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sproutedpages's review
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Thank you SO much to NetGalley, Redhook Books/Orbit Books, and author S.T. Gibson for providing me with a digital proof copy of this novel! All opinions within this review are voluntarily given and entirely my own.
An Education in Malice is a sapphic, vampiric dark academia novel that is dripping with decadent prose, and it is a reminder of why I so deeply adore queer vampire novels: they are deliciously indulgent and passionate. And although the narrative voices are younger and very slightly less luxuriant than that of A Dowry of Blood, it feels appropriate given the more modern setting, and the ages of the viewpoint characters.
It is beyond evident that S.T. Gibson loves the characters that she creates (and the relationships that these characters cultivate), and those in An Education in Malice are no exception. The lust-tinged academic rivalry that Laura and Carmilla share is absolutely divine, and the manner in which their relationship continues to develop is very enjoyable. However, I would have prefered more time spent detailing the shift in the dynamic between Carmilla and Professor De Lafontaine, which begins (or becomes perceptible) around the halfway point of the novel. This is not necessarily a fault of An Education in Malice, but rather a reflection of my love of S.T. Gibson’s character writing, and my willingness (and desire) to read even the minutiae of the development of these characters.
I truly cherished A Dowry of Blood, and An Education in Malice has reaffirmed to me that S.T. Gibson is among my favorite contemporary gothic authors. I cannot wait to read what she publishes in the future!
An Education in Malice is a sapphic, vampiric dark academia novel that is dripping with decadent prose, and it is a reminder of why I so deeply adore queer vampire novels: they are deliciously indulgent and passionate. And although the narrative voices are younger and very slightly less luxuriant than that of A Dowry of Blood, it feels appropriate given the more modern setting, and the ages of the viewpoint characters.
It is beyond evident that S.T. Gibson loves the characters that she creates (and the relationships that these characters cultivate), and those in An Education in Malice are no exception. The lust-tinged academic rivalry that Laura and Carmilla share is absolutely divine, and the manner in which their relationship continues to develop is very enjoyable. However, I would have prefered more time spent detailing the shift in the dynamic between Carmilla and Professor De Lafontaine, which begins (or becomes perceptible) around the halfway point of the novel. This is not necessarily a fault of An Education in Malice, but rather a reflection of my love of S.T. Gibson’s character writing, and my willingness (and desire) to read even the minutiae of the development of these characters.
I truly cherished A Dowry of Blood, and An Education in Malice has reaffirmed to me that S.T. Gibson is among my favorite contemporary gothic authors. I cannot wait to read what she publishes in the future!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gore, Drug use, Murder, Sexual content, Blood, and Alcohol
Minor: Homophobia, Racism, and Religious bigotry
CWs, as provided by the author: Uneven power dynamics, inappropriate relationships between a professor and students, toxic academic environments, blood, gore, murder, consensual sexual content (including public sex), kink (negotiated and spontaneous), alcohol and drug use, smoking, as well as brief references to: racist political policies, homophobia, and religious discrimination against women.takarakei's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
First and foremost I want to say that if you (like me) did not care for A Dowry of Blood - you might give this one a shot anyway!
I absolutely devoured this book. Almost read it in a day but ended up taking a little more time with it intentionally. Some beautiful writing and lush descriptions:
I absolutely devoured this book. Almost read it in a day but ended up taking a little more time with it intentionally. Some beautiful writing and lush descriptions:
Mississippi was a study in green, crawling with Spanish moss and bedecked with heavy-laden magnolia trees, but I never realized how many colors there were to be found in nature until that first fall in New England.
I am obsessed with Laura’s character and I really identified with aspects of her personality. There were some just real good quotes about female rage, feeling othered, and life. The academic rivals to lovers I thought was well done with the appropriate amount of angst.
Slight pacing issues that dragged about 70-80% of the way through. The ending was both expected and unexpected in different ways.
🌶️4/5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Murder, Blood, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Alcohol, Abandonment, Gore, Emotional abuse, and Violence
Minor: Drug use
The teacher is the emotional abuse/toxic relationship w a studentvreyna20_2004's review
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.0
First and foremost, thank you Netgalley and Redhook Books for giving me an eARC in exchange for my honest review. Now onto the review.
