A review by yuvia
Carmilla: The First Vampire by Amy Chu

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

2.0

I liked the art but the story itself was completely lackluster. It had so much potential to be something unique and interesting by incorporating Chinese mythology, a unique retelling, but literally nothing happened and the mythology wasn’t really expanded on. Like, at all. Such a waste of an idea. Athena, the main character, was not likable at all and I found it really hard to be sympathetic towards her. The choices she makes are questionable

(disrespecting Morgan’s boundaries, cheating on her, not really having any remorse about any of it, barely seeming to care that she died, etc.)

and at times made no sense

(investigating murders when she had no real business in doing so, trusting a random drug addict who stole her jacket and followed her home, getting further involved after they murdered your ex gf, etc. are all incredibly stupid things to do)

. The author also seemingly tried to add some type of commentary on the racism Chinese people face? But it was done so poorly that I wasn’t sure what exactly she was trying to convey in regards to that topic. Those racism moments were executed very randomly in the story and added pretty much nothing to what was going on. Overall, a disappointing read.