Review #9 - Carmilla

Author: J. Sheridan Le Fanu Rating: ★★★★

Throwback to 2008. One of the biggest hit series, Twilight, has just released, causing a world wide phenomenon and gaining attention form lovers and haters, all the same. I'll admit I wasn't a huge fan of the movies, but I was a huge fan of the books, especiall the characters of Edward Cullen and Jacob, just because at the age of 13 I wished those hunks could be mine! No kidding there.

Well to be honest, the entire series got me addicted to the idea of vampires, and I practically read any and every vampire series that I could get a hand on: Vampire Academy, House of Night,True Blood, etc. I read the original vampire story of Dracula, and even read the sequel to it, Dracula the Un-Dead. I even bought an encyclopaedia on vampires for research purposes, and made scrapbook. Well, after the age of 14 or 15 I lost interest in it, but still maintained the reading of some horror stories from the old ages.

There is no better horror fiction and vampire stories than there used to be from the classics, so when I did stumble upon the findings of Carmilla, which is the predecessor of Dracula, and the book that inspired Bram Stoker to write Dracula, I had to read the book.

Set in the background of Styria in the 1870s, Laura and her father stumble upon a carriage accident and give shelter to a girl named Carmilla, while her mother needs to urgently leave for three months in order to tend to some matters. Laura and Carmilla grow into the closest of friends, however, things do begin to change in the village as well as to Laura's health. Are the beginning of these strange events a coincidence to Carmilla's arrival or is it something else?

A short novella, I thoroughly did enjoy this book. It does not have unnecessary details and keeps you gripped to the ongoing events in the book with the interesting characters. The book does border on homoeroticism to some extent, as the friendship between the two girls seems quite uncanny at first, but it can either be that, or the old English romanticism that we know the best to actually overdo the emotions and add some flare of dramatics.

If you're into the readings of supernatural beings and don't mind putting up with Old English, I'd suggest you give this book a go. Short and sweet, it will be one of the entertaining reads you've had in quite some time.

#horrorfiction #vampire