An intriguing read with vampires we know and love. The characters dynamics really brought and edge to this story and the spice that was sprinkled in was an added extra.
The story building was great and I really enjoyed how the story developed, I really enjoyed the writing style, it held my interest.

I received an e-arc and audioarc through Netgalley all opinions are my own.

I loved Dowry of Blood, so I was really hoping that I would like this book. Sadly I did not.
It was hard differentiating between Laura and Carmilla. The narrator didn't change her voice enough for them. So sometimes I forgot whose POV I was in. Which was annoying.

I really don't like the teacher student trope. It's so icky.

The book was kind of boring, nothing really happened. I mean things did happen, but it didn't really feel like it.

Overall quite a disappointing read to me.

Rating : 4,5 stars (rounded up to 5 here and on GR/Amazon)

"After all, what horror wouldn't I tolerate, if it was meted out by the hand of my beloved?"

I feel very ambivalent about A Dowry of Blood, but I absolutely loved ST Gibson's writing style and so I was still very excited about this one.
This book felt similar to A Dowry of Blood in the atmosphere and the vibes, but very different in other ways and how I felt about it.
It's a book that you have to savour. The contemplative gothic vibes are exquisite, and you have to take the time to appreciate them.
I feel like the school had some Jane Eyre dark academia elements, and with the sapphic element, it was perfection.
The dynamics between the characters were entrancing. How De Lafontaine basked in the love and admiration her students had for her ; how she pitted them against each other ; how she couldn't help reminding them how inconsequential they are to her. You can't help but analyze the characters' relationships to one another and try to understand how deeply they affect their personal growth.
I feel like ultimately, it shows that love can make or break you. How your perception of it and how you act on it can elevate you or bring you down the darkest of path.

I don't think this book is for everyone tbh. If you like fast paced novels then move along. But if you don't mind a slow, character and vibes driven story, then this is for you.

Bonus quote : "Poetry was the only antidote to my temper."

Thank you NetGalley, Little Brown Book Group UK and the author for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

S T Gibson brings back the vampires we all know and love.

This was an amazing, gripping, some what spicy read. Can't wait to read more from her.

What I really admire about this book is that Gibson treats her story with exactly the amount of seriousness it deserves. A book about sapphic vampires at boarding school could easily be overly trope-ridden, or otherwise overwrought and sodden with metaphors, but Gibson treads the line between these two extremes perfectly, which means An Education in Malice is just plain fun. (Okay, so it’s still very tropey, but I assume that’s why most readers are picking it up).

Watching Laura’s descent into paranormal debuachery is fascinating, and the story generally does a great job of capturing what it’s like to be a teenager, thinking you know everything but still being way in over your head and unsure how to deal with trauma in an appropriate way. There’s also a particularly memorable vampire house party, which more books should have.

I would have liked a little more from the academic element, and this book doesn’t quite live up to A Dowry of Blood for me in terms of sheer emotional intensity, but it’s still a good time, and I’ll definitely be back for Gibson’s next book.

This was quite a disappointing read after how good Dowry of Blood was. The writing as per Gibson's style is fantastic, but I couldn't get on with the characters and I didn't buy the romance. It felt like a first draft that needed more developmental work in the editing room. I worry that because Dowry did so well as an indi book that the publishers didn't feel the need to put much work into this one. I'll still check out anything Gibson does and hope it's better than this.

ARC provided by the publisher Orbit Books through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A two hundred year old vampire manipulates a twenty one year old girl to give her blood to her ex (that has been dead for decades), just to ignore her ex while she goes on a crazy rampage killing girls in a private school in New England. Yeah, that's it.

The exploration of power dynamics, loneliness, love and devotion didn't meet the standard of what A Dowry of Blood delivered. The structure of the An Education in Malice suffered tremendously when it hits the 50% mark when the story was suppose to amp up. Inserting moments of pleasure for the two young girls (Carmilla and Laura) to be "normal" and enjoy "college life" when there is a wild vampire on the loose is ridiculous. And the pay off for those scenes is to kill off this one minor character that the two main girls spent a whole night with. The plot, in my eyes, seems to be stuck between wanting to be mature and dark but at the same time maintain that girlhood-teenage dream kind of vibe, which led to its whole structure to suffer huge consequences that disengaged me from actually enjoying the story.

