5 stars
Netgalley Review

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

Screaming, crying, throwing up, kicking my feet, blushing AND giggling.
What a wonderful read, I couldn’t have been more engaged and enthralled from start to end.
Also that little ADOB Easter egg???? Obsessed obsessed obsessed.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my copy of this arc!

This book was really steadily paced which I enjoyed and dropped little hints for you to put pieces together before explicitly saying what it is.

I really liked the different relationship dynamics, I felt like they were reasons for them written between the lines and you could take from it what you wished. The professor was a mystery to work out and I quite enjoyed that story line as well as each individual characters development and seeing them bloom into whom they truly were.

I liked that this fantasy/dark acamedia book was also sapphic, I went in completely blind and it’s not something that usually happens in these types of books so it was refreshing.

I loved the dark academia take also on this book because it allowed a more sinister tone to the book brining out the wariness in every character we were introduced to.

Overall, it was a really good read that was relatively fast paced! A solid 4 stars!

I adored 'A Dowry of Blood' when I read it early last year so I've been anticipating this follow up novel for a long, long time. So much so that I put it forward to be discussed on my podcast 'The Dark Academicals'!

This is a queer retelling of Sheridan Le Fanu's 'Carmilla' - a novella that I love a lot, and one that's often forgot about the grand traditions of vampire fiction - so I had really high expectations. I was a little disappointed.

'An Education in Malice' is a clear novel of two halves. We get the dark academia section and then a horror section, but both felt a little rushed and under developed. I wanted more. More vampire lore and exploration, more of the rivals to lovers, more tension and suspense. This book needed another 100 pages at least, and I think it could have been incredible with that added depth.

It's fun, quick and enjoyable, but it didn't quite meet it's potential for me.

Such a delicious read. Academic rivals is always a win and throw in the dark academia vibes and you have a winner

I enjoyed reading this book! I loved that it was a subtle retelling of Carmilla, and I loved seeing Carmilla’s relationship with Laura grow throughout the book. Although this book is outside of my usual genre, I thought the author’s writing style was very captivating and I was hooked as soon as I started reading! It was a fantastic book and beautifully written.

Well I should heed to the warning and steer away from this book after reading the author’s note but my curiosity and “how bad could it be” thought won so I read this book anyway. Let’s just say that this wasn’t for me:)

I’m not familiar with the original Carmilla story so everything was new to me. At first it was captivating and the vibe was immaculate. But when the things the author warned about starting to appear, it’s starting to get a little uncomfortable for me.

The story is very character-driven, thus made the plot seemed insignificant. But there’s no denying the consistent dark eerie and cold atmosphere throughout the book, so props to that. The writing also made the story still consumable for me even though I wasn’t a fan of the “tropes”

But yeah. It was definitely a reading experience.

An Education in Malice is a Carmilla retelling set at a Massachusetts college in 1968 and the companion novel to A Dowry of Blood, which was one of favorite reads of 2022. The book follows Laura and her academic rival Carmilla, as they fight for the attention of their enigmatic poetry professor, De Lafontaine. It’s a sapphic dark academia story about obsession, desire and unbalanced power dynamics.

The premise sounded so right up my alley and I loved A Dowry of Blood so much, that this was a highly anticipated release for me. The thing is, it took me a while to care about the two main characters, especially because the way their rivalry started seemed pretty childish to me. I also didn’t understand why Carmilla was so obsessed with De Lafontaine from the beginning, going across the pond to ask her to be her tutor. I was also disappointed with the writing, as An Education in Malice doesn’t have the lyrical prose of A Dowry of Blood.

I know this review makes it sound like I didn’t like the book, but the story took off in the second half and I ended up really enjoying the last third of the book. I think the romance between Laura and Carmilla gets more interesting once they put their rivalry behind and begin to explore the complicated feelings between them and their dynamic with De Lafontaine. Another aspect I enjoyed was the cameo of a certain character from A Dowry of Blood and the discussions of mortality and free will.

Overall, I have to say that I didn’t like this book near as much as I expected. I wasn’t sold on the dynamics between the characters in the first half or how the vampire storyline was so secondary, but I liked the turn the story took in the second half and I especially loved the ending—Gibson really does know how to end a book.

