“A sensible girl would leave. A good girl most certainly would. But I was tired of being sensible, and I was tired of being good. I couldn’t walk away from what I was being offered: the chance to live an exceptional life.”

An Education In Malice was absolutely AMAZING!!! I really adored A Dowry of Blood, and this second book (set in the same world, but not a continuation of the first book) was excellent. You don’t have to have previously read the original Carmilla novel that this was based on, but I do think it added to the whole experience!

Gibson’s writing is so poetic and descriptive and I loved the Fall/Winter New England vibes, especially set in a women’s college in the middle of nowhere. The longing and lust that was portrayed was so beautiful, even in its toxicity, and I thought the plot was just there enough to push the story forward while maintaining the focus on Laura and Carmilla. One of the characters from Dowry also shows up and that was a great cameo!!

This one is going on my favorites shelves!!!

I listened to the audiobook and I really liked the narrator, I felt it brought the story to life.

🌈 Queer rep: main FF pairing (bi/pan woman, lesbian woman), brief mentions of MMF situation & MM relationship

This book is a love story with vampires and mortals set at a college in Massachusetts. Laura and Carmilla are classmates, Carmilla a bit older. They both are in a poetry class with Professor DeLafontaine, and are attempting to get into her good graces and win her attention. This book is a love story, coming of age, what it is like to love someone for a very long time, and the sacrifices that come with it. Laura and Camilla, while set as adversaries to win their professor's approval, become much more as the story progresses. This story was unexpected and enjoyable.

We really need to tighten up the definition of dark academia. This is dark, certainly, but there’s nothing especially academic about it aside from the fact that it s set at a school. And while it’s an entertaining story, this kind of misleading presentation always leaves the reader feeling a bit letdown because of what it’s not instead of being able to fully appreciate it for what it actually is.

I really liked the fantasy element of this book, especially because it takes a while to figure out exactly what that element is and how it figures into the story. The atmosphere of the book is well-rendered and reflective of that fantasy element in a way that I think takes unusual skill on the part of the author.

I liked the characters and to an extent I also liked the dynamic between them, though there’s an unfortunate, goofy romance novel aspect to this that makes the story hard to take seriously, which was a bit of a bummer since the bones of the plot were good. If you like open-door fantasy romance this particular facet of the book will probably be a positive for you, but for me it just felt too cringey and just isn’t to my taste as far as dark fantasy goes.

Regardless, I like the way Gibson writes and how evocatively she builds setting and sense of place well enough to try another when the time comes.

This was rather disappointing especially since I just got off the high of a fantastic sapphic vampire story.

I was expecting this story to really dive into the dark and sinister side of vampirism especially given the dark academia aesthetic, but instead this book barely skimmed the surface when it came to the actual vampire lore. Vampires are supposed to be surrounded by blood at the very least, which was severely lacking.

As far as the characters go, Laura was at least intriguing, but she's quickly overshadowed by Carmilla and Professor De Lafontaine. Carmilla is petulant and over the top. Professor De Lafontaine is meant to be this intense yet enigmatic woman, but she ends up coming across as a creepy older woman that preys on young women. Pass.

This book was not for me. I DNFed it, so I feel bad even giving it a rating. I'm sure this will be someone else's cup of tea, but it was not mine. The narrator's southern accent was well done, which is always nice. I hate when an audiobook narrator leans so heavily on a southern drawl that it comes out campy. I grew up in Mississippi, and I can confidently say that she sounded like a Mississippian. I just wasn't interested in the plot at all. Giving it 3 stars because I am sure some people will love it. It just lost me and didn't hook me. This is a classic case of "it's not you, it's me."

I think this book would have been much better served through Laura’s POV alone. By drawing back the curtain and showing us Carmilla’s POV, it loses much of its mystery, its dark allure, and instead just reads like a petulant child chasing the (abusive, manipulative, toxic) attentions/affections of her professor/mentor. If we saw Carmilla only from the outside, we’d get to pull the focus away from toxic professor and more into the relationship and tug-of-war between Laura and Carmilla. It would also have helped give greater impact to scenes where Laura is confronted with the strange and macabre; we get a few of those but mostly Laura is left with the aftermath (except for the scene at the vampire party, which was fantastic through Laura’s POV) while Carmilla is considerably less shocked and usually doesn’t give us that good visceral reaction we need.

Because so much of the focus is placed on the toxic professor, we lose sight of the darker aspects of both vampirism and academia as a whole, and in the last 1/4 of the book, Laura isn’t particularly important at all, which was kinda boring. I wanted more consequences for the professor but instead we’re just left with a “happily ever after for now” and patted on the head.

Thank you to S.T. Gibson, NetGalley & Hachette Audio for an audio arc of An Education in Malice in exchange for an honest review.

This was a super buzzy book that I was excited to see what the fuss was about.

Sadly, I didn't buy in to the hype.

It just really didn't feel like there was any depth to either the story or the characters. I thin this story would have been better with a little more length so that it was a bit more developed all the way around.

I loved the isolated, gothic school setting, which was a school for girls.

In a nutshell - Laura is the new girl; De LeFontaine is the dark & intoxicating teacher; and Carmilla is the beautiful & intense teacher's pet who Laura is immediately pitted against. Turns out De LeFontaine is an ancient vampire who wants to bring her long sleeping vampire lover, Isis, back to "life." She does this by feeding her Carmilla's blood. The Carmilla is turned into a vampire and she & Laura end up forming a romantic relationship even though De LeFontaine would rather keep them apart. Isis goes on a killing spree and the only way to stop her is to kill her. For good this time. That's pretty much it. That's all I got out of it.

As I said, the characters and story were both very underdeveloped and this book was such a letdown.

It had promise, but definitely could have been better.

I will not be sharing my review on IG, but I will still provide a feature as I know a lot of readers are anticipating this book and the cover is too gorgeous not to have a feature.

The sapphic, pining, vampiric book we’ve all been waiting for. This Carmilla retelling is to die for.

I will admit, many parts left me wanting, but I enjoyed the story and conclusion.

I will admit, I confused the two POVs several times, and wish I understood the obsession with the professor a bit more. I’ve had my own obsessions of course, but just couldn’t see past the red flags on this one.

Overall, I enjoyed my time reading this, and will likely be thinking about Carmilla and Laura for a long time coming.

4.5 rounded up to 5!

This book was great! I loved A Dowry of Blood and this one didn't disappoint either. The elements of the story include vampires, obsession, love, intrigue, and passion. It's also sapphic and the tension is very well done between the two women.

The plot is simple but gripping and the characters are very interesting. I found them all to be very compelling and I liked their toxic kind of attachment to each other. The way that was explored and the character growth was very well done in my opinion.

Overall, I was immediately hooked and it was a delight, so I have nothing bad to say about this book. The audiobook narrator did a good job as well.