There are plenty of inconsistent moments throughout the story that made me eye roll. The characterization of every character can be described as a mood board on Pinterest, they are mere pictures collaged together without glue hoping it would stick and become something more than what it is, bits and pieces of ideas, under developed and bland. Clear motivations and character arcs throw that out the window because we are not getting any of that pay off. Vibes? Sure, but I can't finish a book with vibes that are repeated with every cigarette a character smokes, every bite on white skin, every drop of blood dribbling on a girl's chin, every sway of a coquette-coded outfit. No, it will get old and it did.

Ms. D, the main antagonist, did serve the toxicity of a skilled sociopath manipulator but at the same time her relationship Carmilla creeps me out. The ending didn't help either when she says with her whole chest that Carmilla is like a daughter to her, when she gets jealous and territorial towards her whenever Laura is in the picture. I am not uncomfortable about these topics because A Dowry of Blood also explored the same themes but the inconsistencies (plot, characterization, motivation) made it hard to understand what it is trying to be accomplished here.

To wrap up, A Dowry of Blood did vampires better. An Education in Malice promised us a dark academia version of Carmilla and it delivered a story that was purely aesthetic with absolutely nothing else to back it up.

The atmosphere in S.T. Gibson's writing always astounds me - this felt so dark and compelling, full of desire and obsession. I could not stop reading it, and read the second half of the book in one sitting, I was so immersed into this world and the characters. I loved the vampires in here and the way we slowly came to understand how vampires fit into this world and got little glimpses of vampire society as well. I also thought the use of poetry throughout this book worked really well, it really added to the sense of decadence felt throughout the novel.

I thought the characters balanced each other out very well - while we only have Laura and Carmilla's POVs, I thought that De Lafontaine was a main character too in her own right, and I loved the dynamic between these three. There was jealousy and competitiveness and so much obsession, and it all worked really beautifully with the author's lyrical writing style.

I do wish that the book had been a bit longer to fully develop the characters and so that the ending scene had felt more built up, because I feel like it was over too soon - it felt too easy in my opinion.

A Dowry of Blood is definitely my favourite of this author's works so far, but I can't wait to see what comes next!

The story is set at the secluded Saint Perpetua college and has an eerie atmospheric feel that is carried through the book well.
Laura and Carmilla are the 2 main young characters. Laura aims to prove her writing and poetry and so she impresses her new Professor De LaFontaine. However jealousy erupts from Carmilla, her up until now star pupil. From here a strong love - hate relationship develops between the 2 girls
LaFontaine brings Laura into her discreet evening meet ups that already take place with Camilla. She treads very close to acting inappropriately, but somehow manages to keep to the line. But she is grooming them for what is to come.
The book works in part for me, with the vampire themed approach. The tension in the relationships and their sexuality works generally well. Other characters in the book are just extras with limited development or purpose.
The latter part loses its credibility, both via the construction and its execution. It just was less believable.
The story offers up exposure to poetry in a manner that is quite unusual and was reasonable enjoyable too. There is some complexity to the relationships and some degree of power, lust and building or using trust for varying purposes. Against its eerie background it is good but was also somewhat lacking. Possibly try to do too much.

As a firm lover of ST Gibson, 'an education in malice' was surprisingly disappointing for me.

Despite ST's continuously evocative writing and gorgeous world building and lyricism - the plot here felt more juvenile and simply put.. boring. It didn't personally entice me to continue, and I didn't particularly care for the comparisons to Carmilla and Laura. I was excited to see some old faces from 'A Dowry of Blood' and the kink is always gorgeously written but where Gibson has previously excelled, an education in malice fell flat.

I still loved the romance, loved the discovery and loved the pacing, its the fabrication of the plot that made this story weaker - no fault of the writing or character work at all. Despite all this, I'm still as eager as ever to read more from ST Gibson, there's a spark in their writing hard to ignore.

