i am haunted by humans

2015: "Close the borders!"

2016: "Close the borders!"

2017: "Close the borders!"

2018: "Close the borders!"

2019: "Close the borders!"

2015: "Close the borders!"

2016: "Close the borders!"

2017: "Close the borders!"

2018: "Close the borders!"

2019: "Close the borders!"

sometimes richard imagined his life without ever changing university and leaving california.

In honour of my favourite genre, have a very personal, very subjective recommendations list!

-        The Secret History (Donna Tartt)

The obvious choice, a classic. In my personal opinion, it’s not perfect and there are better dark academia books out there, but it has massively shaped the genre and therefore deserves recognition. Also, the aesthetic is on point! Read if you want to get a feel for the genre or if you’re simply curious.

-        If We Were Villains (M. L. Rio)

Basically a newer, better The Secret History?? Plenty of similarities, minus certain problematic bits that were present in TSH. Amazing prose, incredible characters, absolutely worth the read. A prime example of dark academia! Read if you love Shakespeare and college settings and compelling characters and drama and just beautiful writing!

-        Black Chalk (Christopher J. Yates)

Also a fairly good example of the genre, but tragically underhyped. Darker than, for example, If We Were Villains. Set at Oxford! Will mess with your head. The characters are not necessarily likeable, but interesting. The writing is fairly complex. Read for a dark academia thriller which takes the unreliable narrator to an impressive new extreme (in a good way!)

-        Truly Devious (Maureen Johnson)

A rare YA dark academia book! Read for murder and mystery and a beautiful boarding school setting as well as a really likeable main character! Due to its nature less dark and somewhat less mature than most of the other books on this list, but if you’re looking for more of a quick and fun dark academia read, this is the one for you!

In a similar vain: The Vanishing Stair (Maureen Johnson)

Cannot actually vouch for this as I haven’t read it yet, but it’s the sequel to Truly Devious and I have heard good things.

-        The Secret Place (Tana French)

MASSIVELY underappreciated dark academia with (gasp) supernatural elements?! The most beautiful prose and funniest dialogue you will ever see. Incredible characters. Again, amazing boarding school setting and close group of female friends! (They will break your heart). Also murder. Also half of the story being told from a detective’s PoV. Read if you value good literature. Just. Read it.

-        The Likeness (Tana French)

Actually, maybe I was kidding before, maybe this book is the most underappreciated dark academia book out there? Either way, it’s my favourite. Within dark academia and within ALL OF THE BOOKS. This is it. The perfect novel. Characters that own my hearts to this day. Writing so beautiful that it had me sobbing uncontrollably on several occasions. The university it is set in is Trinity College Dublin. (Cue me being bitter that I don’t go there every single day for the rest of my life.) Very intriguing mystery, too. Hilarious dialogue. All the emotions. All the heartbreak. Just… I love it so much, okay? <3

-        The Lying Game (Ruth Ware)

Good, very good. Set in a boarding school near the ocean, but unfortunately, only the past tense story line is and we don’t get to see too much of it. Very interesting characters. Much heavier on the dark than the academia. Read if you’re looking for more of a classic murder mystery/thriller and are not too focussed on the academia. Also read for an interesting group of female friends.

-        The Basic Eight (Daniel Handler)

Very promising, but wasn’t my cup of tea at all. The setting is an American High School on the West Coast. The murder isn’t that much of a mystery. I’m mentioning it here because I know that other people love this book, even though I really didn’t. I would say don’t read, but see for yourself, I suppose.

-        The Lessons (Naomi Alderman)

Yes, okay, an interesting one. Set at Oxford, which was amazing. Interesting characters with interesting dynamics. I read it quickly and was quite entertained. But there were certain problematic bits (regarding LGBTQ+ representation and mental illness), so you’ve been warned. Not my fave, but I mostly enjoyed it while reading it.

There are a few more dark academia books on my shelves, which I unfortunately cannot include on this list, as I haven’t read them yet. One of them is “The Lake of Dead Languages” by Carol Goodman. Another is “Brideshead Revisited” by Evelyn Waugh. Might edit this post later to add these and more. xx

UPDATE!! (With slightly longer descriptions this time, because people are actually reading this? Reblogging even? Wow!) 

-        The Lake of Dead Languages (Carol Goodman)

THE ALL-FEMALE DARK ACADEMIA NOVEL WE ALL NEED AND DESERVE…?? The setting is A++. An all-female boarding school in the Adirondack Mountains in New York! There is a lake that features so heavily in the story, it basically counts as a main character. Told from the PoV of a teacher who used to go to the school. There are two close groups of female friends, one in the present timeline, one in the past. Both have dark, dark secrets and both fit the dark academia genre so well! Also, heavy focus on Latin rather than Ancient Greek, which I have all the love for. This one is a gem, so give it a chance!

