A Curriculum of Outcasts

About this book

At the prestigious and cutthroat Oakhaven University, nineteen-year-old Silas Mercer survives by running a highly lucrative underground forgery ring. Cynical and guarded, he believes everyone has a price and no one can be trusted. When the corrupt Dean Harrison catches him, Silas is given a brutal ultimatum: face immediate expulsion and criminal charges, or successfully tutor three of the university's worst-performing misfits through their final exams. Silas intends to manipulate his new study group, do the bare minimum, and walk away. However, as he spends time with Jude, a disgraced former golden boy; Beatrice, a ruthless perfectionist desperate to pay her brother's medical bills; and Kieran, an anxious groundskeeper obsessed with a campus cipher, Silas realizes they are all broken by the same systemic pressures. What begins as a forced academic alliance slowly evolves into an unbreakable bond. As the group uncovers a massive financial conspiracy tied to the Dean, Silas must decide whether to maintain his anti-hero facade and save himself, or risk everything to protect the only real family he has ever known. Through escalating academic heists and shared vulnerabilities, the outcasts learn the true meaning of unconditional love, finding a permanent home in each other.

Book details

Genres:

Found Family, Dark Academia, Young Adult Contemporary Fiction

Language:

en

Published:

2026-06-28

Content rating:

PG-13