I read Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson, and it was one of my favorite reads last year. I was very excited to sink my teeth (lol) into An Education in Malice.

Taking place in a Massachusetts university in the late 1960s, S.T. Gibson builds a dark and sultry atmosphere about a poetry seminary led by the mysterious Professor De Lafontaine. Laura, an incoming freshman, is immediately drawn to the professor, but quickly learns that a fellow student is particularly possessive over her beloved professor. Enter Carmilla, a blunt and determined senior who is determined to keep De Lafontaine all to herself. Thus begins a bitter and intense competition to be the center of their professor’s attention. However, when De Lafontaine decides to bring Laura into her and Carmilla’s complicated and borderline inappropriate relationship all parties involved will be changed forever.

I throughly enjoyed this book. I fell in love S.T. Gibson’s writing in Dowry of Blood, and that same romantic prose is present in An Education in Malice. This a beautifully written story about toxic relationships and obsessions but also overcoming them and growing from the experience.

S.T. Gibson is becoming an author that I’ll devour up any book she writes.

Thank you NetGalley for the e-ARC!

thank you to netgalley and orbit for the advanced copy, all opinions are my own.

a dowry of blood was one of the easiest 5* reads i’ve had in the past few years. i loved it. i was so excited to read an education in malice because of it. and it just.. ended up really underwhelming.

the beginning is eery and sets up a great unsettling feeling—at the start, i was very optimistic. the unsettling feeling faded for me around 15%, though, and from there the story is a bit bland. the pacing is fine, but there’s no real climax to the story, so i kept waiting for a peak that never came.

this book is told in two first person POVs, laura and carmilla. laura’s characterization was inconsistent, and while i assume some of this was intentional, overall it did not come across well. carmilla was a bit one-note, but an interesting character nonetheless. despite the differences in the characters, though, their POVs are written so similarly that i kept forgetting whose POV i was reading. as for their romance and chemistry, there were highs and lows for me; sometimes their chemistry was really strong, but others their interactions were a bit flat and boring.

one thing i loved about dowry is the tone and the language; the writing is so beautiful and the emotions come through so strongly. this was really missing from an education in malice though, which surprised me—the story is perfect for that style of writing, and i would’ve enjoyed the story so much more. dowry also had a lot of moral complexity with the characters, and it surprised me that this story lacked that moral greyness.

i’m pretty familiar with the original carmilla story, which definitely played a big part in my enjoyment of this book (not entirely sure if in a good way or a bad way). overall, i just wasn’t impressed, and i will absolutely admit that my high expectations didn’t help. despite my complaints, this is a solid 3* because a. the dark academia vibes were there, despite losing the unsettling feeling quickly; b. it’s a very easy read, and i did still enjoy it; and c. it’s sapphic vampires. come on.

(also, i’ve seen this advertised on twitter as f/f/f, and just to be clear: it isn’t. there is no point in the book where it’s anything other than f/f)

I became obsessed with this book after reading just the first few chapters. Gibson transports you to a rich dark academia setting and delivers everything you could want and more. I went into this book pretty much blind and can not understate how much I’ve loved reading it. I practically devoured it!

Academic enemies to lovers, 1960s Massachusetts, dark academia, sapphic love… what else could you possibly need?

Thank you to Netgalley and Orbit for this arc! My opinions are my own.

Set in the gothic halls of a Massachusetts University, Laura is a talented writer who catches the attention of her mysterious professor, De Lafontaine. However, De Lafontaine’s favorite student, Carmilla doesn’t take too kindly to Laura’s talents nor her taking the spotlight from her. They quickly become rivals with an underlying attraction for each other. When Laura discovers that Carmilla and her professor’s relationship goes beyond a normal teacher and student, she is brought into a world full of danger, thirst and obsession.

I was so excited to receive this arc after loving Dowry of Blood so much. If I’m honest, I have mixed feelings about this one. Like Dowry, the writing is stunning!! Gibson is fantastic at creating an atmospheric world. I loved Carmilla and Laura falling for each other and learning more about themselves in the process. However, I felt a little distanced from the characters, especially with De Lafontaine. I needed more lore about her. I understand why she is the way she is, but I never felt sorry for her, nor did I know if I was meant to feel bad for her.

Overall, I really enjoyed it!

3.5 or 3.75 stars- will need to think about it.

I don't even know what this book was trying to achieve.

The one good thing I can say about An Education in Malice is that I felt it successfully procured a sort of gloomy, gothic atmosphere.

