Carmilla reimagining with dark academia, poetry rivalry and Laura living her best dom top life? Sign me up!
A genuinely enjoyable read and compelling character dynamics. Set in the 70's small-town Laura Sheridan, is reimagined new freshman at a prestigious girls university in Boston with hidden desires and Carmilla, OG vampiress is a snooty Austrian rival student who hates her for poetry rivalry reasons as they both compete for the approval and attention of the compelling and mysterious Professor De LaFontaine's attention.

Carmilla, the pet favorite is insecure and aggressive, her relationship with De LaFontaine born of sheer idolatry and admiration, bordering on the inappropriate as De LaFontaine veers between older sister and possessive milf towards Carmilla, especially as Laura starts to display her talent and hidden depths in their class. The way Carmilla and Laura mutually fume and obsess over one another while Carmilla jealously keeps De LaFontaine's biggest secrets, Laura keeps some of her own of her love of domination and kink, only explored in theory, which is a very refreshing take for a character who has been part of the Victorian tradition of the virginal naive one taken in by the allure of the dangerous.

As the supernatural elements (it's Carmilla yes there are vampires) start to become more prominent, so does the story become into a legit love square, but like in a way that I can appreciate. Carmilla's need for DeLaFontaine becomes less and less satisfying as her connection with Laura grows.

It was always clear that Carmilla's love for DeLaFontaine was born of her loneliness, but the book has a very interesting take on such a unequal relationship, not especially condemning DeLaFontaine or infantilizing Carmilla, but not letting them off the hook either.

As Carmilla and Laura's more genuine relationship grows, it is compellingly erotic and yet feels very fresh and awkward and sweet in the way young love is. As girls start to be murdered in the university, it is abundantly clear who the culprit is but the real mystery always lies in the love and priorities of the three main characters which leads to a very neatly wrapped up denouement if a little quick, but very satisfying.

This was magnificent. I heard “sapphic dark academia” and said “HECK YES!” but I was not expecting the supernatural twist! To be fair, had I read the reviews more closely, the words “blood” and “fang-sharp writing” might have clued me in. I will now add this author to my auto-buy list. The vibes were immaculate, dark and romantic and gloomy and decadent. Love that it was set in the 60s too. I highly recommend this for fans of Discovery of Witches, Belladonna, Foxglove, and dark spooky romance.

Thank you so much to @orbitbooks_uk for sending me an arc of that which was totally brilliant😍

[Deep in the forgotten hills of Massachusetts stands Saint Perpetua’s College. Isolated and ancient, it is not a place for timid girls. Here, secrets are currency, ambition is lifeblood, and strange ceremonies welcome students into the fold.

On her first day of class, Laura Sheridan is thrust into an intense academic rivalry with the beautiful and enigmatic Carmilla. Together, they are drawn into the confidence of their demanding poetry professor, De Lafontaine, who holds her own dark obsession with Carmilla.

But as their rivalry blossoms into something far more delicious, Laura must confront her own strange hungers. Tangled in a sinister game of politics, bloodthirsty professors and dark magic, Laura and Carmilla must decide how much they are willing to sacrifice in their ruthless pursuit of knowledge.]

🩸The setting in a school with a dark academia vibe was perfection.

🩸This modern idea of vampires and how they are was totally fascinating.

🩸The Best part was the academic rivals one. We all know how much I love this ant how I need more books with this trope.

🩸The banter with the two main characters was so fun to read. And also watching them become lovers from rivals 😍

It you are a fan of dark academia, rivals to lovers and just an academics setting you need to pick up this book 😍

Unfortunately this book wasn't for me.

There wasn't enough happening to keep me hooked, which is unfortunate because the writing was superb. I only finished the book because I was given an eArc copy. If I hadn't I would have DNF'd this book.

There wasn't enough suspense or depth to the characters. Even when the story picked up later in the book, I didn't particularly care what happened to the characters.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and publisher for an eARC copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I enjoyed this one, I felt certain aspects were rushed and I did not always understand why certain decisions were made or actions were happening. I did enjoy it and I loved the story, I just didn't feel an attachment to the characters, I felt like I couldn't get to know them well enough.

An Education in Malice is a beauitful gothic retelling of Carmilla.
First of all, I really admire the author's use of words, I found the writing style gorgeous.
Imo, the characters and their stories could have been more fleshed out, especially Carmilla's and Laura's relationship and how they fell in love. Also the murders could have been more thrilling.
I still don't understand the relationship between De Lafontaine and Carmilla, since it was almost sexual in the beginning, when Carmilla wanted to kiss her but more family-like at the end, when De Lafontaine described her as a daughter she never had.
The ending fell a little short and did not give me the satisfaction I hoped I'd get. I wasn't really engrossed in this story, unfortunately.
All in all, it was a book with bloody and sexy vibes that I really recommend.