I had high hopes for this book and they sadly didn’t achieve it. I’ve heard plenty of great things about how beautiful S. T Gibson’s prose is and I expected nothing less but while reading it I thought I would come out a different person like when you would read a book in English class and feel a new person with this new revelation but I felt none of that. It was a simple story that went too long in my opinion.I wished Laura hadn’t kept her mouth shut and just told De Lafontaine to kill Isis or De Lafontaine to not drag out the situation so much. I get it she was in love and didn’t want to kill either Isis or Carmilla but when she killed Isis she even said that she knew how it would end between them so there’s no real reason for her to delay the inevitable. Also despite so much going on in this story, it felt as if nothing happened there was no progress made in the story it felt like the last 10% maybe even 20% of the book was when the book started to make progress at what they would do with Isis.
Now the romance between Laura and Carmilla. It didn’t evoke any emotion within me or make me scream at Laura/Carmilla to confess their love for each other it felt rushed almost instalove because Carmilla hated Laura for her writing and how much De Lafontaine liked her and talked about her but when Carmilla got turned to a vampire (because of De Lafontaine wanting to wake her lover) and Carmilla being hungry had to drink Laura’s blood that’s when her distasteful actions towards Laura switched and now she wanted to be near her all the time like a crying puppy. As you can tell, I didn’t enjoy the characters as much as I would like to me they did things for no reason their actions made no sense and once they explained why they did what they did it was a dumb reason.
The only thing about this story that I enjoyed was that Laura was a plus-size girl since there are not a lot of stories about that but even then I would forget she was plus-size.
If someone asked my thoughts on this book I would say, “It had the potential to be great but fell short.” What I’m trying to say is some may enjoy it some may not and I’m sadly not those people.
I had high hopes for this book and they sadly didn’t achieve it. I’ve heard plenty of great things about how beautiful S. T Gibson’s prose is and I expected nothing less but while reading it I thought I would come out a different person like when you would read a book in English class and feel a new person with this new revelation but I felt none of that. It was a simple story that went too long in my opinion.
Now the romance between Laura and Carmilla. It didn’t evoke any emotion within me or make me scream at Laura/Carmilla to confess their love for each other it felt rushed almost instalove because Carmilla hated Laura for her writing and how much De Lafontaine liked her and talked about her but when Carmilla got turned to a vampire (because of De Lafontaine wanting to wake her lover) and Carmilla being hungry had to drink Laura’s blood that’s when her distasteful actions towards Laura switched and now she wanted to be near her all the time like a crying puppy. As you can tell, I didn’t enjoy the characters as much as I would like to me they did things for no reason their actions made no sense and once they explained why they did what they did it was a dumb reason.
The only thing about this story that I enjoyed was that Laura was a plus-size girl since there are not a lot of stories about that but even then I would forget she was plus-size.
If someone asked my thoughts on this book I would say, “It had the potential to be great but fell short.” What I’m trying to say is some may enjoy it some may not and I’m sadly not those people.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Drug use, and Alcohol
Moderate: Violence and Sexual content
skillyillian's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC of this book! This is my honest review.
An Education in Malice is an extension of the world of Gibson's absolutely devastating A Dowry of Blood. Set in a more modern time period, with new characters (and some returning!) with new desires, this is a dark academia, romantic retelling of Carmilla that will hold you close and whisper in your ear about the revelations of immortality and obsession.
Laura is an intriguing character, so naive when she arrives at Saint Perpetua's but with a side she never lets anyone see. Carmilla is up front about her attitude towards Laura, and it's fun to see them combat each other throughout the beginnings of their time together. De Lafontaine adds such an interesting twist to things, both with her relationships with the girls individually and between the three of them.
The rivals to lovers played out really well, I enjoyed the tension that shifted into craving immensely. The dark academia vibes were very present and well-done, too. The romance felt real in such an intense way, I think it was one of my favorite parts. The smut was 10/10, WHEW, got me blushing with no one even around! Gibson very deftly takes the reader through an exploration of self and sexuality, and validates the experience of not knowing what exactly it is you want, even when you have it. There's a lot of room for discussion about morality and love, where those two things intersect, and how they change - independently and together - if time and distance stop mattering entirely.
The only things I didn't entirely love was that we didn't get as much background info as I would like to have had. We know some things about Laura, but hardly anything about Carmilla, and even less about De Lafontaine. I think the lack of information on De Lafontaine was intentional and it makes sense, considering she's the only of the three without a POV in the book and she was purposely secretive with the girls. But I wish we knew more about the other two. Besides that, I also would have liked to have seen more of Laura and Carmilla's school lives. Saint Perpetua's was an excellent, stunning backdrop to this story, and the New England autumn was gorgeous, I just wish we'd gotten to experience more of it.
I do wish that Isis's appearance had been more urgent. She started killing people and it felt like both the girls and the school were just like, "yup, okay! that sucks!" and the girls went back to being in love and the school just increased patrol of their grounds. It made Isis feel like less of an issue than I think she was meant to be, so when the climax and resolution of the story came around, it didn't feel as severe as I think it was meant to. Not a big deal, but it would've been nice to see Isis a little more up close and personal, and have her be more of a threat.
