When I saw that S. T. Gibson was releasing a Dark Academia retelling of Carmilla I was all in. A Dowry of Blood was one of my favorite books of 2021 with it gothic prose and deep queer relationships, I read it on a red eye flight I really should have been sleeping on and was unable to put it down. So understandably I was trilled to see S. T. Gibson going back to Vampires, but this time with a Dark Academia setting of a girls college.

When you first step into the world of An Education in Malice it is through Laura Sheridan's eyes. She is well read, but very in-experienced in almost every aspect of life. However she has a hunger and drive that push her towards greatness in both her art and in life. On the other side of this tale, our second POV, is Carmilla. Carmilla has experienced more then her young age lets on and has traveled across oceans in pursuit of her art, she desires youth, passion, and perfection above all else. On the first day of classes they are thrust into an academia rivalry by their enigmatic and intense poetry professor, De Lafonatine.

The world that you fall into reading this book seems at first glance smaller and more tame then it should be based on the subject matter being Vampires, however as you dig into the world you see the secrets hidden around each corner and the steps each woman is taking to protect her own secrets. The world flushes out to be gritty, gothic, and overflowing with lust and temptation as each woman struggles with opening themselves to the strange and wonderful relationship they have built together.

S. T, Gibson again created a gothic queer masterpiece that I want to live in, a retelling that only added to the original, and overall a work nothing short of magical.

I would recommend this book to you if you adore:
- Vampires
- Queer Stories
- Dark Academia
- Gothic Lit
- Poetry
- Slow building dark and deadly worlds

This is one that will be on my most recommenced list for years to come.

I received an advance review copy of this book and I am leaving this review voluntarily and all thoughts and opinions are wholly my own and unbiased. ( )

I received this novel from Orbit Books through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to both of them for this opportunity.

After the mild disappointment suffered from S.T. Gibson’s other new novel, Evocation, I had high hopes that An Education in Malice would fare as well for me as the author’s debut novel, A Dowry of Blood, and that the return to the theme of vampirism would re-create the lyrical writing that thad captivated me completely in that first book. But sadly that was not the case: I will have to add my disappointed review to the ones some of my fellow bloggers posted in the past few days….

The story, in a nutshell: Laura Sheridan arrives at the prestigious Saint Perpetua college to further her poetry studies under the tutelage of renowned professor De Lafontaine and she finds herself almost immediately put in competition with student Carmilla, who is clearly the teacher’s favorite. De Lafontaine, however, hides a dark secret and soon enough Laura will find herself enmeshed in a competitive triangle mixing academic learning and dark passions with unexpected consequences.

There is nothing that saddens me more than failed expectations, particularly where a review book I expressly requested is concerned, and after the amazing discovery that was A Dowry of Blood those expectations were quite high, but this book - like the other 2024 offering of the author, Evocation - did not stand the comparison with S.T. Gibson’s debut, a fact that made me wonder if the pressure of producing not one but two novels in the same year did not weigh too heavily on the author’s narrative powers. The novel is hailed as “sumptuous and addictive” but I would hesitate to use those terms because the prose, although still very close to the style used in Dowry, is certainly moodily descriptive but often fails in the dialogues that at times feel contrived, and rarely manage to convey any emotional layering from the characters.

As for the characters themselves, the relationship between Laura and Carmilla feels hurried, moving from hostile rivalry to insta-lust in too short a time to be truly believable: the novel unfolds by switching between the two girls’ POV, but their “voices” are too similar to offer any real difference between them, to the point that I often had to backtrack to the chapter’s beginning to confirm which one of them was relaying the events. The third point of the improbable “triangle”, that of professor De Lafontaine, constantly wavers between that of the oppressive adult who wields her power to abusive levels and that of the almost-mothering figure who still does not balk at taking advantage of her young charges. The revelation about the professor’s true nature as a vampire, and the impact it has on Carmilla directly and indirectly on Laura, is one that required a huge suspension of disbelief from me, because Laura’s almost passive acceptance of a situation that should have seen her run screaming for the hills is quite absurd.

