You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.11 AVERAGE
4.11 AVERAGE
dark
medium-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:
No
Carmilla is a tricky story to retell. You need a balance between the horror and the romance, and in the original book, the two are inextricably linked: Carmilla's love is meant to be unnatural and corrupting. Understandably, a modern retelling wants to do away with that link. But doing so excises some of the horror and some of the ambiguity of the character - overall, this leans more empowering than dark. It also adds a very predictable subplot about unwanted suitors, just to make the antagonists easier to dislike, which felt like a bland move.
It also has to be said that at least the first third of the book, before getting into the romance proper, reads a little like you just took the opening of Carmilla and rephrased everything very slightly. I know I criticised Hungerstone for including very little of the original story, but this went too far in the other direction. It even has a similar level of exposition dumps, which were not the shining element of the original. The reworking of the framing device was fun, though, if not especially well-executed.
I don't want to be too harsh on this book - overall, it's fine, probably because it's drawing so heavily from a good book. If you're looking for a dark romance with vampires and you haven't read the original, you might like it! But honestly, I think I might swear off Carmilla retellings from now on.
(Also, pettily. Carmilla's anagram names habit is stated to be because she enjoys it, and not the much funnier original that vampires just have to do that.)
It also has to be said that at least the first third of the book, before getting into the romance proper, reads a little like you just took the opening of Carmilla and rephrased everything very slightly. I know I criticised Hungerstone for including very little of the original story, but this went too far in the other direction. It even has a similar level of exposition dumps, which were not the shining element of the original. The reworking of the framing device was fun, though, if not especially well-executed.
I don't want to be too harsh on this book - overall, it's fine, probably because it's drawing so heavily from a good book. If you're looking for a dark romance with vampires and you haven't read the original, you might like it! But honestly, I think I might swear off Carmilla retellings from now on.
(Also, pettily. Carmilla's anagram names habit is stated to be because she enjoys it, and not the much funnier original that vampires just have to do that.)
I hate to give this two stars because overall I don’t think it’s a bad book, it just wasn’t what I wanted from a Carmilla retelling. If you’re looking for a vampire lesbian story that ends with them happily living the rest of their undead lives together then you’ll probably like this fine. For me I was looking for a story that goes leads more with the horror of the original then a love story.
The two thing that I find irritated me was 1.Laura is more horrified and has a hard time reconciling her being gay then the fact that Carmilla is a vampire that must kill people in order to live and 2. All the deaths that Carmilla has causes and the horrible things that she has done are somewhat justified and she doesn’t really face any consequences for her actions.
Again I realize I was looking for a very different type of story. This takes a horror story and makes it a romance where as I wanted to go more in depth with a classic horror story.
The two thing that I find irritated me was 1.Laura is more horrified and has a hard time reconciling her being gay then the fact that Carmilla is a vampire that must kill people in order to live and 2. All the deaths that Carmilla has causes and the horrible things that she has done are somewhat justified and she doesn’t really face any consequences for her actions.
Again I realize I was looking for a very different type of story. This takes a horror story and makes it a romance where as I wanted to go more in depth with a classic horror story.
adventurous
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Homophobia
Screaming crying laughing dying omg. I finished it in a day and now its my favorite book in 2025. Scratch that. My favorite book ever. Like- The Song of Achilles level of amazing. I loved it. I love it. Carmilla and Laura is amazing. Read it now.
”some ineffable piece of me had gone, rewritten by her touch, and what had been stolen was patched by a piece of her, some bit of her heart i had unknowingly taken with me.”
laura: so what if my gf is killing people? god forbid a woman have hobbies
* rating this higher than the original does feel slightly sacrilegious but i am literally just a girl. it took everything i liked about carmilla and amplified it by 10. any lower and i’d just be lying to myself.
laura: so what if my gf is killing people? god forbid a woman have hobbies
* rating this higher than the original does feel slightly sacrilegious but i am literally just a girl. it took everything i liked about carmilla and amplified it by 10. any lower and i’d just be lying to myself.