Other than that.. it was surprisingly bland. Not much really happens. I've never read dark academia before, but this didn't feel very 'academic'. At the start of the book there is definitely an 'academic' component incorporated, but then it just sorta disappears. Then there's the matter of De Lafontaine: I never felt the supposed allure of her character that was apparently so present and compelling to Carmilla and Laura. De Lafontaine just seemed like an annoying and overly controlling bitch, so it was hard to understand the other character's decisions and infatuation regarding her. As far as the plot that randomly appeared half way through: there was no urgency or tension, the characters didn't seem to care at all. It just seemed like eventually they were like ah shit ok I guess we better fix this issue. There aren't really any characters either. Laura makes some friends in the beginning, but ultimately these characters are so underdeveloped and irrelevant they end up just disappearing.

It also felt like the author tried to force kink into the book and I don't know why. It was never really explored properly and instead there were just weird, jarring and out of place lines in Laura's internal monologue.

I don't think I got anything out of reading this book. Although not painfully bad, it was scattered and unfocused. At the end of it I'm left wondering what was the point?

This was an interesting book. I never knew where it was going to go. Just when I thought I had it figured out it didn’t go the direction I thought which I really liked. It wrapped up so quickly in the end.

First of all, thank you so much for providing an advanced reader's copy for me to read and review. I appreciate it! I'm a big fan of S.T. Gibson, after having read A Dowry of Blood. It was a blissful read, of beautiful prose, of a stunning narrative that brings a new light to an old tale. As such my expectations for An Education in Malice was quite high - I was intrigued by the polyamorous queer women, the rivalry in a dark academia setting, and obviously, vampires, which rank just below fae in the type of supernatural creatures I love.

I entered the book with much excitement. I was happy to meet Laura, reading that she was fat and self-conscious and finding out that she was sheltered, somewhat reclusive, Episcopalian and yet her tastes ran the opposite of innocence. It's a dynamic character, as Carmilla and Professor D also seem to be when we meet them later on.

However, as I continued reading, I felt that while I initially liked the idea of Carmilla and Laura competing for their Professor's attention, I soon recoiled in horror at the Professor pitting them against each other. This was not the polyamorous situation I was expecting. It felt more like a love triangle to me, worse - it felt reminiscent of My Dark Vanessa , which I was fine with it - if the book didn't end up going the way it went with.

What made it worse too was that, I was not convinced of the romantic dynamic between Carmilla and Laura. I did not think the romantic buildup was believable, even if the sexual chemistry was. This was especially disappointing because Gibson's prose is lush and beautiful, something that stays true from her last work. It doesn't have as much impact as it should have because the narrative buildup just did not work for me between Laura and Carmilla.

I also was not sold on the Professor's and Laura's dynamic - towards the end of the novel, De Lafontaine claims that she treasures Laura too, and it's continuously noted that Laura likes her back, but I didn't believe it considering the illicitness and resentment they held each other in the latter half of the book.

All this to say, I was disappointed on the sapphic polyamory situation and felt the book was dragging on until Isis showed up. I sat up in my seat when she appeared and felt absolutely compelled by the toxic relationship she shared with De Lafontaine. I wanted to know more about them. I wanted to see more scenes of them together. They were the most interesting part of this book, and I liked the scene were De Lafontaine killed Isis. Absolutely killer, pun intended.

I really wished I liked this but it was not for me. Regardless, I look forward to what else S.T. Gibson cooks up and all their other future works. Thank you again!

I put this down at the 60% mark. Sadly, it was not for me.

I don't think this book is bad at all; the writing style was beautiful, and the atmosphere was very lush and fit with the Gothic storyline.

The issue I had with it was that I've never really been much of a fan of classic literature, and this felt like classic literature (it is a Carmilla retelling, after all). The main characters focused a lot on their love of poetry, which I couldn't find in myself to care that much about.

I was also really sad about how little we saw of characters that weren't Laura, Camilla, or Defontaine. I like having casts of 4 or more characters. This book just left me feeling bored, and I couldn't find myself wanting to know how it ended.

This book and I were just not meant to be, and that's ok.

Thank you to netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review :)

I really enjoyed this book. I went into it a bit unsure as I hadn’t read previous books by this author and dark academia isn’t always my favorite. This was a fairy fast, easy read and now I’m very interested in reading the author’s other works.

The main reason that this book isn’t a 5 star for me is the relationship between Carmilla and Laura. While I love both enemies-to-loves and instalove as tropes, it seemed like this book tried to use both at the same time, making their relationship feel rushed and a bit awkward. I would have loved to see their relationship be a complete enemies-to-lovers arc as I felt that fit their personalities and interactions with each other far more.

There were so many things that I did like about this book as well though. I loved the time period that it was set it. Something about the uniforms, constant smoking of cigarettes, and record players completely immersed me. Additionally, thought I felt that Carmilla and Laura’s relationship moved fast, I did enjoy how genuine it felt and how it didn’t follow the usual trope of the vampire being the dominant one in the relationship.

All in all, I really liked this book and the author’s writing, I just wish it had been longer so that the multiple story lines didn’t feel so hasty.

