Books Set At Boarding School: My Recs

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

At A Glance: literary fiction, coming of age, England setting

Forever one of my favorites and one of those reading experiences that are hard to forget! But, honestly, if you’ve never read this — I really really want you to go into this book with as little information as possible because it really is quite the experience to unravel right alongside the characters.

It’s the story of three friends — Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy — who all grew up together at a mysterious and secluded boarding school in England where they were told they are so special and there are unexplained rules.

It’s told from the perspective of a grown-up Kathy (she’s in early 30’s) and she’s reflecting on their experiences there and just general coming-of-age things but, now that they are older, they are just really starting to understand more about the school and what it all was.

It’s so hard to talk about it to make you want to read it but not give so much away that you don’t get the full experience!

The Broken Girls by Simone St. James

At A Glance: mystery/thriller, dual storylines, troubled girls, spooky, friendship

This book is great for Fall! Like many of Simone St. James’s books, this one is atmospheric and eerie!

There’s two storylines — one in the 1950’s and the other in 2014 and it all centers around Idlewild Hall which is a boarding school for “troubled” girls.

In the 1950’s it centers around a group of four girls who have become very close friends and lean on each other to survive this school — a school where all of them have seen the ghost who is said to roam the grounds. One of them disappears mysteriously without a trace and the remaining girls try to figure out what happened to her.

In 2014, the school has set vacant but is rumored to be reopening by a mysterious benefactor. But for Fiona, a young journalist, that will always be the grounds her sister died twenty years prior — a death that she still doesn’t think the police got right. This news has Fiona deciding to dig into the history of this place as well as the reopening.

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

At A Glance: literary fiction, dark, power imbalance, abuse, #metoo

This was one of the best books I read in 2020 though it was probably one of the toughest reading experiences where I had to put it down A TON just to stay sane.

(TW for grooming)

Definitely a darker read about boarding school life for a 15 year old girl who has an affair with her teacher (who obviously groomed her) and now, as an adult, her reckoning with this time in her life amidst allegations against him from a student.

A snipped from my review: “Raw, unflinching and unapologetic tough read but an incredible nuanced and important one, if you can stomach it, as it so deftly exposes the ways (and ease) in which society allows these things to happen, the complexity of trauma and things like the #metoo movement for victims.”

Definitely not a light and fun boarding school set book but an important one that examines the kind of very real things that can go on.

Every Heart A Doorway by Seanan McGuire

At A Glance: fantasy, portal fantasy, series, murder mystery

I’m so late to the game on this one but happy to finally making my way through this series (which isn’t hard considering they are short from the ones I’ve read so far and are on Kindle Unlimited)!

I love a good portal fantasy and this one centers around a boarding school for kids who have slipped through portals to other worlds and who now, having returned, are having a hard time fitting back in to their ordinary life after everything they’ve seen and experienced and become.

There’s a murder mystery element and, as a kid who curled up with the Narnia books and whose favorite Disney movie was Alice in Wonderland, these have been lovely to dive into. I also saw some Miss Peregrine’s comps and I can see that (though sadly I’ve never finished that series after the first book).

I don’t know what this series was marketed as (YA or adult — I’ve seen it called both) but I think it’s great for any age. I’m putting up here in the adult section because that’s my opinion even though it’s from a teen POV.

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

At A Glance: dark academia, fantasy, deadly challenges, monsters, magic

This one is set at a magical boarding school where El, an outcast and dark sorceress, continues trying to survive during her junior year — from the physical competition type challenges, the student body, the deadly monsters lurking, and her own powers.

The world-building is intense at first but the school and how it works is really different. I mean, this isn’t some nice boarding school experience when you are constantly fighting for your life to live and the rate of survival isn’t good to get out. There’s no adults and there’s no way to leave the school until graduation (where you have to pass the ultimate test).

Loved watching our heroine try to survive and contend with everything she’s up against (especially her own powers and a certain other male student who is the bane of her existence).

