an education in malice: a carmilla re-telling
- paigenherbooks
- Oct 6, 2024
- 2 min read
3/5
I am a Carmilla girl through and through. I am but a slave to the literature genre of gothic stories, chained to vampire literature, and even more so gladly shackled to Sapphic gothic literature genre. I truly had such high hopes for An Education in Malice, being a semi-modern retelling of the beloved classic Carmilla. I was slightly let down with some of the plot choices and the overall story – though do not fret S.T Gibson is a fantastic writer and deserves all the praise. I just didn't adore her Carmilla retelling with the vigour I thought I would.
Synopsis: An Education in Malice by S.T. Gibson is a dark academia novel about an 18-year-old student named Laura Sheridan who enrolls in an isolated women's college in Massachusetts and becomes involved in a sinister game of politics, bloodthirsty professors, and magic.
This book was fantastic for the first few chapters. It lured me in, in true vampiric fashion. It was dark academia, enemies to lover, academic rivals with a sprinkle of the paranormal – a Paige book through and through. It then fell so hard for me. I love the source material, Carmilla is an amazing novel with such potential to utilize, it’s mysterious, it’s sexy, and it’s just telling enough without ever truly saying it out loud (“say it…” “vampire”) An Education in Malice's biggest issue was the dual POV’s.
Why are we reading from Carmilla’s perspective. Why are you bringing us as readers into the fold of the world that Laura (our MC) has just gotten into? In my opinion, the novel should have stayed just Laura’s POV and dived deep into her maddening obsession with Carmilla and what became of it. Instead we are over exposed to every little detail excessively early on, nothing left up to the imagination.
No yearning or earning the moments of intimacy.
The other main character, Mrs. D wasn’t it for me either. After reading My Dark Vanessa, teacher student romances really, really rub me the wrong way (they always have but that book will never leave my mind) I felt her character was flat and added nothing to the story. It was just a weird guide archetype to help facilitate some of the plot points within the novel and create some weak antagonistic force. By keeping the story purely between Carmilla and Laura, more like the source material, the story would have been more hard hitting for me. The descent into paranormal madness and obsession would have crafted a more intricate and gothic story in my opinion.
Due to this along with the vampiric motif of an orgy sex scene combined with a flat and uninteresting antagonist, the story just started to crumble, like a vampire exposed to light if you will the relation.
The foundations for a thrilling and compelling novel truly were there, and within it falling apart there were moments I truly enjoyed. The beginning, as I said was fantastic, and I had such high, high hopes for this novel.
Sadly but deliciously, it seems that the original Carmilla reigns supreme as the vampire queen supreme. 🕯️⚰️
xoxo,
paige
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