An Education in Malice has many of the things I loved in A Dowry of Blood, and it's a really pretty book, full of lush prose and delicious imagery, but it didn't quite make it to that same tier of all-star quality.

First off: if you loved A Dowry of Blood, chances are high you'll love An Education in Malice, even if it didn't work quite as well. The threads of fouled desire that made Dowry so compelling to me continue in Malice, and are given a new immediacy by a narrative that takes place over a matter of months rather than centuries.

Malice is absolutely steeped in lesbian desires and the expression of power, which I really loved. Laura is a wonderful PoV character, and watching her move from wanting to destroy Carmilla, posses her, and replace her in short sequence is wonderfully executed and blisteringly hot (if you like that sort of thing, I suppose)

Where Malice fell short for me was, unfortunately, the Gothic horror elements and the historicity of the setting. The promise of De Lafontaine as a true antagonist is never realized, for all that she preys on Carmilla and Laura. The claustrophobia and powerlessness of a truly juicy domestic horror are hinted at, but Gibson shies away from letting De Lafontaine sink in the second half of the novel to the kinds of destructive possessiveness promised by the premise.

I also found Malice to have the sort of dreamy timelessness of a historical novel set in a romanticized setting, in this case a fictional Catholic women's college, with a lack of grounding historical details. This timelessness worked really well in Dowry, but in Malice I found it really distracting.

All in all, An Education in Malice is a beautiful story, with all the mouthfeel of A Dowry of Blood, but without the same haunting aftertaste. 4/5 stars, easy!

An Education in Malice reminded me a lot of the book Carmilla. It is full of dark academia vibes. There’s tons of drama, secrets, rivalry, etc. If this is your vibe, I think you’d rather enjoy it! I would definitely recommend this book and the author as well!

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book! I really enjoyed Gibson’s previous book, a Dowry of Blood, and was also pleasantly surprised by this. It checks every box - gothic dark academia sapphic romance inspired by Carmilla, and Gibson’s poetic prose does the characters and settings justice.

An Education in Malice was one of my most anticipated books of the year and I’m thrilled to say that it lived up to my expectations; A Dowry of Blood author S.T. Gibson delivers once again with this gorgeously written gothic book.

When Laura leaves her small southern town to go up north and study poetry at the prestigious St. Perpetua’s College, she never expects to fall into an academic rivalry, much less with the mysterious and enigmatic upperclassman Carmilla. The pair vie for the attention of their tutor, De Lafontaine, who seems to delight in pitting them against each other and who harbors dark secrets of her own. As obsession turns from academic to romantic, Carmilla and Laura find themselves in the middle of one of the campus’s best kept (and bloodiest) secrets.

The examination of toxic relationships in contrast to consensual relationships is something that was done well in Dowry, and Gibson continues to do well here. The inherent power dynamic that comes from a vampire and a human romance is something that gets glossed over a lot of times in gothic romance/literature, and this book does a great job exploring and unpacking different power dynamics. It’s dark, emotional, brooding, and explores themes of obsession and seduction - I can’t get enough of Gibson’s prose.

With a 1960s dark academia setting, lush prose, sapphic yearning, and academic rivals to lovers, An Education in Malice delivers on everything I could ask for in a vampire novel.

I have decided that I would like every book I read to be filled with sapphic yearning, dark academia vibes, and vampirism. Having Laura be plus sized also just had a special place in my heart. S.T. Gibson’s writing is just so gorgeous, I wanted to highlight every other line. Before reading An Education in Malice, I did a quick OG Carmilla reread, and loved doing so back-to-back. AEIM isn’t tied to the original storyline so much as it brings the vibes of preying on others. I truly devoured this story, finishing it in two sittings. If you are a fan of vampires, gay wrongs, and a gorgeous Massachusetts setting, look no further. And if you’re not...why?

Thank you to NetGalley, Orbit, and Redhook Books/Hatchette Book Group for sending me this ARC!

S.T. Gibson writes so melodically and beautifully. I read A Dowry of Blood at the end of last year (which was my first Gibson book) and loved how beautifully written it was. I was so excited to read An Education in Malice.

I am so happy I did! This dark academia, gothic tale was so good! It hooked my attention immediately. It is so palatable for the reader, and the pacing is absolutely immaculate!

It’s written in dual POV format. I connected so easily to both main characters as they are written. It touches on some heavy material, but Gibson tells the story brilliantly. This sapphic, coming of age, gothic story takes you on a ride! I physically could not put this book down, as the voice and tone of the story is so easily digestible.

Gibson is a must read author for me now.

