Reviews with content warning for Violence - An Education in Malice

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

An Education in Malice by S.T. Gibson

44 reviews

torrentsofhayl's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

edamamebean's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

So sad about this one but it just was not doing it for me. The entire time I was reading I just felt like the book was missing something important. All the elements were there for a good story, but it had no tension. An intriguing student who has a mysterious and inappropriate connection with a professor, monstrous murders taking place on campus, a university built to house a deadly secret, a twisted obsession between two academic rivals—these should make for a compelling story! But they all missed the mark because everything was revealed to us as it was happening, and without any fanfare. There’s no mystery or element of uncertainty for the reader, not even at the climax of the novel. I was never intrigued to find out more because nothing was being hidden from me. If everything had been shrouded in the thinnest layer of mystery, this book would have hit so much harder.

It’s also so weird to me that Laura has a completely uncomplicated relationship with religion? She’s a lesbian growing up in the 1960s

who is sucked into a strange world of murderous vampires,

and yet hardly experiences religious guilt over it. Weird. I think there was a missed opportunity here to say something about queerness and religion, but it was so skimmed over that I don’t think there was a point in making Laura religious at all.

The book also completely skims over the fact that De Lafontaine is an abuser. I thought that was going to be a huge part of the story, like obviously she’s the big bad guy here? But instead we get introduced to a bigger badder guy and all of Ms. D’s indiscretions are largely dismissed.

And I’m so sad to say this, but I found the romance to be really awkward at times. Mostly, I think, because of De Lafontaine’s constant involvement. She looms over their entire relationship in a way that the characters can never bring themselves to openly acknowledge. There are stories that do this well—Ava Reid’s Juniper and Thorn comes to mind—but this just wasn’t one of them. Instead of adding tension, it felt more like discomfort. Probably because her inappropriate relationships with her students is never explicitly condemned,

and the door is left open for a continued relationship after the story is over.

What is so disappointing is that I think this book could have been amazing with just a little bit of restructuring. Keep it only to Laura’s perspective for the first half of the book, have her slowly uncover the strange relationship between Carmilla and De Lafontaine, both of whom she is inexplicably drawn to. Culminate in a big reveal at the halfway point, then have the second half take place from Carmilla’s perspective. It could have been so good! I cry.

Content Warnings

vic_to_ria's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

People going into this need to know it’s a fun time not a serious time.

This was a fun read once I got into that romance mindset- this reminded me of well written sapphic fan fiction with how the characters acted and how they talked about their love interest. It was very cheesy, lovable romance- more heated and sexual than I normally read so be warned if you aren’t into that.

I was really confused about the relationship between the teacher and one of the main characters just because it felt like the teacher chose her just because she was the main character but near then end I understood more that she was the readers view of the malicious & toxic relationship between the teacher and the other student and how love and hate is a fine line that you need to understand and be able to differentiate sooner rather than later. A lot of this book was me being like “ OH COME ON WHO DOES THIS? STRANGER DANGER?” But it was set in the 60’s-80’s(??) I believe so I can sort of understand how trusting these students are of adult figures.

I do love the slow character development or self actualization both the students go through and how they grew as individuals by the end.

Overall this was an interesting read that I did enjoy :)
Also loved the sapphic representation

Content Warnings

rookeatsbooks's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

For some godforsaken reason, I finished this book in one day. In the little praise I'll offer for this book, I guess it means I was intrigued enough by the plot to keep reading. BUT, and this is a big but, the writing is quite poor. I googled the author mid-read, thinking that this book must have been written by a teenager with a dark academia tumblr obsession. Unfortunately, that was not the case.

My biggest problem with this book is Gibson's tendency to tell and not show. The first 20-30% of the book is infodump exposition about "This is how Laura feels about this. This is how Carmilla feels about this. And they're both sooooooo mad at each other and have such a tense rivalry (You believe me, right?)" Also, a nitpick but Gibson's tendency to start multiple chapters with "Month verbed XYZ'" made me want to bash my head against a wall. Find a better way to make time transitions!

The telling instead of showing was especially notable when considering that a huge theme in the story is love and obsession and the ways that they cross over onto each other and can make people do crazy things. This is all fine and dandy, except for the fact that none of the writing makes you feel like any of these people are genuinely obsessed with one another. I didn't feel any chemistry or magnetism between the characters and considering that one of the main conceits of the plot is Laura and Carmilla's academic rivalry and competition for De Lafontaine's attention, you would think that DLF would actually be an interesting character. Wrong! In addition, I lost my mind over the sheer amount of times you read "Laura hates Carmilla. Carmilla hates Laura. But Laura's obsessed with Carmilla. And Carmilla's obsessed with Laura" in so many words. Again, show don't tell.

The prose was also bland. All of the reviews claiming that it's lush and beautiful and whatever........ have you read good prose? There was a lot of "devouring" and "feverishly" and things of the sort and it comes off both incredibly pretentious and also like Gibson didn't want to put the effort into describing things in an interesting way. There are many sections where she just spells out exactly what she wants you to deduce thematically from a situation and so many overwrought metaphors that I wanted to vomit.

For your viewing pleasure, here is a passage that made me audibly say "barf" out loud because of the cliche, overplayed, and just dumb and cringey figurative language:
(Not major spoilers since this is tagged as a romance, but spoilered just in case)

She kissed me with a martyr's agonized desperation, like I was the only sword she ever wanted to fall on. I kissed her right back like the cutting edge of a blade, trying to inflict as much damage as possible.

Honorable mentions:

Bound by blood and secrecy, with no recourse to anyone but each other. It would almost be romantic, under more advantageous circumstances.

"I'll go first, Carmilla said, draping herself elegantly across the couch. Everything she did was elegant.

I've always had the strangest instinct to run towards whatever is hurting me, to bare my neck to any predator that caught my scent

Love is sacrifice, Professor. Whether it's you on the butcher's table or not, someone always bleeds.

Also, completely separate conversation that I do not have the brainspace to go over in this review, but you would think that someone who writes queer romance would possibly realize that framing lesbians (or sapphic women in general) as predatory monsters who prey on younger women *cough cough, De Lafontaine* is problematic??? Like did the author think about the implications of that for more than 10 microseconds.

In conclusion, I don't know what possessed me to read this trainwreck of a book but I would not reread. I was so hyped by the premise and was severely disappointed by the execution. Rather than a thoughtful reimagining of Carmilla in an invigorating setting, it came off as a wannabe The Secret History with half the wit or writing skill.

Content Warnings

rabbitsdolly's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

sassafrasscommon's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

I really wanted to love this story so much more. Gibson’s prose and atmospheric descriptions are wonderful and lush, but the story felt so lacking. I lost steam around the midway point, realizing that I wasn’t truly sure what either of our MC’s wanted and what was stopping them from getting it. The climax was deflated and lacking in tension. I didn’t care for the characters as they fell flat for me.

Content Warnings

_p0ssum_'s review against another edition

Go to review page

medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I can't put my finger on why I love this book but it just works. It's a sapphic vampire carmilla retelling why wouldn't I love it ? It's also written by the same women who created "a dowry of blood" so I already knew it would shoot my expectations out of the park

Content Warnings