Hello, I received this book as an ARC but unfortunately had to not continue to read it due to certain triggers I am still overcoming. I hope this does not affect the book because it could be a great book, I just cannot read it. Best of luck!!

I was interested in this book because of the authors other book, A Dowery of blood. This is another vampire book which follows to poetry students as they rival for the approval of their professor the illustrious De La Fontaine. I hesitate to mention more about the plot because it was so good and better to be discovered on your own. This book handles some dark themes like relationships with imbalance of power and obsession. This book has quite a bit of seductive sexual scenes. Overall I really enjoyed this. I love the aspect of rivaling students.

“Which way I fly is Hell; myself am Hell”

It is simply no surprise that I love this book because I love love love dark academia of all kinds.

Reading this was simply luxurious, it’s incredibly well written, the prose is honestly beautiful. It was a treat to read this.

I really enjoyed the story, I don’t usually lean towards vampires for my fantasy creatures but I deeply enjoyed this. Everything about this story felt grand and it is the very definition of dark academia. Love love love and can’t recommend it enough.

“Outside, a new day dawned crimson and clear.”

I thought the prose was good, and I like the dark academia and vampiric aspects of this book, but ultimately, parts of the story fell a bit flat for me and left me wanting more. I felt it didn’t really offer anything I hadn’t read before, but I think the right audience would really love this.

I did receive an ARC of this book from Redhook Publishing via NetGalley, but the review is honest and my own.

Dark academia! Rivals to lovers. This book was just a little slow for me. It got hard to read at points. I feel the character development was not to my liking. Might give it another try and a later date.

I am truly sorry that I didn't read this earlier because this book was amazing.
-Amazingly written female characters that were relatable and complicated
-Prose was gorgeous and I clipped so many quotes because the writing was just great. I am not sure I have read something this well written in a long time.
-Plot was great, and I like that the supernatural elements weren't campy. They felt very natural in this world.

I am absolutely recommending this to others to read and would love to read more from this author.

This was ok! Definitely no where near A Dowry of Blood in quality. I found the prose lovely, but the development of the main relationship lacking. I also wasn’t overwhelmed by the story arc. One element I think is being misread is the professor’s changes towards the end of the text, I definitely don’t think she’s sympathetic or we’re meant to appreciate her “transformation.” She’s grotesque and awful and the initial move to embrace Laura is clearly a recognition that her initial methods of power and control are failing. Carmilla and Laura may have complex feelings about her, but the narrative is clear she’s a monster.

Beautiful prose
Sadly didn’t catch me with the plot to care for the characters much.
I put this one down at around 40% and never looked back.

ST Gibson is at it again with another brilliant take on a vampiric classic. Playing with many character names and comparable situations related to Carmila while making it more fully her own in a more modern (yet not contemporary) dark academia setting. This novel took in an approach of some romance, horror, and suspense.

This gave all of the dark academia vibes i was looking for! Glad i had to opportunity to read this one and can’t wait to go and read more from this author.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I keep trying and trying with lesbian vampire novels (A Long Time Dead and Thirst were both not really for me in terms of the romance), and although I liked this, it was not my favorite.

The author has a warning in the beginning that there will be manipulation and grooming by an older teacher and an unhealthy student-teacher relationship, and she was right. Both Carmilla and later Laura become obsessed with their poetry teacher, De Lafontaine, who is a vampire and is manipulating their relationship and using Carmilla as a feeding source, before some complications arise with the arrival of Laura.

The setting was pretty cool, at a women's college in decades past, and I could easily imagine the dark academia vibe the author was going for. This would be a great book to read in fall in a library! I also liked most of the characters aside from De Lafontaine, actually. I think if this had been a story only about Carmilla and Laura, without De Lafontaine's toxic influence, I would have really <i>loved</i> it. Carmilla and Laura's relationship was well written and I could feel their chemistry from the very first time they met. In terms of romance, I liked this more than the other lesbian vampire novels I have read by far!

My main complaint outside of De Lafontaine was the pretentiousness of the poetry stuff, my god. It was sometimes painful to read about, but I am clearly not a poet myself so take that with a grain of salt. Overall I think I would recommend!

I love ST Gibson’s writing and the atmosphere she creates with her books, but I definitely felt something lacking with this one compared to a dowry of blood. I didn’t feel like I was given the chance to connect with any of the characters and their dialogue felt stiff. The plot and mystery were interesting enough to keep me going but I’m hoping to see more character development in her next books!

I went into this fairly blind other than knowing it was dark Sapphic academia (all things I love). I really liked it as an update on the Carmilla story, but generally didn't love it as a whole.

Loved this! Unique and spellbinding and engaging.it’s not my normal read but I’m glad I gave it a chamce

3.5

I adored A Dowry of Blood when I first read it so I was excited to see S.T. Gibson's take on Carmilla even though the dark academia aspect made me less excited about this work. An Education in Malice takes place in a remote Massachusetts boarding school in the 1960s and features the loneliness and sapphic yearning of the original.

Laura Sheridan is the new girl from small town Mississippi and gets drawn into the obsessive relationship between Carmilla, her academic rival, and their poetry professor De Lafontaine. I struggled getting into this book. Where A Dowry of Blood pulled me in right away with the atmosphere and prose, An Education in Malice had a lot of info dumps and some wishy-washy world building that left me pretty bored and then once I finally became invested in the plot, I felt like it wrapped up too quickly.

What I appreciate most about Gibson's work both here and in A Dowry of Blood, is the thematic explorations. This take on vampires really highlights the sensuality and power dynamics involved in traditional vampire lore.

Overall, I don't think this is a bad book but I think I had set my expectations too high after loving their first book, and I don't think this fully executed as successfully as A Dowry of Blood did.

I was really into this the first time I picked it up. My pre-review notes even have positive things! "compulsively readable. beautiful writing. great tension between the characters." But I'll be honest, I saw two people give this a negative review and now I have no desire to continue it. Gibson's writing can be a little too flowery for me and I don't love how embedded "the church" is into all of her stories. This might be my last S.T. Gibson.

A fun take on the classic lesbian vampire story! I thought this was dark and compelling, and the chemistry between Carmilla and Laura was well done.

I really enjoyed this book! I have enjoyed all of this author’s books. I would love to see this book adapted to film like another of his books.

I thought this was great, and I think I enjoyed it even more than A Dowry of Blood. It was creepy, sexy, and mysterious, and I loved the relationship between the two main characters and its complexity.

My only complaint is that I wish it was only told from Laura’s perspective. I think that would’ve made the story more mysterious, if we’d had to guess at Carmilla’s secrets and intentions.

Overall, I really enjoyed this!

3.75 stars A good retelling set in the age of free love. I did see where S. T. Gibson was having trouble bringing the plot to the characters but their lyrical writing that I love was throughout the novel.