It releases on February 15th, and I highly recommend!

***REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS***

I have yet to read A Dowry of Blood, but had heard of all the excitement and surrounding it and the connections that were to come in An Education in Malice.

I have to admit, I hadn’t read the synopsis, and the twist of vampires seriously took me by surprise.

I enjoyed the writing style and hearing the poems of Carmilla and Laura; I loved their relationship and the heat you could feel simmering of the pages.

The first half of the book was riveting, but I found the last half of the story lacking in sustenance. It took an unexpected twist and the story completely changed gears. I was hoping for more dark academia (which is on me for not reviewing the synopsis) so I was disappointed when it moved away from the girls’ schooling.

Overall, it was an enjoyable read and I hope to read more from this author!

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

dark academia sapphic vampires??! sign me up! this one truly checked all my boxes, and even exceeded the expectations that I'd formed based on the premise. i found it to be well paced, and ST Gibson has a very evocative writing style that i really enjoyed. there were several lines that made me stop and take note of them.

the intertwining tale of carmilla, de lafontaine, and laura was incredibly well-crafted. it was dark, but the characters keep you hooked with every new turn in the plot. i am a sucker for a toxic relationship in a dark academia book, and the i really liked the way that the relationships here doubled up and paralleled. it was very effective in highlighting the way that history repeats itself, but also the way that cycles can be broken. and -- of course! -- the vampire aspect is great. sexy and terrifying all at once (just how a vampire book should be, imo!)

highly recommend, five stars. truly, this is right up my alley. thank you so much to the publishers and netgalley for the advanced copy!

An e-ARC was provided by the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions remain my own.

-2 stars

An Education in Malice is a dark academia, gothic, sapphic story with vampirism. While I enjoyed STG’s prose, overall this story is not for me.

The character were difficult to connect with, especially the two FMC’s. I don’t feel their characters were flushed out enough which made it difficult to understand their motivations and actions. The switch from rivals to lovers was also quiet sudden, with little build up and didn’t make a lot of sense to me due to the lack of character building.

The dark academia setting felt more developed, I was quite intrigued into the College setting and would of loved more world building of this setting. Although I do understand this is a companion novel to A Dowry of Blood, which I haven’t read yet. If you are a fan of the dark academia, gothic atmosphere, and vampires. It would be worthwhile to give this book a try.

There is a list of trigger warnings listed at the beginning of the book.

Without giving too much away, as I do believe it is better to go into blind. An Education in Malice is a Sapphic retelling of Carmilla, it is also set in the same world as A Dowry of Blood. The story follows Laura who is incredibly naïve when she began her studies at Saint Perpetua's, an all girls boarding school nestled in Massachusetts. Laura becomes infatuated by academic rival, Carmilla. Laura & Carmilla alternate povs was a great way to get a better understanding of their character along with the rivalry between the two.

I give this book a rating of 4.5, the writing was beautiful, however with how big of a role Professor De Lafontaine played I wish we got more from her. I also found the villian in the story fell a little short and almost random? The ending was giving "Happily Ever After" & I feel like an alternate ending would have been better.

”Right and wrong don't exist, Laura. They're fairy tales made up by priests and parents. There is only art and ugliness, and I'm willing to suffer any indignity for the sake of art.”

Tropes:
Dark Gothic Academia.
Rivals to Lovers
Vampires
Sapphic

Thank you NetGalley & Orbit for a copy of the ACR in exchange for a review!

4.5/5 Stars
I love dark academia ( especially academia including rivals ), and I love vampires, so the premise of those mixed together was super appealing. This book is a Carmilla reimagination. I love the story of Carmilla so I read this book in one sitting.
S.T. Gibson is amazing at creating atmospheres in this book and it draws you in deeper as you progress in the story. I liked both our characters Laura and Carmilla and thought the sapphic romance was beautiful. And the scenes that were spicy were well written. I also enjoyed their teacher but not always, she rubbed me the wrong way sometimes but only because I couldn’t understand some of her actions.
Overall I’m excited to read a Dowry in Blood after reading this book since S.T. Gibson made it such an amazing experience. Thank you to Redhook Books and Netgalley for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

The first half of this book was so good. I was entrenched in this world and this writing; I couldn’t put the ebook down. The second half? It was all downhill from there. The pacing changes, as did the direction of the plot. The plot itself became very one dimensional and I felt like it was added in later to lengthen the novel.

First half—easily 4-5 stars.
Second half — 2 stars max.

