The sapphic dark romance novel I didn't know I needed. I devoured this book within 24 hours. The writing style let me delve into dark academia, while also showcasing the late 1960s with realistic references of music and fashion.

Gibson progressed her story with character development and plot in shared measure, which I felt helped to expand the story beyond just romance or just fantasy. The darker elements of the plot did not sour the story, but let it stay twisted and exciting.

I am not one to have a movie running through their head while reading, but the description that Gibson writes with allowed me to transport into the emotion of the imagery.

Many thanks to Redhook Books and NetGalley for providing me with this e-ARC in exchange of my honest review.
3.5 stars

Such a flip from it's source material, the characters Laura and Carmilla were almost total opposites in this new take on the classic. I loved how intense their rivalry was at first, they are truly horrible to each other.
I wanted to live in this book, S.T. Gibson can write the heck out of atmosphere and setting. I could see the dimly lit rooms and classrooms and 60's women's fashion, smell the wine, old books and October weather and taste the wine and strongly brewed tea.
However, I feel like this book suffered from having a lot of amazing style but not enough substance. I was left just wanting MORE. More about Laura and Carmilla and their histories, more about Ms. D and more about the school and it's dark secrets.
The ending felt too quick and neat for a book that was carrying so much messy relationships, desire and intense rivalry.
All that being said, i still loved this book and read it in less than 12 hours, I will still recommend this book for someone who wants a light gothic horror that has more spice than horror throughout.

I really enjoyed this book. It has great dark academia vibes. I also loved the 1960s setting and music/tv references. The plot is unique and engaging and the pacing is okay. It has fun tropes without being too “tropey”. I highly recommend if you’re into vampires, dark academia, and sapphic romance. The only thing that prevented this from being five stars was the overuse of some phrases and words. Overall, I recommend the book and will read more by this author. Review coming to my IG @thebookgrassbum this week

3 ⭐️ For those of you who read and loved A Dowry of Blood, I would still recommend picking this up. However, it did fall a bit flat for me in comparison.

This book was dark academia with vampires, but it sort of falls flat on both fronts. I would have liked more details/development for the characters and for the vampire element to be more prominent. The two main characters are pretty surface level and fall in love almost immediately for no specific reason.

This is a super quick read and I’m glad I read it, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as A Dowry of Blood.

Thank you Redhook Books & NetGalley for the ARC copy in exchange for my honest review.

This story is full of dark desires and secrets buried within a college town. Girls end up dead and all of a sudden there's an ancient evil vampire on the prowl. What would Camilla and Laura sacrifice to bring it to an end?

I enjoyed the dark twists and definitely the poetry aspect of the story. Given the romantic aura surrounding poetry and the history of it, it's no surprise in this setting it shines throughout the story. The author has a tremendous talent with words and the story as a whole was very well written.

The story unfortunately fell flat for me in the world building aspect, most of what you know about the school the MC goes to you only catch a glimpse of in the first chapter or two so you don't really get much a connection to the area. One other shortcoming and this is just based off my preference was the romance and relationships just felt rushed to me, the 'enemies to lovers' plot didn't have enough time to truly burden me with the angst of waiting for the characters to connect. Whatever it lacks in small areas it makes up for in spice, there's plenty of it and I'd think something for everyone.

Overall it was a good read and I appreciate the opportunity to read it. It's a spicey sapphic vampire story, I don't really need to say more. I'd recommend this to those who are primarily searching for the spice or just a quicker read.

Thank you to NetGalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

This was another win for S.T. Gibson, I ate this up!! I started this book at nine pm and probably could have read it straight through if I didn't need sleep. I literally went to bed thinking about it, woke up thinking about it, picked it up right when I woke up, and finished it. This book was atmospheric and beautiful and haunting and disturbing all at once. The author truly makes you understand and feel for every character, even when they are doing horrible things. Honestly, this whole book was the definition of morally grey. I loved loved loved the dynamic between Laura and Carmilla. Laura was surprising in every way. My least favorite character was Professor De LaFontaine. It had something to do with the hypocrisy of her treating Laura and Carmilla like lovestruck teens but then she was still trying to get over the same chick forever. They acted like she was a god when she was really the most immature. But, besides Lafontaine being mildly annoying, I loved the rest of it.

