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A review by jashanac
An Education in Malice by S.T. Gibson
4.5
Thanks to NetGalley for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review!
OVERALL:
Well dark academia isn't typically to my taste, but ST Gibson is the one who could change that for me, apparently! I quite enjoyed Evocation (though I personally feel like that's way less 'academia' than what you usually see referred to as dark academia) and I LOVED this!
I thought the character work was stellar, and the plot was intriguing, though for me it was mostly vibes, which is what I love in dark, gothic works. This, to me, is excellent as far as gothic fiction goes.
RE-READABILITY:
I will definitely be purchasing a copy of this with the intent to re-read in the future.
CHARACTERS:
I loved these characters and how well Gibson fleshed them out in such a short amount of time. Laura and Carmilla both felt like very real people, and their rivals-to-lovers dynamic was top tier. The tension that their dynamic created was also top tier!
The complexities of how Carmilla felt about Laura and about Mrs. D... how Laura felt about Carmilla and Mrs. D... and how Mrs. D felt about Carmilla and Laura and Mysterious Other Character... it was all incredibly compelling to me.
PLOT:
Over the past year or so I have really come to confirm that I tend to love gothic fiction. Which is a little odd, since I often don't love melodrama, and gothic fiction is heavy on the melodrama. The plot in this one was fairly straight-forward and I wouldn't say that there was high levels of intrigue in that regard -- for a bit there was a mystery that we as the reader were not in on, but then after that was revealed there was a mystery that the side characters were ignorant to, that we were in on as the reader.
But it worked for me, because the eerie vibes were HIGH, and I was mostly invested in the "what's-going-to-end-up-happening-between-these-three-characters" plot. The dynamic between Laura, Carmilla, and Mrs. D.
OVERALL:
Well dark academia isn't typically to my taste, but ST Gibson is the one who could change that for me, apparently! I quite enjoyed Evocation (though I personally feel like that's way less 'academia' than what you usually see referred to as dark academia) and I LOVED this!
I thought the character work was stellar, and the plot was intriguing, though for me it was mostly vibes, which is what I love in dark, gothic works. This, to me, is excellent as far as gothic fiction goes.
RE-READABILITY:
I will definitely be purchasing a copy of this with the intent to re-read in the future.
CHARACTERS:
I loved these characters and how well Gibson fleshed them out in such a short amount of time. Laura and Carmilla both felt like very real people, and their rivals-to-lovers dynamic was top tier. The tension that their dynamic created was also top tier!
The complexities of how Carmilla felt about Laura and about Mrs. D... how Laura felt about Carmilla and Mrs. D... and how Mrs. D felt about Carmilla and Laura and Mysterious Other Character... it was all incredibly compelling to me.
PLOT:
Over the past year or so I have really come to confirm that I tend to love gothic fiction. Which is a little odd, since I often don't love melodrama, and gothic fiction is heavy on the melodrama. The plot in this one was fairly straight-forward and I wouldn't say that there was high levels of intrigue in that regard -- for a bit there was a mystery that we as the reader were not in on, but then after that was revealed there was a mystery that the side characters were ignorant to, that we were in on as the reader.
But it worked for me, because the eerie vibes were HIGH, and I was mostly invested in the "what's-going-to-end-up-happening-between-these-three-characters" plot. The dynamic between Laura, Carmilla, and Mrs. D.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Toxic relationship, and Murder
Moderate: Emotional abuse
Minor: Confinement
I didn't want to select "adult/minor relationship" because the younger characters are at least 18 years old and legally adults (and one is older than that, probably 21), but there is definitely a power imbalance type of relationship happening -- teacher/student, which isn't even necessarily sexual or romantic, but is definitely inappropriate.