Books like “Vicious”

What to read after “Vicious” by V. E. Schwab: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.

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1
The Magicians
Lev Grossman · 2009
Similar atmosphere: “Dark Academia”
- Dark Academia
- Found Family
Quentin Coldwater is recruited to a hidden college of magic in upstate New York, where years of study leave him restless and still searching for meaning. When he and his friends find a way into Fillory, the enchanted land from his childhood books, its dangers turn out to be very real.
2
The Atlas Six
Olivie Blake · 2020
Similar atmosphere: “Dark Academia”
- Dark Academia
- Morally Grey Character
Six talented magicians are invited to the Alexandrian Society, a secret fellowship that guards lost knowledge. Only five can be initiated at the end of the year, and the recruits must decide how far they will go to keep their places, and whom they are willing to betray.
3
Vita Nostra
Marina Dyachenko and Sergey Dyachenko · 2007
Similar atmosphere: “Dark Academia”
- Dark Academia
Sasha Samokhina fails her exams and is told to attend a remote institute instead. There the lessons are strange and punishing, and students are asked to do things that break the usual rules of the world. Obedience may unlock a terrifying kind of power.
4
A Deadly Education
Naomi Novik · 2020
Similar atmosphere: “Dark Academia”
- Dark Academia
- Found Family
The Scholomance is a magic school with no teachers, where students learn spells while monsters pick them off between lessons. Galadriel 'El' Higgins, feared for the dark power a prophecy says she will wield, has to survive to graduation and the hungry things waiting in the dark.
5
Ninth House
Leigh Bardugo · 2019
Similar atmosphere: “Dark Academia”
- Dark Academia
- Morally Grey Character
Galaxy Stern, the lone survivor of a brutal murder, is offered a place at Yale by the secret societies that run the university's magic. Her task is to watch their rituals, but when a local girl dies, Alex must use the very power she fears to find the killer.
6
The Secret History
Donna Tartt · 1992
Similar atmosphere: “Dark Academia”
Richard Papen leaves California for an elite Vermont college and is drawn into a tight circle of classics students taught by a charismatic professor. Accepted among them, he becomes part of a murder committed before the story begins, and of the slow unravelling that follows.
7
If We Were Villains
M. L. Rio · 2017
Similar atmosphere: “Dark Academia”
- Dark Academia
- Morally Grey Character
Seven acting students at an elite Shakespeare conservatory are so close they share every role. When one of them is found dead during their final year, the friends must decide what story to tell the police. Ten years later, one of them finally explains what really happened.
8
Prince of Thorns
Mark Lawrence · 2011
Same genre: “Dark fantasy”
Nine-year-old Jorg watched raiders murder his mother and brother. By thirteen he leads a band of killers, and by fifteen he means to take his father's throne. Ruthless and brilliant, he treats cruelty as a tool and will pay any price for the crown he believes is his.
9
Bunny
Mona Awad · 2019
Similar atmosphere: “Dark Academia”
- Dark Academia
Samantha dislikes the saccharine clique in her MFA writing program until she is invited to their private workshop. There the four 'Bunnies' practice a kind of creation that turns fantasy into flesh, and Samantha is drawn into their ritual world until she loses the line between delusion and reality.
10
The Shadows Between Us
Tricia Levenseller · 2020
Similar plot moves: “Villain Protagonist” and “Morally Grey Character”
- Villain Protagonist
- Morally Grey Character
Alessandra will do anything to gain power, including marry the young king and then kill him. The Shadow King, feared and rumoured to have killed his own family, is the perfect target. But court intrigue and unexpected feelings complicate her cold plan, and someone is hunting them both.
11
Six of Crows
Leigh Bardugo · 2015
Same genre: “Dark fantasy”
A street criminal offers six dangerous outcasts a fortune to break into an impregnable fortress and rescue a captive inventor. The heist needs a plan no one has tried before, and none of the crew trusts the others.
12
The Lies of Locke Lamora
Scott Lynch · 2006
Similar plot moves: “Revenge” and “Found Family”
In a city of canals and thieves, Locke Lamora leads a small band of con artists who rob the nobility. A hidden power turns the tables, and the crew find themselves caught in a scheme far larger than any of their own.