Book Review: An Education in Malice By S.T. Gibson

book cover for An Education in Malice By S.T. Gibson

An Education in Malice is a queer dark academia book that takes place in the 1960s. We follow Laura and Carmilla as they attend a women’s college in Massachusetts. Carmilla is a senior, while Laura is just starting out there as a freshman. Carmilla is the prized star student of the poetry professor De Lafontaine, but newcomer Laura is also talented poet and the two become academic rivals, striving constantly to impress their professor.

The relationship between Laura and Carmilla was very compelling to read about. The rivals to lovers is played out so well here, and you really feel the tension between the two.

This is the queer gothic academia book I’ve been looking for. S.T. Gibson has a way with words, and I absolutely love the prose in this book. There are so many great lines such as:

“I often felt like a wolf wearing the skin of a girl, balancing on two legs and hoping no one would notice.“

This story is a retelling of Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu. I have not read the original but that did not seem to take away from anything as I really enjoyed this book. In fact, it’s made me want to read Carmilla now.

An Education in Malice is a companion novel to A Dowry of Blood, but you do not need to have read that to enjoy this one. They are both standalone novels. If you have read A Dowry of Blood and wanted more like I did, I think you’ll enjoy this latest book by S.T. Gibson. I think you’ll find that many of the elements of that story are present in this one.

I received this book from NetGalley as an ARC. All opinions are my own.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Rating: 4.25 stars

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