My Five Word TL:DR Review : I wanted to love it

I don’t know whether I just over egged the pudding for myself with An Education in Malice and raised it up onto such a high pedestal that it was perhaps never going to be able to achieve those lofty heights but this didn’t work as well for me as I’d anticipated.  Dark Academia.  Obsession.  Secret desires and vampires – so much promise that felt to me a little lacking in direction.

The story is brought to us by two of the central characters, Laura and Carmilla.  The setting is a prestigious all girls school and the real hook of the piece is a Professor, known as DeLafontaine, who most of the girls seem desperate to please.  To gain a place on one of her selective courses is practically impossible, only a few achieve it and the rivalry and jealousy is intense.

Laura is a new student at Saint Perpetua’s College.  She is a shy naive girl who feels a little out of place amongst all these other seemingly worldly wise students.  In particular Carmilla.  Laura has managed to achieve the unthinkable, a place on DeLafontaine’s poetry course – a year early no less – and Carmilla, always the favourite pupil has her nose put out of joint when this latest newbie arrives and somewhat steals the show.  We then have a love/hate relationship between the two, spurred on by the teacher in an attempt to lead them to new heights of brilliance.

So, I will say Immediately that I loved the writing for this.  Gibson easily creates this fantastic gothic setting in the mind’s eye and its incredibly atmospheric and I confess that I found the story very easy to get into due to the lush style.

To be honest, I’m finding it really difficult to pin down what didn’t work so well for me with this.  I mean, I don’t really want to be overly negative because it’s not a bad book, just something kept it from knocking my socks off.

I actually think there was too much going on – possibly slight spoilers ahead.  We have the love hate relationship between Laura and Carmilla – which suddenly clicked into something much more – and, yes,it felt rushed, like a light switch being flicked on.  One minute they hated each other, then the next they didn’t.  Then you have this sideline infatuation that Carmilla has for the professor – and, lets just say it as it is, the professor is being very unprofessional to say the least and definitely taking advantage of both students. Okay, DeLafontaine is a vampire.  This element of the story felt kind of unnecessary really – particularly as it eventually involved a return love interest from the past and a number of grisly murders on campus – all of which seemed to remain very low key, not to mention all too easily resolved.

Looking at the above, the relationship with Laura and Carmilla.  I think this was supposed to have a sensual/borderline erotic feel.  I found it a bit lacking in chemistry and in one particular scene it lost all credulity with one character acting in a way that didn’t feel plausible.

Then the vampire aspects.  DeLafontaine came across almost like an immature child at times.  Her emotions were up and down and she went from being a polished, in control professor to someone who was clearly jealous of her students’ relationship.  I understand the underlying theme here is all about obsession and that does come across really well with an almost love triangle situation playing out – but, I think I hoped for something more controlling, or in control from DeLafontaine.

I think I’ll finish there.  I realise this probably comes across as overly critical and that isn’t really my intention.  This is beautifully written and I imagine that it will probably work better for some readers than it did for me.

I received a copy through Netgalley courtesy of the publishers, for which my thanks.  The above is my own opinion.

My rating 3 of 5 stars