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Riot Recommendation

25+ Fantasy Stories Set at Prep School

Kelly Jensen

Editor

Kelly is a former librarian and a long-time blogger at STACKED. She's the editor/author of (DON'T) CALL ME CRAZY: 33 VOICES START THE CONVERSATION ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH and the editor/author of HERE WE ARE: FEMINISM FOR THE REAL WORLD. Her next book, BODY TALK, will publish in Fall 2020. Follow her on Instagram @heykellyjensen.

mortal danger coverThis installment of the Riot Recommendation is sponsored by Mortal Danger by Ann Aguirre.

Revenge is a dish best served cold.

Edie Kramer has a score to settle with the beautiful people at Blackbriar Academy. Their cruelty drove her to the brink of despair, and four months ago, she couldn’t imagine being strong enough to face her senior year. But thanks to a Faustian compact with the enigmatic Kian, she has the power to make the bullies pay. She’s not supposed to think about Kian once the deal is done, but devastating pain burns behind his unearthly beauty, and he’s impossible to forget.

In one short summer, her entire life changes and she sweeps through Blackbriar, prepped to take the beautiful people down from the inside. A whisper here, a look there, and suddenly . . . bad things are happening. It’s a head rush, seeing her tormentors get what they deserve, but things that seem too good to be true usually are, and soon, the pranks and payback turn from delicious to deadly. Edie is alone in a world teeming with secrets and fiends lurking in the shadows. In this murky morass of devil’s bargains, she isn’t sure who—or what—she can trust. Not even her own mind.

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We asked for your favorite fantasy novels set at prep school, and you answered the call. Many of these are series titles, so while there are 25 named here, this list contains plenty more titles than it may look like. Get ready to get reading:

 

The Gemma Doyle series by Libba Bray

The Chalet School series by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer

The Black Magician Trilogy by Trudi Canavan

The Finishing School series by Gail Carriger

The House of Night series by P. C. Cast and Kristin Cast

The School for Good and Evil series by Soman Chainani

Malory Towers series by Pamela Cox

The Magicians trilogy by Lev Grossman

Hex Hall series by Rachel Hawkins

Never Let Me Go by Kazou Ishiguro

The Shades of London series by Maureen Johnson

Fallen by Lauren Kate

The Moth Diaries by Rachel Klein

The Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead

The Another series (Another Faust, Another Pan, and Another Jekyll & Hyde) by Daniel and Dina Nayeri

Sabriel by Garth Nix

Only Ever Yours by Louise O’ Neill

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

The Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling

Strange Sweet Song by Adi Rule

A College of Magics by Caroline Stevermer

Among Others by Jo Walton

Orphans of Chaos by John C. Wright

Year of the Griffin by Diana Wynne Jones

Wizard’s Hall by Jane Yolen