The Lake of Dead Languages by Carol Goodman

At A Glance: suspense/mystery, gothic vibes, all girls boarding school, sisterhood

This one is set at the remote Heart Lake School For Girls and centers around a woman named Jane — who attended 20 years ago — who has come back as a teacher.

She left the school back then after a series of terrible campus deaths on the lake — including the suicide of her roommate. But now that she’s back, she’s receiving ominous messages about the past and it look like history is repeating itself with the girls.

I couldn’t stop reading and trying to figure out what was going on at this school with the girls! Very eerie and atmospheric!

Carol Goodman has another book (The Sea of Lost Girls) that is also about a boarding school but I haven’t read that one but have heard good things about.

The Swallows by Lisa Lutz

At A Glance: suspenseful, revenge, female rage, battle of the sexes, dark humor

This one is so hard to talk about!! Truthfully I only read it because, when it came out, it was one of the most polarizing books I had seen in a while on Bookstagram. I was so intrigued by the discourse that I HAD to read it. I had mixed but overall positive feelings about it and I think it’s a really interesting book about boarding school.

If you’ve ever seen red when you hear the phrase “boys will be boys” than this book might be for you as it is pulsing with rightful female rage and revenge.

At this elite boarding school, a gross website run by some of elites at the school is found out by a new female teacher and she starts a bit of a movement amongst the girls — who are sick of the “boys club” culture — that turns into an all out gender war that spins out of control

I loved the multi-POV — some teachers and some students — as they try to unravel things. I especially loved Alex (the new teacher) and Gemma’s perspectives.

It does deal with some quite dark issues and can be quite crude but I thought it was compelling and would make for great discussions. It’s also quite bonkers at times and it makes it an interesting book to recommend.

I Have Some Questions For You by Rebecca Makkai

At A Glance: slow burn literary mystery, coming of age, #metoo, true crime element

I didn’t love this one as much as I loved her book The Great Believers but I really did enjoy this one (made better by Julia Whelen’s audiobook narration probably).

This is not some fast-paced thriller or mystery — definitely more of a slow burn mystery and coming of age drama!

It’s about a woman and popular true-crime podcaster who comes back to the boarding school she attended — and where tragedy struck when she was there — to teach a class and she ends up re-investigating the death of her former roommate after a student focuses on the (rather flimsy) case for a project.

It gets unwieldy at times — in scope and themes as her coming of age experience and the murder case is mixed in with a lot of other issues (violence against women, #metoo movement, institutional racism, etc) — but I thought it was really good!

In the Wild Light by Jeff Zentner

At A Glance: contemporary YA, strong family and friendship elements, fish out of water

It’s so hard to say if The Serpent King or this one is my favorite Jeff Zentner but it doesn’t matter because both of them are two of my favorite YA books EVER!

This book is just incredible and it follows the story of Cash, a boy from a small Appalachian town, who follows his best friend to an elite boarding school after she makes his acceptance into the school the only way she will go.

We see his guilt of leaving his grandparents (who are really his everything besides his bff) and his home but also his desire to join Delaney for this amazing opportunity

Adjusting to boarding school is hard as Cash struggles to feel like a fish out of water at this new school — especially considering his upbringing compared to most at this school. I loved watching Cash learn who he is in this new setting while refuse to lose where he came from.

It’s beautifully written and made me cry SEVERAL TIMES OVER. A beautiful love letter to the people who shape us and HOME.

Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson

At A Glance: murder mystery, true crime, past & present timelines, series

One of my favorite mystery book recommendations for teens!

This one is set in an elite boarding school for the brightest of minds and it’s entirely free! The other unique thing about this school is that shortly after it opened the wife and daughter of its founder were kidnapped and it became a super famous unsolved case.

The main character is a new student at this school — and a true crime fanatic — who is determined to crack this cold case.

In addition the past mystery (and a new case that happens while she’s there), we see a lot of Stevie trying to settle into life as a boarding school student and make friends.

It’s a fast read and part of a series!

Noteworthy by Riley Redgate

At A Glance: performing arts, Pitch Perfect meets She’s The Man, lighter read, self-discovery

This is such a hidden gem and was such a fun read!

