IF WE WERE VILLAINS meets A DOWRY OF BLOOD in this scrumptious sapphic dark academia novel by S.T. Gibson.

A sister novel to A Dowry of Blood, An Education in Malice is a retelling of Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla. Much like the original, we have Laura and Carmilla, both rotating around each other, unable to stay away from the connection that draws them both in. However, in Gibson's novel, the added character of De Lafontaine, someone much closer to the original Carmilla from Le Fanu's piece, brings in the interesting commentary around power dynamics and manipulative relationships.Asshole Victim: As a vampire, Constanta only targets the most odious of victims to feed on, including general jerkasses like guys who will spit on a beggar or sexually harass a woman by grabbing her arm.

A lot of writers give endless thought to the logistics of vampirism: the who and where of killing, of moving around, of the laws the limit or enhance the vampiric life. Not so here. Constanta and her lovers never seem to fear discovery or vengeful mortals, or feel hemmed in by their nocturnal lifestyle. They kill with abandon, travel freely, interact easily with whatever humans they so choose. External forces rarely do more than displace them; only forces internal to their shifting relationships challenge and threaten them. This may have baroque overtones, but it’s essentially an Impressionist book, painting with delicate dabs here and there, and then with sweeping, broad lines elsewhere. Time and place blur, faces emerge from the colourful palette of feeling rather than outward form. It’s a breathlessly emotional book, furious and horny and delighted, and always a bit mad. And anyway, who cares about painstaking detail when there are such bright colours to paint with? Red, of course being primary among them. S. T. Gibson said:‘I’m absolutely elated to be working with the talented team at Orbit to bring A Dowry of Blood to life on a grand scale. From the first editorial call, I knew that this book had found its perfect home. A Dowry of Blood was my refuge and comfort during a tough period in my life, and Constanta’s story is near and dear to my heart. By writing this book I was able to dive headfirst into themes of love and marriage, abuse and tenderness, and life and death. I hope readers enjoy the chills and thrills of this dark, dramatic story of obsession.’ It's dual p.o.v. with alternating chapters, and maybe it was just me, but I kept forgetting whose p.o.v. it was, because the voices seemed so similar. They also sounded quite young. If it weren't for some of the content, I would easily say this is YA, although I've been feeling this way about a lot of books lately. Maybe it's just me getting old XDI will render you as you really were, neither cast in pristine stained glass or unholy fire. I will make you into nothing more than a man, tender and brutal in equal measure, and perhaps in doing so I will justify myself to you. To my own haunted conscience. As this is a dark vampire story, the author has a list of possible triggers at the beginning of the book and on Goodreads (in her review). While the book was enjoyable but I found events to be repetitive at times and that made the story predictable which killed the joy. Characters were written beautifully, specially Constanta and Magdelena, it was the other two which were half baked. Book has little to no world-building but as soon as Alexi entered the equation, I felt like author was in a hurry to wrap things up. There was no built up to the finale. The polyamorous relationship was well done, not just in the bedroom, but in their deep connection with each other. This definitely seems like a book produced in 2020, not just because of descriptions of plague (they’re not overwhelming, don’t be deterred) but because of descriptions of a megalomaniacal narcissist who wants control at the cost of everyone else’s life and joy. There is a passage late in the book that really hit the nail on the head about the thousand violations of abuse, the ones that go unremarked as they grind you down or make you finally rise up.

So determined to live,” you breathed, as though you were witnessing something holy, as though I was a miracle. “I should call you Constanta. My steadfast Constanta.” With the lives of everyone she loves on the line, Constanta will have to choose between her own freedom and her love for her husband. But bonds forged by blood can only be broken by death.You held him by the throat, watching waves of rapture cross his face, while Magdalena and I drank from him. He looked like a lithe young Christ, crucified between two beautiful women with you as his cross. When the book was not getting sexual, it was a snore. The school scenes were extremely boring. The "Laura's friends" scenes were not at all engaging- there didn't feel like a point in giving her friends and it added nothing to the plot. The romance scenes were compelling half of the time, and hard to buy the other half. I regularly found myself skimming. The villain was horrendous, like they were written in at the last second because the author forgot that the book needed stakes.