Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu

72 reviews

nokvi's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

3.5

Only a homophobe could sit and go I'm writing this to explain that lesbianism is bad and then produce homoerotic content in 100 pages. Like Camilla was confessing and wooing this woman, and sometimes you felt her ick towards it (yeah could have had more lesbians)

0.5 star because there's a line where a character is stated to describe a hideous black woman and I'm taking it as racism because look at the time period of this book, mans was probably racist as well

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Child death and Murder

Minor: Suicide and Racism

devermismysteris's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Gore

Moderate: Cannibalism and Chronic illness

Minor: Gaslighting, Murder, Toxic relationship, Grief, and Sexual content

mary_stormageddon's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

In my opinion, all classics should be edited by Carmen Maria Machado. I'd enjoy them much more. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Murder

danilo_syrtis's review

dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Murder, and Blood

Minor: Suicide, Grief, and Misogyny

hexedmaiden's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

4.0

This one is a reread for me and having already read the original book I wanted to see what Carmen Maria Machado would add to the original text. I enjoyed her contributions a lot. It was already very queer and I feel as though Carmen's little edits and anecdotes made it even more abundantly queer

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Murder

Minor: Suicide and Racism

aliyachaudhry's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

starting the Carmilla routine (waking up at 1pm and drinking hot chocolate) 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Terminal illness, Death, and Gore

Minor: Suicide and Death of parent

riverofhorton's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad fast-paced

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

4.75

I loved 95% of this book, and will be coming back to it in the future.

One of the things I especially liked was that the lesbian relationship was incredibly obvious, but none of the characters seemed to have much a problem with it, despite the cultural attitudes of the time this book was published.

I only wish it were longer and gave more detail on the time they spent together, though I do understand this is intended to be read as a letter to the reader.

The only bit I don't like is the implications around the "vision" that starts the book.

Laura, the narrator, is 6 at the time this vision happens, which involves the (by that point) 150+ year old Carmilla being very intimate with her. Carmilla does later say that for her side of the vision, she saw Laura as an 18 year old not a 6 year old, but it still weirded me out to think about it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Murder, Death, Gore, Death of parent, Suicide, Cannibalism, Child death, Grief, Misogyny, Pandemic/Epidemic, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexual assault

manukahoney_reads's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore and Murder

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Homophobia, Hate crime, Lesbophobia, and Toxic friendship

I naively hoped that Carmilla and Laura would kiss or have a spicy scene that wasn't a dream and was disappointed but that was my fault.

chanlo1994's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective slow-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

4.5

This book is interesting, considering the time period it was written in. Carmilla is a must read for someone who is looking to understand the history of modern vampire lore. I also like THIS edition because the author adds an informative preface regarding the inspiration for Carmilla. She makes it an easy read for us modern folk.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Gaslighting

takarakei's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

I highly recommend this version of Carmilla edited by Carmen Maria Machado who provides much needed historical context in the introduction and with footnotes throughout. It's also a beautiful edition with a few illustrations.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Murder

Minor: Racism and Sexual content