"A surefire way to get me to pick up books (as a kid and also now) is by setting them in boarding schools. Hogwarts was the ultimate dream, but it clearly wasn't happening for me, so I turned to any other boarding school book I could get my hands on. There's something about setting kids, teens, and even adults in a closed-off, hyper-intense location with only one another to rely on. The rules are different, everyone's on their own, the mood is always tense, and I love it.
Obviously Harry Potter makes this list, and even other well-known powerhouses like Looking for Alaska use this boarding school setting well, but I've tried to compile recent and lesser-known must-read books set in boarding schools. May we all dream of one day being accepted to the boarding school of our dreams."
