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A review by lialeahlio
An Education in Malice by S.T. Gibson
dark
1.5
1.5/5 ⭐️
ARC provided by the publisher Orbit Books through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
A two hundred year old vampire manipulates a twenty one year old girl to give her blood to her ex (that has been dead for decades), just to ignore her ex while she goes on a crazy rampage killing girls in a private school in New England. Yeah, that's it.
The exploration of power dynamics, loneliness, love and devotion didn't meet the standard of what A Dowry of Blood delivered. The structure of the An Education in Malice suffered tremendously when it hits the 50% mark when the story was suppose to amp up. Inserting moments of pleasure for the two young girls (Carmilla and Laura) to be "normal" and enjoy "college life" when there is a wild vampire on the loose is ridiculous. And the pay off for those scenes is to kill off this one minor character that the two main girls spent a whole night with. The plot, in my eyes, seems to be stuck between wanting to be mature and dark but at the same time maintain that girlhood-teenage dream kind of vibe, which led to its whole structure to suffer huge consequences that disengaged me from actually enjoying the story.
There are plenty of inconsistent moments throughout the story that made me eye roll. The characterization of every character can be described as a mood board on Pinterest, they are mere pictures collaged together without glue hoping it would stick and become something more than what it is, bits and pieces of ideas, under developed and bland. Clear motivations and character arcs throw that out the window because we are not getting any of that pay off. Vibes? Sure, but I can't finish a book with vibes that are repeated with every cigarette a character smokes, every bite on white skin, every drop of blood dribbling on a girl's chin, every sway of a coquette-coded outfit. No, it will get old and it did.
Ms. D, the main antagonist, did serve the toxicity of a skilled sociopath manipulator but at the same time her relationship Carmilla creeps me out. The ending didn't help either when she says with her whole chest that Carmilla is like a daughter to her, when she gets jealous and territorial towards her whenever Laura is in the picture. I am not uncomfortable about these topics because A Dowry of Blood also explored the same themes but the inconsistencies (plot, characterization, motivation) made it hard to understand what it is trying to be accomplished here.
To wrap up, A Dowry of Blood did vampires better. An Education in Malice promised us a dark academia version of Carmilla and it delivered a story that was purely aesthetic with absolutely nothing else to back it up.
ARC provided by the publisher Orbit Books through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
A two hundred year old vampire manipulates a twenty one year old girl to give her blood to her ex (that has been dead for decades), just to ignore her ex while she goes on a crazy rampage killing girls in a private school in New England. Yeah, that's it.
The exploration of power dynamics, loneliness, love and devotion didn't meet the standard of what A Dowry of Blood delivered. The structure of the An Education in Malice suffered tremendously when it hits the 50% mark when the story was suppose to amp up. Inserting moments of pleasure for the two young girls (Carmilla and Laura) to be "normal" and enjoy "college life" when there is a wild vampire on the loose is ridiculous. And the pay off for those scenes is to kill off this one minor character that the two main girls spent a whole night with. The plot, in my eyes, seems to be stuck between wanting to be mature and dark but at the same time maintain that girlhood-teenage dream kind of vibe, which led to its whole structure to suffer huge consequences that disengaged me from actually enjoying the story.
There are plenty of inconsistent moments throughout the story that made me eye roll. The characterization of every character can be described as a mood board on Pinterest, they are mere pictures collaged together without glue hoping it would stick and become something more than what it is, bits and pieces of ideas, under developed and bland. Clear motivations and character arcs throw that out the window because we are not getting any of that pay off. Vibes? Sure, but I can't finish a book with vibes that are repeated with every cigarette a character smokes, every bite on white skin, every drop of blood dribbling on a girl's chin, every sway of a coquette-coded outfit. No, it will get old and it did.
Ms. D, the main antagonist, did serve the toxicity of a skilled sociopath manipulator but at the same time her relationship Carmilla creeps me out. The ending didn't help either when she says with her whole chest that Carmilla is like a daughter to her, when she gets jealous and territorial towards her whenever Laura is in the picture. I am not uncomfortable about these topics because A Dowry of Blood also explored the same themes but the inconsistencies (plot, characterization, motivation) made it hard to understand what it is trying to be accomplished here.
To wrap up, A Dowry of Blood did vampires better. An Education in Malice promised us a dark academia version of Carmilla and it delivered a story that was purely aesthetic with absolutely nothing else to back it up.