Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me access to this early copy of the book!

I was a HUGE fan of the author's previous book, so naturally I was excited to dip into this one.
We are following Carmilla, Laura, and a professor at an all girls school. Laura has come to this school, because she loves works of literature and finds herself drawn to poetry. However, she does not expect to have such a deep fascination with Carmilla, a girl who is in one of her classes. What is even more strange, is that she doesn't know why Carmilla and the professor seem to have a relationship outside of the classroom. Soon they will all be entangled into each other's lives in a way that they can never go back from.

This is a vampire story, similar to her other work. However, I found this one to be less interesting and I found myself bored and uninterested at multiple points throughout the story. I did not enjoy the romance or the plot very much.

I absolutely adored this book it was crazy wild Gothic and a little bit of space. I thoroughly enjoyed this and will need to have this book so that I can talk about it more with people. It is a lovely Gothic feel but also this like 1960s vibe, I just really loved it. The audiobook was so good and I definitely would recommend it because this narrator does a great job with their portrayal of these characters.

3.5/5

While I enjoyed the book itself, the narrator of this story wasn't for me. The style and tone of the narration didn't match the vibe of the story in my opinion. LOVED the story itself though!!!

(3.5/5)

I want to preface this review by saying that I’m not the biggest fan of audiobooks, as I often have trouble concentrating on them so this will affect my review. However, I do plan on reading the book as well and I’m sure that that will change my experience to a higher rating.

In “An Education in Malice” we follow Laura and Carmilla, two rival students at a New England college, as they get sucked into the dark world of their poetry professor, De Lafontaine. This is a companion novel to the author’s first other novel “A Dowry of Blood” but can be read as a standalone.

I found the characters to be rather interesting and enjoyed reading about them all, although I would’ve preferred if they were just a bit more fleshed out. The attraction Laura felt towards Carmilla at first glance was rather instalove-y, but I didn’t mind too much, as focus shifted more towards the obsession aspect of it.

The themes of obsession, jealousy, and desire were executed well, however I wish it went a bit more into depth and the jealousy sometimes felt more petty than anything but I suppose that’s what jealousy often is so I can’t fault it for that.

Compared to what I remember from“A Dowry of Blood”, the writing in this was less consistently poetic and a bit more plain and straight to the point, which I was a little disappointed by, as I did not expect it to be this way.

Additionally, the ending felt a bit rushed and I would’ve wished for it to be drawn out a bit more, or to just have a few additional scenes.

Lastly, I think the narrator did a great job, as she tried to give all of the characters different accents and really distinguished them from each other, which definitely elevated the listening experience!

Overall, I quite enjoyed this book and am looking forward to doing a reread with a physical copy so that I can get the reading experience that is more suited towards me. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this book to everyone but if you are a fan of vampires and gothic dark dark academia stories, then I say give it a go.

I recently completed 'An Education in Malice' by S. T. Gibson, a compelling narrative set at St. Perpetua’s College, revolving around the struggles of Laura and Camilla. The story takes a captivating turn when Mrs. De Lafontaine takes an interest in the girls, adding depth to the plot. This novel caters to readers who appreciate the dynamics of power struggles between educators and students. The inclusion of trigger warnings at the beginning is a thoughtful touch, allowing readers to navigate the content responsibly.

Overall, I found this book highly enjoyable and would confidently recommend it to others. My insights are based on an Advance Reader Copy (ARC) received from NetGalley, and this review is a sincere and voluntary expression of my thoughts. I extend my gratitude to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with the opportunity to explore this intriguing work.

An Education in Malice is a shadowy, gothic, descriptive tale of sapphic vampires in a collegiate setting in New England. The author paints beautiful pictures of dark academia settings through vivid words which is further enhanced through the audio book version narrated by Stephanie Cannon. The dual POV provides a full 360 of the interactions between all characters. Again, the audiobook brings the characters to life with excellent accents and pacing. I appreciated that, with so many characters, they all maintained their authenticity and attributes. Every page is packed with imagery, plot, and/or steam which makes it impossible to put this down!