3,75 ☆ stars

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

4.5 stars. I really liked this book, it was quite different from anything I’ve read before and a really easy read. I loved the setting of the book and the characters were all very well written. I’ll definitely be recommending it!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of the arc in exchange for an honest review

Thank you NetGalley & Little, Brown Book Group for the ARC.

Like many, I came to this with high hopes having previously read A Dowry of Blood. However, I must say that I was somewhat disappointed.

The character development felt abrupt - we weren’t led to judgements on the characters, but merely told how they were. The relationship between Carmilla and Laura felt rushed and hard to believe - no time given to allow their relationship to develop.

Perhaps unfairly, I found myself comparing the writing to those of the greats which were discussed throughout. The emphasis on the beauty of language and the carefully crafted script, was not mirrored by the writing of the book.

The storyline was compelling, but it didn’t live up to what it promised.

4.5

After writing my final year paper on queer rep in vampire stories which focused on A Dowry of Blood and Carmilla (and Dracula but we don’t care about that) I feel like this book was written for me.

When I first started reading An Education in Malice I thought I wouldn’t like it and just put it down. Why wouldn’t I like it after loving A Dowry of Blood? The writing. Don’t get me wrong the writing is fabulous for the majority of the novel, however, sometimes it just felt a bit awkward. I wished it had been third person narration and not first as some of these sentences felt a bit childish coming from their mouths. A part of me also wished that Laura and Carmilla kept hating each other for longer but I’ll blame myself for that.
Otherwise, I loved it, it was sexy and completely decadent, I can’t get enough of Gibson’s stories.

I think it’s about time I accept that A Dowry of Blood will be a one-hit wonder for me. An Education In Malice had everything going for it: a Dark Academia aesthetic, vampires, and a theme of madness and obsession. Basically, everything I loved about Dowry. And yet, I found myself bored to tears reading it. I couldn’t wait to hit the halfway mark just so I could finally let myself put it down. The central issue is that Malice lacks any sort of depth to speak of. When I think dark academia, yes there’s the aesthetic side of blazers and the notebooks and girls studying on the school lawn. But, paired with it I expect characters with hidden secrets, layered storytelling, and clever academic intrigue. The parts that make the genre actually interesting. Of which Malice had absolutely none. Carmilla and Laura are painfully shallow, predictable characters. There’s nothing of interest bubbling under the surface, waiting for the reader to piece together. Their relationship together felt so uncompelling, and their obsession with their professor and vampire De Lafontaine undeserved. The writing is beautiful, sure, but beautiful in the Tumblr post of “excerpts from books I will never write” kind of way. Beautiful on their own, but not in a way that meaningfully contributes to the story. Overall, I rate this book a 2/5.

✨"Art outlives us. It makes us immortal"✨

🩸If you have read "A Dowry of Blood" then you are be familiar with the atmospheric , captivating and lyrical prose. From the very beginning ,in fact, I found myself immersed in the dark and gothic settings of St. Perpetua College within which I found love, hatred, obsession and rivalry in both study and affection of people. In a nutshell in this book I found the true essence of the Dark Academia that I love so much.

🩸Both Laura and Carmilla are the best students in the poetry class which makes them rivals not only academically ,but also on a personal level considering they both try to get from Professor De La Fontaine the affection they have never had and the opportunity to be "seen" and valued as they have never been. The relationship between the two is begins with a rivalry that borders on hatred evolving then into ,obsession ,attraction and finally love.Moreover it will be the obsession with Carmilla that will bring De La Fointaine ,Laura and Carmilla herself into a toxic relationship.

🩸I found all the characters well-characterized and in-depth, but of all of them over time I came to like De La Fointaine most of all: she is a magnetic and interesting character for whom at one moment I was rooting for and at the other I found myself detesting. Between her conflicting feelings,her coldness alternating with moments of sweetness and her troubled past I could not help but love her.

✨ An Education in Malice has become one of my favorite reads of the past year and not being able to talk about it until now was definitely torture! So if you loved " A Dowry of Blood" and you love books with vivid and elegant writing ,full of Dark Academia , Horror elements , love and passion this is book for then!

✨Thanks to netgalley for the copy

Absolutely brilliant book with the most gorgeous dark academic vibes. I loved the rivalry between Carmilla and Laura and the way their relationship built throughout the book.

The setting was beautifully atmospheric, such a fab retelling!

