I've been a vampire girl ever since I read Twilight when I was 12. While Twilight will always hold a place in my heart, I'm SO glad that my taste in vampire novels has improved. Dowry of Blood was amazing and one of my favourite books, and S.T. Gibson has succeeded in bringing everything I love about vampire stories to life once again.

This book was sensual, dark and mysterious. It combines a lot of the thing so frequently look for in a book, vampires, dark academia and romance. The characters were thoughtful and poetic and I loved the gothic atmosphere. I also appreciate that the vampires in this book are actually vampires and do in fact eat people.

After reading A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson, I quickly applied for an ARC of An Education in Malice. S.T. Gibson writes absolutely incredible atmospheric books that read so so quickly. Going into An Education in Malice, I knew to expect a sapphic vampire dark academia tale that is marketed as a Carmilla retelling. What I didn't think to expect was just how eerie the obsession between the characters would feel. This absolutely hit the nail on the head!

I received a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review. Thank you to netgalley and Red Hook Books.

I went into this book with very little knowledge of the plot or anything honestly. I didn't read the description and only picked it up for the author and the cover art. With that in mind, I did have a good time diving head first into Carmilla and Laura's stories.

I thought Laura took the whole "love at first sight" thing a little too seriously. Within a 5-minute conversation, she is instantly obsessed with Carmilla. I just didn't find it realistic or believable how fast this happened. I feel like the whole book follows this theme as well. All of the events throughout the book happened too fast to really instill any emotions from me. As soon as I understood what was going on, we were off onto the next adventure. Additionally, I felt like we didn't really get to know the main characters themselves too deeply. We barely learned De Lefontaine's history with her past lover, so I didn't really feel like her struggles throughout the end of the book held much weight.

The other thing that bothered me was that the book seemed to be trying too hard to sound smart. I'm thankful I read this on Kindle because I had to look up a word on almost every page. It may just be that I'm not studious enough to have learned a lot of these big words, but it did isolate me a little bit as the reader.

Other than those two things, I did have a good time with the book. About halfway through things picked up and I started to actually care about the characters. I enjoyed the few spicy scenes and the love between Laura and Carmilla grew on me.

3⭐️
I have many things to talk about so let's start with what I loved!

The concept was so interesting, I did not know this was a Carmilla reimagining before picking it up and I was pleasantly surprised to discover this and that it featured vampires. I love dark academia, so I loved and enjoyed every part they talked about poetry and art. Laura and her obsession with Carmilla at the beginning is just so... passionate. The way Laura writes for her is simply very intense and expressive, some of my favorite lines come from her poetry and longing towards Carmilla. I liked the tension they had when they 'hated' each other, even if I would've liked for it to last longer. And the prose! I thought it was very nice and some lines were just so beautiful to me.

Now for one thing I was quite disappointed by, it was how some of its potential was just lost somewhere in these pages: it lacked much of everything. In my opinion, Laura and Carmilla's romance was quite forgotten in a way after they got together, the tension was not there and I believe their relationship was kind of rushed, there were some times where I thought the overwhelming emotions they had could've been better taken advantage of to develop more their relationship. An example of this is halfway through the book, where Carmilla experiences a traumatic situation with Laura and their professor. Something shocking happened to her and we didn't get a deep dive of her thoughts on this? I wished we could've read more of how she assimilates to her situation and the repercussions to it.

Another problem I had was Laura & Carmilla's similarity to each other, in terms of their POV. I had to check who was the narrator sometimes because of this, which was kind of irritating when at the end neither of them really had much growth.

I believe this is a more atmospheric story than plot driven, since it took a long time to show up and then its ending was very abrupt and rushed. The manipulative and abusive relationship Carmilla had with their professor, De Lafontaine, was very complex and while the author didn't show it was a good thing, it lacked depth towards the end.

Ultimately, I recommend to read this book if you find any of its themes interesting, I certainly had a good time for most of it.

dark academia x sapphic vampires? YES

Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️

Loaded with blood, desire and obsession!!

An Education in Malice is a fantastic gothic academia.

I love Carmilla and I was hooked from the beginning!!!

