An education in malice was my first book from S.T. Gibson and I feel so torn! I couldn’t put it down, it was such a creepy and atmospheric story that had me totally hooked. But it felt quite predictable and didn’t quite have the depth I think I wanted from this kind of story. I loved the dual POV and the narrator is great at distinguishing between the two characters so I didn’t have trouble following the audiobook which is great! I will read from the author again I just think this felt a little like a YA story with intimate scenes not like the adult book I was after.
AD/PR PRODUCT (audio)

Dark and deliciously angsty. I enjoyed this for its thought-provoking nature as well as its nuanced approach to a vampire origin story.
I recommend reading the physical copy, I found the narrator highly distracting because the bright, modern, and peppy tone was malaligned with the tone of the writing which was difficult to enjoy.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing a copy for review!

This was a different story than I originally anticipated but I did end up enjoying!

The dark academia paired with the dated time period was interesting and I enjoyed the setting very much.

I’m not the biggest fan of teacher/student relationships (which is the point here) but it was well done!

I would recommend for fans of dark academia.

An Education in Malice by S. T. Gibson - Look, this book is 5 stars. Is it the best piece of literature I've ever read? No. Is it astounding and world shatteringly amazing? Also, no. But this book sucked(haha unintentional vampire pun) me in and kept my whole attention from start to finish in one go. So that is a 5 star read in my eyes.

This audiobook is narrated by Stephanie Cannon

•Thank you to @hachetteaudio & @orbitbooks_us

Unfortunately, this was not for me. I hate to say it, but I DNF'd about halfway through. I had a difficult time connecting with the characters. It may have been that I just wasn't in the mood for this one. I do think the prose was lovely but might have leaned a little too much on the horror side for my liking.

Extremely horny sapphic vampires. Also dark academia. I'm not sure what to say beyond that. If those key words call to you, so will this book.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing this read!

This was a good vampire novel with a sapphic romance. The vibes were immaculate, and it gave dark academia meets horror novel.

However, although this might be someone else’s type or book, it really just wasn’t for me, so I’m giving it a positive three stars.

The audiobook was read well and it was an enjoyable listen. It was well done.

Ugh, I enjoyed this so much! I've been in a reading slump, so of course a vampire book is what I needed to get out. I haven't read Carmilla, so I'm not sure how this retelling lives up to the original. However, it was such a fun read that I finished in a day and a half.

From the author that haunted us with A Dowry of Blood comes an academic tale filled with insatiable hungers, blood, and secrets. It centers on a few dark romantic relationships without being a romance. It's an incredible novel filled with gothic creations, engaging writing, and Sapphic beauty.

Solid 3.5, I liked the dark setting and the narrator did a great job at giving us a eery feel as well as her ability to make me feel scared/invested in the story. i do not think dark acadamia is my favorite genre but I was hoping to use this audio as a way to dive into it and overall liked the story telling the writter knows how to end each chapter with suspense

3.5 stars rounded down.

So this book was in my opinion okay, it was interesting as I went in completely blind mostly reading this based on the cover so I didn’t know it was about Vampires. If I had known that everything would have been very predictable. ( I am glad I didn’t know it made the book better to me) I love the rivalry between the two characters but most of the time their relationship felt kind of flat. The book was very slow. I think the only reason I finished it is because it is because it was short and still fairly easy to read. I liked the author's style and writing but the pacing and overall story felt lacking, I was hoping for something more? I think if we had gotten to see more of the society or maybe gotten to know more about De Lafontaine it would have intrigued me more.

I might recommend this to some people but to me I think this wasn’t enough fantasy, enough vampires and enough backstory to really capture me. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t amazing.

I faced some difficulties while listening to the audiobook rendition of "An Education in Malice" by S. T. Gibson, narrated by Stephanie Cannon. Although the premise of the novel intrigued me, I found that certain elements of the story and the performance did not quite meet my expectations.
One issue that stood out was the inclusion of dual perspectives from Laura and Carmilla, which I believed could have been streamlined to create a more focused and immersive storytelling experience. The challenge of distinguishing between the voices of the narrators made it hard for me to fully engage with the narrative, leading to confusion during character transitions.
Moreover, the pacing of the audiobook felt sluggish, making it difficult for me to maintain interest throughout the plot. While I appreciated delving into the dark romance and mystery elements of the tale, I couldn't shake the feeling that the overall execution fell short of its potential.
Upon reflection, I found that the novel lacked the necessary depth and progression to fully capture my attention. While the writing style was elegantly crafted, the narrative seemed to meander without a clear purpose, resulting in a sense of aimlessness. The rushed enemies-to-lovers relationship between Laura and Carmilla lacked the required chemistry to make it convincing.
Despite these drawbacks, I did find moments of enjoyment in the audiobook and admired the author's unique spin on the vampire romance genre. Nevertheless, I believe that the novel would benefit from further polishing and a deeper exploration of its themes to resonate more strongly with readers. In essence, "An Education in Malice" displayed potential as a piece of lesbian vampire fiction but could improve through additional revisions to enhance its narrative complexity and character dynamics.