A sapphic gothic romance soaked in blood and intrigue-what more could you want? Carmilla and Laura are academic rivals at a women’s college, both vying for the attentions of their favorite professor, De Lafontaine. Carmilla and De Lafontaine have an existing somewhat inappropriate relationship (not physical…at least not in *that* sense), and when the professor welcomes Laura into their little duet Carmilla struggles with feelings of jealousy while also being simultaneously drawn to Laura. This is a dark tale of obsessions, art, and love.

Narration: The narrator, Stephanie Cannon, did a wonderful job narrating all of the different voices in this story-and there were quite a few! Carmilla, Laura, and De Lafontaine all had distinct voices. Perhaps this is a stylistic choice or an author choice, but I was surprised that Laura, being from Mississippi, didn’t have more of a southern accent. The pronunciation of cicada also caught me off guard (this is coming from me being a southerner, having lived in Texas, Louisiana, Florida, and having family in Mississippi). Beyond that, the listening was enjoyable. It was easy to get lost in the story-until I would be so rudely interrupted by reality!

I quite liked this one. The story itself was a bit too slow, but I really enjoyed the setting and dark academia atmosphere the author had going. Plus, the narrator was great, which really made the book stand out for me.

Thank you to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for my honest opinion on this title!

This story contains enemies to lovers romance, vampires, and a little bit of mystery! Laura starts college and is immersed in a new atmosphere. She was a shy, a rule follower, and introverted. She has one passion, which is her poetry class. Through this class she meets De Lafontaine, her professor and Carmilla among others. Both Carmilla and Laura both were top pupils in the poetry class competing with one another almost possessive over their professor and obsessed with De Lafontaine's attention. Laura is invited by De Lafontaine to private poetry discussion nights where Laura, De Lafontaine, and Carmilla discuss and read poetry. Laura picks up on something unusual between Carmilla and De Lafontaine's relationship which it turns out that De Lafontaine has been feeding on Carmilla meaning that she is a vampire. Sucked into this new world of vampires by attending clubs and finding murder victims on campus isn't what she expected. Through all of this, Laura and Carmilla grow closer through this secret and change from enemies to lovers! This although causes weird feelings of jealousy and possessiveness for De Lafontaine over Carmilla causing her to separate the two lovers. Without giving away the best parts of the story, I do like the ending for Carmilla and Laura and I do like the conflict that arrises in the story. What I did simply not understand was still the possessiveness and jealousness that De Lafontaine had on Carmilla. At times I thought she thought of Carmilla as a daughter, other times wanting her to be a lover. I kind of felt that creepy. Overall, it was a decent read, but was kind of underwhelming.

This book was so atmospheric and lusciously dark, it kept me hooked from the beginning. I was lucky enough to listen to the audiobook which had a wonderful narrator who brought the story to life. The accents for each character were perfect, especially the southern drawl for Laura.

Each character was so interesting to me and I found myself wanting to spend more time with them at the end. If you like academic rivals to lovers (but sapphic), this is the book for you (especially if you like some spice)! I didn’t realise this was a retelling of a vampire story, so I can’t compare it to the original, but I thoroughly enjoyed this gothic story. Gibson’s writing is so poetic and beautiful, their books will be an instant-read for me going forward.

Thank you, Netgalley and Hachette Audio/Redhook, for the advance audiobook.

An Education in Malice is so very slightly-below-average. Characters are flat and guileless (no spoilers, but even THAT one). Mild spice between the lead MCs, but no real chemistry there. It almost seems like it would have worked better if it had been retooled as YA.

The voice talent in the audiobook is great and handles the dual POVs very well.

An Education in Malice is a Sapphic masterpiece. It follows Laura, a southern belle, as she started her studies at St. Perpetua, an all women's college as well as Camilla, a popular senior at the school. From the beginning, the Sapphic yearning is exceptional, and only grows more explosive as the story progresses.

Throughout the story, both Laura and Camilla are discovering themselves, though in very different ways. I enjoyed watching them each grow into their own person while orbiting one another.

And then there's the dynamic of vampires, which throws the story on it's head and pushes it from a somewhat soft-hearted love story into one of harrowing stature. The vampirism is so well done in this book: it felt inevitable but not totally predictable, which is to say it felt right.