When I read that this was basically a Carmilla retelling I jumped at the chance to read it as soon as I possibly could. This is a sapphic gothic academia. I enjoyed the characters a majority of the time and found myself breezing through the book in one sitting.
This is told from dual POV and while I found it a quick read there was a few times that my attention was pulled away as my ADHD decided it needed a small break here in there during a few areas due to pacing. I sadly haven’t read A Dowry of Blood before reading this, though I own it and I feel like I need to go read it now and come back and do a reread of this within the next month.
Overall I enjoyed and am excited to see what S.T. Gibson give us next.

What a breathtaking exploration of lust, love, and darkness. This is an addictingly erotic WLW, vampiric dark academia novel - the other side of the If We Were Villains Shakespearean MLM coin. I haven't read Carmilla, so I can't speak to it as a retelling, but it certainly stands on its own regardless of whether or not you know the source material. The balance of obsession, violence, and longing between the three main characters is lushly gothic and creates a great atmosphere for the book.

However, some of the language used in the writing style is stiff in a way that took me out of the moment a few times - I wasn't sure if it was an intentional choice by the author or just a style choice that didn't work for me. A few major plot moments felt a bit rushed (like Carmilla's turning), some characterization fell flat (like Laura being very bright yet asking questions that had already been answered), and I felt like Laura's friendship with Elinore was overlooked at times. The ending was also quite neat and tidy for a story that I thought was setting me up for a tragic ending - although I liked the ambiguity of Laura's final moments on the page. Overall, I was left craving a bit more depth. Despite that, I enjoyed reading this and would still recommend it to anyone thinking about picking it up! Definitely a new must-read for the dark academia/horror girlies.

Thank you to RedHook and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book is about desire. Whether it be for blood, acceptance, fulfillment of sexual fantasies, it's about desires and what people will do to satisfy them. I was surprised that Gibson didn't attempt to put much of a personal spin on the night world, but continued to focus on the theme of desire. I feel like Laura gave us the most honesty and insight into her character. There were some shades of Twilight here, as well as a bit of Dracula shadowing. All in all a fairly good read, set in an unusual time frame, but not offering up much in the way of historical context.

Overall 3.75 ⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley, S. T. Gibson, and Redhook for access to this arc.

This is the first sapphic dark academia romance that I have read before and I enjoyed it. I think the romance aspect in the book was solid but I was a little disappointed with the dark academia aspect. I feel like we lost out on some of the main points of dark academia as the book was mainly in a private setting with only one professor. We got the dark part of dark academic but were lacking a little on the academic aspect.

I am a big fan on the enemies to lovers trope and the book does such a great job at building that and creating dynamic characters. I also love a dual POV and was grateful to that in the book to show the increasing tension, and then love.

Overall, I enjoyed the book but felt as if there were some aspects that could have been better developed. Because of that, it is just shy of a 4 star read for me. I would recommend this to my friends and my book clubs to read once it comes out!

Disclaimer: Look, normally I polish these up and try to balance them out, but this time I pretty much gave up halfway through turning my reading notes into a review. I do this thing where once I really dislike something, I have a hard time seeing the good in it. So, have my jumbled thoughts as they are or skip them, but be aware if you read on that I never listened when my mama told me to keep my negative opinions to myself. I'm sure there are tons of folks who really enjoyed this, and you'll have to depend on them to tell you the good parts, because I just can't be assed.

Also, there will be spoilers.

---

Ah, how lovely-- a queer main character from the landmass between New Orleans and Mobile. It's so rare to find myself spending time with a character from my Deep South state, and I was ultra bummed that not only did Laura fall incredibly flat for me but so too did the rest of this highly anticipated book.

At first, I enjoyed Laura's quiet intensity, her observant otherness, her introvertedness. But there was virtually zero development. She never struggled with homesickness in such a new environment, never really grappled with her sexuality (which seems like it would have been more of an issue in that time period), and even the inclusion of her BDSM proclivities felt awkwardly done and was left virtually unexplored considering how much it was brought up.

While I enjoyed the ambience and the dark academia vibes, the three main characters all felt pretentious and naive, despite one of them being like 200 years old (though she acts more like a brooding toddler). The whole book felt more juvenile than Dowry of Blood (not just because of the age of the MCs), and often I found myself noticing kind of jarring words or anachronisms. Plus, the poet tropes made me roll my eyes more than once.

The whole teacher relationship was ultra icky. It's giving Sapphic My Dark Vanessa, but kind of extra insidious in that the teacher is portrayed as less grotesque because she doesn't actually have sex with her student (despite clear abuse and plenty of other lines crossed). And don't forget that she's pretty hot (don't worry, you'll keep being reminded), so that makes it kind of forgivable to be an abusive, predatory turd. So she gets a stunted little redemption arc? No thanks.