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Sexual content, Murder
This book has grown on me since writing this review- I'll likely return to it and edit some of my points below when I'm less busy in real life. That said, I compiled some positives and negatives below! This has spoilers, but nothing that wasn't clear in the synopsis or marketing. I also go into detail about sex scenes, but I find that an important part of the book, especially given the original novella's homophobic/prudish tone, which this retelling fixes expertly.
Positives:
I think the people in it were strongly characterized, similar to the first novel, and I found the expansion on Laura’s catholic guilt nice (for uhhh reasons don’t look at me)
The way the author described the lesbian sex (and there was a lot of it) was excellent. Normally, I get grossed out by how people write sex due to a focus on the physical over the emotional/romantic, but it was enjoyable. I was kicking my feet. It also retained enough of the original novel’s insanity(?). They have sex a lot in the actual novel, but it’s described as euphoric kisses and then ‘death’ (climax), which "Carmilla and Laura" kept intact by making climaxes similarly extreme. It is a weird thing to enjoy, but I liked the intimacy and spiritual connection aspect and was glad it wasn’t JUST sex. Ok, enough sex talk.
It kept in a lot of quotes from the original, which I LIKE, actually! They were worked in really well, and at one point, a quote originally from Carmilla is given to her mother, and it flows perfectly fine, redefining the original meaning.
There’s also a lot of repeated phrases that pop up throughout the book with different meanings. (there’s a term for this, but I forget it.) but I love when writing has this.
Oh, and they get a HAPPY ENDING!
Laura becomes a vampire at the end and isn’t immediately into it- this book committed to the problematic bits of things, which I'm happy for. I’m VERY glad it didn’t entirely whitewash Carmilla. This idea of Carmilla's characterization does get brought up in the negatives, which we are now onto:
Negatives:
The writing has amazing bits of wordplay and just absolutely beautiful prose for… one section. Parts of the book become difficult to get through because it seems so mechanical in writing style, which is annoying because I know this author, and they make amazing work. It feels like it wasn’t ‘polished’ enough, which I think could be remedied easily and could have benefited from a larger page count.
They gave Carmilla an unnecessary (in my opinion) backstory to explain her vampirism that just kinda felt like trauma porn but yk I can deal with that as it kept other things about her character consistent. Other reviewers went into more detail about this backstory element. It was very clunky, I would have preferred zero backstory, genuinely.
Lastly, the ending feels like it was an afterthought to force a happy tie-up. As much as I liked it otherwise (hell, I bought this book BECAUSE I wanted my girls to have a happy ending), it gives me the vibes of “oh, we killed her hmm how do I fix that?” instead of planning a surviving story from the start.
--
I still entirely recommend this book for fans of Carmilla, especially fans who also have a habit of lesbian yearning.
Positives:
I think the people in it were strongly characterized, similar to the first novel, and I found the expansion on Laura’s catholic guilt nice (for uhhh reasons don’t look at me)
The way the author described the lesbian sex (and there was a lot of it) was excellent. Normally, I get grossed out by how people write sex due to a focus on the physical over the emotional/romantic, but it was enjoyable. I was kicking my feet. It also retained enough of the original novel’s insanity(?). They have sex a lot in the actual novel, but it’s described as euphoric kisses and then ‘death’ (climax), which "Carmilla and Laura" kept intact by making climaxes similarly extreme. It is a weird thing to enjoy, but I liked the intimacy and spiritual connection aspect and was glad it wasn’t JUST sex. Ok, enough sex talk.
It kept in a lot of quotes from the original, which I LIKE, actually! They were worked in really well, and at one point, a quote originally from Carmilla is given to her mother, and it flows perfectly fine, redefining the original meaning.
There’s also a lot of repeated phrases that pop up throughout the book with different meanings. (there’s a term for this, but I forget it.) but I love when writing has this.
Oh, and they get a HAPPY ENDING!