This book was a dream come true of a sapphic, gothic tale of vampires, lust, longing and blood. I absolutely loved it, and I would follow S.T. Gibson anywhere!

I think this book put me in a major reading slump. Like my March reading has not been going well at the moment. The more I think about this book, the more I dislike it.

I was just expecting so much more. I didn’t like Laura or Carmilla, and I felt like this book was so shallow. This book handles the student/teacher relationship very well. It made me so uncomfortable, but it was written so well. The power dynamic between Camilla and the professor was so creepy. That being said, we could have gone deeper into it. There were elements to the relationship that could have been more fleshed out.

I did also fall asleep listening to the last 40-ish minutes of this book, but I don’t think I missed much. The secondary vampire plotline could have been left out in favour of spending more time with Carmilla as a vampire. Overall, the writing wasn’t bad, but I just wanted more from this book.

There is not much that you can't love in An Education in Malice. First up: lesbian vampires. Second: a (somehow) even more sapphic re-telling of Carmilla, the ultimate vampire story (sorry, Bram Stoker, you just can't beat sapphic-coded vampires). Third: a gothic, dark academia atmosphere.

An Education in Malice is a dark, sometimes gory, definitely lyrical, sapphic and gothic re-telling of Carmilla that sees our protagonist navigate devious magic, malicious professors, intense academic rivalries, and perhaps most importantly, love. It is intensely atmospheric and the characters are vibrant, seemingly prepped to leap off the page. If you love gothic atmospheres, academic rivalries, sapphic romances, vampires, and generally dark shenanigans, it is a book that must not be missed.

I adored this book it is a Gothic, Vampire, Dark Academia, Rivals to Lovers, Carmilla retelling. It is set in the A Dowry Of Blood world and also features a familiar character from that book. I loved the plot, character's and setting. This was a 342 page book but would have liked it to have been longer. I definitely recommend reading this book. I love S.T. Gibson's writing and look forward to reading her next book Evocation.

A sultry sapphic academia that just happens to have a couple of vampires. This reads a lot different to Dowry of blood - younger somehow but there is definitely more erotica.
I did expect this to have been written in a similar vein to the previous vampire book, but sadly not. I couldn't mark it down more than a 4* though- it was well written for a dark academia vampy sapphic but this was a let down for what I was expecting (obvs the author cannot simply churn out the same book over and over....but also, why not 😂) I also think that the vampire element wasnt really essential to the story.
If you love dark academia and vampires I really think you'll love this

While not a superfan of the genre, I do enjoy a dark academia tale when it is done well, and I was hoping that An Education in Malice would be that for me. The premise of an intimate circle of female students in a small-town university interested me, but the story took a turn from this, and became much more focused on Laura and Carmilla, and their teacher De LaFontaine. The vampire twist to this story wasn't wholly unwelcome, but I didn't think it brought anything particularly new to that genre - it was mainly used as a vessel for the various love stories, and I did think it could be used for much more than that. I didn't love how Gibson introduced the older vampire's lover to the story as the main threat, and then proceeded to hardly have her in the book after that. The writing in this wasn't bad at all, but it also didn't necessarily excite or intrigue me, either, and I'm not sure that I'll be looking out for her future works.

I have not yet read A Dowry of Blood, but this looked interesting so decided to pick it up. I’m not sure if it lives in the same world as the other book – they’re both about vampires, so who know – but this was a good read. Very quick, and engaging characters and interactions, though I had hoped from more time spent solving and resolving the secondary plotline focusing on the drama on campus instead of just the relationships, as it did feel a bit rushed. Based on the writing style in this I am still interested in A Dowry of Blood, but even more so for Evocation coming out later this year – that plot sounds very intriguing!

To say this book was unexpected would be an understatement. I was intrigued from the very beginning, and most certainly did not expect the twists and turns. I did my reading about the original story before I read this book, and was very impressed with the creative adaptation.

Thank you NetGalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK for sending me an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

You'll enjoy this book if you like:

➸ Dark academia
➸ Academic rivals to lovers
➸ Sapphic vampires / LGBTIQ+ representation
➸ Dual POV

This is a Carmilla retelling, following two academic rivals, Laura and Carmilla. Both girls have an infatuation with their demanding poetry professor, De Lafontaine.

