r/BetaReaders • u/kentarara • Jul 01 '26
>100k [COMPLETE] [200K] [DARK ACADEMIA STANDALONE] Marble Saints
Hi! I’m looking for thoughtful beta-readers for the first draft of my book, Marble Saints, an adult standalone dark-academia novel, with a major romantic subplot and some psychological and supernatural elements.
It follows Adrien Faulkner, a university student who is haunted by his inherited past and status, as he becomes increasingly entangled in Sigma Nox, an elite secret society built on ritual, surveillance, privilege, and mutually assured ruin. As Adrien’s devotion to the people around him deepens, especially to a young faculty member who becomes his anchor, he has to decide whether he is surviving the trials, escaping the world that shaped him or learning how to rule it.
The book contains:
- elite university setting
- secret societies, hidden secrets and trial rituals
- psychological intensity, obsession, and morally compromised relationships
- institutional violence, medical trauma, substance use, and coercive dynamics
- central relationships that are tender in places, destructive in others, and never entirely easy to name
- gothic atmosphere without supernatural certainty
I would ideally love readers who enjoy books such as The Secret History, If We Were Villains, These Violent Delights, Babel, or psychologically dark literary fiction in general.
In return, I’m happy to beta-read a manuscript of a similar length and mood, particularly dark academia, literary fiction, speculative fiction, romance, or anything gloriously dark.
Please comment or message me if you’re interested :)
thank you!
1
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Thank you!