Night Objects by Eli Raphael is a great addition to the Dark Academia subgenere. I loved this book, and am sharing my thoughts on it and helping you figure out if you will enjoy it too!
Jen’s Quick Take on Night Objects by Eli Raphael
- Night Objects is a coming-of-age, Dark Academia suspense story set in the Pacific Northwest
- Night Objects has all the hallmarks of Dark Academia: an elite institution, a secret society, and characters who dabble in dark pursuits.
- The narrator is fifteen, but this is an adult book with dark themes (see my content advisory below)
- For fans of The Secret History. But Night Objects is modern Dark Academia, which includes intersectional characters, and a focus on class, privilege, gender, and race.
- Night Objects has beautiful prose and a richly described setting
- Publication date: May 26, 2026 by Grand Central Publishing. Thanks so much to them for the advance reader copy!
- Content advisory: death of a parent, sexual assault, hazing.
Review of Night Objects by Eli Raphael
Night Objects is both a very impressive debut and a great addition to the Dark Academia subgenre!
Night Objects focuses on a friend/frenemy group at an elite boarding school with traditions and a secret society. When one of the group ends up dead, who did it and why?
Did you say “That’s also the premise of The Secret History?” Yes, that’s true. (It’s also the premise of many other titles in this vein.) But Night Objects reads a bit differently!
Night Objects is narrated by a grief-stricken fifteen year-old girl sent to boarding school after the sudden and traumatic loss of her mother. The story is a murder mystery wrapped in a coming of age story wrapped in a parable about the dark side of privilege.
Alena “Lenny” Winter is still reeling from the death of her astronomer mother. Lenny’s stepfather suggests she follow through with her mother’s plan that she attend Blanchard, an elite boarding school on Salish Island near Seattle. Lenny agrees.
The Blanchard school is an interesting blend of tradition with a neo-hippy, PNW feel.
As a longtime reader of YA (which this book is not), I thought the fifteen year-old narrator and her assessment of the kids and adults around her felt authentic. Night Objects reminded me of Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld (which also had a teen narrator who was an outsider at prep school).
Lenny, a biracial scholarship student, finds that adapting to the strange and mysterious ways of the jaded nepo baby school population is overwhelming.
It’s impossible not to empathize with Lenny. She’s suffered a horrible trauma and could really use more therapy. She can never really be sure if she can trust any of the other students. But she does keep in touch with Sara, a friend from home. When Sara has a unique money-making idea to get both of them out of less than ideal situations, Lenny agrees. And that’s when things get even darker…