Overall, this book is a gorgeous companion to A Dowry of Blood, although slower paced and tragic in a much different way, which I appreciate because it didn't need to be Dowry again. This book has its own story to tell and I think Gibson told it beautifully, with the same prose she's known for from Dowry. Her writing style is consistently graceful and flowing. I think the book could have been longer, with more fleshing out of the school and the characters, but it wasn't way too short by any means, either. It's a very enjoyable read and if you liked Dowry then I think you'll like this, as well. I really loved this and the very minute I can get myself a physical copy I will be doing exactly that. 🖤
An Education in Malice is an extension of the world of Gibson's absolutely devastating A Dowry of Blood. Set in a more modern time period, with new characters (and some returning!) with new desires, this is a dark academia, romantic retelling of Carmilla that will hold you close and whisper in your ear about the revelations of immortality and obsession.
Laura is an intriguing character, so naive when she arrives at Saint Perpetua's but with a side she never lets anyone see. Carmilla is up front about her attitude towards Laura, and it's fun to see them combat each other throughout the beginnings of their time together. De Lafontaine adds such an interesting twist to things, both with her relationships with the girls individually and between the three of them.
The rivals to lovers played out really well, I enjoyed the tension that shifted into craving immensely. The dark academia vibes were very present and well-done, too. The romance felt real in such an intense way, I think it was one of my favorite parts. The smut was 10/10, WHEW, got me blushing with no one even around! Gibson very deftly takes the reader through an exploration of self and sexuality, and validates the experience of not knowing what exactly it is you want, even when you have it. There's a lot of room for discussion about morality and love, where those two things intersect, and how they change - independently and together - if time and distance stop mattering entirely.
The only things I didn't entirely love was that we didn't get as much background info as I would like to have had. We know some things about Laura, but hardly anything about Carmilla, and even less about De Lafontaine. I think the lack of information on De Lafontaine was intentional and it makes sense, considering she's the only of the three without a POV in the book and she was purposely secretive with the girls. But I wish we knew more about the other two. Besides that, I also would have liked to have seen more of Laura and Carmilla's school lives. Saint Perpetua's was an excellent, stunning backdrop to this story, and the New England autumn was gorgeous, I just wish we'd gotten to experience more of it.
Overall, this book is a gorgeous companion to A Dowry of Blood, although slower paced and tragic in a much different way, which I appreciate because it didn't need to be Dowry again. This book has its own story to tell and I think Gibson told it beautifully, with the same prose she's known for from Dowry. Her writing style is consistently graceful and flowing. I think the book could have been longer, with more fleshing out of the school and the characters, but it wasn't way too short by any means, either. It's a very enjoyable read and if you liked Dowry then I think you'll like this, as well. I really loved this and the very minute I can get myself a physical copy I will be doing exactly that. 🖤
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Murder, Toxic relationship, Blood, and Death
beforeviolets's review
"She kissed me with a martyr's agonized desperation, like I was the only sword she ever wanted to fall on. I kissed her right back like the cutting edge of a blade, trying to inflict as much damage as possible."
Thank you SO MUCH to the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!
IF WE WERE VILLAINS meets A DOWRY OF BLOOD in this scrumptious sapphic dark academia novel by S.T. Gibson.
This is less of a retelling of Carmilla and more a reincarnation, as Gibson takes these beloved characters and pumps fresh blood into them as they live a life anew. And in this incarnation, Laura and Carmilla find themselves in New England as poetry students under the fierce hand of Professor De Lefontaine, a vicious academic force with a dark past. De Lefontaine doles out her praise selectively, setting students at each others' throats as they vy for her attention. But Laura and Carmilla can't tell which they want more of: attention from their elusive professor, or attention from the talented and ferocious girl they've been set at the throat of.
There's a specific type of romance dynamic–often reserved for the tragic achilleans–that always captures my heart. The Hamlet and Horatio kind of vibe. The king and the poet kind of vibe. And it's something I've NEVER been able to find in sapphic romances. They always fall short, lacking that chemistry and tension and absolute world-shifting passion. And I think this book has FINALLY done it. It has finally replicated that absolutely soul-crushing romance dynamic that I live for but with sapphics. Thank you S.T. Gibson for blessing us.
