A review by edamamebean
An Education in Malice by S.T. Gibson

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. 
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