I picked it up because my friend Christina said it was very Pitch Perfect meets She’s the Man. It definitely delivered on that but gives even more than just those fun vibes with some interesting discussion on gender roles, sexual identity and more.

It’s set at a performing arts boarding school and features a girl named Jordan who has just yet again been denied a spot in the school musical thanks to her deeper voice: a development that could jeopardize her place at school as well as her college applications.

She decides to find a very different way to stand out for colleges and decides to try out for a spot on the all male acapella group by pretending to be a boy which she makes.

From dealing with normal teen things like crushes to the difficulty of keeping her cover, she certainly has an interesting year and it was fun to watch her come into herself thanks to her alter ego Julian.

You have to kind of suspend disbelief of the logistics of how she could pull this off but I was so drawn into this school, the performing arts world and this quirky & diverse characters.

XOXO by Axie Oh

At A Glance: romance, prestigious arts academy boarding school, K-pop, South Korea

This one is so sweet and light-hearted — would make a great YA beach read! It will sweep you away to a music conservatory boarding school in South Korea!

It’s about a girl who has a great and spontaneous night with a mysterious guy she meets at her work — a guy who gets on a plane to go back home to South Korea the next day and she doesn’t hear from again.

But when she moves to South Korea with her mother and enrolls in a music conservatory boarding school, she comes face-to-face with her mystery guy. But that guy? He happens to be a super popular idol in a K-pop group who isn’t allowed to date.

So sweet — forbidden romance + celebrity trope. And, at the writing of this, currently on Kindle Unlimited.

If You Could See The Sun by Ann Liang

At A Glance: academic rivals to lovers, Beijing, speculative, superpowers, privilege

If You Could See The Sun was so fun — a fun premise and a fantastic YA rivals to lovers romance.

It’s about a teen girl who is a scholarship student at an elite Beijing international boarding school — a place where she often feels out of place and invisible. But one day her invisibility becomes quite literal when she finds she has developed some sort of invisible superpower.

After some bad news concerning her tuition, she decides to team up with academic rival and use her superpower to make money by letting her rich classmates pay for her covert spying abilities.

But when things really escalate from the little scandalous secrets she’s paid to find out, she has to decide what she’s willing to give up for her dreams.

Don’t expect much “why” to the superpower — just go with it and have fun.

Currently free with Kindle Unlimited at the time of writing this.

The Narrow by Kate Alice Marshall

At A Glance: YA paranormal, mystery, ghost story, sapphic romance, friendship

Kate Alice Marshall has surged in popularity due to her adult thriller books (and I enjoy them!) but I will always be a huge fan of her creepy and atmospheric YA books.

Always find myself recommending them when people are looking for good Halloween-esque books for teens. This one is still spooky but maybe less than some of her others.

I don’t want to give away too much but if you are looking for a more spooky boarding school read, check this one out.

It centers around a mysterious river behind the boarding school, a girl who the main character witnessed fall into it and actually survive (something that’s never happened) and the strange things that start happening years later when she gets closer to the girl who fell into the river.

Girls With Sharp Sticks by Suzanne Young

At A Glance: YA dystopian, all girls boarding school, series, patriarchy-smashing

Oh this series is so good (though I need to finish the later books that came out)! If you love a good dystopian book with girls smashing the patriarchy, check out The Girls With Sharp Sticks.

Not your typical boarding school read but it’s such a page-turner as you watch the girls at this all girls boarding school — where they are expected to be perfect and obedient — start to unravel the dark secrets behind their school and take their power back.

The world-building of this boarding school was so good and you really feel transported to this stifling and sterile feeling environment.

Great if you loved The Grace Year or The Handmaid’s Tale — would make a great teen book club book!

This May End Badly by Samantha Markum

At A Glance: YA contemporary, prank war, fake dating, rival boarding schools

After finishing You Wouldn’t Dare (a great YA summer romance), I went back to check this one out and I immediately grabbed it off Libby because it was giving major Frankie Landau Banks vibes with the boarding school setting + pranks!! And I definitely did feel a Frankie-esque story while reading!