The narration of this story is fantastic. The different accents the narrator uses for the main 3 characters are absolutely perfect. Each one added depth and substance to their respective character, especially during their POV chapters. I highly recommend listening to this one!

I did feel the beginning of the story was a little slow, but it definitely picked up and held my interest. Would recommend to paranormal readers looking for a great Sapphic romance.

Dark academia + sapphic vampires makes An Education in Malice like a little treat of a read. Don't get me wrong, the dark bits are pretty dark, there's some pretty sus grooming happening by the older vampire MC... but there's a twisted beauty in the knots woven in this story and the lasting layers of blind and forbidden love. Not to mention, the audio narrator does an exceptional job conveying each character individually, with their distinctive accents.

Let’s talk about this dark academia Sapphic retelling of a vampire book that predates Dracula!

In an ancient and isolated college in Massachusetts, Laura meets beautiful and mysterious Carmella and they instantly become rivals. Their professor, De Lafontaine, has this weird obsession with Carmilla. At one point, DeLafontaine starts to become enamored with Laura as well, and Laura starts to unravel what exactly is going on here… while her rivalry with Carmilla turns into something else. Oh yeah- and people are being murdered around campus.

Hachette Audio sent me the audioARC and wow. Fantastic production. The narration was spot on and immersed me in the book, and the voices of Laura and Carmilla were just perfect. 10/10 audiobook in my opinion!

As for the book- it’s a definite 4.5/5 star read for me. Some parts were a little slow and in the beginning, it took some time for the plot to thicken, but overall - the rivalry to lovers relationship of Laura and Carmilla was fantastic… like amazing.

Pick this book up on February 13th! Thanks to NetGalley and Hachette Audio for the audioARC!

Thank you Netgalley and Hachette Audio for this ALC!

- this book has it all: ruthless poetry classes, vampires, lesbians, and murder!
- the plot isn't very fast paced, but the vibes were excellent and helped me read this one in one day!
- Okay, the rival poets competing for glory from their aloof professor was excellent!! The drama!! The critiques!!
- I loved Laura being from the south, and her accent/memories brought such great Southern gothic vibes to a New England college!
- The audio was great for this one! It made it feel like I was listening to someone tell me about the strange things that happened to them while in college, and it added so much to the overall atmosphere. I was also impressed by how distinct the narrations for Laura and Carmilla were!

Content warnings: blood, alcohol consumption, uneven power dynamics, inappropriate student-professor relationships, toxic academic environments, graphic deaths/murders, exhibitionism, sexual content.

Rep: Laura (MC) is cis, white, and lesbian. Carmilla (MC) is cis, white, and bisexual. Side lesbian rep, side Black rep.

Sometimes I look into a synopsis before proceeding to read or listen to a book, and other times, I don't. This wasn't one of those times.
I knew it was sapphic - I had seen it on a bisexual book list, but ofc I didn't see it on any lesbian ones.

It felt a bit pretentious at the start, leaning heavily into the tortured poet side of things, but apparently that's my vibe right now, so I was definitely enjoying it.

Then, surprise vampire!

That definitely made the book change from tortured poet into all about vampires and craving blood and Laura and Carmilla wanting each other, but Professor De Lafontaine wanting Carmilla for herself, but not in a romantic or sexual way? I don't know, Carmilla and De Lafontaine's relationship was weird, and toxic, and very manipulative of De Lafontaine.
I hate the predatory lesbian stereotype with every fibre of my being, but it was in full force here.

The only thing that made me cringe so hard was the first sex scene/s. At the vampire house party (for lack of a better terminology). I'd like to erase that from my memory please and thanks.

On the whole, this was pretty good, but nothing that really grabbed me.

I thought this would give me more A Lesson In Vengeance vibes, but it didn't.

So this is like a 3.5 but rounded up because of the lesbian MC.

I was able to read this via an advanced audio copy, which I am thankful for. And the narration was A+ amazing.

"I decided right away that I hated her, hated her stupid bouncy curls and her soft-edged southern drawl and the little red notebook che kept scribbling in like a pastor's pet during a sermon."

