Naomi Novik

Romantasy: the hybrid genre everyone is talking about. Unless you’ve been actively avoiding both social and mainstream media, the trend has crossed your path. And it’s still on the rise: at the time of writing, the hashtag “#romantasy” has over 992 million views on TikTok. Books blending fantastical elements with steamy romance aren’t new, but

While most of us became aware of Dark Academia thanks to TikTok, where the hashtag #darkacademia has over 5 billion views, the aesthetic/subculture found its foothold on Tumblr around 2014. Some trace its origin even further back to 1992, citing Donna Tartt’s The Secret History as the genesis of Dark Academia. So what is the Dark