Thank you so much, Redhook Books, Redhook and NetGalley, for the chance to read this book in exchange of an honest review.

On her first day in Saint Perpetua's College, Laura Sheridan is thrust into an academic rivalry with the beautiful and enigmatic Carmilla, vying for Professor De LaFontaine's attention. Soon they are drawn into her confidence and soon the rivalry between them become something more demanding and delicious. They are drawn into a dangerous game of blood, politics, magic, power and murders, while trying to do anything to protect themselves from the dangers, in their pursuit of knowledge.

An Education in malice is a dark academia story of blood, magic and a sapphic enemies to lovers. Or, better say, rivals to lovers.
I have to say I have conflicted opinions about this book, so I'm gonna split my review in what I liked and what I didn't. I don't think it was the right book for me. I was expecting a bit more. Having said that, it's not a bad book and I loved the plot and the whole vibes.

I liked:
The whole idea and the vibes. A sapphic story with vampires, set in a college in 1960s? I'm in.
The writing was very lyrical and beautiful and I loved it very much.
Mysteries, murders and vampires? I'm in!
Laura's character is intriguing and I loved her growth and relationships.

I didn't like:
The writing. It's very beautiful, but sometimes it felt too much and forced.
The execution. Don't get me wrong, the plot is intriguing and I was so curious to read this book, but the execution was a bit flat. The big revelation was flat, so the murders and the mysteries. The toxic relationships between the three characters could have been more intense and developed and De LaFontaine acted more like a teenager and not her age.
Having said that, I think the pacing could have been improved me liking the book. Sometimes it was too slow, others too rushed and I missed a good Laura and Carmilla's relationship. It could have been better, more intense, more brutal, more bloody.
It's a book with vampires and murders. It could have been just...MORE.

Overall, I liked the plot and the vibes and I was very excited to read it, but it felt a bit flat for me.

An Education in Malice is a sapphic, vampiric dark academia novel that is dripping with decadent prose, and it is a reminder of why I so deeply adore queer vampire novels: they are deliciously indulgent and passionate. And although the narrative voices are younger and very slightly less luxuriant than that of A Dowry of Blood, it feels appropriate given the more modern setting and the ages of the viewpoint characters.

It is beyond evident that S.T. Gibson loves the characters that she creates (and the relationships that these characters cultivate), and those in An Education in Malice are no exception. The lust-tinged academic rivalry that Laura and Carmilla share is absolutely divine, and the manner in which their relationship continues to develop is very enjoyable. However, I would have preferred more time spent detailing the shift in the dynamic between Carmilla and Professor De Lafontaine, which begins (or becomes perceptible) around the halfway point of the novel. This is not necessarily a fault of An Education in Malice, but rather a reflection of my love of S.T. Gibson’s character writing, and my willingness (and desire) to read even the minutiae of the development of these characters.

I truly cherished A Dowry of Blood, and An Education in Malice has reaffirmed to me that S.T. Gibson is among my favorite contemporary gothic authors. I cannot wait to read what she publishes in the future!

AN EDUCATION IN MALICE is stellar as a companion novel and exceptionally sturdy on its own two feet, S.T. Gibson draws us into another vampire retelling with her lavish prose, religious iconography, and sensual hedonism. The themes of obsession, faith, and immortality, which she handled beautifully in A DOWRY OF BLOOD feel fresh in this 1960's dark academia about two rival poetry students locked into an affair with their immortal professor - and immortality itself. It was a quick read for me, though I don't know if that was because I devoured it quickly or if the book itself ran on the shorter side, but I was hooked start to finish. Out of the three 'legs' of the main triangle (De Lafontaine, Carmilla, and Laura) I think I found myself most drawn to that of Carmilla and De Lafontaine due to the unrequited, oft-neglected, devotion that occurs between them. It was especially delicious (pun intended) to read. Not to say that the romance between Carmilla and Laura was lacking at all; never once did they bore me, and I was ECSTATIC to reach the moment where they finally collided. I fell in love with Carmilla through Laura Sheridan's eyes. I could read about S.T. Gibson's vampires forever.

