S.T. Gibson

Love is sacrifice. One of us was always going to bleed for the other.

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.

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.

An Education in Malice

Romy

I learned love at the hands of a monster.

After all, what horror wouldn't I tolerate, if it was meted out by the hand of my beloved?

 It hung nestled in the hollow between my collarbones, a subtle symbol to the whole world that I was cherished. Delighted in.

I felt, acutely and miserably, that I was that wine glass dangling from her fingers, covered in marks of her ownership.

She was just beaming down at me likeI was a revelation straight from the mouth of God, like my base animal nature was a miracle.

Every atom in my body ached to reach out to touch her, but in the end, I was nothing if not a coward.

We love a notion of consent even in death !

“There’s an artistry in our appetites,” Magdalena narrated. “In the savagery of them, the tenderness. We hold life in one hand and death in the other. Look at the way he cradles her skull. He could just as easily snap her neck. And yet he waits for her acquiescence.”

“And what do you know,” she said softly, “of the atrocities I’ve committed for love? Love is sacrifice, Professor. Whether it’s you on the butcher’s table or not, someone always bleeds.”

You and I are two sides of the same coin, Sheridan. I’m not sure how we were ever going to end up anywhere but here. Yes, we’re an item.

I’ve always known what I wanted, Laura, I’m positively made of wanting. It’s so strange, to be sure of so little.

thing but life ahead of me. It should always be sunrise, at the start of a new day.

“Please don’t leave me,” I whispered, while she was still under the water. My voice was so soft even I barely heard it. “Don’t leave me alone with her.”

“There are easier ways to reach out to a lover,” she muttered, half to herself as she worked, “than resurrection and murder.”

I need her to cease existing. Didn’t you do enough already ???

I’ll only need a little bit of help from you and Carmilla to bring her under control. You do want to fix this, don’t you?

“Will you drag me underneath the waves and take what you want from me? Pin me down and sink your teeth into my neck?”

“If I had my way it would be you pinning me down, not the other way around.”

Whether or not you infuriate me is beside the point. You’re always on my mind, Laura, playing over and over again like a record.

I’ll face death bravely then, and greet her as a lover. I never liked the sun anyway.

Real fury passed across Laura’s face, like a parcel of clouds blocking out the sun, and for a moment she was Athena incarnate.

One day, I’ll write an essay about religious images as the purest form of adoration.

She looked, I realized a little breathlessly, like a holy icon cast in gold.

There was no sense descending into an animalistic frenzy without the full agreement of my blood donor; there was no art in it, no beauty. And I would die before I sacrificed art and beauty.

Then bleed for me, darling, one more time.

“It wasn’t personal,” Carmilla said. “I lie to everyone.”

I let myself pretend.That we were friends or lovers or family.That she cared for me just as deeply as I cared for her.

Emily McMeans

What the hell even was this? There was barely anything redeemable about this book in my eyes. The writing? Bad. The plot? Literally what plot. The pacing? All over the place. Don’t even get me started on the characters. I felt like nothing about this made any sense. It was so stale and boring reading it began to feel like a chore. 

I really didn’t get the characterization of the three main characters, De Lafontaine especially pissed me off. How do you live for hundreds of years and you’re still dumb as a rock, not to mention petulant and juvenile. The weird sort of vaguely erotic relationship between Carmilla and De Lafontaine rubbed me the wrong way for obvious power dynamic reasons, but especially when De Lafontaine later says Carmilla was the closest thing she had to a daughter. I beg your pardon? Laura and Carmilla were fine I guess, but I really couldn’t see how they even got together in the first place. That transition from rivals to lovers was so unsatisfying. It felt like it only happened because it ought to have happened for plot reasons.

Speaking of plot… ???? It was just so, so stupid, I’m sorry. I feel like this was because the pacing was all off. It had a fairly okay start, then the villain shows up but instead of the momentum picking up, it slows down so the characters can fuck around, then the villain shows up again after basically leaving them alone for ages, and I’m supposed to see them as some sort of threat? Then they literally just die. The whole thing felt kind of insulting if I’m being honest.

What a massive disappointment, I feel like I have to reread A dowry of blood now because there’s no way I liked it if it was written by this author. Probably the dumbest and least vampiric “vampires” I’ve ever read.

bel 

What the hell even was this? There was barely anything redeemable about this book in my eyes. The writing? Bad. The plot? Literally what plot. The pacing? All over the place. Don’t even get me started on the characters. I felt like nothing about this made any sense. It was so stale and boring reading it began to feel like a chore. 

I really didn’t get the characterization of the three main characters, De Lafontaine especially pissed me off. How do you live for hundreds of years and you’re still dumb as a rock, not to mention petulant and juvenile. The weird sort of vaguely erotic relationship between Carmilla and De Lafontaine rubbed me the wrong way for obvious power dynamic reasons, but especially when De Lafontaine later says Carmilla was the closest thing she had to a daughter. I beg your pardon? Laura and Carmilla were fine I guess, but I really couldn’t see how they even got together in the first place. That transition from rivals to lovers was so unsatisfying. It felt like it only happened because it ought to have happened for plot reasons.

