Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu

18 reviews

rory_john14's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

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

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Toxic relationship, Blood, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Chronic illness, Mental illness, Violence, Grief, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Gore, Homophobia, Suicide, Medical content, Cannibalism, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

httpscl0d4gh's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Blood, Murder, Lesbophobia, Outing, and Gaslighting

eva_vva's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Confinement, Stalking, Murder, and Abandonment

Minor: Animal cruelty, Gore, Sexism, Suicide, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

rainbowrocky's review against another edition

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

5.0

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, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism

Minor: Violence and Classism

devermismysteris's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

2.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore and Blood

Moderate: Chronic illness and Cannibalism

Minor: Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Grief, Murder, and Gaslighting

chanlo1994's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.5

This book is interesting, considering the time period it was written in. Carmilla is a must read for someone who is looking to understand the history of modern vampire lore. I also like THIS edition because the author adds an informative preface regarding the inspiration for Carmilla. She makes it an easy read for us modern folk.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Gaslighting

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.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Gaslighting

Minor: Child death and 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.

aparker89's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

A classic tale, older than time.

We all know Dracula, his real life niece Bathory ,and their reigns of terror. But what if there was someone else waiting in the dark? Camilla is charming, beautiful and witty but something dark is lingering behind her sparkling eyes. Meet Laura, a lonely young woman who wants nothing more than companionship and follow her tale of terror! 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Blood, and Gaslighting

Minor: Bullying, Chronic illness, Confinement, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Lesbophobia, and Classism

filipa_maia's review against another edition

dark sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

How come I had never heard of this book before?
I have this book for so long in my shelves and never looked at it twice... how? I know why... is this horrible cover, this cover is ugly. Anyway, I really loved this book. Who would thought that the predecessor of Dracula was a lady vampire...

This is a very short book with a great story in it. Very raw, very cruel, very tough. The way Carmilla manipulates people around her is very creepy and, at the same time, appealing. There is this constant sexual innuendo between the two (aparent) little girls that for todays standarts would be completly canceled. And there's also this thing with Carmilla choosing little girls... Maybe because they are virgins? Probably is from here that the myth around virgins and pure blood emerged... who knows? Maybe was just the author trying (and succeeding) to scandalize society back then.

The point it that this is a awesome book that every horror/vampire lovers should know about. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Emotional abuse, Blood, Stalking, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Abandonment

Moderate: Death of parent and Sexual harassment

maeverose's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.0

Edit: upon re read, I’ve lowered my rating to a 3 (was a 4). I think I was mostly excited about the vibes the first time I read it. Still liked it though.

I guess I’m eating my words about not liking the writing style of classics, huh?

I loved the writing style of this book. It was atmospheric and gothic, I loved the setting of the castle and the grassy hills and the ruins of the old town. I  pictured fog over everything anytime they were outside. Now I  wanna have a picnic at old castle ruins in the fog with a pretty vampire. (Sadly that doesn’t happen in this book but it could’ve). This might be my favorite classic I’ve read so far… it’s at least tied with Dracula, but I think it tops it. It actually got pretty creepy at times.

Was also a little surprised how explicitly sapphic it was, given when it was written. I was expecting it to just be homoerotic in the way that classics sometimes are, or overtly homophobic. I think it’s safe to assume that the combination of sapphic elements and vampirism was very intentional..  automatically villainizing lesbianism by portraying it as a ‘virus’ that you can ‘catch’, something that’s evil and scary… But reading it it isn’t actually explicitly homophobic. It’s all subtext. It could easily be read through a more modern lens, removing that subtext.

My only complaints:

•The racism. It’s only in one or two scenes, but it’s pretty bad in one scene especially.

•How naive Laura was, especially at the very end. She was supposed to be 19, right? How did she not connect the dots after the general’s story??? 😆

•It ended a bit abruptly

•And lastly, I just wish we got more pretty atmospheric descriptions of the ruins. I was waiting the whole book for them to go there and when they did we didn’t get much :/ I would’ve liked more atmospheric descriptions in general, but at least we got some.

Overall, I’m really happy I liked this! I was starting to worry that classics just weren’t for me. Hopefully there are still more out there that I’ll love.

“Thus fortified I might take my rest in peace. But dreams come through stone walls, light up dark rooms, or darken light ones, and their persons make their exits and their entrances as they please, and laugh at locksmiths.”

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Child death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Ableism, Sexual content, Suicide, and Death of parent

Religious themes, beheading, cremation, sleep paralysis (not really but the descriptions are similar)