An Education in Malice

by S. T. Gibson

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

At its core, An Education in Malice will appeal to fans of dark academia and dark romances. This Dracula retelling is dizzying and seductive, offset by genuine human emotion. It’s perfect for fans of The Atlas Six or House of Hunger.

Sumptuous and addictive, An Education in Malice is a dark academia tale of blood, secrets and insatiable hungers from S.T. Gibson, author of the cult hit A Dowry of Blood. 

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 magic, Laura and Carmilla must decide how much they are willing to sacrifice in their ruthless pursuit of knowledge.  

For more from S.T. Gibson, check out A Dowry of Blood. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316501453
Publisher:	Orbit
Publication date:	02/13/2024
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	3,383
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

S.T. Gibson is the author of A Dowry of Blood. She holds a bachelor's in creative writing from the University of North Carolina Asheville and a master's in theological studies from Princeton Theological Seminary. She currently lives in New England with her partner.

Editorial Reviews

2024-01-20
A retelling of Sheridan Le Fanu’s 1872 novella Carmilla, in which vampires and poets investigate eternity.

Laura Sheridan arrives at Saint Perpetua’s Women’s College in Massachusetts in 1968. A cherubic churchgoer fresh from Mississippi, she manages to nudge her way into the selective senior poetry seminar despite her nerves and naïveté. At the first meeting, Professor Evelyn De Lafontaine selects Laura to recite a poem, lavishing her with frightfully incisive attention. In the same seminar is Carmilla Karnstein, a beautiful student Laura met briefly at the opening bonfire, staring daggers at her. Carmilla appears captivated by De Lafontaine and seems to have more than a teacher’s pet relationship with her. De Lafontaine invites Laura to an exclusive breakout seminar, and she enters the professor’s apartment to find Carmilla the only other attendee. The girls jostle for their professor’s affection, reciting Marlowe, scribbling poetry, and exchanging (increasingly) heated glances. Laura puzzles over the relationship between her rival and her mentor—until she sees De Lafontaine sink her fangs into Carmilla’s willingly proffered neck. Over the course of absinthe-soaked evenings and bloody, sleepless nights, Laura learns that lurking beneath Saint Perpetua’s is a labyrinthine, sinister world to which she has been invited. “Right and wrong don’t exist, Laura,” Carmilla tells her. “There is only art and ugliness…” There is plenty of artful ugliness to follow, a fusion Gibson seems to relish. There are wrists fettered with ribbon, throats stained with blood and lipstick, and corpses with fresh pink nail polish. Gibson crams her sentences with erudite references befitting her painfully well-read protagonists. Carmilla, Laura, and De Lafontaine are all somewhat lacking in dimensionality, each an archetypal collection of traits building the plot to a stale conclusion. What the story lacks in freshness it makes up for in ambience; from sinful all-night salons to hedonistic Halloween parties, Laura’s world thrums with dark pleasures that will leave you wanting more.

A gleam-in-its-eye seduction of a story that may not ultimately satisfy.

Kirkus Reviews

"An Education in Malice is an ode to girlhood; ribbons, blood, poetry, and rage. Gibson’s fang-sharp prose and unflinching honesty create a delicate and fearless exploration of loneliness, love, and—as the bridge between those two absolutes—longing." —Sydney J. Shields, author of The Honey Witch

“From sinful all-night salons to hedonistic Halloween parties, Laura’s world thrums with dark pleasures that will leave you wanting more.”—Kirkus

Praise for A Dowry of Blood:

"An undying love story where beauty and horror clasp hands." —Rachel Gillig, New York Times bestselling author of One Dark Window

"A dizzying nightmare of a romance that will leave you aching, angry and ultimately hopeful." —Hannah Whitten, New York Times bestselling author of For the Wolf

"A thrilling and seductive Gothic rife with spine-tingling tension and dark romance. A Dowry of Blood left me breathless." —Alexis Henderson, author of The Year of the Witching

"Dark, seductive...A messy, in-depth portrait of emotional abuse that nails Constanta’s complex intermingling of love, pain, fear, and anger in mesmerizing prose. Thorny, fast-paced, and unabashedly queer, this is sure to draw readers in." —Publishers Weekly

"Dark, lush and heartrendingly romantic." —Lyndall Clipstone, author of Lakesedge

"A powerful take of possession and liberation. This is a Dracula retelling unlike any other—undeniable and unforgettable." —Rose Szabo, author of What Big Teeth

"Stunningly gorgeous and devastatingly romantic, you won't want to miss this one!" —Katee Robert, author of Neon Gods

"Atmospheric and lush...it will haunt you in the best possible way." —Genevieve Gornichec, author of The Witch's Heart

"A Dowry of Blood is an intoxicating perfume that lingers—an undying love story where beauty and horror clasp hands." —Rachel Gillig, author of One Dark Window

“Seductive, lyrical, and rich with period detail, this daring retelling casts the Harkers' story aside to follow Dracula's medieval bride and her tangled romance with his consorts over the centuries. The horror—pulsing and beautiful—comes as much from Constanta’s insights into her husband’s psychology as it does from bloodlust. A dark triumph.” —Mary McMyne, author of The Book of Gothel

"A Dowry of Blood is a delectable jewel of a tale, shimmering with dark, beautiful prose. Gibson balances mournful gothic possession with heartfelt emotional authenticity for a thrilling ride from start to finish." —Tori Bovalino, author of Not Good for Maidens

“An isolated women’s college, a Gothic aesthetic that would make the Brontë sisters proud, an all-consuming passion between sapphic academic rivals…what’s not to like here? Light a candle to maximize the moody vibes and dive in.”

—People

From the Publisher