Gothic atmospheres and dark academic stories go hand in hand together; writing one with vampires and lesbians with a student-teacher imbalance (at uni level)? This book was visceral. The imagery was amazing, and the chemistry as it heated up was superb. I'm almost tempted to use words like swooning, but I discovered that it doesn't matter if it's a guy or a girl; the desire to chase someone barefoot in the woods and bite, heats me up. Laura's reactions to Carmilla were inspired, and I loved how the quiet farm girl had fire behind her and could verbally spar with the best of them.

Definitely going to be recommending this one.

This book was absolutely amazing. I loved Dowry in blood so much so when I saw Gibson has more books coming out I was very excited. This books follows Laura as she goes to study at Saint Perpetua's College. She meets Carmilla an older student in class and they become academic rivalry in a poetry class by an intriguing professor. Professor De Lafontaine holds a dark obsession over Carmilla. And when secrets come to light more and more the rivalry turns into something else.
The dynamic between the three of them was very interesting to read. When you first meet De Lafontaine you don't really know what to think of her as I though she has some strange vibes and seeing her around Carmilla a lot made her even more suspicious. Carmilla on the other hand was such an intriguing character and I was glad to also see her point of view besides Laura. Seeing the relationship evolve between the two of them as the story goes on and the secrets get exposed was so amazing to read. I really like the characters so much.
This sapphic Carmilla retelling was so amazing. So if you are looking for a queer vampire, academic rivals to lovers, plus size hero all set in a collage this definitely is a book you have to check out!

Happy Release Day to this wonderful book!
I read this book in less than 24 hours because I literally couldn’t think of anything other than that story, its fascinating and mysterious characters, and the gorgeous writing of S.T. Gibson!!
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Saint Perpetua’s College is isolated and ancient. The girls who study there are close-knit but do they also close ranks to outsiders or will newcomer, Laura, find a new home there?
She makes acquaintances but struggles to feel properly understood anywhere other than in the classroom of her demanding poetry professor, De Lafontaine. She finds Laura a promising student and a rival to further the brilliance of her star pupil, Carmilla. The two girls begin an intense academic rivalry but soon their studies are all but forgotten as new discoveries are made and they must face them together or perish alone.
•
I loved anything about this book!! It’s a vampire story but not like the ones we’re used to! It’s with modern twist (even if it’s set in the 60s), it’s about obsession, love, mystery, rivalry and even poetry and love for reading and writing! And manages to combine all these elements perfectly!

The three main female characters are perfectly characterised! They are complex but so easily appreciable and all of them have that sense of mystery and sinister that makes them unique!

The story is perfect and even if the book is just over 320 pages long it manages to be complete, satisfying and obviously exciting and engaging so much that you can no longer stop reading it!

I must say that S.T. Gibson always manages to surprise me with his writing and his mysterious and gloomy love stories!!
An Education in Malice is out everywhere today!! Don’t miss it!

Thanks to Netgalley OrbitBooks UK and S.T. Gibson for providing me with this ARC!

Thank you NetGalley & Little, Brown Book Group for the ARC. Overall, I was very captivated by An Education in Malice and enjoyed it! 3.75⭐ from me.

Let me preface that I went into this book with apprehension given the subject matter of an inappropriate teacher-student dynamic, which is never a "trope" I liked to read at all. That said, I'm relieved that the dynamic between Professor De Lafontaine and student Carmilla isn't portrayed to the reader via a titillating lens. It's clear that this isn't a swoonworthy ~forbidden relationship~ we're meant to root for or even find romantic. It's deeply unsettling. The red flags start off subtle but grow progressively disturbing, such that Carmilla could even call out the elephant in the room.

Gibson's portrayal of De Lafontaine encompasses that of both (emotional) abuser and victim. We might sympathize with her at times but never were we allowed to forget that she is still doing Carmilla a disservice, so long as she has a hold on the latter. This dynamic was resolved in a way I found satisfactory, thankfully.

Now that the dicey bit is covered, we can move on to my favorite part of Malice.

The sapphic relationship between Carmilla and her classmate Laura was wonderfully, deliciously, compellingly executed. The heated rivalry it was borne out of was a thrill to read. Think the "What Is This Feeling?" number from the musical Wicked. These young women started off despising the other. There was envy and yet also begrudging admiration for the other's talent in their field of poetry. This dislike escalates into infatuation, and my only nitpick is how said infatuation turned into a more selfless type of romantic love in a way that didn't feel as organic to me. It felt too quick. Regardless, once the romance is into full swing, Laura and Carmilla make for a beautiful relationship to read. They complete each other and bring out the other's best: Carmilla is ultimately able to untangle herself from her dependence on De Lafontaine, and Laura gains confidence in embracing her sexuality and assertiveness.

