Thank you to NetGalley and RedHook Books for an Advanced Reader’s Copy in exchange for an honest review.

What a fantastic premise. Unfortunately, it fell short of my expectations. A sapphic retelling of Le Fanu’s Carmilla, set at a rural, mid-century university in Massachusetts. The novel has dual POV’s, Carmilla and Laura, with the other main character being their poetry professor, De Lafontaine. All the other characters were underdeveloped and functioned only as plot devices.

There’s an element of enemies to lovers here, which will be a hit with many, but for me, the romance moved too quickly and mostly centered on lust instead of love. Outside of a brief stint of academic competition and their physical attraction to each other, I couldn’t tell why Carmilla and Laura were so intent on being with each other.

The novel is atmospheric and eerie in its setting. I wish Gibson had leaned further into the academic, collegiate element of this story, ala The Secret History. At times, I forgot entirely that Laura and Carmilla were meant to be going to class and completing homework.

Laura and Carmilla’s voices blended throughout the novel; there was little distinction to their personalities. The girls’ relationship with Professor De Lafontaine is twisted, toxic and at some points shocking, but I ultimately failed to understand why Laura and Carmilla continued to look up to her as much as they did. De Lafontaine came off as petulant and ineffectual. The side plot with De Lafontaine’s murderous lover from decades past, Isis, was largely forgotten in the middle of the novel, and then brought back abruptly to end the plot in a way that felt…flat.

Overall, the novel lacked emotion – love, jealousy, surprise, terror, etc. Even Carmilla’s reaction to dying and waking up a vampire felt half-baked and skipped over. Other than the names of the main characters, this story doesn’t echo the plot of Le Fanu’s Carmilla at all.

When a sheltered Episcopalian girl named Laura starts her first year of college, she never could have imagined the academic rivalry that would bloom from her Poetry cohort. Let alone the relationships, both lovely and toxic, that would blossom under the intimidating and alluring Ms. De Lefontaine.
A tale of academic rivalry, jealousy, the toxicity of obsession, the ferocity of love, and how they are all a hair's breadth away from one another--quickly, easily, and sometimes violently entangled.

Sapphic; dominant femme (finally!!!); polyamor-ish, dark academia vibes; Carmilla reimagining; vampires and blood and love! Oh, my!

It is such a privilege to live in a world where S.T. Gibson is published and I have the delight to lose myself in her words.
This was my first read of 2024 and it has set a high bar for the year.
An Education in Malice was immersive in a way I haven't felt while reading in so long.
I floated along these pages and settled into the story like I was sharing in it with Laura and Carmilla.

5/5 stars.
Exactly what I needed to live through at this moment in my life. Beautiful isn't a strong enough word, but I'm failing to find a stronger one. My heart will beat with the blood of this book for a long time to come.

I received an ARC for my honest review.

What a way to start 2024, “an education in Malice” is the perfect book in a lot of senes.

“I had always so loved being loomed over, especially by beautiful people.”

-5 stars ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The story is about a girl named Laura who enters this new all girl school to pursue her love for poetry.
Along the way she meets Carmilla and professor de Lafontaine and everything becomes interesting.

I love the writing style of this book so much, it was so poetic and beautiful I think I annotated and wrote at least a dozens of qoutes.
I loved all of them throughly, I loved Carmilla with her brilliant mind and her eager soul.
I loved laura and her books and her passion.
I even loved De Lafontaine , for who she was. For how misunderstood she was.

Im very glad I got to pick this book as an ARC, and a huge thanks to Net galley and Little brown and Company for providing me with one. Because I dont think it was my typical go to book and otherwise I might have never read this beautiful and enchanting story. ✨

Laura Sheridan is an aspiring writer from a small town in Mississippi. Her father sends her off to Saint Perpetua’s College, where she finds herself in an intense poetry class typically only attended by seniors. Professor De Lafontaine is an incredibly challenging professor, and it seems like she keeps pushing Laura to compete with Carmilla, a senior. Soon, Laura and Carmilla are both drawn into De Lafontaine’s confidence, and secrets, romance, and sinister occurrences abound.

An Education in Malice is a dark academia romance and I enjoyed it so much more than I expected. The writing style fits the setting and time period of the book so incredibly well. The dual POV provided insight into both Laura and Carmilla’s thoughts which was really interesting and provided layers of complexity that would have otherwise been lost. There were some heavy and dark themes in this book, but also lust, and identity. It was all done masterfully.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Redhook Books for the advance review copy.