Speaking of plot… ???? It was just so, so stupid, I’m sorry. I feel like this was because the pacing was all off. It had a fairly okay start, then the villain shows up but instead of the momentum picking up, it slows down so the characters can fuck around, then the villain shows up again after basically leaving them alone for ages, and I’m supposed to see them as some sort of threat? Then they literally just die. The whole thing felt kind of insulting if I’m being honest.

What a massive disappointment, I feel like I have to reread A dowry of blood now because there’s no way I liked it if it was written by this author. Probably the dumbest and least vampiric “vampires” I’ve ever read.

It started strong, but then... just fizzled. A familiar face arrives late to save the day. Sort of. 

Karla

Sapphic rivals to lovers vampire story retelling ? Sign me up. Dark Academia might be my favorite thing ever in books, and this offered me plenty of it. I loved the relationship between Laura and Carmilla and how their mutual obsession is depicted, and even though there was a long moment I wanted to put a stake through De la Fontaine’s heart myself for this unhealthy relationship, I ended up liking her too. 

Low risk, low stakes. Not a lot happened. 

Jenny Engel

This book does a good job of exploring the toxicity of love vs perceived love and how it can push us to be better or worse. It does a good job of portraying the dangers of obsession and infatuation. The tension between all the characters is palpable, and just like in A Dowry of Blood, the prose is beautiful. It’s not written in the same manner, but it’s just as engaging and stimulating. The only reason that it’s not a 5 star for me is that I’m not wholly convinced by two of the characters actually being in love. It feels more like lust and infatuation to me, but their chemistry is still undeniable.

Nik ✨

An Education in Malice was a dark and gothic story. As soon as I heard there was dark academia and sapphic vampires, I was immediately sold. The writing was beautifully done, which really showed through in the audiobook. The narrator was fantastic. Their voice added to the story’s overall tone.

The only things I didn’t care for in this book were the pacing and the lack of focus on the plot. This story was more character driven, which I usually love. I just couldn’t really connect or care for these characters until I was a little more than halfway through. This book felt very slow at some points and fast in others. It didn’t really have that balance between the two.

This story is full of chemistry and tension. I do wish the tension and yearning lasted a bit longer, it seems as though they went from hate to love very quickly. There’s also uneven power dynamics and inappropriate professor-student relationships. There is a fair amount of gore and sexual content, which is normal for a vampire story. Overall, I enjoyed this book. I loved this narrator and will be looking for more of their narrations! S.T. Gibson is a fantastic writer and I will be looking into more of their work! 

Thank you NetGalley and Hachette Audio for the arc! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Incredibly sorry to say that this was not as good as I had hoped for. It seems like the more historic setting and the 2nd person narration of "A Dowry of Blood" might have done a lot more heavylifting than I could have ever anticipated.

I liked the concept of this and enjoyed several of the themes and topics that Gibson had chosen to iclude. I generally liked the plot and having characters explicitly identify themselves as lesbians was nice and refreshing. But I feel like the things that did not click for me were a lot more, to the point where I am debating whether I should not be knocking the rating down.

Firstly, I do not think that the dual POV worked very well. Gibson herself says that she included it after she found the character of Carmilla to be too enticing (not direct quote) but I find that the mystery element of the story would have worked much better if we had only had Laura's POV. I feel the obsession of the two with each other, the jealousy over De Lafontaine's attention, the rivalry, would have come off much stronger if we could have really dug into Laura's psyche and her interpretation of the situation. 

Therein lies my second biggest issue and it is that I was not entirely sold on the dynamics between Laura and Carmilla (and De Lafontaine). I feel like some of the conviction necessary was lacking; I say this all the time but really, I, the reader, should be the one who ends up feeling obsessed with them, and that never really connected for me.

But perhaps part of the reason of this was that the prose itself felt a little lifeless. There certainly were some lyrical moments but nothing of the beautiful and gothic atmosphere of Gibson's previous work or comparable works. This really is an aspect that makes or breaks a novel like this one.

Last but not least, I feel like there really was an opportunity to explore the themes and vampirism a bit more. Eternal life where you are forever damned to survive off of others and alone, to lose what you love and anything human. And how does that affect the characters, especially in the grander scheme of their relationships? For example, Carmilla seemed to feel special connection to De Lafontaine for choosing her to be her donor; what happens now that she can no longer be this but is instead sired to her? Is there more jealousy? She certainly started regarding her more as an annoying figure, I would say.

There could have been something gut-wrenchingly beautiful to say about all of the above but novel never digs quite deep enough.

However, I am giving this a 3-star rating for the timebeing as I found the second half of the book had me much more invested and I need to acknowledge that. There were some excellent moments between Carmilla and Laura in there - I just wish it was something that Gibson had managed to channel throughout. 