This is set at an all-girls boarding school that finds out it is going to merge with their rival all-boys boarding school next year — a school they have a huge pranking war with that has gone on for generations.

The girls put together a plan to prove the two schools absolutely cannot merge and Doe uses this chance to take down her rival from the boys’ school by fake dating his cousin.

Pranks get heated but things come to a halt when something bigger comes up and the rivals must come together. That part of the story was probably my least favorite because I think it felt forced given the rest of the book and kind of glossed over in a general sense but I still really enjoyed this one!

Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta

One of my favorite books in the whole world — the book that hooked me into the world of Melina Marchetta. This one has not aged poorly.

If you’ve read this, you know it’s best to not say too much about it. It can even be confusing at first as you are trying to figure out how certain aspects of the story connect/are going to come together. But it is one of the most rewarding reading experiences of my life.

It is set at a boarding school in Australia and is about a girl named Taylor who has been at this boarding school ever since her mother abandoned her and a woman (who became her friend and mentor sort of person) found her.

At first it seems like it is just about boarding school life and this little territory war going on between the boarding school and the Townies but OH it’s about so much more.

There’s the thread of mystery when Hannah, the mentor, disappears and the only clue Taylor finds is a story about five kids who lived there 18 years ago.

Just trust me, please.

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Forever a favorite in just about any category you could give me even remotely related to it! I love this book and this series and definitely one of the best YA boarding school books that are contemporary romance.

This boarding school experience is one from the POV of a girl who has been shipped to a boarding school in Paris at the insistence of her father (a best-selling author) and she is NOT happy about spending the last year before college somewhere she doesn’t know anybody or speak the language — even if that place is Paris. Not when she had the best senior year ever planned with her friends and the guy she likes.

You’ll be transported to the City of Lights while you watch Anna find a whole lot of experiences (and people) she didn’t know she needed. The romance in this is one that I will always count amongst my favorites!

Looking for Alaska by John Green

I love John Green’s books so much and Looking For Alaska is a forever favorite even if some of it, many years later as a bonafide adult, makes me want to roll my eyes and think WOW it’s probably not a good thing at how much younger me related to Alaska. But I still love it!

It’s about a boy who is heading to Culver Creek Boarding School and hopes it is really going to be the jumpstart his life needs from the boring existence he’s had thus far.

And life at boarding school is certainly never dull! He makes himself a little friend group – including the mysterious and moody girl named Alaska — and his life certainly does change.

Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins

Ah I loved this YA paranormal set at boarding school so much (and this series in general even though it isn’t all set at the school) and one of my favorite witchy YA reads!

It’s about a teen girl, who find out she was a witch a couple years ago, who gets herself into too much trouble and shipped right to a reform school for all sorts of other paranormal teens like herself.

Settling into her new school is hard enough but things get harder (and way over her head) when she finds herself caught up in a mystery surrounding something or someone attacking students at the school.

I cannot stress just how fun this series is!!

Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

If you only read one YA paranormal series from back in the day, LET IT BE THIS ONE. It’s super addictive and, while looking back has a couple things I side-eye now, it still holds up for me. One of my favorite YA vampire books ever!

This boarding school — set in an isolated Montana woods — is for vampire royalty and those who protect them. It centers around two friends: one is a princess and the other who is training to protect/guard her.

While they learn how to defeat a certain type of dangerous vampire, there’s also forbidden romances, regular teen drama and danger lurking. It’s so easy to get caught up in this setting!!

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

Before We Were Liars notoriety, E. Lockhart was out here writing some of my most favorite teen characters in Frankie Landau Banks and Ruby Oliver. Just such fun books that should have been even more popular than they even were. Honestly I wish they could get a refresh like the Jessica Darling series.

Frankie Landau Banks is such a fun boarding school read all about a teen girl trying to buck the patriarchy when she finds out about an all-male secret society at her school (that does a lot of pranks around campus) and decides to take matters into her own hands.

It’s so fun and I loved watching Frankie take on these narratives and try to figure out (messily as we all do) what feminism means and specifically what it means for her.

Tell me some of your favorite boarding school books in the comments!