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A review by beforeviolets
An Education in Malice by S.T. Gibson
"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