There is something strangely enduring about the campus novel. These coming-of-age tales are alluring combinations of mystery, possibility and, of course, an abundant serving of self-doubt. With their protagonists adjusting to their new sense of agency as young adults, these works effortlessly explore issues of power and privilege, race, class, consent, sexuality, and gender.

They are novels of micro-aggressions, first loves, furtive glances and obsessing over perception; as Diana Reid's Love & Virtue adeptly puts it, 'Are you a good person, or do you just look like one?'. The characters within these pages are trying to find out.

Explore a selection of our favourite campus novels below or view the full collection here.

Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld

Lee Fiora is searching for a more interesting life. Recently transplanted from her hometown Indiana to an elite boarding school in Massachusetts known as Ault, she hopes to soon occupy the elite world of glossy, fresh faced teens she has until now glimpsed in prepatory brochures. Lee soon realises that not only is Ault full of social norms that she doesn't understand – she'll have to work hard if she wants to stay afloat – she also has plenty to discover about herself.

First released in 2005, Curtis Sittenfeld's debut novel has remained a steadfast favourite on our shelves. Even almost two decades later, the dialogue and social commentary remains as fresh as ever.

Babel by R.F. Kuang

Seated among the gleaming spires of 19th-century Oxford is the mighty Babel College where translators and silversmiths conjure magic through language, forging fuel for the churning engine of Empire. Into this world enters Robin Swift, an orphan boy from China whose aptitude with languages makes him a prized catch for the college – and for its enemies.

This vivid, explosive, alt-history fantasy is Dark Academia at its finest, where obsessive days of study with tea and elderberry cordial give way to darker conspiracies and hard questions about complicity and colonialism. Babel  is a towering work of imagination. 

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Love & Virtue by Diana Reid

Released in late 2021 to universal acclaim, Diana Reid's debut is the only novel on this list to take place at an Australian institution.

Love & Virtue centres the relationship between two odd-couple friends, Michaela and Eve, who befriend one another as bright-eyed first years at their college residence. But just as chance and circumstance brought them together so surreptitiously, it just as easily rips them apart. After an incident during their O-week – a sexual assault – the cracks begin to show, in their previously singular reality.

The Idiot by Elif Batuman

Even today, there is something so charmingly sincere about Batuman's campus novel, The Idiot. Set at the prestigious Harvard University, the novel takes place towards the end of the 1990s and follows freshman protagonist Selin as she navigates a world she is desperate to understand. A Turkish-American from New Jersey, Selin is curious by nature and a truly charming combination of clever and clueless. She is plagued by philosophical quandries, obsesses over language, and laments the mysteries of love. She is – dramatic – and it is fantastic.

A cult favourite campus novel, the dry humour and wit of Batuman's debut perfectly distills the feeling of newly minted adulthood in all its calamity and glory.

Vladimir by Julia May Jonas

Julia May Jonas skewers the world of academia with this cutting campus novel about an English professor whose husband (the chair of the English department) is facing a slew of allegations of sexual harassment and inappropriate relationships with past students. With a withering drollness, Jonas dissects the sexual politics of our current moment through the eyes of an older woman who has witnessed generational change with approval but cannot fully embrace the new rules of engagement. 

Vladimir is a funny and smart (but never sanctimonious) examination of the shifting nuances around power and desire.

Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou

In her satirical debut, Elaine Hsieh Chou impresses with a blistering send-up of the privileges and pratfalls of the American Academy and campus politics. When PhD student Ingrid Yang makes a surprising discovery about the subject of her research, she and her friend Elaine set off on a search for the truth, doggedly pursued by Ingrid’s academic nemesis and fellow researcher, Vivian Vo. 

With razor-sharp commentary about identity, appropriation, complicity and the hierarchy of ideas, Disorientation is a funny, insightful work about coming into your own consciousness.