Dark Academia x Sapphic Vampires

Laura and Carmella have to navigate their perspective of one another. Is it jealousy? Is it love? Is it fear? Will De Lafontaine allow the course to take its way or will she prevent it? Read and find out!

An Education in Malice Review

First off thx st Gibson and NetGalley for the e-arc!

3.75/5 stars! It didn’t quite live up to its predecessor, but I did enjoy it!

Here’s what I liked:
🏫 this takes place at a boarding school, and is great at creating a Dark Academia atmosphere.
📕 it was a pretty quick read, it moved at a fast pace, with accessible writing, and never really felt like a chore to read.
💋one of the selling points for this book was the inclusion of kink. I’m not a HUGE romance reader, so I was afraid I was getting in over my head with this… if you’re equally concerned, fear not- the way ST Gibson weaves the kink elements into the spicier scenes, into the greater plot of the book is done in a pretty accessible way, so I think even if that’s not quite your cup of tea, it’s not going to ruin the experience for you.
🖤 I also really liked the end of Laura and Carmilla’s plotline

Here’s some neutral things that you should probably know:
🧛 This is a companion novel to A Dowry of Blood- you can definitely read one without the other, but I felt like everything I’ve seen has mentioned the romance, and dark academia vibes, then just has the “oh, also, vampires” as an afterthought.
✍🏻 the prose in this book isn’t as purple as A Dowry of Blood. Not good or bad, just something to note.

Ok- final note- here’s what I didn’t quite love about this.

🤷‍♀️ this felt like it wasn’t totally sure what it wanted to be. The first half was peak dark academia vibes, which took a weird left turn about halfway through and became a pretty standard vampire book. Neither half was bad, I think it would have just maybe been more fun if it had stuck with one or the other.
🖊️ speaking of Dark Academia- this had a lot of potential to discuss toxic student/teacher relationships, but it felt like those threads got dropped and left underdeveloped, especially as the vampire story takes over.
♥️ I wasn’t a fan of how DeLefontaine’s story ended.

Overall, if you’re a fan of ST Gibson, and like the vibes of Dark Academia, but are ok going on a bit of a wild ride, I think this one would be a good choice!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this novel in exchange for my opinion! This reviews does include spoilers, for those whole are wanting to read the book

This novel has some of my favorite tropes in it: rivals-to-lovers, opposites attract, and college-age VAMPIRES! I love, love, love the fact that the heroines of this novel actually got a happy ending, it's something that I find to be so far and few between for LGBTQIA+ literature. Laura is a fantastic main character in her own right, and Carmilla really did steal my heart as the novel progressed. I think having a dual POV for these two was so helpful in establishing the character growth they both went through, as well as solidifying their feelings for each other to the reader. The fact that this story took place in a college setting instead of high school made me so, so happy as well. Even though the relationship between the girls and De Lafontaine was still a huge power imbalance, it definitely would have been worse had this taken place in a high school setting. All-in-all, I found this novel to be highly enjoyable and appreciate that the author included a content guidance section in the beginning with information about different trigger warnings the book contained. I always find that to be a mark of a compassionate person; I look forward to reading more works by this author, and would enjoy reading more of Laura and Carmilla's story in the future if the author chose to write more!

3.75 stars, 2.5 spice

A Dowry of Blood is one of my absolute favorite books of all time, so when I saw that S.T. Gibson was releasing a sapphic, dark academia story within the same world as ADOB I had to get my hands on it.

An Education in Malice is a Carmilla retelling. Expect a 1960’s women’s college setting, with sapphics, poetry, vampires and some murder.

S.T. Gibson does not disappoint with their absolutely stunning writing. I can’t wait to share some of my favorite quotes once the book is released. While the actual affection and intrigue between the characters is a bit fast, I found the internal monologues and quotes to be very poignant.

The action of this story goes from almost nil to crazy and so does the spice. Once those things happen the story flies.

My main critiques lie with the speed in which Carmilla and Laura become captivated with one another, with their only connections being their love for poetry and the interest they both have in their professor. I wanted more background on Carmilla’s childhood. And it felt like the character that went through the most self reflection and growth didn’t have a POV.