Also, what is Gibson's Tumblr url? With "A Dowry of Blood" being strongly influenced by Valente's "Deathless" and "An Education in Malice" coming from a love for dark academia created by "The Secret History", I know she was oomf.

Incredibly sorry to say that this was not as good as I had hoped for. It seems like the more historic setting and the 2nd person narration of "A Dowry of Blood" might have done a lot more heavylifting than I could have ever anticipated.

I liked the concept of this and enjoyed several of the themes and topics that Gibson had chosen to iclude. I generally liked the plot and having characters explicitly identify themselves as lesbians was nice and refreshing. But I feel like the things that did not click for me were a lot more, to the point where I am debating whether I should not be knocking the rating down.

Firstly, I do not think that the dual POV worked very well. Gibson herself says that she included it after she found the character of Carmilla to be too enticing (not direct quote) but I find that the mystery element of the story would have worked much better if we had only had Laura's POV. I feel the obsession of the two with each other, the jealousy over De Lafontaine's attention, the rivalry, would have come off much stronger if we could have really dug into Laura's psyche and her interpretation of the situation. 

Therein lies my second biggest issue and it is that I was not entirely sold on the dynamics between Laura and Carmilla (and De Lafontaine). I feel like some of the conviction necessary was lacking; I say this all the time but really, I, the reader, should be the one who ends up feeling obsessed with them, and that never really connected for me.

But perhaps part of the reason of this was that the prose itself felt a little lifeless. There certainly were some lyrical moments but nothing of the beautiful and gothic atmosphere of Gibson's previous work or comparable works. This really is an aspect that makes or breaks a novel like this one.

Last but not least, I feel like there really was an opportunity to explore the themes and vampirism a bit more. Eternal life where you are forever damned to survive off of others and alone, to lose what you love and anything human. And how does that affect the characters, especially in the grander scheme of their relationships? For example, Carmilla seemed to feel special connection to De Lafontaine for choosing her to be her donor; what happens now that she can no longer be this but is instead sired to her? Is there more jealousy? She certainly started regarding her more as an annoying figure, I would say.

There could have been something gut-wrenchingly beautiful to say about all of the above but novel never digs quite deep enough.

However, I am giving this a 3-star rating for the timebeing as I found the second half of the book had me much more invested and I need to acknowledge that. There were some excellent moments between Carmilla and Laura in there - I just wish it was something that Gibson had managed to channel throughout. 

Also, what is Gibson's Tumblr url? With "A Dowry of Blood" being strongly influenced by Valente's "Deathless" and "An Education in Malice" coming from a love for dark academia created by "The Secret History", I know she was oomf.

i'm a sucker (pun intended) for obsessive all consuming love and this didn't disappoint 

Samantha 

Set in St Perpetua’s college in Massachusetts in 1968, USA we follow the two narrators.

Laura (around 19), from a small town is engrossed by writing and poetry, is pretty introverted and flourishes in miss De Lafontaine’s class.

Carmilla is around 24 and also a very talented writer who is obsessed with miss D as well. She is from Austria and came specifically to the US for the teacher. The character seems very American to me and not European or Austrian enough.

Miss De Lafontaine is a brilliant teacher and poet around 40 years old.

She absolutely misuses her power as a teacher. I found her very one dimensional in her subtle cruelty.

Laura and Carmilla have an obsessive devotion to her.

The ladies are both pretty self-involved and whiny, which for gifted college students isn’t that rare.

The book starts off very very slowly. We get a lot of details, like the outfits they are wearing. I’m not sure how all those adjectives and descriptions add to the story. Around 29% it starts to get more interesting.

I have been absolutely loving dark academia and adding a sapphic layer I was hoping it would be a 5 star read, but unfortunately it wasn’t.

Suzanne

Set in St Perpetua’s college in Massachusetts in 1968, USA we follow the two narrators.

Laura (around 19), from a small town is engrossed by writing and poetry, is pretty introverted and flourishes in miss De Lafontaine’s class.

Carmilla is around 24 and also a very talented writer who is obsessed with miss D as well. She is from Austria and came specifically to the US for the teacher. The character seems very American to me and not European or Austrian enough.

Miss De Lafontaine is a brilliant teacher and poet around 40 years old.

She absolutely misuses her power as a teacher. I found her very one dimensional in her subtle cruelty.

Laura and Carmilla have an obsessive devotion to her.

The ladies are both pretty self-involved and whiny, which for gifted college students isn’t that rare.

The book starts off very very slowly. We get a lot of details, like the outfits they are wearing. I’m not sure how all those adjectives and descriptions add to the story. Around 29% it starts to get more interesting.

I have been absolutely loving dark academia and adding a sapphic layer I was hoping it would be a 5 star read, but unfortunately it wasn’t.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

An Education in Malice

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