Malice's chapters alternate between Laura and Carmilla's POVs, and I enjoyed being in both their headspaces equally. Individually, they are multifaceted characters that grapple with the complex feelings they have for each other and their teacher. Given these two women's personalities, Gibson also nicely subverts expectation on who would take on the more dominant role during sexual intimacy. And speaking of which, the erotic scenes were just as poetically written as the rest of the book.

I can't praise Gibson's lush writing style enough! Even if I disliked everything else (far from it!), I could at least have a good time with her prose.

An Education In Malice by S.T. Gibson Review

Enjoyably decadent in the most delicious of ways, S.T. Gibson’s gothic, Dark Academia retelling of Carmilla was an intoxicatingly lush and immersive read that Vampire lovers definitely don’t want to miss.

It’s set in 1960s Massachusetts, at St Perpetua’s Women’s College and sees freshman Laura lured into a world of sensual rivalries, secrets and deadly obsession that had me utterly gripped. I’m not all that familiar with the story of Carmilla (besides knowing that it’s a sapphic vampire novel) but the gothic atmosphere and dark academia aesthetic were absolutely spot on.

If you’ve read Gibson’s previous novel (A Dowry of Blood) you’ll know that her prose is gorgeously lyrical and haunting in the best way, so it should come as no surprise that her follow up (and companion novel to A Dowry of Blood) is just as captivating.

I loved both protagonists (and POV characters) Laura and Carmilla, who balanced each other out rather well (Carmilla’s confidence emboldening naive Laura into a more dominant role was quite interesting to watch unfold.)

The heady cocktail of jealousy, obsession and competitiveness they exhibit (for the attention of their demanding poetry professor, De Lafontaine) was also really intriguing and made for a rather intense (but utterly gripping) first half. Though, I do feel that De Lafontaine as a character wasn’t as detailed as I would’ve liked. And had hoped to explore her conflicted thoughts and actions (particularly when it came to her maker) in more depth.

Overall, a beautifully written story that Dark Academia fans are sure to enjoy!

Also a huge thank you to Orbit and Netgalley for the e-arc.

Thanks to Orbit and Netgalley for this review copy.

ST Gibson has done it again. Another sultry story that I couldn't get enough of. We follow Laura on her journey at Saint Perpetua's college, and her intense academic rival, Carmilla. They're drawn in by their poetry teacher, and rivalry and obsession turn into something truly delicious.

I loved this - I love the themes of obsession and hunger, and man I ate this book up. Pls let me read everything ST Gibson writes pls pls pls

Thanks to Netgalley for the digital copy of "An Education in Malice". I sadly couldn't get into it and didn't care about the characters. The romantic relationship developed too quickly and felt unrealistic.

This was my second time picking up a book from Gibson and there is something utterly undeniably captivating about their writing style. It is gothic, it is romantic, it is poetic, and it also beautiful encapsulates the chaos that is losing yourself to love.

This book is more modern (1968-9 versus 1800s) re-imagining of infamous sapphic vampire story, Carmilla. Do not go into this book expecting a re-telling as this book is more like a love letter the Carmilla (literally and metaphorically) in much the same way Gibson's A Dowry of Blood is a love letter to Dracula. I enjoyed this approach as I find I am the type of reader who will get lost in playing spot the difference when books are a close re-telling.

This book is told through alternating POVs from Laura and Carmilla as they begin the story as academic rivals who find themselves attracted and inexplicably drawn to one another. As the story progresses, these alternating perspectives serve to really highlight the obsession that these girls start to feel for one another as well as keeping a sense of mystery when the girls are apart and neither they nor the reader knows why they have not seen or heard from each other.

I really enjoyed this story and feel as though it complements A Dowry of Blood well as somewhat of an unofficial sequel but only in the sense that the events of this book take place chronologically later than Dowry and we do see a couple of familiar faces however each book stands completely on its own and the Dowry references are like little Easter eggs for readers to find in the same way that there is a building called Seward Hall at Saint Perpetua's.

I feel as though the ending of this book may be divisive for readers but I think it is perfect exactly as it is and, whilst readers are entitled to their opinions and to dislike, I feel as though it is an ending that if you don't appreciate, you probably didn't understand the book you just read...

Gibson's lyrical style is definitely not going to be for everyone but I feel as though have a very clear voice as an author and readers can feel assured that they know tonally what to expect whenever they pick up one of their books. I really enjoyed being swept along by this book and am very excited to pick up more Gibson soon although I do feel somewhat sad that I only have two more full-length novels available and three short stories but I know Gibson has many more books in the works and will eagerly anticipate them.