An Education in Malice
S.T. Gibson
2 ratings • 2 reviews
An Education in Malice
S.T. Gibson
2 ratings • 2 reviews
Sumptuous and addictive, An Education in Malice is a dark academia tale of blood, secrets and insatiable hungers from Sunday Times bestselling author S.T. Gibson, author of the cult hit A Dowry of Blood. Deep in the forgotten hills of Massachusetts stands Saint Perpetua's College. Isolated and ancient, it is not a place for timid girls. Here, secrets are currency, ambition is lifeblood, and strange ceremonies welcome students into the fold. On her first day of class, Laura Sheridan is thrust into an intense academic rivalry with the beautiful and enigmatic Carmilla. Together, they are drawn into the confidence of their demanding poetry professor, De Lafontaine, who holds her own dark obsession with Carmilla. But as their rivalry blossoms into something far more delicious, Laura must confront her own strange hungers. Tangled in a sinister game of politics, bloodthirsty professors and dark magic, Laura and Carmilla must decide how much they are willing to sacrifice in their ruthless pursuit of knowledge.
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Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of An Education in Malice. As someone who absolutely adored A Dowry of Blood, I was so excited to read this. It did not disappoint! It felt like such a classic vampire story and I loved the open end. The only thing it left me with was wanting more! I wish this was longer. I hope to revisit this world again and hear more about Carmilla and Laura and their new adventures. It felt like we were just getting started. Overall, it was a great story, expertly written, but in the end, I wanted more.
02.5 ⭐
This was my first S.T. Gibson, and honestly, it was kind of disappointing.
An Education in Malice is a retelling of J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla. Set at an all-girls boarding school in Massachusetts, this book follows Laura, a newcomer to the school, and Carmilla, a senior, as they compete for the attention of one of the school’s professors.
An Education in Malice explores rivalry, obsession, lust, and relationships with unbalanced power dynamics. It’s split into two POVs, which was one of the things I was not a fan of. I think that the story would’ve been more engaging if Carmilla remained an enigma to the reader, rather than us knowing exactly how she felt about Laura and her relationship with De Lafontaine.
Laura intrigued me in the first half of the book, but then it seemed as if certain character traits mentioned in the first half completely fell away by the end. I felt the same way about Carmilla; she seemed interesting and complex in the beginning, but her POVs started to dull, sometimes becoming too self-aware.
And De Lafontaine - ugh. I just feel like all of the characters had the potential to have depth, but unfortunately they didn’t do it for me.
I also HATED the ending. It felt rushed and then went right to neat and tidy.
I liked S.T. Gibson’s writing style, though. Not overly flowery, but still had a nice lyrical quality to it. I’m still gonna check out A Dowry of Blood, so hopefully I like that better than this one!
Huge thank you to NetGalley and the Redhook & Orbit team for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review!
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