Laura becomes a vampire at the end and isn’t immediately into it- this book committed to the problematic bits of things, which I'm happy for. I’m VERY glad it didn’t entirely whitewash Carmilla. This idea of Carmilla's characterization does get brought up in the negatives, which we are now onto:
Negatives:
The writing has amazing bits of wordplay and just absolutely beautiful prose for… one section. Parts of the book become difficult to get through because it seems so mechanical in writing style, which is annoying because I know this author, and they make amazing work. It feels like it wasn’t ‘polished’ enough, which I think could be remedied easily and could have benefited from a larger page count.
They gave Carmilla an unnecessary (in my opinion) backstory to explain her vampirism that just kinda felt like trauma porn but yk I can deal with that as it kept other things about her character consistent. Other reviewers went into more detail about this backstory element. It was very clunky, I would have preferred zero backstory, genuinely.
Lastly, the ending feels like it was an afterthought to force a happy tie-up. As much as I liked it otherwise (hell, I bought this book BECAUSE I wanted my girls to have a happy ending), it gives me the vibes of “oh, we killed her hmm how do I fix that?” instead of planning a surviving story from the start.
--
I still entirely recommend this book for fans of Carmilla, especially fans who also have a habit of lesbian yearning.
I'm always down for queer vampire stories and when I saw the premise of this one...I was absolutely down for it!
I didn't expect the intense relatability of Laura coming to realization over her unattraction to men/attraction to women. One could argue that Laura's attraction was simply for Carmilla, but the way Laura thinks and feels about men reminded me of myself at her age. Yes, this is a different time where it's incredibly taboo to be a woman loving a woman...but the unfiltered thought process of Laura's feelings and her inability to not ignore it while also trying to hide it was such a genuine queer experience in my opinion. I think I loved that aspect the most about this story.
Carmilla herself was really interesting and this take on vampirism is really really good. I loved how Carmilla was not a super powerful vampire and that was because she could never properly rest because coffin was destroyed. So she was always weak and sickly...stronger and more durable than a human of course. Carmilla's intense passion and eccentric nature was also a refreshing take. She was so likeable by everyone naturally. Carmilla did not enjoy being a vampire but she also had to do what she had to do to survive...she wasn't sorry though for the murders and people she killed. She was mostly honest and laid herself out there...oh and she transformed into a hellish cat instead of a bat. That was dope.
It is a slow start but once it picks up it GOES!! If you enjoy dark romances with intense passion this is for you! Even the sex in this story was described so passionately and artistically...like it wasn't flat out said but you KNEW what was happening and gosh my romantic ass ate that UP!!! I love that ESPECIALLY in F/F romances ;u; The vampirism isn't romanticized at all but that really fit with what the story was going for anyway. I enjoyed it!
I didn't expect the intense relatability of Laura coming to realization over her unattraction to men/attraction to women. One could argue that Laura's attraction was simply for Carmilla, but the way Laura thinks and feels about men reminded me of myself at her age. Yes, this is a different time where it's incredibly taboo to be a woman loving a woman...but the unfiltered thought process of Laura's feelings and her inability to not ignore it while also trying to hide it was such a genuine queer experience in my opinion. I think I loved that aspect the most about this story.
Carmilla herself was really interesting and this take on vampirism is really really good. I loved how Carmilla was not a super powerful vampire and that was because she could never properly rest because coffin was destroyed. So she was always weak and sickly...stronger and more durable than a human of course. Carmilla's intense passion and eccentric nature was also a refreshing take. She was so likeable by everyone naturally. Carmilla did not enjoy being a vampire but she also had to do what she had to do to survive...she wasn't sorry though for the murders and people she killed. She was mostly honest and laid herself out there...oh and she transformed into a hellish cat instead of a bat. That was dope.
It is a slow start but once it picks up it GOES!! If you enjoy dark romances with intense passion this is for you! Even the sex in this story was described so passionately and artistically...like it wasn't flat out said but you KNEW what was happening and gosh my romantic ass ate that UP!!! I love that ESPECIALLY in F/F romances ;u; The vampirism isn't romanticized at all but that really fit with what the story was going for anyway. I enjoyed it!