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A review by emtees
Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
I’ve been reading through a lot of pre-20th century vampire literature and Carmilla is the first story that meets and even exceeds Dracula as one of my favorites.
Laura is a young woman living an isolated life with her father when a mysterious mother and daughter suffer a carriage accident on her family’s property. While the mother continues on with her journey, the daughter, Carmilla, is invited to stay and recover. Laura and Carmilla very quickly develop an intense, borderline erotic friendship, but there are things about Carmilla that Laura, telling the story from ten years in the future, realizes are strange: her aversion to religious rituals and even hymns, the strange hours she keeps, her insistence on locking the door to her room when she sleeps. But despite her wariness at some of Carmilla’s behavior, Laura cannot help but be drawn to her. It is only when a friend arrives with stories of mysterious deaths that follow the trail of a woman who suspiciously resembles Carmilla that the truth about Laura’s friend is unveiled.
The big surprise in this book is that it is explicitly queer. Carmilla is famous for being the origin of the “lesbian vampire” trope but I didn’t expect a book of this period to feature a vampire who is unquestionably expressing romantic and sexual interest in her female victim. Laura calls out Carmilla’s attentions, even speculating that she might be a man in disguise. The story doesn’t go so far as to have Laura reciprocate Carmilla’s feelings fully, but it is still much more than I expected. Carmilla is also a much more human vampire than most of her contemporaries. For all her monstrous traits, she is presented as appealing, even likable. Though we don’t get the full backstory on how she became a vampire (my main objection to the story is that the wrap up at the end is rushed, skipping over a lot of Carmilla’s history and her relationships with her mysterious companions), she comes across a something closer to the tragic vampires of the 20th century.
Laura is a young woman living an isolated life with her father when a mysterious mother and daughter suffer a carriage accident on her family’s property. While the mother continues on with her journey, the daughter, Carmilla, is invited to stay and recover. Laura and Carmilla very quickly develop an intense, borderline erotic friendship, but there are things about Carmilla that Laura, telling the story from ten years in the future, realizes are strange: her aversion to religious rituals and even hymns, the strange hours she keeps, her insistence on locking the door to her room when she sleeps. But despite her wariness at some of Carmilla’s behavior, Laura cannot help but be drawn to her. It is only when a friend arrives with stories of mysterious deaths that follow the trail of a woman who suspiciously resembles Carmilla that the truth about Laura’s friend is unveiled.
The big surprise in this book is that it is explicitly queer. Carmilla is famous for being the origin of the “lesbian vampire” trope but I didn’t expect a book of this period to feature a vampire who is unquestionably expressing romantic and sexual interest in her female victim. Laura calls out Carmilla’s attentions, even speculating that she might be a man in disguise. The story doesn’t go so far as to have Laura reciprocate Carmilla’s feelings fully, but it is still much more than I expected. Carmilla is also a much more human vampire than most of her contemporaries. For all her monstrous traits, she is presented as appealing, even likable. Though we don’t get the full backstory on how she became a vampire (my main objection to the story is that the wrap up at the end is rushed, skipping over a lot of Carmilla’s history and her relationships with her mysterious companions), she comes across a something closer to the tragic vampires of the 20th century.
Content Warnings
Minor: Homophobia
A character expresses period-typical homophobia when another woman makes a pass at her