This book wasn't quite what I expected it to be, but if you asked me what exactly I expected, I'm not sure I'd have an answer for you. So, I certainly can't say that I was disappointed, unlike a lot of other people. Now that I've finished it, I am a little surprised by the harsher critiques. But, I will say that this was certainly not as strong as A Dowry of Blood, so I can understand some of the disappointment.

I am on the fence for almost all of my thoughts - On one hand, I really enjoyed Carmilla and Laura and I'm glad we got to see so much of their relationship develop. On the other hand, I would have liked more rivalry between them because we did lose a lot of tension once they become more transparent with their feelings. Similarly, I equally like and dislike Ms. D's development. I am glad that I could enjoy her in the end, versus the frustration and hate I had towards her for so much of this. On the other hand, it did feel a bit anti-climactic to see her change gears.

This kind of feels like it would have been written before A Dowry of Blood in the sense that it was a bit more simple and straightforward. Whereas, A Dowry of Blood, had so much more tension and complexity. I still think it's worth a read but it would be best to manage your expectations perhaps.

Overall, though, I was very intrigued and engaged throughout the whole story and I thought the writing was fantastic, so this landed at an even 4.0 for me.

I really enjoyed this one, it was well balanced and held my attention! It lived up to the hype, and I’m still not over how beautiful the cover art it!!

A sapphic vampire romance unfolds in this dark academia retelling of <i>Carmilla</i>. At first blush, this sounded fantastic and I loved S.T. Gibson’s prior release <i>A Dowry of Blood</i>, so I was initially excited to pick this up. However, her craft took a massive dip in quality with this release.

Let’s start with the writing itself, which was rife with insta-love, inconsistencies, and rushed conversational pacing that left me cringing. The first 30% of this novel was pretty strong and consistent with the writing, and then a conversation between Laura and Carmilla takes place that marks the end of the quality writing. In this scene, Carmilla goes from openly resenting Laura for moving there and attending her university, to very suddenly professing how happy she is that Laura moved there because things were boring before she arrived. It left me scratching my head at the quick and almost inexplicable shift in her attitude in just a matter of paragraphs.

This same issue continues throughout the novel. When it is revealed that Mrs. D is a vampire, Laura processes the information in a way that felt empty, forced, and poorly written. Immediately afterward, we begin rifling through vampire stereotype after vampire stereotype. All while this is happening, Mrs. D is manipulating Laura to keep her secret, which, within the context of the poor writing, feels unconvincing and forced. I didn’t understand why Laura gave into her manipulation. Her arguments weren’t strong—they were rushed and contrived.

Now, let’s address the insta-love. Carmilla’s initial characterization was cemented strongly very early on, establishing her as envious of Laura and stubborn in denying her attraction toward the girl. However, the switch flipped within a couple chapters to Carmilla suddenly being the one to pursue Laura. It was too rapid and made no sense within the context of her early characterization. Instead, it would’ve been better for Laura to pursue Carmilla until she breached her guardedness, at which point they would be free to naturally hit it off. The way Gibson does it, conversely, contributes to the insta-love in the novel.

The last thing I want to address should be taken with a grain of salt, as I’ve only read a plot summary of the original <i>Carmilla</i> that this is based on. However, I fail to see how this in any way was supposed to resemble the original <i>Carmilla</i> outside of an MC being named Carmilla, and the vampiric elements. It feels almost like Gibson liked the gothic novel, but only named Carmilla after the titular character as an homage, and then the marketing team took it and ran with it.

By all accounts, this was a great idea at the surface, but the overall execution was poor. I will say, however, that I loved the depiction of the toxic relationships between Carmilla and Mrs. D, and also between Carmilla and Laura. The way they were navigated felt very realistic, even though the resolution of the toxicity in both relationships felt, like a lot of elements in this novel, rushed and contrived.


<b>OVERALL RATING:</b> 2.5 stars.

<i>A big thank you to Netgalley and the publisher, Hachette Audio, for providing me with an advanced copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review!</i>

I've been sitting on my thoughts on this book for a week now. And, here's the thing. I still don't know. Did I like the writing of this book? Absolutely. It was lovely. S.T. Gibson can WRITE. And in A Dowry of Blood her writing and the narration carried me through the whole book like, "Wow, this is so lovely." But in this book? I hated the plot. Honestly, just absolutely hated it. So how do you balance the beautiful writing with a plot where you're just left upsetti spaghetti because what do you mean that's how it ended? Like, there wasn't even a reckoning of the ramifications of this weird relationship with the professor. I... At the end of the day, I'm not a literary fiction girlie, I'm really not, so maybe it's not fair for me to be like, I hate the choices made by this book, 3 stars, but also, you're here for my opinions, so that's it. When you're tackling a subject like grooming, which I KNOW that these girls were a bit older than children, but when you're tackling a subject with professor student relationships like this... I just think you have to really get into the ramifications and this book had WILD stakes of ramifications and we STILL don't really get to see the characters reckoning with them? What I loved about A Dowry of Blood and the way that it looked at this predatory/abusive relationship with Dracula is that it was reflective. Magdelena was looking back on this relationship and therefore the lyrical writing was also complete with messaging. Not An Education in Malice. It's written too contemporaneously with the events so the actual messaging is lost or left to you and while I can appreciate authors not treating me like I can't draw my own conclusions, I do not like to leave characters before they've even begun to disentangle themselves emotionally... This is really just turning into more of a rant than a review of this book, so I am going to restrain myself. If you love S.T. Gibson's writing, I still think this book is beautifully written. But if you're at all sensitive to power imbalances in relationships, I think you should steer clear.

