Dark academia at its finest, When We Were Killers is an intoxicating blend of history, folklore and obsession, set against the atmospheric backdrop of Scotland’s oldest university.

With its evocative prose and deeply immersive storytelling, this book is a must-read for fans of mystery, ancient legends and the blurred line between reality and myth.

Finn Nethercott arrives at St Andrews University as an outsider, quickly realising that privilege dictates who thrives in its salt-scented quadrangles. When he is drawn into an enigmatic circle of four history scholars obsessed with Scotland’s ancient past, he is swept up in their midnight rituals, wild adventures to forgotten castles and a perilous search for a long-lost hallucinogen.

But as Finn’s grip on reality begins to slip, he must ask himself—how far will they go in pursuit of knowledge, and at what cost?

One of the book’s most compelling aspects is its exploration of spirituality and cultural traditions. Through Finn’s journey, we experience a rich tapestry of influences, from Gaelic and Viking heritage to pagan and Christian beliefs. The author weaves these elements seamlessly into the plot, infusing the story with a sense of mystery and reverence for Scotland’s past.

The setting is utterly mesmerising. Mist-shrouded lochs, crumbling fortresses and the eerie, ancient corridors of St Andrews create a world where legends feel dangerously real. The characters are just as sharply drawn—witty, frustrating and complex, each harbouring their secrets. Their dynamics simmer with tension, making for a gripping and unpredictable read.

What begins as a tale of university friendships soon deepens into a dark exploration of obsession, power and the lure of the unknown. When We Were Killers is an atmospheric and haunting read that lingers long after the final page.

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This book does start off slow but soon picked up you just need to stay with it. The suspense and psychological aspects mixed with the plot line had me hooked. Things were detailed well without going too over the top and becoming confusing. The twist within the book kept my attention and fit so well throughout the book. Would definitely like to read more books from C.F Barrington.

That was wild for sure! I was not expecting most of the crazy happenings in this book, for sure. It kept me interested from the start and the dread pouring down two thirds way through made it hard to stop. "When We Were Killers" was a dark but great read!

This is the tale of a deprived orphan who, in spite of his circumstances, manages to enrol at prestigious St. Andrew's University. Along with becoming friends with the other two students in his "program," he also becomes caught up in the murky underbelly of secret societies. When We Were Killers is the book for you if you're searching for a good Dark Academia story that discusses religious topics, the need to fit in, and the deadly results of taking your academic interests too far.

If you're a fan of unhinged dark academia you'll love this book—a quick-paced thriller about a secret society's gradual decent into madness set in 1990s Scotland. I appreciated that it was quick-paced and the plot felt clever—which seems rare in this genre to me. The lore and paganism felt well-research as well, but I'm definitely not an expert.

Reminded me a lot of Ashley Winstead's In My Dreams I Hold a Knife—like Saltburn and Secret History all in one.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This novel is dark, twisty, and kept me reading long past my bedtime! Yes, you are dropped into the proverbial deep end from the start, but I found the story interesting enough to keep going — I needed to know what was going to happen next. The intrigue of secret societies has gripped me since I was a teen, and this book did not disappoint!

A fish out of water meets dark academia in 90s Scotland, as Finn falls in with a strange group of friends hyper fixated on the infamous Berserkers, and hell bent on finding the substance that made them 'berserk’. A group of college kids trying every hallucinogen known to man — what could possibly go wrong? The answer to that includes dark deeds and an inevitable spiral that is almost too much. Almost.

Many thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

the eerie and creepy feeling in the underbelly of this book keeps you guessing and uncomfortable for all the right moments. also not caring for the characters and their behavior makes it both hard and easy to want to know what happens to them all in the end!
i felt all the moments of youth here. how you become swept up in things easier. or feel the need to be because you want friendship or to fit in. and also this happens when you feel uncertainty. which can happen alot in those younger schooling days.
ive got to admit it gave me more unsettled feeling in part because of the unsettled feelings i get from those younger years.
it made for an intriguing read. and the atmosphere# and descriptions were on point in helping keep the character and plot a real picture in my mind.

you're dumped into the story rather unceremoniously, and the story is definitely interesting but also holds some definite similarities. the overall story arc is rather repetitive, thouugh. 3 stars. tysm for the arc.

Thank you to NetGalley for the free advanced reading copy. I leave this review voluntarily.

This is a story of a poor orphaned boy who gets to St. Andrew’s University despite his circumstances. He makes friends with the 2 other students in his “program” but he also becomes enmeshed in the dark undercurrents of secret societies.

The reader never knows what will happen next and how they will resolve the conflict. While some of the story is a bit unbelievable, it did not distract me from the storytelling so I suspended my disbelief and embraced the tale.

The story begins and ends with the main character, Finn Nethercott, thinking about “life lingered in her” and his role in what happened at St.Andrews.

As you can tell, I highly recommend.

This was an intense and twisty story with dirt under its nails. It is a mind-boggling Dark Academia tale of obsession that thrives in its complex characterisation and clever plotting.

This book is dark academia it it's core!
This book is so fast past and was so wild!
I did find myself having to reread sections at time to make sure I actually read what I did.
Dark academia is not usually what I am drawn too, but I did have fun with this!

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC

⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
The first thing that caught my attention about this book was the name! As a huge fan of If we were villains, this one kinda gave that vibe, specially after realizing that it was a dark academia too so, of course I had to request and it was good, not great, but good.