This was a highly enjoyable gothic dark academia sapphic vampire story. I know I just mentioned a whole lot in that sentence but it all comes together quite well, especially the academia aspects and the relationships between the main characters. My main criticism is that it takes place in the 1960s but really could be any time - not much is attributed to that era aside from side comments about music. The story itself could really be anytime in the 20th century post WWII pre cell phones. However, most people won’t mind this (I certainly didn’t) and I really enjoyed getting swept away into the dark world inhabited by these characters.

An Education in Malice FLOORED me with its excellence. This sapphic, vampiric, dark academia was everything I could’ve asked for and more. Gibson’s writing is absolutely to die for and it genuinely gave me butterflies in my stomach from how gorgeous and effortless the words flowed across the page (or the screen, in this instance). The relationships between Laura, Carmilla, and De Lafontaine were delicious and I hungered so much for this book that I finished it in one sitting. I have absolutely no complaints or let downs from this book and will be purchasing when it releases!

I found the beginning of the book to be rather hard to get into, but about a quarter of the way through I was hooked. There are some things that I wish had been a little more developed, but overall the book still stands strong. I was hoping for more from Elenor’s character but she seemed rather two dimensional. I felt like the side characters just didn’t get enough attention.

I loved the enemies to lovers aspect. I’m always a sucker for an academic rivals trope.

The book was well written and I often found myself having to look up new words, but not often enough for it to become annoying. It was the perfect amount where it felt like I was actually taking something away from the book.

I was really looking forward to this book. Dark academia with some fantasy. The book was okay. A little bit of sapphic spice. I wanted more out of the book though. It was hard to remember what the plot line was, and then the book was just over.

There is definitely an audience for this book, but I don't think I'm it. I loved S.T. Gibson's previous vampire book, A Dowry of Blood, even though I tend to avoid vampires in fiction; however, this is a vampire book with a very different vibe, and I don't think it worked for me as well as A Dowry of Blood did.

First, this is not (as I mistakenly believed) a sequel to A Dowry of Blood, though a character from that book does pop up in this one. Where that was a retelling of the Dracula story, this is a retelling of that other famous vampire novel, Carmilla. I've never read Carmilla (I'm almost positive I watched the web series back in the mid-2010s, like a good extremely online sapphic), but from what I know of the original story, it hasn't got a lot in common with this one except for the sapphic relationship, the vampirism, and the names of the characters. Fans of Carmilla will probably have a different view, but I didn't feel that being mostly unfamiliar with the original work took away from my reading experience in any way.

Second, the things I liked or thought worked well: this novel plays with your expectations in ways I occasionally found to be clever, particularly regarding the three main characters (Carmilla, Laura, and their poetry professor Ms. De Lafontaine) and their individual arcs. I didn't find the bloodier aspects of vampirism to be too squeamish in this book (blood tends to be a real turn-off for me, so this was important). The prose is immensely readable and the story had enough twists and turns to keep me interested. I've actually been feeling a major reading slump coming on, and it's a testament to this book that it kept me interested long enough to not only keep reading, but to finish the book at a relatively fast clip. I also was concerned by the trigger warning for an inappropriate teacher/student relationship, but found that the text dealt with it sensitively and in a way that didn't feel like it was making excuses for the teacher's behavior, which I appreciated greatly; romances with power imbalances like that are a huge no for me, and I was pleased to see Gibson avoid romanticizing the teacher/student relationship in the text.

However, the things I disliked about this book far outnumbered the things I liked. Gibson's lovely spare prose, which was so well utilized in A Dowry of Blood's far more antiquated setting, felt odd and out of place at times in this book, which is set at a girls' college in Massachusetts in the late 1960s; there were times when I forgot we were in a much more modern era, with the way characters sometimes turned a phrase. Character motivations also sometimes seemed all over the place, and momentous events in the novel that I would have liked to see the characters react to more grandly (to just name a few, there are multiple murders, a terrifying vampire presence that appears on the school campus, and a vampire transformation) felt like they were brushed off and not explored emotionally as deeply as I would have liked. The book does fall victim to telling instead of showing on more than one occasion as well, which I found frustrating. I also was confused by how much groundwork it laid about one of the main characters' sexual desires and "unusual proclivities" only to then...not really have that much sex in the text overall. This was a recurring theme in the book actually: building up plot points and then just seeming to discard them.