This is truly a fantastic example of the genre of dark academia, and I think a great entry point if you are worried about inaccessible writing. The story is easy to consume yet equally rich and decadent. It is dark and delicious in all the right places and has a wonderful sapphic relationship at its core. I know very little about the original text of Carmilla but will be exploring further if it brings around the same atmosphere as this book. The author has done an incredible job of executing the emotions and atmosphere of the story. I will say its more of an atmosphere and character forward story, so the plot may leave something to be desired for some, although I found it perfectly to my tastes.

a good read if you enjoy mystery and dark academia I liked lauras pov the best she is my favourite character some enjoyer her chapters most but i appreciate how the duel pov was done occasionally the dialogue is a bit baffling but it fits the tone of the book it does contain topic which some people may find uncomfortable but it id warned for and it thinks it refreshing that a vampire book is a bit on the darker side and has more adult themes but i didnt think it was overdone I did find the professor a bit creepy but it adds to the horror aspect

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Sapphic, vampires, dark academia – kind of the recipe for my favourite book but I wasn’t drawn in by the writing at all. The characters both felt thinly drawn. Having Carmilla’s point of view, in addition to Laura, sucked a lot of mystery out of the story and took a lot of tension out of the plot and relationship developments.

⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌶️🌶️🌶️
🏫🩸📔⚰️☔

An Education in Malice is a dark academia sapphic reimagining of J. Sheridan Le Fanu's novella "Camilla", written by S.T Gibson. It did not disappoint. featuring a world of academic rivals to lovers, a suspicious connection between student and professor, body positivity, and vampires, written in a way that has you yearning for more.

We follow Laura and Camilla as they learn how to share the spotlight of the demanding poetry Professor, De Lafontaine. Camilla, not exactly known for sharing her role of teacher's pet and being suspiciously close to the professor is a little more standoffish with Laura, who only wants to do her best and prove that she is worth the professor's attention. She can't help it if Camilla is the perfect distraction.

The plot is good enough to keep you wanting to read the whole thing in one setting, but I did find it went a bit quickly around the middle part onwards. Things moved quickly, especially for someone new to the scene of vampirism and the life that came with it. The writing however was done is such a beautiful way, I can see why S.T Gibson is becoming the queen of queer vampire stories.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves sapphic stories and especially those who love a good retelling.

Thanks to Netgalley and Little Brown Book Group for a copy of the ebook. This review is left volunterly.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing this eARC of An Education in Malice
I really enjoyed reading this book. It's fast-paced and I loved the dual POVs.

This was my first S.T. Gibson book and it definitely will not be my last. t had this incredible goth vibe, and the academic rivals plot sparked a lot of joy. I really enjoyed the characters and how they developed throughout the story. The setting was perfect, and the vibes were immaculate. S.T. Gibson's writing is a delight to read, and I cannot wait to read more of their work.

Thanks to this book, now I am yearning for reading the classic gothic gems titled Carmilla. I notice that retelling version of classic literature become new hype lately. But An Education in Malice stands out because the writing will mesmerizing readers who love atmospheric, lucious, and rich storytelling style with rich proses without feel over description.

This is my second read from the author and she always built up my inner dark romantic, gothic, esthetic vibes I never realize always trying to found in my read. I love triangle relationship between characters at here and how they are developing interesting intensity when interacting between them self. The emotions struggles are rich but romance readers will need more convincing actions. Overall this is a beautiful story, and become one of my favourite

Thank you to Netgalley and Orbit Publisher from Little Brown Books UK for providing copy of this ebook. I have voluntarily read and reviewed it. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Expecting Publication : 15 February 2024

This was the second book of S.T. Gibson that I’ve read and just like with the first one I have no idea how I feel about the book. I liked the overall vibes, but I’m really not sure what to think about the plot.

Although I liked A Dowry of Blood, the previous novel by ST Gibson, and saw a lot of potential in the beautiful writing, I still don't think An Education in Malice quite meets the writers ability. The character development and romantic relationship is just a bit boring and underwhelming. Couple this with a very slow paced mysterious setting, that granted is very atmospheric, and I found I just couldn't stay interested in the story at all.

I'm still waiting for the deeply romantic, gothic story I know this author can deliver. It's hinted at here, but never quite manages to create enough tension for me. The writing is really excellent however.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book and give it an honest review.

Having read some of the book it didn’t grip me as much as a dowry of blood has!

I enjoyed the gothic and sapphic descriptions and the overall vibe of this book. Maybe I wasn’t in the correct mood or in a different urge to read something maybe more lighthearted.

I did not finish this book but I might once more go back and try again