-        Brideshead Revisited (Evelyn Waugh)

An actual classic, as in… first published in 1945. And it reads like it. The beginning came with beautiful vibes! Our young boy Charles starting his time at Oxford, meeting a lot of pretentious people, including one Lord Sebastian Flyte, who Charles is suspiciously fascinated by. Sebastian is the biggest dork to ever dork, carries around with him an actual teddy bear named Aloysius, the absolute madmen?? But it’s all downhill from there, with alcoholism and war and depressing times… And Oxford only really features in the first half or less.

-        People Like Us (Dana Mele)

Another rare YA dark academia!! Features a group of Mean Girls who one day, when out at night to go swimming, find one of their classmates floating dead in the lake. Which is an excellent dark academia set-up, let’s be honest. Also, sapphic girls, incredible sapphic girls with really complex relationships! Bi main character! A fun and quick read, much like “Truly Devious”. More descriptions of the beautiful boarding school buildings would have been welcome, but at least we got a few! Anyway, go forth and enjoy this little beauty.

-        Party Girls Die in Pearls (Plum Sykes)

Umm… I barely even comprehend this book’s existence? Has a prime dark academia set-up with a murdered girl in Oxford, but I still somehow DNF’d it after about 20 pages?! The main character’s name is Ursula Flowerbutton, and if you think that’s quirky and funny… good for you, you might actually enjoy this book. But you’ll also have to endure descriptions of clothes, oh, so many descriptions of clothes! And for anything unique to Oxford that might make the book fun because only those who know will know… you’ll get a footnote. So actually, everyone will know, with zero effort. Definitely not for me, but if you want to read a glossy magazine style dark academia, knock yourself out, friend!

-        The Night Climbers (Ivo Stourton)

Breath-taking! A piece of beauty! Set at Cambridge (and the campus features heavily!), a main character reminiscent of Richard Papen, an intriguing group of new friends that he would do anything to belong with. Including… climbing the buildings of Cambridge at night? Without proper equipment, just with his hands and feet?? Honestly, out of the books on this list, this one is the closest in style and maturity and characterisation to The Secret History! The writing is absolutely gorgeous, the plot fascinating. And it’s dark academia that features a non-violent crime, which works surprisingly well. All in all: A STUNNER THAT FANS OF THE SECRET HISTORY SHOULD CHECK OUT!!

-        As I Descended (Robyn Talley)

A queer, sapphic Macbeth retelling?? Also a rare YA dark academia with strong supernatural elements?! The representation is on point, with two hispanic main characters, wlw, mlm and one of the girls in the main couple being disabled! The boarding school setting is also on point (and uniquely different as the school building is actually a former plantation in Virginia). This book is so different and so spooky! It wasn’t perfect and some say the retelling didn’t work 100% (I, personally, felt that the plot slowed down a bit), but the atmosphere is amazing and the characters are pretty cool, too!

Me: *makes three flashcards*

Me: *opens a couple of useful videos and websites*

Me: *lays down*

Okay, I can just make a list of German TV shows with good reviews, haven’t seen a lot of them myself but anyway:

Dark (German Netflix show)

Tatort (some are better than others but it’s just German culture to watch Tatort on Sundays so…)

Türkisch für Anfänger

Stromberg (German “The Office”)

Babylon Berlin (apparently also on Netflix in the US now, idk if anywhere else as well)

Club der roten Bänder

(Before I start please note that I’m not Brazilian, I am Portuguese! Which means, there are things that aren’t as accurate, but don’t worry, it’ll still be correct!)

Brazilians use the “gerúndio” = gerund. The Europeans not as often. 

First Verbs

+ gerund

Be – Ser or Estar ** (sendo – Ele está sendo simpático) / estando

there is – Há/ Existir (havendo/existindo)

have – Ter (tendo)

do – Fazer (fazendo)

go – Ir (I believe the most common verb is vai – Você vai às compras (You are going shopping)

want – Querer (querendo)

can – Conseguir (conseguindo)

need – Necessitar/Precisar (necessitando/precisando)

think – Pensar (pensando)

know – Saber (sabendo)

say – Dizer (dizendo)

like – Gostar (gostando)

speak – Falar (falando)

learn – Aprender (aprendendo)

understand – Perceber/Compreender (percebendo/compreendendo)

Conjunctions

that (as in “I think that…” or “the woman that…”) - que

and - e

or - ou

but - mas

because - porque

though – apesar de

so (meaning “therefore”; e.g. “I wanted it, so I bought it”) – por isso (e.g. “Eu queria, por isso comprei)

if – se

Prepositions

Of – de/do/da – E.g. Correction of the homework – Correção do trabalho de casa. (the difference between the three is: neutral/masculine/feminine)

To - para

From - de

In – em/num/numa (See this ask where a Brazilian explained this)

at (a place) – em (Brasília)

at (a time) – às (15:00) (we use the military time for writing but you can say 3 da tarde – 3 of the afternoon)

with - com

about - sobre

like (meaning “similar to”) - como

for (warning, this one has several meanings that you need to take care of) – para/por

before (also as a conjunction) - antes

after (also as a conjunction) - depois

during – durante

Question Words

Who – Quem?