I know that vampire books are as popular as ever, and sapphic vampire books in particular have an appreciative audience; I have no doubt that many people will enjoy this extremely readable, romantic book with just the right amount of a dark, sinister underbelly to it. It just wasn't the book for me.

S.T. Gibson is just SOOOO good at what she does, which is writing about obsession and the dangerous allure that is the two-sided coin of love and hate. This book has all the elements to make it a top read for me: a dark academia setting, retelling of a classic vampire story, and lush, seductive prose that keeps you hooked on its beauty even during parts that seem to slow down a bit. I felt that the beginning and middle parts were the strongest, while the ending somewhat abrupt. Still, this was a super enjoyable read and I'm thankful to the publishers and NetGalley for the chance to read ahead of its much-anticipated release!

4.25 stars

This is the type of book that makes you feel every part of the spectrum of emotions. It is mysterious, adventurous, emotional, frustrating, and absolutely delicious. It is a sapphic romance with a gothic and dark academic aesthetic. It was so beautifully written that I felt completely immersed in their world. I felt like I was also studying at Saint Perpetua's College.

I wish that I was more knowledgeable in the world of poetry so that I could completely appreciate the book for what it is, but I still highly recommend this book if you enjoy emotional vampire romance novels. I've already told so many of my friends about it!

~A big thank you to NetGalley, Redhook books, and S. T. Gibson for an arc of the book in exchange for an honest review~

Unfortunately, I didn’t love this. I stopped reading at the 60% mark, so the 3 stars is just based on the portion that I read.

Why I stopped reading: I really try not to DNF early copies, but while I didn’t hate the first half of this book, I could tell that the plot was moving in directions that were going to make me dislike it more (and may have peeked at some other reviews to confirm what happens later on in the story). The characters and themes all felt like they were only being explored at a surface level and it felt like the author was being too forgiving of the predatory professor, which gave me the ick.

Even though this book wasn’t for me, I can see how other people would like it and wouldn’t discourage anyone from giving it a try if they’re interested. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

Thank you NetGalley & orbit for the ARC!

Ooof I feel like I am about to have an unpopular opinion.

On paper, I was expecting to love this book. Academic rivals to lovers, elicit affairs, dark academia vibes, vampires, secret societies?

But unfortunately this ended up being an incredibly dull, overly pretentious, story of three very toxic people. The pacing was off and the characters (other than Ms. D) were flat.

The vibes were there though! This book FELT dark and gothic and eerie and the writing was stunning.

I finished it because of that well done aesthetic but geez I had to push through it.

We’ve all been blessed with another amazing book from S. T. Gibson. Something about her lyrical, atmospheric writing gets me every time. A lesbian Carmilla retelling. YES please! Literally going to reread A Bloody of Dowry right now!

Thanks NetGalley for the E-Arc

S. T. Gibson can do no wrong and she showed us that once again in this gothic retelling of Carmilla! Definitely read it!!

Sapphic vampires meet the Dead Poets Society and learn about the dark side of devotion - in academia and romance. Also, we always talk about shadow daddies, but what about shadow mommies?

If the above sentence piques your interest, you should read this book. An Education in Malice takes place in the same universe as S.T. Gibson's A Dowry of Blood, but is standalone. The novel focuses on Laura and Carmilla, two rival students at Saint Perpetua, a fictional women's college in Massachusetts, and their poetry professor Evelyn De Lafontaine. The book has alternating perspectives between Laura and Carmilla throughout.

I enjoyed the depiction of the relationship between the three main characters and how it morphed over the course of the book and explored how devotion and obsession can play out. The first parts of this book are very atmospheric and set up the characters and the scenery. The pace and stakes escalate around halfway through. I don't want to give too much away, but the book is absolutely worth your time!

I received an eARC via NetGalley & Orbit Books in exchange for my review (my very first one!)