Overall, this is my new favorite dark academia book by far and I can't wait to read more S.T. Gibson!

I really enjoyed this book! Sapphic, enemies to lovers, gothic, vampires, & dark academia what's not to love?

This book felt very easy to sit and read, I mean this in the best way. I loved that I could just sit and read and be super entertained. I love how the professor-student relationship was handled as well as the main relationship between the two main characters. I also loved the dual POV from them both, it was great to see how both were feeling and see their feelings for each other develop.

I do wish the two main characters hadn't gone from enemies to lovers as quickly as they did. That said I felt the spicy scenes were very well written. I also wish we would've had more of a back story from Isis and seen more of the villain acts that occurred.

Overall this was a very fun read and one I would recommend if you enjoy sapphic, gothic, vampire, and dark academia books.

🌶️/5

It was okay I definitely think I liked a Dowry of blood better. 2 things I liked about it was that gothic academia setting with academic rivals to lovers. I also liked that it retreated characters from the first book in it.

This one was a bit of a let down for me. I was looking forward to it and ultimately I was pretty bored and honestly did not finish it about 65% of the way through? I’m not usually a DNF kinda girl but I just couldn’t make it happen. The writing was okay, the story just wasn’t for me.

This book was phenomenal. I went into in blind only to pick up here and there som hints that this was a Carmilla retelling. I love Carmilla and had always hoped it had been longer and well - gayer. This book fulfilled that need. It was a perfect book and it made me abandon all others so that I could finish it. Unfortunately for me, I now need to buy a physical copy as well as buy all her other books.

Thank you so much Hachette books for the digital arc.

"An Education in Malice" is a dark academia, gothic tale dripping with obsession, desire, and sapphic vampires. I was immediately pulled into this story by ST Gibson's amazing, gripping prose - she is definitely a favorite author for me now! I loved the old, gothic school setting and the toxic dynamic between Carmilla and Laura as they continuously try to one up each other in their poetry seminar. I find relationships filled with obsession and passion to be so interesting, so I was fully intrigued by Carmilla and Laura and also De Lafontaine’s addition to their relationship. This book gave “The Secret History” vibes but actually queer and that is everything I could have ever wanted. I did find the plot lacked intrigue towards the middle of the book, but the open ended conclusion was done beautifully and left me craving more. I need more sapphic vampires in academia in my life!!

Thank you Orbit for the advanced copy.

Over the top love triangle, a dash of vampires and a dark school vibe. Was OK, but not fantastic.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I really enjoyed this book! A Dowry of Blood was one of my favorite bolls I read last year so it was a high bar and I don’t think it was quite as good but still enjoyable. I loved the dark academia and the sapphic rivals to lovers. Overall it was just such a book of vibes and atmosphere that I wish the plot was filled out a little bit more but I still really had a good time with the characters and would recommend.

An Education in Malice is told from dual povs of Laura and Camilla. Who are immediately enraptured with each other for entirely different reasons. Both being in an elite writing class that is led by the mysterious De Lafontaine where a rivalry between two characters starts. We soon also learn there is an unhealthy infatuation between Camilla and De Lafontaine. One that the latter seems to push for in her actions even while seeming to push her away.

The story did seem a bit rushed towards the end. The parts about Ms. D’s past they seemed like an after thought, and when her past come back in the current it’s again a big part of the ending but it was glossed over throughout the book. This leads to the ending being a bit underwhelming.

I did however like the take on vampires in this one. It’s less of the cutesy, “nice” vampires that so many write about. This is a more dark, Dracula type story where they are powerful and deadly. Which I enjoyed as a nice change from the usual.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc I received in exchange for my honest review

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me an arc in exchange for an honest review!

This was an all time favorite. That is all I’m gonna say. This author can write a shopping list and I would swoon over the writing.
5/5

I have been downright insufferable about my love for this book since I read its first chapter.