3.75/5
“An Education in Malice” is a retelling of the gothic classic Carmilla (i had no know of the original characters and plot of Carmilla so i do no comparison as i read). It’s set in the deep dark forgotten hills of massachusetts st perpetua college. we follow the characters Laura whose new to the school, as well as Carmilla who quickly she’s her as a rival (we do get pov from both of them). We watch the tension between them grow as well as their battling of affection from their poetry professor, De Lafontaine (please check trigger/content warning).

(this part of review has minor spoilers)
I have not read Gibson’s other works though I’ve heard a lot of praises for “A Drowy of Blood”. The writing is very quick pace and character oriented. I read this in 2 days and I could’ve in 1 if i had the time. We dont see much outside the main scene of the 3 characters, Laura, Carmilla, and DeLafontaine (and so many chapters end with the next starting “i didn’t see x for so so many days”). I really enjoyed reading the complexity of their relationship with one and another. as well as the power imbalance between the professor and students. however, I feel as Laura and Carmilla relationship shifts their characters started to merge in the writing. there were multiple times where I had to check the chapter to recall whose POV it is currently.

Overall, not bad but I did DNF this at around 65%

I love the Carmilla retelling aspect, and there are definitely not enough DARK sapphic romances out there. However, this became very cliche very quickly and I could tell where this was going.

The friendships Laura makes in the beginning quickly become irrelevant and honestly, so does the teacher, de LaFontaine.

I think there was definitely enough to keep the story going, and I'm glad it was relatively short, but overall can seem flat to some ears that are used to more intricate storytelling.

Received an e-ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

This was such an amazing read. Vampires, dark academia, sapphic romance, yes, please, and thank you.

I've never read a book by this author before and didn't really know what to expect. I loved that the chapters changed to be from the perspective of Laura or Carmilla (the two main characters). I found I got to know them well! The book had a slow start but really built up as the story progressed, which I didn't find to be a bad thing because I really enjoyed getting to know the character's dynamics and their development.

In terms of the romance, I want to say that it felt like enemy to lovers kind of vibe. There was some intense sexual tension, and the smut scenes were spicy af! Omg.

I truly loved this book and really want to read more from S.T. Gibson.

An education in malice and in magical mysteries. This book definitely was magical and put me into a dark academi-esque world that has me from page 1.

Not finishing this book. I’m 50% through it and there absolutely no plot. The first 50% is so repetitive it could have been shrunk down.

It felt incredibly juvenile, the pacing was all over the place, and I wasn’t invested in anyone. Halfway through there’s a major new plot point introduced, and we all but abandon the previous one. This really annoys me cause I was waiting for the first one to be finished and not just abandonded.

Sapphic vampire poets! What else needs to be said, absolutely fab! A lovely historic dark academia set in a women's college, dark, and memorizing!

I devoured this book in one sitting. Set in a small New England women’s college, ST Gibson delivers us a delicous reimagining of Carmilla that is filled with poetry, absinthe, lust, and vampire salons. I was so absorbed for the first half, but felt the third act could have been a bit stronger. Laura and Carmilla’s voices started to sound indistinguishable so I was often a bit confused if I didn’t remember whose POV we were in, but overall this had beautiful prose and was a fresh take on a classic vampire tale.

After loving A Dowry in Blood, and loving An Education in Malice even more, ST Gibson is now an auto-buy author for me. This is a Carmilla retelling, but I am not familiar with the source material, so I had no idea what to expect. Set in the same world as A Dowry of Blood (but independent of that book), we follow Laura, a freshman at Saint Perpetua’s College in Massachusetts in the 1960s. Laura unconventionally gets admitted into Professor De Lafontaine's demanding poetry class, where we meet Carmilla, who becomes her academic rival. Carmilla and De Lafontaine have their own dark secrets and obsessions, and soon Laura finds herself in the middle of it.

This was a truly great dark academia book, that has a f/f/f love triangle, vampires, uneven balances of power, and a great atmosphere. Gibson's lush writing lives on, and really sealed the rating for me. I can't wait for their next book Evocation that releases later this year.

Thank you to Redhook and NetGalley for the e-ARC! This publishes February 13, 2024.

Went into this book pretty blind only a few days after finishing A Dowry of Blood. Oh my gosh did it leave me wanting more. If I could give this ten stars I would.
Thank you so much to Orbit books and NetGalley for the E- Arc

If you like gothic, dark academia, vampires and a sapphic romance and a little rivals to lovers then this is the book for you. This book follows Laura who is raised in a religious home and has been hiding a side of her that is not welcomed in her home. Leaving to college and meeting new people is making it harder for her to suppress these feelings especially when she meets her academic rival and finds herself competing for the instructors praise, but then the plot twist hits!

An Education in Malice is written by S.T Gibson who also wrote Dowry of Blood.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this arc of An Education in Malice for a honest review.