I absolutely loved the ADOB crossover, it was just the perfect balance of continuing that characters story and tying up this one.
I wouldn’t really call either of these stories romances, though they have elements of romance. They more so look at cycles of abuse and how an undying life affects the perspective on what it means to live.

Thank you to Netgalley and Orbit books for my e-ARC!

Incredible. Fantastic. Everything I want from a book. S.T. Gibson has become an auto-buy author for me and this book is just further proof of that. I love this book so much.

Favorite Character: Elenore
Favorite Aspect: Laura’s evolution and self discovery against a religious backdrop

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

An Education in Malice is a dark academia gothic retelling of Carmilla which is a sapphic vampire story that predates Dracula.

This book is multi-POV and told through the eyes of both Laura, a freshman at St Perpetua’s College, and Carmilla, a senior at St Perpetua’s College. It is riddled with obsession: Laura obsessing over Carmilla and Carmilla obsessing over Ms De LaFontaine, her poetry professor.

There are some pretty major power dynamics in play and some grooming in a sense. If these are triggers for you, please be forewarned that these are major points in the story. Honestly, the relationships and power dynamic abuse really made me nauseous throughout the book, but it really is a central part to the story and I still loved this book regardless.

An Education in Malice is so intoxicating and well written. I love the characters, even when I hate them. This is the first novel I’ve read by ST Gibson, but I’m so excited to read more (particularly, A Dowry of Blood and Evocation)!

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for a review!

Another stunning book from ST Gibson. An Education in Malice follows Laura and Carmilla on their journey into self-discovery and vampirism. If you enjoyed A Dowry of Blood, An Education in Malice is a must-read!

If you are looking for sapphic, vampires and gothic story of love this is the book! I loved that we got the pov of both out MFC's Laura and Carmilla. You get a academic riverlry set in a Saint Perpetua's College in Massachusetts during the later 1960's. This story is filled with obsession, new and old love, dark mystery, lust and blood thirstiness. It was a delightful gothic retelling of Carmilla. I can not wait to read more of S.T. Gibson's work!! Thanks to netgalley, S.T. Gibson and Redhook books for the eArc.

Thank you NetGalley and Orbit for an advanced copy of this book. I rated this book a 3.75/5.

For any reader looking for a dark, melancholic academia with sapphic romance, this is the book for you. The themes in this book are heavy and the fear, obsession, anxiety, and anguish felt by the characters comes through clearly in the writing. The author includes detailed content warnings in the front of the book, which I highly appreciate and wish was the standard. The rivals to lovers was believable and well-placed within the plot. I do wish there was more discussion on power dynamics within relationships and I found the ending to be satisfying but I needed more from it. Iris and her antics are mostly off-page, which was disappointing. If De Lafontaine had a few perspective chapters that would have been satisfying. I wanted Iris's relationship with De Lafontaine explored more. I think it would have been really interesting to more explicitly explore how their relationship mirrored or differed from De Lafontaine and Carmilla's relationship.

I enjoyed this book and the author's writing so much that I added Dowry of Blood to my tbr.

A most anticipated book of 2024 for me, I think I set my expectations too high for this disappointed me.
I really love Gibson’s writing and the atmosphere she creates around her vampires. This book has some surprising scenes that I enjoyed, and others that I felt slowed the plot. The beginning and middle of the book really captured my attention, but I expected the author to make more commentary on abuse of power and dual relationships (in this case professor/student and mentor/protégé). There was a lot of set up for discussions on the issues with these relationships that never happened. And when a second student was added to the student/professor affair, I assumed this would be the individual to highlight all of the wrongness this relationship entailed, but again, it never happened.
Further, there was a villain in this story, though I felt it majorly detracted from the real villain (I.e. the professor taking advantage of the students) and this “villain” was introduced half way through and was resolved quickly with no major repercussions. By the end of the story everyone is as happy as can be and I felt put off given the connotations of the problematic relationships.
Overall, I thought this was going to be my favorite book of 2024 and after reading it, it will certainly not be.