I gorged myself on this book, sucking the ink from its pages with fervor and reckless abandon. I constantly had to remind myself to slow down and luxuriate in its prose. In all honesty, reading this book almost began to stress me out with its richness. I was reading it faster than I could process it, and I have a laundry list of scenes I want to illustrate burning a hole in my notes app. It's absolutely ripe with gorgeous prose, a rich dark academic atmosphere, sexual delicacies, and heart-wrenching romance.
My only issue with the book is that I found a LOT of the stakes were told rather than shown, and that made the climax of the story feel a bit out of nowhere and unearned despite the time spent building up to it. I think the story deserved to be even longer (I think this could've easily been an absolutely tome) and that would've given more space to build that plot up.
But I'm absolutely OBSESSED with this book and its incredible characters, and will not be shutting up about it for quite some time. It contains so many literary rarities, some I knew I was starving for and others I didn't even know I was craving. S.T Gibson is out for blood with this story and she can have mine by the gallon.
CW: blood & gore, murder, sexual content, alcohol consumption, dead body, decapitation, death of mother (past)
Thank you SO MUCH to the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!
IF WE WERE VILLAINS meets A DOWRY OF BLOOD in this scrumptious sapphic dark academia novel by S.T. Gibson.
This is less of a retelling of Carmilla and more a reincarnation, as Gibson takes these beloved characters and pumps fresh blood into them as they live a life anew. And in this incarnation, Laura and Carmilla find themselves in New England as poetry students under the fierce hand of Professor De Lefontaine, a vicious academic force with a dark past. De Lefontaine doles out her praise selectively, setting students at each others' throats as they vy for her attention. But Laura and Carmilla can't tell which they want more of: attention from their elusive professor, or attention from the talented and ferocious girl they've been set at the throat of.
There's a specific type of romance dynamic–often reserved for the tragic achilleans–that always captures my heart. The Hamlet and Horatio kind of vibe. The king and the poet kind of vibe. And it's something I've NEVER been able to find in sapphic romances. They always fall short, lacking that chemistry and tension and absolute world-shifting passion. And I think this book has FINALLY done it. It has finally replicated that absolutely soul-crushing romance dynamic that I live for but with sapphics. Thank you S.T. Gibson for blessing us.
I gorged myself on this book, sucking the ink from its pages with fervor and reckless abandon. I constantly had to remind myself to slow down and luxuriate in its prose. In all honesty, reading this book almost began to stress me out with its richness. I was reading it faster than I could process it, and I have a laundry list of scenes I want to illustrate burning a hole in my notes app. It's absolutely ripe with gorgeous prose, a rich dark academic atmosphere, sexual delicacies, and heart-wrenching romance.
My only issue with the book is that I found a LOT of the stakes were told rather than shown, and that made the climax of the story feel a bit out of nowhere and unearned despite the time spent building up to it. I think the story deserved to be even longer (I think this could've easily been an absolutely tome) and that would've given more space to build that plot up.
But I'm absolutely OBSESSED with this book and its incredible characters, and will not be shutting up about it for quite some time. It contains so many literary rarities, some I knew I was starving for and others I didn't even know I was craving. S.T Gibson is out for blood with this story and she can have mine by the gallon.
CW: blood & gore, murder, sexual content, alcohol consumption, dead body, decapitation, death of mother (past)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Murder, and Sexual content
Moderate: Alcohol
Minor: Death of parent
tinybluepixel's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I received a free ARC of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you so much!
Oh boy. Oh boy! I loved this.
I admit, I had a hard time with S.T. Gibson's A Dowry of Blood, not because it wasn't good, but because it featured a man who was very clearly abusive and reminded me a lot of my father, which is a big yikes for me! But I could still see that Gibson is a most talented writer with a grasp of language that is almost unparalleled in this genre.
Gibson really leans into this retelling of Carmilla, having it mainly take place in a poetry class. I admit two things, here: One, I have never read Carmilla. Just ... it wasn't on the curriculum in my very conservative school, and I could barely stomach Dracula, so I never reached for it. Two, I hate poetry. God, I hate poetry. I hate reading it, I hate writing it even more. I see poetry in life, and I see poetry in prose. Writing it down on a page, and even worse, analyzing it and taking it apart in metaphors and similies and other technichalities makes it lose all of it's appeal. Thankfully, Gibson didn't make me suffer through a whole bunch of poems, just two at the beginning, and then only references. So if you're a big old poetry hater like me, don't fret.
