My friend Sarah called me last week, frantic because she'd accidentally signed up for an advanced pottery class when she'd barely touched clay before. "I'm in way over my head," she said, laughing nervously. But by the end of the semester, she'd not only survived—she'd created something beautiful and learned she was capable of more than she thought. Sometimes the most transformative experiences come from jumping into the deep end. Nocticadia is exactly that kind of story: a young woman thrust into a dark, mysterious world where danger and brilliance collide, and she discovers strengths she never knew she possessed.
Plot Summary
Nocticadia by Keri Lake is a dark academia gothic romance set on the secluded island of Dracadia, home to one of the country's most prestigious universities. Lilia Vespertine has spent four years struggling to survive after her mother's mysterious death from an unknown illness. When she receives a full scholarship to Dracadia University, she sees it as her chance to finally find answers and provide for her younger sister. On the haunted island—rumored to be built on the bones of exiled mental patients—Lilia meets Devryck Bramwell, a brilliant and brooding pathologist known as "Doctor Death." He's studying the same parasitic worms Lilia believes killed her mother, and she's determined to become his lab assistant. As they work together in the midnight lab, their forbidden attraction ignites into something dangerously consuming, even as dark secrets and a sinister conspiracy threaten to destroy them both.
Why I Love This Book
I love the atmospheric, gothic worldbuilding that makes Dracadia University feel like a character itself—haunting, beautiful, and deeply unsettling. Lilia is a smart, determined heroine who refuses to be a victim, and Devryck is the perfect morally gray professor: brilliant, damaged, and impossibly compelling. Their chemistry is electric, built on intellectual respect and forbidden longing. The mystery surrounding the parasites and the university's dark history kept me completely hooked. This book balances horror, romance, and suspense perfectly, with lush prose that pulls you into its shadowy world. The slow burn is agonizing in the best way, and when the tension finally breaks, it's explosive.
Who Will Like This Book
If you enjoy dark academia, gothic romance, forbidden professor-student relationships, morally gray heroes, or atmospheric horror vibes, this book is for you. It's perfect for readers who love slow-burn tension, mystery, and romances with real danger. Fans of books with haunted settings, body horror elements, and intelligent heroines will devour this. The book is dark, intense, and not for the faint of heart, but it's beautifully written and utterly consuming.
⚠️ Trigger warning: strong language, explicit sexual content, murder (immolation), graphic violence, child abuse, sexual assault, suicide/suicidal ideation, choking, hallucinations, torture, detailed autopsy descriptions, grotesque scenes involving parasites, stalking, death of parent.
Tagged As
dark academia, gothic romance, standalone, professor-student romance, forbidden love, age gap, slow burn, morally gray hero, horror elements, mystery, atmospheric, body horror, secret society, touch her and you die, only one bed, explicit, HEA
Steam Level
The book features multiple explicit, open-door love scenes that are intense and well-written. The spice builds slowly but when it arrives, it's frequent and graphic. Perfect for readers who enjoy emotionally charged, explicit romance within a darker story.
