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dark
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
An odd novella, to be sure, and yet one that has earned its place among my favorite classics. An interesting take on sapphic desire, love, and identity accompanied by very intriguing, lore-heavy vampirism.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Medical content, Murder
Moderate: Child death, Stalking, Injury/Injury detail
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
In these mysterious moods I did not like her. I experienced a strange tumultuous excitement that was pleasurable, ever and anon mingled with a vague sense or fear and disgust. I had no distinct thoughts about her while such scenes lasted, but I was conscious of a love growing into adoration, and also of abhorrence. This I know is a paradox, but I can make no other attempt to explain the feeling.
***
Girls are caterpillars while they live in the world, to be finally butterflies when the summer comes; but in the meantime there are grubs and larvae, don't you see - each eith their peculiar propensities, necessities, and structure.
Content Warnings
Minor: Child death, Suicide
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
cannot believe it took me this long to finish this book, but ive finished it to get into the fall mood. it’s actually a pretty easy read to get you out of a slump! love lesbians. okay but seriously, this book needs to be talked ab more & I wish it had the same attention as dracula has now, especially considering carmilla INSPIRED dracula. truly a classic! wish that laura & carmilla could’ve run away as happy lovers.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Murder
Moderate: Child death, Death
challenging
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Sexism
Minor: Child death
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book must've blown minds in 19th century Ireland. I can see why it's a literary classic. I loved it a lot even if the characters are a bit one dimensional. It's more about the atmosphere, the looming threat of death. We know what's happening to Laura, but she hasn't the faintest idea since she's so innocent. Spoilers: Carmilla's death was a bit of a let down. I thought we were building to something more shocking but her death was over so quickly and unceremoniously.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Incest, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Blood, Cannibalism, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Ableism
Minor: Violence, Classism
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
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
Loved this. Even though I'd heard people talk about this book before, I was not expecting it to be this overtly romantic? Loved the specific vampire lore here as well. I think this will be something I want to reread pretty often.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Racial slurs, Racism, Toxic relationship, Blood
Moderate: Chronic illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicide, Terminal illness, Medical content, Grief, Stalking, Murder
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood
Moderate: Child death, Murder
Minor: Racism, Suicide
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
I want to challenge myself to read more classic books, and while I typically haven’t been a fan of classic books, I actually enjoyed this one a little. It was kind of fun to see where the inspiration for some of my favorite vampire characters came from. I was kind of disappointed to see that.carmilla gets killed in the end
But overall, it was still a pretty good read, and one of my favorite classics I’ve ever read
I don’t want to say that it doesn’t hold up because again pretty solid read- however because of modern day vampire stories using a lot of the tropes from this and other classic vampire stories, it is very very predictable.
But overall, it was still a pretty good read, and one of my favorite classics I’ve ever read
I don’t want to say that it doesn’t hold up because again pretty solid read- however because of modern day vampire stories using a lot of the tropes from this and other classic vampire stories, it is very very predictable.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death
Minor: Death of parent
adventurous
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Suicide, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Classism, Pandemic/Epidemic
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting
Minor: Child death, Racism
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.