While A Dowry of Blood features some innovative storytelling in the way of its formatting, An Education in Malice is written in more of a "typical" structure. Instead of Dowry's almost letter-like writing, adressed to Dracula, An Education in Malice has two first-person narrators, being Laura and Carmilla. These two obviously correspond to the Laura and Carmilla in the original story of Carmilla. However, in that book, Carmilla is the villian. In Education, she's more of a rival to Laura, and eventually, of course, a lover. Since she's also a narrator, she loses that villain-appeal of the original story. Instead, there is not a clear villian (except for the more-or-less minor character of Isis, who is clearly evil), but I would argue that Carmilla and Laura's poetry teacher, Evelyn De Lafontaine, is one of the more nefarious villians in modern fiction. At the beginning, she seems almost alike to Julian from The Secret History, and we all know how that story ended. She is clearly an antagonist. If she's actually a villian - that's up to the reader. However, their relationship in this sort-of love triangle is clearly abusive, but you get the sense that she really cares about Carmilla.
I'm honestly really glad that Gibson decided to make Carmilla a protagonist, and not a villain. There's just not enough sapphic books that have a good, happy relationship at the center. And I truly believe that what Laura and Carmilla have in this book will be a good and happy relationship, even though it can get kind of oppressive at times. And sometimes you just need a good and happy ending. And I think we got the best sort of ending possible with this book. Gotta admit, I was kind of worried at around the middle that it would end in tragedy. And, spoiler alert! It didn't. Sometimes, it is good to see even a very toxic character make a turnaround instead of spiraling downwards. I would still send all of those girls to therapy, though.
Two more things I loved but I don't necessarily need to elaborate on: One, maybe a non-important thing to others, but very important to me and probably a lot of others - the inclusion of trigger warnings at the beginning. Two, the positive portrayal of Laura's religion. I don't know why, but it was really heartwarming to read.
That's it, now. Do yourselves a favor and read this book.
Oh boy. Oh boy! I loved this.
I admit, I had a hard time with S.T. Gibson's A Dowry of Blood, not because it wasn't good, but because it featured a man who was very clearly abusive and reminded me a lot of my father, which is a big yikes for me! But I could still see that Gibson is a most talented writer with a grasp of language that is almost unparalleled in this genre.
Gibson really leans into this retelling of Carmilla, having it mainly take place in a poetry class. I admit two things, here: One, I have never read Carmilla. Just ... it wasn't on the curriculum in my very conservative school, and I could barely stomach Dracula, so I never reached for it. Two, I hate poetry. God, I hate poetry. I hate reading it, I hate writing it even more. I see poetry in life, and I see poetry in prose. Writing it down on a page, and even worse, analyzing it and taking it apart in metaphors and similies and other technichalities makes it lose all of it's appeal. Thankfully, Gibson didn't make me suffer through a whole bunch of poems, just two at the beginning, and then only references. So if you're a big old poetry hater like me, don't fret.
While A Dowry of Blood features some innovative storytelling in the way of its formatting, An Education in Malice is written in more of a "typical" structure. Instead of Dowry's almost letter-like writing, adressed to Dracula, An Education in Malice has two first-person narrators, being Laura and Carmilla. These two obviously correspond to the Laura and Carmilla in the original story of Carmilla. However, in that book, Carmilla is the villian. In Education, she's more of a rival to Laura, and eventually, of course, a lover. Since she's also a narrator, she loses that villain-appeal of the original story. Instead, there is not a clear villian (except for the more-or-less minor character of Isis, who is clearly evil), but I would argue that Carmilla and Laura's poetry teacher, Evelyn De Lafontaine, is one of the more nefarious villians in modern fiction. At the beginning, she seems almost alike to Julian from The Secret History, and we all know how that story ended. She is clearly an antagonist. If she's actually a villian - that's up to the reader. However, their relationship in this sort-of love triangle is clearly abusive, but you get the sense that she really cares about Carmilla.
I'm honestly really glad that Gibson decided to make Carmilla a protagonist, and not a villain. There's just not enough sapphic books that have a good, happy relationship at the center. And I truly believe that what Laura and Carmilla have in this book will be a good and happy relationship, even though it can get kind of oppressive at times. And sometimes you just need a good and happy ending. And I think we got the best sort of ending possible with this book. Gotta admit, I was kind of worried at around the middle that it would end in tragedy. And, spoiler alert! It didn't. Sometimes, it is good to see even a very toxic character make a turnaround instead of spiraling downwards. I would still send all of those girls to therapy, though.
Two more things I loved but I don't necessarily need to elaborate on: One, maybe a non-important thing to others, but very important to me and probably a lot of others - the inclusion of trigger warnings at the beginning. Two, the positive portrayal of Laura's religion. I don't know why, but it was really heartwarming to read.
That's it, now. Do yourselves a favor and read this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Body horror, Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, Medical trauma, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, and Blood
Moderate: Alcohol and Murder
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