Hello, BookTrib readers! My name is Lynn D. Jung, and I am the author of the upcoming Mothsblood, a dark academia adult fantasy that follows an ambitious young alchemist as she is caught up in an impossible murder at her secretive, prestigious university.
While it is a work of fiction, Mothsblood is also a deeply personal work. It carries so many pieces of me, from my love for science and history to the memories of the year I lived in France to my background in (and enduring passion for) education. These elements, seemingly disparate at first, translated into Mothsblood’s Parisian setting, the structure of the fictional Université Meurdrac, and the main character’s entirely made-up discipline of alchemical entomology. My experiences also informed how I chose to contribute to the canon of dark academia.
Exploring the Darkness Behind Academia
Dark academia can be somewhat difficult to define. I’ve seen books that do not take place anywhere near an institute of learning categorized as dark academia. I’ve seen books that are not particularly dark at all but do take place in an institute of learning, slotted right alongside the former. While I hold a deep affection for all iterations, I also knew that if I was to contribute to the subgenre, I wanted to truly explore the darkness inherent to academia, particularly the sort that was reflective of my own experiences.
I wrote swathes of this book while in grad school, where I was pursuing a degree that would launch me into a career field that is famous for being both overworked and underpaid in the United States. Many of my courses were explicitly centered on how traditional structures of education have failed marginalized learners, because they were designed to provide opportunities to those who already had privilege and means, not uplift those who did not. Money remains a significant barrier. Statistics show that around 10% of low-income students finish their degree in under six years. Nearly half of all financially independent students live beneath the federal poverty line. (And I should know — I was one of them).
The Dangerous Price of Ambition
Of course, there are those among us who persist despite the lack of homefield advantage, those who fight with unsheathed claws in pursuit of the promises higher education offers. Larkspur Lee, the main character of Mothsblood, is one such person: though she isn’t after a diploma so much as immortality.
With Lark, I deliberately set out to write the exact opposite of a ‘perfect victim.’ She weathers tremendous abuse in the name of her goals, and her ambitions often overshadow her ethics. Everyone is either an enemy or a tool to wield in her pursuit of power. Worse still, she’s willing to overlook her university’s nastier secrets because acknowledging them might hinder her road to success, and what is she supposed to do about it, anyway?
Reader, Lark is so many of us. Meurdrac, likewise, represents so many institutions that were built upon unjust infrastructures of power and continue to benefit off those systems. As I said before, yes, this is a work of fiction. But fiction, as we well know, is never far removed from reality.
I am so pleased to be able to introduce readers to Lark, Université Meurdrac, and my gloomy version of Paris through Mothsblood. I put my whole heart, soul, and — in true dark academia fashion — countless hours of research into this book, and I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it.
