Episode 13.2: ‘When We Were Monsters’ by Jennifer Niven

PodcastThe Dark AcademicalsDark Academia

Jul 21

Jennifer Niven is a huge name in YA, most known for ‘All the Bright Places’ which was released in 2015 and neither of us had read her since then.

As soon as we saw a 2025 dark academia release from her that was compared itself to ‘The Secret History’ we had to revisit this author of the golden age of YA.

Eight students walk into an exclusive writers’ retreat, but only one will walk out with a life-changing opportunity to realise their creative dreams.

Effy is piecing together a story about the tragic betrayal that led to her mother’s death. Arlo hopes to publish a novel – but he’s also trying to start a new chapter with Effy after he broke her heart and ghosted her three years earlier.

Their mentor is Meredith Graffam, enigmatic writer, director and actress, whose compelling accounts of her own near-death experience on the same retreat decades before continue to spark controversy.

But this celebrated teacher is not all she seems, and her students gradually realize they are fighting for something much more primal than academic advantage. As Graffam’s unorthodox teaching methods push them past breaking point, they reveal their darkest secrets, take unthinkable risks and slowly start to turn on one another. But Graffam never expected they would turn on her . . .

We’re so intrigued to see the comparison plays out and what it’s like reading Jennifer Niven ten years later.

In this episode we discuss:

The jarring name of the school, Brighton and Hove, when Brighton and Hove is a famous British city
The way that multiple POVs affect the dark academia vibe
How ‘When We Were Monsters’ acts as a YA entry point for dark academia