What – O quê?

Where – Onde?

When – Quando?

Why – Porquê?

How – Como?

how much – Quanto?

Which – Qual?

Adverbs

a lot - muito

a little - pouco

well - bem

badly - mal

only - apenas

also - também

very - muito

too (as in “too tall”) – demasiado (alto)

too much - demais

so (as in “so tall”) – tão (alto)

so much - tanto

more (know how to say “more … than …”) – mais (mais… do que…)

less (know how to say “less … than …”) – menos (menos … do que…)

as … as … (e.g. “as tall as”) – tão … como (tão alto como)

most – maior (parte)

least – menos

better - melhor

best – o/a  melhor

worse - pior

worst – o/a pior

now - agora

then - depois

here - aqui

there - ali

maybe - talvez

always - sempre

usually - normalmente

often – comum/normalmente

sometimes – às vezes

never - nunca

today - hoje

yesterday - ontem

tomorrow - amanhã

soon - brevemente

almost - quase

already – já

still – ainda assim

even - até

enough – suficiente

Adjectives

the, a (technically articles) – o/a ; um/uma

this - isto

that - aquilo

good - bom

bad - mau

all – tudo/todos(plural)

some – algum/alguns(plural)

no - não

any – algum/alguns

many - muitos

few - poucos

most – maior parte

other - outro

same – o mesmo

different - diferente

enough - suficiente

one - um

two - dois

a few – algum/alguns; pouco/poucos

first - primeiro

next – a seguir

last (meaning “past”, e.g. “last Friday”) – último/a

last (meaning “final”) – último/a

easy - fácil

hard - difícil

early - cedo

late - tarde

important - importante

interesting - interessante

fun – divertido/a

boring - aborrecido

beautiful – bonito/a

big - grande

small - pequeno

happy  - feliz

sad - triste

busy – ocupado/a

excited – entusiasmante ­

tired – cansado/a

ready – preparado/a

favourite – preferido/a

new - novo

right (meaning “correct”) – correto/certo

wrong - errado

true – verdade

Pronouns

  Know them in the subject (“I”), direct object (“me”), indirect object (“to me”), and possessive (“my”) forms.

I/me/to me/ my – Eu/ (word)- me/ para mim/ meu ou minha

You/ you/ to you/ yours – Brazilians use the você always unlike the Portuguese – see below                                

She/ her/ to her/ hers – Ela/ (word)-a/ para ela/ dela

He/him/ to him/ his – Ele/ (word) – o/ para ele/ dele

It – Portuguese language doesn’t have this. If you want to refer to animals you treat them like he/she

We/ us/ to us/ ours – Nós/ (word) – nos/ a nós/ nosso/a

you - Você/ (word) – o/a  / para si/ seu à formal form

they/ them/ to them/ theirs – Eles(as) / (word)-os/as / para eles/as / deles/as

Nouns

If your language has grammatical gender, then learn each noun as “the [noun]” with “the” in the correct gender. (e.g. in Spanish, instead of learning language = “idioma”, learn language = “el idioma”.) This will help you remember the gender.

Everything – a tudo

Something – a algo

Nothing – a nada

Everyone – a todos

Someone – a alguém

no one – a ninguém

Portuguese - português

English - Inglês

Thing - coisa

Person - pessoa

Place - sítio

time (as in “a long time”) – tempo (há muito tempo)

time (as in “I did it 3 times”) – vezes (Eu fi-lo 3 vezes) (instead of saying fi-lo you can say fiz isso/isto/aquilo and it’s as correct!)

friend – amigo/a

woman - mulher

man - homem

money - dinheiro

country - país

Portugal - Portugal

City - cidade

Language – a língua

Word – a palavra

Food – a comida

House – a casa

Store – a loja

Office – o escritório

Company – a companhia

Manager – o/a gerente

Co-worker – o/a colega

Job – o emprego

work (as in “I have a lot of work to do”) – o trabalho ( Eu tenho muito trabalho para fazer)

problem – o problema

question – a pergunta

idea – a ideia

life –a  vida

world – o mundo

day – o dia

year – o ano

week – a semana

month – o mês

hour – a hora

mother, father, parent – Mãe, Pai, Pais – you can also refer to Mamãe and Papai

daughter, son, child – Filha, Filho, Criança

wife, husband – Mulher/Esposa , Marido

girlfriend, boyfriend – Namorada, Namorado

More Verbs

work (as in a person working) – trabalhar - trabalhando ( a pessoa está trabalhando)

work (meaning “to function”, e.g. “the TV works”) – funcionar - funcionando (a televisão está funcionando)

see – ver - vendo

use – usar - usando

should – dever – I didn’t forget, I believe they don’t use the gerund but if anyone disagrees please say something on the notes.

