV shows filmed here in the past. It seems like it was only a matter of time before someone used the town for a ‘dark academia’ story,  fitting the requirements in numerous areas. An old and prestigious academic institution, beautiful historic architecture, wealthy students from ‘elite’ backgrounds, long-established traditions and ‘secret’ societies, and a relatively small and isolated location. St Andrews provides an apt setting for this story, adding a unique and novel element of familiarity to the book that can be appreciated by anyone with a connection to the university. 

2 - It stays true to the ‘dark academia’ genre

This book has all the ingredients that fans of the dark academia aesthetic enjoy. The setting, characters, and plotline check all the boxes to satisfy readers of this genre, while still retaining certain ‘unique’ elements such as the information about Scotland’s history and folklore, and the characters’ fascination with Viking Berserkers. The novel can certainly be enjoyed by anyone looking for escapism in the form of ‘dark academia’ media.

3 - It gets a lot of things right

From Finn’s disappointment at the less-than-attractive appearance of the main library to the student traditions such as Raisin, Barrington gets quite a lot right about both the town and the university. This creates an enjoyable reading experience for current students or alumni, or even for those who are more tentatively familiar with St Andrews. The references to familiar street names, cafes, and university traditions provide familiar signposts within the story. 

However, the book also falls short in a couple of ways:

1 - The characters are unlikeable and forgettable.

While I enjoy reading about unlikeable characters when it feels intentional and serves a purpose, I didn’t feel this was the case with Barrington’s characters. Finn is the typical angsty orphaned protagonist who sees himself as an outsider. The friend group he joins call themselves a ‘clan’, and consists of Hope, Madrigal, Magnus, and Laurie. Considering their supposed importance, we don’t actually spend a huge amount of time with these characters throughout the novel. When we do, Barrington fails to flesh them out, and they end up feeling like cardboard cut-outs: bland, forgettable, and mainly characterised by overdone tropes. Laurie is practically irrelevant, Madrigal is rebelling against her family, Magnus is the leader of the group and a Henry Winter knock-off, and Hope is, of course, the mysterious and aloof object of Finn’s desires. Barrington’s characters feel like copy-and-paste rather than believable people for the reader to feel invested in. 

2 - The book is a pale imitation of another, better novel.

Finally, moving on to the elephant in the room. Any novel that describes itself as ‘dark academia’ will inevitably draw comparisons between itself and the kingpin of the genre, Donna Tartt’s 1992 novel The Secret History. When We Were Killers doesn’t shy away from this comparison; the front cover features a quote from Ian Rankin describing the novel as ‘Saltburn meets The Secret History’. On the back cover, J. S. Monroe tells you to ‘think The Secret History on acid.’ 

On the one hand, piggybacking off another book’s success feels like a lazy marketing tactic. However, it's common because it works. The comparison certainly contributed to my initial interest in the book, and I’m sure the same can be said for others who were drawn to it. However, just because this comparison to The Secret History helped lure an audience to the book, it wasn’t necessarily helpful once they started reading. Not only did this encourage the reader to make a comparison which was unlikely to favour Barrington’s novel, but it also highlighted the aspects of the novel which were a little too similar to Donna Tartt’s.  Certainly, as I read the book during Christmas break, I couldn’t help but feel wistful for the Christmas a few years ago when I read The Secret History.

The basic structure of When We Were Killers is overwhelmingly similar to that of The Secret History. Tartt’s novel famously opens ‘The snow in the mountains was melting and Bunny had been dead for several weeks before we came to understand the gravity of our situation.’ The protagonist, Richard Papen, is reflecting years later upon the situation that led his friend group to murder. The book is an inverted detective story in which the crime is revealed immediately to the reader and we are encouraged to root for the culprits as they attempt to get away with it. Meanwhile, When We Were Killers begins by revealing that the protagonist, Finn Nethercott, was part of a group involved in a cliff-related death. Finn reflects decades later on his arrival at university and the events leading up to the prologue. Barrington’s structure not only feels a little too similar to Tartt’s, but it also contributes to pacing issues within the novel. Finn is not an interesting enough character for his dramatic musings to be particularly captivating, and the transitions between present-day Finn and his recollections felt quite bumpy. In order to contribute to the impression of the ‘clan’ being a mysterious and elusive group, Finn goes for long periods of time without seeing them. However, this ends up making the in-between stages feel like filler episodes rather than moving the narrative forwards. For a book that was 417 pages long, it dragged at several points and could easily have been cut down by a hundred or so pages. 

I felt Barrington could have tried a little harder to differentiate his novel from The Secret History. His work felt to me like a pale imitation of Donna Tartt’s. The novelty of the setting is undeniable and I’m sure some people would enjoy the book. But overall, I would encourage those looking to read a brilliant ‘dark academia’ novel to simply read The Secret History instead.