Immortal Dark - Tigest girma
Billed as The Cruel Prince meets Ninth House, Tigest Girma's Immortal Dark is the dark academia vampire debut I did not know I needed. Vampires and humans live "peacefully" here — and yes, "peacefully" earns those quotation marks, because damn, there's some inner turmoil. What in the ever-loving hell. People, vampires, and everything in between are so complicated in this book. Sure, life isn't black and white. But it's not gray either. This is reds, purples, dark blues — a whole rainbow of inner pain.
For the squeamish: it is NOT too gruesome. For how dark it gets, it never glorifies or drags out the violence.
I had friends read this one too, and here's the wild part — there are twists, and nobody, I mean NOBODY, experienced them the same way. No two of us anticipated them alike, and not one of us predicted everything.
Dark academia at its finest. The darkest grey cast of characters you'll ever meet — good luck deciding who to love or hate the most. And speaking of love and hate: I hope you like enemies to lovers. For most of the book I genuinely could not tell if the main character, Kidan, was fun-crazy, crazy-crazy, or crazy-for-a-good-reason. I warmed to characters, cooled on them, and warmed right back again.
So take the journey. Set at the elite, secret-soaked Uxlay University, this is a vampire book with an all-Black cast — Black immortals, front and center — and Girma spins so much Ethiopian folklore and East African myth into the world. I hope it makes waves, and I hope more books reflecting different kinds of humans keep hitting the mainstream. There's real power in seeing parts of ourselves in stories — in a character's looks, heart, behavior, or history. Some people read stories; some people experience them. No matter what SPF you use (or don't), this is a story to find the hard parts of yourself in. The hard moments that make you hard. Life is ugly, and you do ugly things. It's reluctant villains and dishonorable heroes.
Good news if it sinks its teeth in: it's the first book in the Immortal Dark Trilogy, so there's more where this came from — book two is already out, and book three lands in 2026.
Tropes & themes: vampires, Ethiopian folklore & East African myth, enemies to lovers, dark academia, morally grey characters, all-Black cast
If you liked this, try: An Academy for Liars by Alexis Henderson
FAQ
Is Immortal Dark part of a series? Yes. It's the first book in the Immortal Dark Trilogy. Book two is already out, and book three is coming in 2026 — so if it hooks you, you won't be left hanging for long.
Is Immortal Dark gory or scary? It's dark, tense, and psychologically heavy, but not gratuitously gruesome. The violence is there, but it's never glorified or dragged out — a good pick if you want atmosphere and dread over gore.
Is there romance in Immortal Dark? Yes — a slow-burning, enemies-to-lovers dynamic between a fiercely protective heroine and the captivating, morally grey vampire bound to her family. It's romantic, but it earns every bit of the tension first.
What is Immortal Dark about? Orphaned heiress Kidan Adane infiltrates the elite Uxlay University to find her missing sister — which means living alongside the vampire she suspects took her. Pitched as The Cruel Prince meets Ninth House, it's a dark academia fantasy steeped in Ethiopian folklore, family legacy, and vengeance.
Who should read Immortal Dark? Fans of dark academia, morally grey characters, enemies-to-lovers, and vampire stories that do something genuinely new with the genre.
