Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu

80 reviews

sympatheticdroid's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

Sometimes its absurdity made it absolutely hilarious, but I think overall it's more about the dark romantic undertones than the funnies. The dark romantic undertones are between this weirdo Carmilla and this really sad girl Laura, both who you can interpret in a billion different ways. There's a lot of speculating to be done while reading, and even more to be done after you're finished. The length is short, it's in the public domain and the pacing is lightning quick so there's really not much reason to avoid reading it if you're at all interested in vampires, lesbians, lesbian vampires, historical queer fiction and/or historical fiction featuring women.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail and Death

Moderate: Gaslighting and Emotional abuse

Minor: Racism and Child death

Racism is minor the same way your seemingly okay acquaintance one day walking up to you, slapping you in the face and never referencing or repeating the offense would be a minor assault. To be explicit, a handful of unnamed brown characters show up as the servants of mysterious white women characters. The description in the book and commentary of other white characters paints these brown characters as being ugly and evil, and that is all the characterization they are given. It seems to reflect the views of the author. Once that scene ends you only ever see similar characters one more time as background characters in a flashback and there's no more overt racism anywhere in the book. I honestly highly recommend this novel, but I don't want anyone to not expect the racism. Every other warning is just standard vampire stuff.

f18's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence and Toxic relationship

Minor: Racism, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

probable hypnosis

hannahduda's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Murder, Violence, Toxic friendship, and Racism

o3tri's review against another edition

dark

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Homophobia

tessalexandra's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Body horror, and Blood

Moderate: Antisemitism, Gore, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Racism, and Misogyny

Minor: Slavery and Suicide

rabidteddybear's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Xenophobia, and Misogyny

maddramaqueen's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Child death, Grief, Violence, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Blood

Minor: Ableism, Sexual harassment, Pandemic/Epidemic, Racism, Fire/Fire injury, Classism, Sexual assault, Stalking, and Suicide

madelenkas's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Death, Racism, Blood, Toxic relationship, and Mental illness

oldladysadie's review

adventurous mysterious 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

5.0

Carmen Maria Machado’s editorial work makes this edition what it is for me. This was so camp and silly at times, and just the right amount of spooky/mysterious to ease into Halloween time 🩸

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Content Warnings

Minor: Racism, Death, and Suicide

jashanac's review against another edition

3.5

That introduction absolutely had me fooled haha! I love it. 

I enjoyed this -- it's a classic, of course, so the writing style is very different from what I typically read because I read very few classics. So nothing about the writing was particularly incredible for me, personally. 

I also thought that the ending was pretty rushed and the lore and plot overall was a bit flimsy. 

However, the vaguely eerie gothic vibes are there, for sure! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism and Violence