Dec 14, 2014

Sheridan Lefanu: Carmilla



I almost forgot Carmilla! How could I?! I was going through my thesis books to make sure I mentioned them all and I realized I missed one when talking about the old classics. So, here you have it.
You can’t help but marvel at the scenery. Gothic lovers will be transfixed by the castle and the old allure of the genre which shows in every detail. The visuals are awesome (I mean, it’s a book and the font is normal but the visuals you get in your head... or is it just my head?).
Many people read this because it’s said to be a lesbian story, but I’m not sure. A young lady is brought up by her father and some servants secluded from basically all people (the castle, remember?!) and when a girl her age comes to be with her, naturally she develops some kind of bond. But not that kind of bond. Sure, Carmilla exhibits some tendencies to prefer women but maybe that’s only to obtain blood from her naive lady friends. A 19th Century girl is less suspicious when around other girls, right? Preying on men would attract too much attention, so let’s not talk about this and move to more important stuff like... ehm... folklore!
The author mentioned some really believable old-school knowledge about vampires which was laughed at by the infamous creature- that was nice. When I think about it, there was a lot of vampire info despite the novel being so short.
I’d say that this book gives you a really good insight on how the female vampire looked back in the day. It reads fast so if you don’t like older books for their language or tendency to prolong everything without any climax, you won’t find this one that obsolete or terrible to read.

GENRE: Gothic
FANGS OUT: you want to see the places
FANGS RETRACTING: could be more elaborated on in the horror scenes
TOTAL SCORE:

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