The basic plot line is that two star pupils in an enigmatic professor’s poetry seminar become deeply emotionally and academically enmeshed with the professor and get dragged down into her underworld. Gibson’s masterful prose both gives you a window into how deeply problematic these relationships are, while they also lay out a very clear path from the characters’ individual deeply entrenched emotional scars straight to the final outcomes. You’re rooting for each character even as you know they’re spiraling. Even as it’s clear that they prefer that devolution to the alternative.

This story was at its finest for me in the navigation of this deeply problematic “found family.” It was such a lush and beautiful world that I lost myself in the pages readily. The denouement was structured such that I genuinely didn’t know how the professor would act and I got to gasp right alongside Laura and Carmilla. I loved how Gibson juxtaposed the normalcy of college life in interactions with school friends and the toxic trio.

I do wish we’d gotten more time to explore Isis as more than a villain, and also I wish we’d spent more time with Laura and Carmilla in their European sojourn with Magdalena. I also wished there had been more groundwork lain earlier on for the Isis plot point, which felt surprisingly secondary to the relational dynamics. However despite those elements I couldn’t put it down and craved more time in this world. It was every bit of a five star read for me.

This book is absolutely for you If:
*you loved the pretentious characters in A Secret History
* if you watched the 1989 Robin Williams movie, Dead Poets Society, but wished it were set in a girls school instead
* if you wished some of the hundreds year old vampires in other series were more deeply-flawed-but-trying-to-figure-it-out and yet also less sparkly
* if you ever enjoyed highlighting allusions in reading assignments
* and most of all if you want more from the world of Dowry of Blood

I loved this story and can’t wait to revisit it often. A big thank you to Netgalley and Redhook & Orbit for an advance copy of this incredible book.

An Education in Malice is a lush, sumptuous, and captivating dark academia story.

Laura finds herself at a new school and in a new rivalry when she is accepted to an elite poetry class taught by the mysterious professor, De Lafontaine.

When I say I couldn’t put this book down! S.T. Gibson’s writing is so addictive and pulls you in entirely! I had to know everything about these characters and their history. She takes a straight-forward story of sapphic enemies-to-lovers and imbues it with so much intrigue.

Read this if you love gothic atmosphere, a daily dose of sapphic spice, dark undercurrents, and a lil bit (or lot bit) of uneven power dynamics.

3.5/5

Thanks to Redhook Books and Netgalley for the ARC.

The entire time I was reading this I felt like the story was on the cusp of turning into a real gem, unfortunately it did not get there, and I was really hoping it would. I loved Dowry of Blood and was looking forward to another unique vampire tale set in the same world. While so much of the prose and descriptions are what you want from Gibson, the plot was average and the events at the end were pretty clear from early on in the story. Having a series of murders in the story with no possibility of another culprit leaves a story with no real source of tension or danger. I never connected much to any of the characters, and the best part of the story was the addition of a character from Dowry. Here's hoping the next Gibson book hits the mark better than this one did for me.

Beautifully written, gloriously queer and beyond thrilling. I enjoyed the dynamic between Laura, Carmilla and De Lafontaine. It was dark, and devious, and absolutely delicious. I was flying through the short chapters and I enjoyed the alternating POVs. The tropes were represented exceedingly well in a way that felt fresh. The spice was minimal but had a great build up and was very effective, especially one scene in particular 🥵 I really loved this book and look forward to reading more of Gibsons work.

The premise of the book was interesting, but the execution was boring… nothing truly happened — even the ending.

There was no chemistry between Carmilla & Laura, and their supposed love story was just awkward. The pacing of this book felt more like reading a series with an anticipation for a second book rather than a standalone. Is it supposed to be a standalone??? 🤔🤔

The story drags on and on with nothing much happening. Around 50%, something happens and you think it would pick up, then it just dipped again. Then 95% with that underwhelming ending 🫥🫥🫥…

This was a miss for me. But thank you NetGalley & RedHook for the arc!!