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A review by nanizet
Carmilla and Laura by S.D. Simper
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
As someone else said, the review I've linked below captures what I also felt about the book. Carmilla is a compelling villain, that's what makes the romance in the original so interesting, and in this one she feels flattened. The romance also drags a bit, which is impressive because the book is incredibly short. There's a bit of pining, then their romance essentially boils down to them sleeping with each other every single night until the climax of the story. The latter half of the story lacks gothic intrigue, and the former feels essentially like Simper is almost doing a Somerton-style plagiarism, where they've taken the original Carmilla by Le Fanu, reworded paragraphs into modern English, and added a bit of extra dialogue. It just makes you want to go and read the actual Carmilla!
The plot, dialogue, and dynamic just gets ridiculous. It loses all the dark intrigue of the dynamic between Carmilla and Laura in Le Fanu's text and just becomes this weird shallow mimicry of 19th century romance, but like the author has only seen it as presented by parodies. When it got to the third chapter in a row where all that happened was yet another same-y nocturnal sex scene I started tuning out and skimming--and I absolutely hate to skim books.
Another thing that really bothered me was the use of American English and the evidence of not enough of a close edit before publishing. Some things that caught me:
The plot, dialogue, and dynamic just gets ridiculous. It loses all the dark intrigue of the dynamic between Carmilla and Laura in Le Fanu's text and just becomes this weird shallow mimicry of 19th century romance, but like the author has only seen it as presented by parodies. When it got to the third chapter in a row where all that happened was yet another same-y nocturnal sex scene I started tuning out and skimming--and I absolutely hate to skim books.
Another thing that really bothered me was the use of American English and the evidence of not enough of a close edit before publishing. Some things that caught me:
- Carmilla calling her "mother" figure "Momma". Carmilla of Styria...this story is based on a book by an Irish writer. "Momma" to me strikes me as like...deep south USA. Even just "Mama" would have been acceptable. Word choices have implications and meanings, this is one that should have been caught by a beta reader and edited.
- "cookies and tea". COOKIES?? an isolated Austrian noble girl calling biscuits "cookies" is insane to me. Also...what kind of biscuits? A bit of specificity adds some character and lived-in-ness to the world.
- "suitcase". basic research and better reading of contemporary literature of Le Fanu's Carmilla would have anyone cringe at this. Suitcases weren't really a thing in the time period depicted, and they most certainly would not have been a thing for some vampire skulking around in the rural woods of eastern Austria in the mid-19th century. A travelling trunk is the thing that Simper is thinking of.
- Several sentences that were egregiously grammatically incorrect, the kind that would have been extremely easy to catch in the edit.
The above examples are, to me as a fellow writer, evidence of a lack of a close enough edit. This felt like it needed another few passes before publication, especially a look at by a professional editor or some beta readers. It's not bad, it's just got major flaws that when you're familiar with this process they start to scream of a lack of consideration for certain aspects of the craft.
Other than that it's fine, just disappointing. Thank god it's short. If you need something to fill a few hours it fills that function finely.
2.75-3.75⭐️--overall average, some compelling aspects
Goodreads review I mentioned:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5009797725