Let's talk about an Education in Malice by S.T. Gibson. But, what is about this book?
Pages: 352
Genre: fantasy dark academia
- fantasy dark academia in a collage
- rivals to lovers
- poetry lessons
- vampires
- polyamorous and sapphic relationship
- cameo from A Dowry of Blood

My rating: 4 stars, a must read!

Well, here we are to talk about this new reading!
First of all I wanted to thank Netgalley and the Little Brown Book group publishing house for giving me the opportunity to read this book many weeks before its release!

Let's start from the assumption that I saw this book on netgalley, I knew it was coming out soon and I started reading it because in November I read A Dowry of Blood, also by the same author.
Well, her first book was a shock for me, something that I had been looking for a long time to read, but that I didn't know I needed, both on a narrative level and in terms of style, completely vampire-like in the soul, dark, romantic and sensual. So, let's say, I jumped on this reading hoping it was at the same level as the first book, or even simply to rediscover what I had previously discovered.

This book is about our protagonist, Laura upon her arrival at Saint Perpetua's College, a purely and uniquely female collage that she specifically chose for Professor De Lafontaine's poetry course, which she incredibly managed to get into. One of the first people Laura meets is Carmilla. With her she establishes a rivalry relationship based precisely on this poetry course, a rivalry that will become much more over the course of the narrative.
Love for poetry, rivalry, romance, classics and lessons are what I found in this fantastic narrative with dark but never excessive tones, which remain in line with the places and themes addressed.

Personally, this time too like the first, I really appreciated the author's narration, how she decided to set up the story (this time I really appreciated the double POV of both protagonists which highlights their differences very well, but above all very useful for the study of vampirism and relationships), especially because the theme, that of vampirism, is the same as the other book, but here it is approached in a totally different way. So style is definitely something I promote but in the most absolute way!
I must say that the narrative here is a little more focused on the feelings of the protagonists than on the story, not that I minded it, but we certainly see fewer vampires than in the author's first book. This is not a problem because the romance is structured very well, in the right timing and with desire that grows little by little, until it blossoms into the description of a wonderfully written sapphic relationship.
I don't know what else to say other than the fact that I loved this book and it's a great read that you can relax with but also devour in one sitting!

Better than A Dowry of Blood, then? No, but it's equally beautiful, even if for me that, evidently, will not be surpassed yet!

S.T. Gibson writes messy queer love (and vampires) like no one else. The style is languorous and lyrical until it sharpens to cut. Ultimately, this was an exploration of power dynamics, and while it made me uncomfortable, I think that was the point. I highlighted so many beautiful passages. The slow plot made me impatient, but this is a character-driven story, and I enjoyed getting to know them. The narrator did a great job with the subtle accents of everyone. My favorite part of the book was the last page. The ending will stick with me, and I’m glad for it.

I read back and forth between a gifted NetGalley audiobook from Hachette Audio this review is a reflection of my personal thoughts.

I am glad I got to read this early. I devoured it! As someone who has read Carmilla, I was excited to read a more modern retelling of the book. The pacing of the book was great and kept me wanting to read more. The writing took me back in time and I felt like I was able to imagine myself at the college. The characters' emotions were well described and helped me feel what they were feeling throughout the book. I enjoyed being along for the ride and would love to know more about what happens after the book ends. The ending was great. I really enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it!

I read Carmilla recently, so I was interested to see how this book expanded on the original. It was definitely *loosely* based on the original, but I like what Gibson did with the source material. The sapphic nature was much more overt, and I appreciated that the sensuality was more consensual than in the original. This book was definitely sexy. The tension between Laura and Carmilla was well written as they navigated moving from academic rivals to something more. I enjoyed seeing them push each other as animosity transformed into admiration.
The book gave vampires the potential for more meaningful lives than I’ve read in other vampire novels, which made for a more hopeful (and less depressing) read. While open ended endings sometimes leave me feeling unsatisfied, I think it worked really well in this case.
The audiobook was well read. Each voice was easy to tell apart and the narrator captured the personality of the characters well.