Carmilla is a confident, headstrong character, whereas Laura is quite timid on the surface and insecure about herself and her sexuality. Both girls seek validation from their mentor and peers to the point of obsession, blurring the lines between desire and academic approval.

"Erotica was one of the only places I could find frank discussions of my own proclivities, rendered in fantastical prose that both titillated the body and delighted the mind. Reading those books felt like slipping on a beribboned mask and surrounding myself to the whirl of a hedonistic masquerade, plunging into a world where I was at once at home and a stranger in a strange land."

I love dark academia, however, I've never read anything like this before. S.T. Gibson's writing prose was captivating and I was constantly on my toes not knowing where this book was heading. This novel is very character driven, which kept me from rating this book higher as I struggled to connect with the characters. This was largely to do with the involvement of the professor, De Lafontaine. I felt the power dynamic was off so I struggled to accept the relationship.

Overall, the academic rivals aspect was executed well between Laura and Carmilla. While I did enjoy aspects of this, I did find the characters frustrating and the plot was slow at points due to the large focus on the characters themselves. The writing was beautiful and it was the main appeal to me. I can't wait to read the author's A Dowry in Blood.

I would recommend this book for fans of gothic romance!

As an already massive fan of S. T. Gibson I think this was one of my most anticipated reads of the year.
So I did have really high hopes for this one.
Luckily I can report that this didn’t disappoint. However I did have some issues with this that unfortunately didn’t make it a 5 star read like I was anticipating.
I think my main issues were that this was way too short for me. I feel like I needed more time to see certain relationships to develop because it felt like our main characters switched how they felt way too quickly.
Also that I felt like there could have been more descriptions/detail of the time period to give more of a feel of the setting the book was in.
Nevertheless it was still a beautifully written story with interesting characters and I really enjoyed the themes that were explored.
S. T. Gibson is definitely an autobuy author for me and though I think A Dowry of Blood is never going to be beaten for my favourite book of hers, I still am eagerly anticipating anything else she brings out!!

3.5 stars

This was a shortish read with very atmospheric writing and a gothic academia setting. There was a lot to like - I enjoyed the characters , particularly Carmilla and the academic rivalry to lovers . But it was lacking a small something - maybe the stakes didn't feel high and and it was slow paced. The mystery around Isis seemed to get forgotten for a while and quickly wrapped up near the end. However I definitely would read again from S.T Gibson as she seemed to write angst and obsession, and atmosphere, very well.
Thank you to the publishers & NetGalley for an eARC copy of this book!

oh laurmilla.....the pining, the angst, the tension...they are insane they make me insane. however, as much as i loved this book i don't think this compares to dowry of blood (but then again i don't think ANY book compares to that). s.t. gibson and vampires are the best combination ever is all i can say

An Education in Malice is a retelling of Carmilla as a Dark Academia story. Deep in the forgotten hills of Massachusetts we follow the two students Laura and Carmilla who both seek attention and validation from their poetry professor De Lafontaine. While Carmilla seems to be a confident and strong character, the new girl Laura is very insecure about herself and her sexuality. As the story builds the roles of the two girls become more equal and the academic rivalry slowly becomes something else.

It is a story of addiction and obsession with all the unhealthy aspects. But it's also a story about art and poetry and how to express yourself. Although Carmilla seems so strong and confident about herself and her desires but under the surface she still is very young and lonely and so desperate for love that she becomes easy to manipulate by her professor. Laura on the other side experiences everything for the first time, she grew up very secured and has no idea about the world or the college in particular. triangle of Carmilla, De Lafontaine and Laura creates a dynamic in the story that made it very special for me. In the end, they have to decide who and what their heart beats for and how they can live with their decisions.

Gibson's writing is very atmospheric and beautiful. She drags me in her story and lets me be a part of it. Everything about An education of malice is dark and eerie with a gothic feeling to it. Even though it's a vampire story, you never see much blood, it's more in the background, but at the same time Gibson gives me chills and a constant feeling that I'm being watched.

The story itself it rather character driven which I'm usually not the biggest fan of. You can see it ticking the boxes of a dark, gritty aesthetic of academic rivals, but in my opinion it works. However, the plot could have been a little deeper and more balanced, as everything felt a bit rushed, especially towards the end. Still, I really enjoyed this story of love and obsession and the exploration of the awakening love and sexual tension between the two main girls.