"But then I got what I wanted, and now I don't know what to want. I've always known what I wanted, Laura, I'm positively made of wanting. It's strange, to be sure of so little."
A sapphic dark academic's wet dream, a story dripping with gothic prose, pretentious poetry, and gay vampire s*x. This was my first foray in to S.T. Gibson's work, and I was hesitant at first. That feeling was quickly dashed away as the characters pulled me in to their dark, pretentious world. The language is almost too heavy with metaphor and flourish but it lends itself to sinking you right in to the setting. Also!!!! one of the main characters is FAT!!!!!! and is still an object of affection and literally no one talks about her weight except herself and even then the mentions aren't full on self-loathing. like i was already really sold on the gay vampire sex but that detail pushed it over the edge for me. all in all this is a dark, dirty little romp of a book that pulls you in, deep. thank you to orbit books for the ARC of this seductive, sanguine story!

First of all, thank you NetGalley and Orbit for an arc copy of this book.

The setting, the atmosphere, and the moodiness created in this book were so immersive. I’ve never felt more engrossed in a dark academia setting before, I could almost see the fog rolling in my living room while I read.

Having not been familiar with the original Carmilla story, An Education in Malice re-telling was my first introduction to her story, as well as my first introduction to the lesbian vampire falling for protagonist narrative.

I loved everything about this, the dangerous love, the secrets kept, the friendship, even the public sex! The teacher-student relationship between Carmilla, Laura, and their poetry professor crossed boundaries and created the exact right amount of tension I needed to keep me on my toes. I loved the growth and confidence seen in Laura, and the humility that the wild Carmilla developed as she opened herself to feeling Laura’s love.

I had already planned on picking up A Dowry of Blood prior to reading S. T. Gibson’s newest release, and after enjoying this book so much, it will be moving up in the line for sure.

Thank you to NetGalley and Redhook Books for the opportunity to read rate and review this arc which will be available February 13,2024!

Holy shit. This book? It is a dark sapphic professor students book with heavy HEAVY triggers. I dug this book. I dug the uneven power dynamics, the undulating way the author wrote and the way it made me feel uncomfortable and uneasy. I devoured this book. Ate it right up. There are many instances where the subject matter made me uncomfortable but do not let that deter you from reading it. You will never regret reading this book. It is fantastic!!! It is a VERY DARK Very Sexy book.

An Education in Malice is a dark academia, rivals-to-lovers, sapphic historical fantasy set in Saint Perpetua's College in Boston in the 1960s. A Carmilla retelling and companion novel to A Dowry of Blood, this novel is intoxicating from beginning to end, taking the reader on an angsty, all-encompassing ride filled with obsession, desire, blood, and relationships that take a beating every step of the way.

I found Laura and Carmilla's love story to be so layered and beautiful despite not having any prior knowledge about the legend of Carmilla and having not read A Dowry of Blood. This is a prolonged, slow burn, but the payoff was worth it! S. T. Gibson carefully crafted a beautiful, safe world for these dynamic characters to come to life, and her prose was breathtaking. Ms. De Lafontaine, their poetry teacher who very selectively and exclusively fills her course, is the axis the rest of the characters spin around, and boy, do they spin.

I could've read this for 300 more pages.

Thank you so much to Redhook Books and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

5 ⭐️s
4 🌶️s
Pub Date: 2/13/24

This was such an interesting perspective. I liked the dark academia setting. This one was a bit too dark for me though. I liked the two POVs. But the pace felt awful. Overall, I’m glad it read it, but it wasn’t for me.

4.5 Stars

Much like the spell that De Lafontaine put upon her protégés, Carmilla and Laura, S.T. Gibson put me into a trance with the unfurling of this trio's story in An Education in Malice.

A retelling of the classic vampire novel Carmilla, An Education in Malice explores a dark rivalry and obsession turned relationship between our two main characters. Carmilla and Laura each have their own POV chapters throughout the novel, and I felt that their individual voices were well defined. I was equally obsessed with the dynamics of Carmilla and Laura as the two were with each other. Their interactions and thoughts of one another made this book hard to put down.

Gibson's prose is lovely as well. I found myself pausing at many turns to highlight and reflect upon certain paragraphs or sentences. The poetic influence of the two main characters' education carried through many of Carmilla and Laura's perspectives on their world and the events surrounding them.

My main qualm is in regards to pacing. For example, there is a main conflict introduced around halfway through the novel, and then that plot point is rarely touched upon again until the final 10% of the book.

Nonetheless, readers who love explorations of dark themes in romantic relationships, vampires, and dark academia will adore An Education in Malice. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC in exchange for my review!