The emotions displayed by the characters often seemed exaggerated, even when considering their age and circumstances. It's the same kind of build up of small injustices as Dowry of Blood, but less compelling. The relationship dynamics felt very similar. It's obvious that this is an area of interest for the author, but it just didn't work here as well as DoB imo.

A few nitpicky complaints-- parishes are a Louisiana thing, not Mississippi. Also, there are also a LOT of stereotypes and judgements about Mississippians (and other Southerners) that we often face when travelling or meeting people from other areas; none really came up. There was no trace of her heritage, culture, upbringing, accent, or really anything else that would have made me feel connected to her as a fellow Mississippian. She could have been from literally anywhere podunk, and it only really bugged me because it got mentioned multiple times-- as if it was going to play any role whatsoever in her story or character development. This made Laura's experience feel less authentic, and the first one should have definitely been caught during early editing.

Some lines straight up gave me the ick. "She kissed me with a martyr’s agonized desperation, like I was the only sword she ever wanted to fall on." Although it doesn't happen often, I get really bad second hand embarrassment, and this book really pushed that button over and over and over again.

The scene were Carmilla is turned feels rushed. In fact, the whole villain plot like felt like kind of an afterthought, including their bumbling victory. Like, did they not tell Carmilla the plan? And if not, why did she agree to go do any of it? Honestly, the teacher should have been the villain. Point blank. The only thing I really cared about what seeing them rebel against her and free Carmilla from her control. This story did not even really need vampires. In fact, it would probably have been more compelling without them. If keeping the vampire element, I feel like the story would have been better told from Carmilla and D's perspectives.

The situation at Magdalena's house was cringy and uncomfortable. The characters and their actions often don't make much sense. Can written characters give uncanny valley? Because that's the closest thing to describing how they make me feel.

It occasionally felt like there was a sudden attempt at inserting of a sense of habit/familiarity where there just shouldn't be one. These girls have barely kissed, and Laura has barely ever been bossy with her (despite her oft mentioned desires), and she writes things like:

"Laura silenced me with a kiss. One of our kind of kisses, firm and demanding."

'“Undress for me,” she said, in that tone of voice I could never resist."

Like, when would you have resisted it? You've barely spoken outside of class and poetry lessons. They go from lust/hate to "I can't live without you" in no time flat, and it's just not believable.

There is not enough separation between what's happening in characters' heads and in reality-- and it gives everyone the ability to seemingly read minds and form familiarity where there shouldn't be any.

I'm just so frustrated because this book should have worked for me in every single way. Sapphic. Vampires. Kink. And yet almost every aspect of it felt weird and annoying.

---

This exchange almost took me out:

“You’re magnificent,” she said. “All that rage and beauty . . . it’s the stuff they write poems about.”
“Can I put my arms down now?”
“Yes.”'

This was the culmination of their first private sex, and it's just a big womp womp womp.

---

"What sort of creature had been entombed beneath Saint Perpetua’s? What did De Lafontaine want with her? And was she really responsible for that grisly murder on the quad?"

Lines of questioning like this made me groan, because they had already been pretty explicitly answered. Why did this information just evaporate straight out of their brains?

As a big, fat Dowry of Blood fan, I'm. Just. So. Disappointed. But hey, I don't have to love every work by every author I've ever adored. I'm glad to see Gibson is staying true to the themes that interest her, and I truly do look forward to reading the next thing she puts out.

This book was an unexpected surprise. I’ve been craving something like this for awhile - beautifully written sapphic romance, gothic academia, enemies to lovers, and forbidden love?! SIGN ME UP.

I devoured this book in just a few hours. Regardless of any complaints I may have, I won’t read anything that fast if it’s not good.

Plot: 5/5
Character development: 3/5
World: 2.5/5
Romance: 5/5
Smut: 2/5
Spice level: 1.5/5
Overall rating: 4*

Note: I don’t normally factor smut into the rating unless it’s a selling point of the book.

This is a Carmilla retelling - though aside from the love interest being Laura, the paths waver quite a lot (makes sense since it is a 150+ year old story at this point). I love Carmilla and found myself worried for certain things, thinking it may still follow the original more closely. The impending sense of doom followed me through most of the book, especially as I became more fond of the characters. I think that added to the overall dark feel of the story for me, but I won’t spoil!

I have seen some booksellers marketing this as a Dracula retelling for some reason. I’m not sure why, but aside from there being vampires I don’t see it so don’t expect that.

