Books › The Austere Academy › Books like it
If you loved
Books like The Austere Academy
A delightfully dreary boarding school romp where the adults are useless, the rules are absurd, and the children are brilliant. These 12 books are the closest matches in mood, pace and themes, with what each one shares with The Austere Academy.
- gloomy
- claustrophobic
- delightfully morbid
- institutional
- 01
The Bad Beginning
Lemony Snicket
A delightfully dreary romp where clever children must rely entirely on themselves to survive the sheer incompetence of the adult world.
- 02
The Hostile Hospital
Lemony Snicket
A darkly comedic, vocabulary-expanding descent into bureaucratic absurdity and medical terror.
- 03
The Mysterious Benedict Society (The Mysterious Benedict Society #1)
Trenton Lee Stewart
A cozy, puzzle-filled adventure that feels like a warm hug for the smart, lonely kid in everyone.
- 04
Truly Devious
Maureen Johnson
A chilly, atmospheric puzzle-box of a mystery where true crime obsession meets eccentric boarding school secrets.
- 05
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
Ransom Riggs
A hauntingly atmospheric journey into a fog-drenched world where eerie vintage photographs hold the keys to a dark, magical reality.
- 06
The Worst Witch (The Worst Witch #1)
Jill Murphy
A cozy, chaotic romp through a magical boarding school where good intentions and spectacular mistakes go hand in hand.
- 07
Arsenic For Tea
Robin Stevens
A delightfully sharp, Golden Age-style country house mystery where the greatest danger might just be growing up and seeing adults for who they really are.
- 08
The Shrinking of Treehorn
Heidi, Florence Parry · 1989
A delightfully deadpan fable about the surreal absurdity of being a child in a world run by profoundly oblivious adults.
- 09
Skulduggery Pleasant
Derek Landy · 2007
A razor-sharp, banter-filled plunge into a shadowy magical underworld alongside a walking, talking, fire-throwing skeleton.
- 10
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
Judith Viorst · 1972
A delightfully melodramatic and deeply validating romp through the escalating indignities of a day where absolutely nothing goes right.
- 11
Awful Auntie
David Walliams
A delightfully macabre and zany romp where a plucky underdog outwits a monstrously wicked relative.
- 12
Etiquette & espionage (Finishing School #1)
Gail Carriger
A delightfully cheeky romp where corsets, curtsies, and poisoned tea are the ultimate weapons of choice.