This is the typical DA storyline where a neutral/outsider person gets sucked up into a group of toxic frenemies and watch how slowly everything spiral out of his control into obssesion and often murder and as such it gave exactly what I was looking for.

The plot was a wild ride if a bit slow start and I loved getting to know the setting, the group dinamics, and the descent to darkness was both horrifying and fun to read. History and mythology are frequent themes of study and being this book set in Scotland it did not disappoint in that regard, you can tell the author did a lot of research.

However, the entire story felt for me a fever dream! The characters were high on mushrooms all the time and that affected my experience of understanding what was going on. I cannot fully explain it but I was so lost sometimes that I had to read one scene over and over. Also, I felt that for story about characters, their development felt lacking in detriment of the shock of the story.

So, I do kinda recommend but to people that like me, are constantly looking for new traditional dark academia books to read.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to access the advanced reader copy of When We Were Killers!

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a chance to read this ARC!

If you're into stories about a good person who gets pulled into a toxic crowd and their crazy research, leading to obsession and murder, then this one’s right up your alley.

It was quite the journey; it started off a bit slow but quickly gained momentum in the second half. I really liked the research aspects, and the darker elements were spot on, and watching everything spiral out of control was both chilling and oddly entertaining.

My sincere thanks to NetGalley, C.F. Barrington, Aria&Aries and Head of Zeus for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

3,5/5
Seems that “When We Were Killers” is polarizing the readers a bit, mostly because of the obvious similiarity of this title to “If We Were Villains” by M.L.Rio (which I love, by the way). Personally I'm not a fan of such comparisons, I usually prefer to look at books on their own merit.

Finn Nethercott is a first-year student of St Andrews University who gradually becomes fascinated with a tight group of friends, history scholars, deeply immersed in all things pagan, heathen, Viking and Nordic. There are stories and celebrations of ancient Scottish roots and rituals around the fire, but also drugs. And this last element is becoming particularly dangerous, because one of the group, de facto leader, is obsessed in his search for a mysterious hallucinogen which, according to stories, had induced battle rage in berserkers.

What I liked about it: the well researched lore, the pagan celebrations (as I am pagan myself), the dynamic between friends, the gradual descent into obsession and madness with an element of folie a' deux, and Anna.
What I did not like: in my opinion, Finn was a weak character, too weak to serve as a relatable guide through the story, not to mention that some of his actions are so dumb it hurts; the rivalry between the two academic groups is a bit cartoonish and the ending, as a whole, is a bit lacking.

But still it was an interesting page turner and a very decent dark academia representative, a good addition to my collection.

#WhenWeWereKillers #NetGalley

This was a hard book to get into. It was definitely a slow burn. It was the first book I read that focused on Scotland, which I thought was cool. I used to watch outlander and some of the history that was told in this book I had known from watching that show, so I loved that aspect.

The entire story made me feel like I was in a fever dream. The characters in the book didn’t have much of a story line that was understood, and they did a lot of mushrooms that made them hallucinate and at times confused me on what was going on.

I will say once we hit the 70% mark of the book, it picked up and really kept my interest. The story itself wasn’t badly written, it’s just going to attract a certain audience, and I’m not sure that that audience would include me.

If you like to learn about history in certain countries and religions, you’d enjoy this book. Also heavy in dark academia with a not so secret society within a college. If that interests you, you’d should definitely add this one to your tbr.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ebook arc in exchange for my honest review. Always appreciated!

Dark academia, hallucigenucs, pagan rituals and Scottish folklore....utterly absorbing and heartbreaking to read.
Set in St Andrews, a group of academic misfits and damaged souls come together to celebrate anything in the calendar worth celebrating, only their secretive underground clan leads them down dark paths.
Finn, a new undergrad, is vulnerable to their charms and as a reader its is tragic to be powerless to his unraveling.
Fantastic characters, especially gorgeous Anna and her antithesis, Madri representing darkness and light. The religious themes are there and add a layer of emotion rather than judgement.
A wonderful book, will be in my top 10 of 2025.

I have to admit, a few pages in I already knew this book was not for me. But I did my best and managed to finish it. I actually believe that it's a good novel, and it was just a case of a wrong match, so I decided to give it three stars, and let other readers discover the dangers of how feeling lonely and like an outcast can lead you to the wrong people and get you in a lot more trouble that you would ever wish for.

A first year student at St. Andrew's University finds himself drawn into a group of students obsessed with Scotland's history. However, this group is more deadly than it seems.

I wanted to like this one, especially with the comparison to If We Were Villains. However, I found the writing choppy and hard to really get into. I also felt like the reader was thrown in with little intro/context.

For years now I've been ranting about how book marketers compare this or that book the <i>The Secret History</i> and I've long suspected that none of them have actually read that book because the comparison is never even close. Here we have a book that matches TSH note-for-note and it's nowhere in the "if you liked" part. Just proves that the marketing people have no idea what they're doing!

Anyway, as I said, this is clearly the work of someone who read Tartt's book and internalized the structure and emotional flow of the book. Intentional hommage or not, this book may appeal strongly to those who have never read the earlier book. For those of us who have, however. . . I would have liked more about the Brythonic holidays and the Dal Riata (not the Clan, the actual kingdom). The ending was incredibly disappointing, with Justus's and Magnus' motivations being so small in reality, and if feels as though Madri's are just glossed over.

eARC provided by publisher via Netgalley.