The characters were charming but I felt that their personalities were flat at times. I found De Lafontaine really interesting at first, but as time went on I was a bit disappointed with her development. The story itself was enchanting though and I couldn’t help but be immersed in it.

Laura is thirsty early on; she’s inexperienced and virginal, but has done her research. Some of her openness towards things is refreshing and also unexpected, though not realistic. It’s fiction based on vampires though so that is what it is, I can suspend belief regardless of the religious setting.

There’s not a lot of spice - it’s mostly tension build up, with a brief smattering of scandalous happenings later on. What happens is hot, but not particularly intense. I’ve really only found super hot sapphic spice in fanfiction, unfortunately.

It’s considered a dark romance, however I didn’t find it too dark (if at all). It kind of all seemed pretty normal to me, but I think that may be subjective based off of how dark you usually go. The dark romance spectrum is large. 😅


When I got approved for the ARC, I nearly squealed because I’m a nobody. Thank you so much to NetGalley for providing me with a copy to review.🙏

I'd like to thank NetGalley and Redhook for providing me with an egalley of this book to read and give my honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
A dark academia tale filled with secrets, blood, and mystery as two girls navigate the world of poetry with their professor who is much more than she seems.
I love a good dark academic tale. Especially one filled with mystery and a bit of the paranormal. So I was excited to dive into this one to see what it held for me. I knew nothing of the background story, this being toted as a retelling of a story called Carmilla. Since I've read no other Gibson, I wasn't sure what to make of it. So I definitely went in blind and not knowing what to expect. Then I read a few reviews after I finished the book and realized that perhaps I would have benefitted from reading A Dowry In Blood first as it is the same world.
Let's start with what I enjoyed. I love a good tale told from dual POV, and this book gave us Laura and Carmilla. It was nice to see how things were progressing in the story through their eyes as their points of view were vastly different. This way of telling the story easily characterized both Laura and Carmilla. One being quite innocent while the other was much more worldly. The dynamic between the two vasillated from hatred to pure attraction.
Speaking of the romance, it was quite interesting. The book offered good sapphic representation. I have read very few books in this genre so this gave me more education in this area. The romance was fraught with tension and a push and pull between not only the main characters but the professor who tied them together. And the addition of the professor almost made it a love triangle, but not quite. It was hard to pin down exactly what we were supposed to get from the relationship between the professor and Carmilla. In all honesty, I had no empathy for the characters Gibson created. In the long run they were boring for me and I didn't feel invested to worry about what would or would not happen to them.
The pacing was a bit slow for me. I honestly felt like there wasn't much that pushed the chapters going forward for me except the fact that I was finding the story quite odd and needed to know how it would end up.
The paranormal aspect was good but didn't quite incorporate enough of the vampiric aspect I would have liked to see. One seen, at Magdelena's, a socialite of vampire society was quite interesting and brought in the vampiric world. But besides that one scene, I didn't see much world building when it came to it. But, in all honesty, you could have removed the vampire aspect and the story would have remained the same. I didn't feel like it leant anything new and exciting to the story.
Overall, I wasn't a fan of the writing or the story but it was nice enough. I think fans of gothic romance will enjoy it overall.

A Sapphic vampire romance, with great dark academia vibes, but the main characters didn't jump off the page for me.

It's hard not to compare this book to A Dowry of Blood, since both stories take place in the same universe, and there's even a little character crossover (although you do not need to read ADoB first). I felt like I knew exactly what ADoB was trying to tell me about feminism, power and obsession. With an Education in Malice, I'm not sure what the book was trying to tell me.

An Education in Malice follows three main characters, two students at a women's school, and the poetry teacher they are obsessed with. Early on we know that the teacher is a vampire, and one student is her willing blood donor. There is a rivalry between the two students, which turns into a romance. The teacher plays a strange role of mother, sister, jealous ex, and goddess for our two students, which I didn't fully understand.

S.T Gibson did a great job with the setting. I felt like I was at that school, in the ancient library, touching the books. I also liked the idea that our main characters started as rivals before realizing their complimenting strengths. The beginning of the book was my favourite. I didn't want to leave the poetry class where our rivals were competing and discussing the big themes within poetry. Unfortunately, I didn't fall in love of any of our main characters. They didn't seem to move the story forward, but wait for it to happen to them, which led to pacing issues.

Thank you to NetGalley and Redhook Books for this advanced reader copy.

This book is best read at a house party where you don't know anyone, but everyone is beautiful, relaxed and looking at you like you're their next snack.