I want to provide some constructive feedback on my experience with the audiobook rendition of this novel. While I appreciate the effort put into the narration, I must admit that I wasn't entirely impressed with it. In my opinion, the decision to include both Carmilla and Laura's perspectives didn't quite hit the mark. I believe the story could have been more impactful if it had focused solely on Laura's perspective, creating a stronger sense of mystery and atmosphere.

One issue I encountered was the difficulty in distinguishing between the voices of the narrators. This made it challenging to follow the shifts between characters, leading to some confusion on my part. While I understand that this might have been intentional for thematic reasons, it unfortunately detracted from my enjoyment of the audiobook.

Furthermore, I found the pacing to be quite slow, which made it difficult for me to stay fully engaged with the narrative. Despite the novel's potential, I couldn't help but feel that it fell short of delivering a truly captivating experience.

Overall, while there were aspects of the audiobook that I appreciated, such as the opportunity to experience the story in a different format, I couldn't shake the feeling that it didn't quite live up to its potential.

Content warnings: inappropriate teacher-student relationships, abuse of power, blood, murder

Some readers may not be aware that DRACULA is not actually the first vampire story put into the written word. in 1872, Irish author Sheridan Le Fanu published the novella Carmilla... a whole 25 years before Stoker's novel. On top of that, Carmilla was not only a vampire, but a queer one. Given all that, I was excited to see what Gibson would do with bringing our beloved vampiress into a more modern setting (modern being relative since this book is set in the late 1960s predominantly in Massachusetts).

A lot of AN EDUCATION IN MALICE follows the standard vampire story of an innocent young woman unknowingly coming into contact with a vampire and becoming enthralled by them. Because of this connection, this young woman is then exposed to debauchery and sin. Though Laura isn't entirely innocent and is definitely not an unwilling player when it came time for debauchery.

The dark academia vibes are strong, I was honestly expecting more spice but when it did hit (around the 70% mark), it hit hard. I was caught a bit by surprise while listening to the audiobook through earbuds out in public. I may have blushed.

I don't think the dual POVs entirely works for this book though, while I enjoyed Carmilla's parts, it took away the uncertainty and suspense of Laura's part of the story since readers are seeing their romance unfold from both angles. Laura and Carmilla might have been questioning what the other was thinking or feeling, but readers had the full story all along. Because of this, the unsettling feeling that is so well known to Gothic Literature is missing and I think if if had been there, that would have made this story even better.

De Lafontaine's character was a bit uneven and the final conflict and what happens after was a bit anticlimactic and predictable. Despite being slightly disappointed with how things wrap up, I do think this is an enjoyable and quick read and will be a great title in the Fall to usher in spooky season.

Stephanie Cannon does a decent job with the audiobook narration, but I wish the voices used for Laura and Carmilla weren't so similar. Luckily the chapter titles clued readers in on who the POV would be from for that chapter, otherwise it would have been a bit murky.

Advanced Reader’s Copy provided by NetGalley, Hachette Audio, and Redhook in exchange for an honest review.

When Laura Sheridan starts to attend Saint Perpetua’s College, she is not prepared for the challenges it will bring. Participating in Professor De Lafontaine's class was meant to further her own artistic pursuits, improve her writing and broaden her horizon; instead, she immediately is picked out by Carmilla, the professor's favourite student, as her arch nemesis. Whilst Professor De Lafontaine keeps pushing and encouraging Laura, Carmilla tries to spew venom her way whenever possible, but when she finally is invited to their after hour lessons, Laura realizes that there is much more to the duo than she thought.
I love love love S. T. Gibsons's writing. I'd already enjoyed A Dowry of Blood quite a bit, so I had high expectations, and An Education in Malice did not disappoint. I really enjoyed the dual POV of Laura and Carmilla and I loved the way the characters were shaped. I was completely taken by surprise by a few turns in the plot, which rarely happens to me in a way I find reasonable and I think the atmosphere and setting of the novel were incredibly well done. I listened to this on audiobook and the narrator also did a fantastic job.

I was very underwhelmed by this novel. It was not only a slow burn but slow paced. There wasn't much world building. The main character was flat and the love interest was too needy. The teacher was a narcissistic hag with no redeemable qualities.