believe – acreditar - acreditando

practice – praticar - praticando

seem – parece – same as should/dever

come – vem

leave – sai - saindo

return – volta - voltando

give – dar - dando

take – levar - levando

bring – trazer - trazendo

look for – procurar - procurando

find – encontrar - encontrando

get (meaning “obtain”) – ter or obter - obtendo

receive – receber - recebendo

buy – comprar - comprando

try – tentar - tentando

start – começar - começando

stop (doing something) – para - parando

finish – acabar - acabando

continue – continuar - continuando

wake up – acorda - acordando

get up – levanter - levantando

eat – comer - comendo

eat breakfast (in several languages, this is a verb) – tomar o café da manhã

eat lunch – almoçando

eat dinner – jantando

(bonus if you are having a snack than you say lanchando)

Happen – acontecer - acontecendo

Feel – sentir - sentindo

create (aka “make”) – criar - criando

cause (aka “make”) – causa - causando

meet (meeting someone for the first time) – conhecer - conhecendo

meet (meaning “to bump into”) – encontrar - encontrando

meet (an arranged meeting) – encontrar - encontrando

ask (a question) – questionar - questionando

ask for (aka “request”) - pedindo

wonder – pensar em … I was wondering … – Eu estava pensando em…

reply – responder - respondendo

mean – I mean … - Eu quero dizer

read – ler - lendo

write – escrever - escrevendo

listen – escutar - escutando

hear – ouvir - ouvindo

remember – lembrar - lembrando

forget – esquecer - esquecendo

choose – escolher - escolhendo

decide – decidir - decidindo

be born – nascer - nascendo

die – morrer - morrendo

kill – matar - matando

live – viver - vivendo

stay – ficar - ficando

change – mudar - mudando

help – ajuda - ajudando

send – enviar - enviando

study – estudar - estudando

improve – melhorar - melhorando

hope – espero (also means waiting) E.g. I hope I get the place – Eu espero conseguir o lugar

care – cuidar (I took care of the sick puppy), I don’t care (Eu não quero saber)

Phrases

Hello – Oi  (only use this with friends/family) – informal à more common but they also use the Olá

Goodbye - Adeus

thank you – Obrigado/a (most Portuguese people don’t know BUT if you’re a girl you say obrigadA but if you’re a boy you say obrigadO)

you’re welcome – de nada

excuse me (to get someone’s attention) – Faz favor

sorry – Desculpe

it’s fine (response to an apology) – Não faz mal

please – Por favor or Faz favor

yes - Sim

no - Não

okay - okay

My name is -  (O) meu nome é

What’s your name? –Qual é o seu nome ?

Nice to meet you. – Prazer em conhecê-lo/a à you can also just say Prazer.

How are you? – Como vai?

I’m doing well, how about you? – Estou bem e você?

Sorry? / What? (if you didn’t hear something)- Desculpe?/ O quê?/ Como?

How do you say ______? – Como é que você diz…

What does ______ mean? – O que é que … significa (instead of significa you can also say o que quer dizer)

I don’t understand. – Não percebo

Could you repeat that? – Pode repetir?

Could you speak more slowly, please? – Pode falar mais devagar,  faz favor/ por favor?

Well (as in “well, I think…”) – Bem/ Bom

Really? – A sério?

I guess that – Eu acho que…

It’s hot. (talking about the weather) – está quente/está calor

It’s cold. (talking about the weather) – está frio

————————————————————————————————————- 

** Ser/estar – The difference it’s hard to explain but if you don’t get it right everyone will still understand you! But, ser it’s used for facts/ statements/ etc. – I am inteligent – Eu sou inteligente 

Estar is used for emotions/ feelings/etc – I am happy – Eu estou feliz.

Note: if you see a word and a slash (/) it means you must substitute the given letters because of it’s gender. If you see, for example, divertido/a it means you must substitute the “o” with the “a” when referring to feminine.

Note 2: Accents are important! If you write Pais instead of País you are referring to your parents rather than your country!

If you get something wrong, you can say “Me desculpe, eu sou estrangeiro/a”

you can take a “what’s your vocabulary size?” quiz here. it has:

english, french, german, spanish, portuguese, italian, polish, russian, chinese, dutch, indonesian, japanese