My list of grievances could still run for a little while, but I see no reason to keep berating a story that seems to have captivated many other readers: clearly I’m not the intended audience for this book and I probably set the bar too high by expecting another compelling story as Dowry of Blood. Maybe someday in the future that will happen again…. ( )

Thank you to NetGalley and Redhook Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Pub Date: February 13, 2024

3.25 stars. I really enjoyed 'A Dowry of Blood' by S.T. Gibson so I was excited for this book but overall, I was let down. I just wasn't drawn into the story and I found I didn't really care about the characters. I also tend to need a goal/something the story is working towards and I feel this didn't really have that or that the goals kept shifting throughout the book so there wasn't anything consistent throughout. It wasn't terrible but I wasn't excited about picking it up at the end of the day. ( )

The writing is good, but I couldn't really get into the story. Laura, the main character, has a strong attraction to Carmilla, but I didn't find their relationship convincing. Carmilla, who is a big part of the story, felt just okay to me.

While the writing is well done, the kind of story it tells might not be my thing. ( )

AN EDUCATION IN MALICE by S. T. Gibson is one of those novels that other people adore, but I did not. In fact, while many of the pre-release reviews are very favorable, I have several issues with the story. While one or two issues does not preclude me from enjoying the novel, when combined they do.

My biggest beef with AN EDUCATION IN MALICE is that I never felt like it was a sweeping romance. Obsession, yes. Lust, most definitely. A romance for all time, most definitely not. If anything, I liken Laura's fascination with Carmilla to nothing more than her first taste of the forbidden fruit. She comes from a small Southern town; she's sheltered and pious. She never used the word lesbian to describe herself, and she is only beginning to understand her sexual proclivities through exposure to erotica in the school library. Laura has a crush. It is not love everlasting.

For Carmilla, I believe her attraction to the pure and pious Laura has less to do with lust and everything to do with Laura's infatuation. Carmilla is a young woman who was essentially abandoned by her parents. Her flight to St. Perpetua is, if anything, more a desire to prove that she doesn't need her parents anymore. In Laura, she finds a level of unwavering adoration she never received from either her parents or De Lafontaine. Laura is safety, nourishment, and love.

As for De Lafontaine, I would be remiss if I did not discuss the mental and emotional abuse she heaps on Carmilla and, to a lesser extent, Laura. De Lafontaine may be teaching her students to become better poets, but that does not excuse her cruelty or the mind games she plays with them. It is nothing more than someone with power subjugating the powerless to her whims. With Carmilla, this even extends to a physical relationship. I find nothing about De Lafontaine and her relationships with the two girls to be sexy or romantic.

At one point in time in AN EDUCATION IN MALICE, one of the characters discusses LOLITA, a novel released thirteen years before the happenings of this story. The character goes on to discuss how much she enjoys LOLITA and does not understand why people vilify Humbert Humbert. This scene, even though I can't remember if it was Laura or Carmilla who was narrating at the time, should be a red flag that she has a skewed perception of adult-child relationships. I also think it is a red flag as to the type of relationship De Lafontaine has with either girl.

A minor issue I have with AN EDUCATION IN MALICE is the fact that while narrated by Laura and Carmilla, their voices are too similar. I would lose track in the middle of a chapter and have to flip back to the chapter beginning to remind myself who the narrator was. There is nothing to separate either girl from the other. Both have obsessive personalities, albeit fueled by different desires. Even though Carmilla is almost five years Laura's senior, she is every bit as childish and naive as Laura. The two should not be interchangeable, and yet they are.

All this to say that I did not enjoy AN EDUCATION IN MALICE. I could not stomach the relationships between De Lafontaine and the girls. Neither could I believe in the grandiose love story that others describe it to be. I see it as more of Laura's coming-of-age story than a romance, and that's if I am generous. If asked, I would say AN EDUCATION IN MALICE is about two naive and lonely girls who choose to be in an abusive relationship with an adult before they find solace in each other. Neither girl matures or shows growth at the story's close. It is a Lolita-type novel with a paranormal element, which only serves to muddle the story and the relationships even further.

Why others are giving AN EDUCATION IN MALICE is beyond my understanding. Perhaps I read it when I was in the wrong frame of mind. I might be reading too much between the lines. I could even be interpreting the story in a way the author never intended. I only know why I didn't like it, and I hope your reading experience is much more enjoyable than mine. ( )