Carmilla in Pick-a-Shelf

Oct 23, 2009 Slayermel rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, horror, fantasy, vampires, paranormal, 19th-century

I was surprised at how much I actually enjoyed this book considering I had never heard of it before until it was given to me as a gift. I had never read anything by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu before and was quite pleased with his writing and even more with the fact that the story was about a female Vampire. How did this book escape my knowledge especially when it has been credited to being part of what influenced Bram Stoker to write Dracula?

The story is told from the perspective of a young girl wh ...more

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Apr 05, 2021 Sam rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, mystery, feminism, proper-books, horror, gothic

This is an absolute classic of the Gothic horror genre, and not only that it has female characters front and centre, which is somewhat unusual for the era but not quite so much for the genre. Not only that, the overt attraction and sexual tension between Laura and Carmilla must of caused quite the tutting when this was first published, and might explain why Stoker toned things down a little with his vampiric offering. Le Fanu is a little focused on the minutia in terms of details but for me this ...more

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Oct 10, 2019 Becky rated it liked it

Shelves: horror, audio

I love that inspiration for Dracula came in the form of a lesbian vampiress. A good October listen.

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Apr 13, 2022 Joanna rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks, 2022-read, rws-2022-spring

My friend Alex wrote the best review of this and you should really just go read his review instead of mine.

I adored this pre-Dracula lesbian vampire story. The book is (intentionally?) over the top, but also gothic and enigmatic and wonderful. (Also, I want to use the spelling vampyre from now on. Is that too pretentious?) Not only is this one of the earliest (the earliest?) vampyre stories, it's also one of the first stories of detective/researcher of magic. The book is framed as part of the ca ...more

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May 26, 2011 Lindsey rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, brit-lit, audiobooks, first-person, to-reread, gothic, 2011-summer-reading-challenge, vampires, 2011-fall-reading-challenge, 2012-winter-challenge

More proof that I like books mostly for a certain atmosphere/mood. There was not much to this story! Not much of a plot, not a whole lot to the characters, and no surprises, really. Just nice and dark/spooky/mysterious. I would re-read this one in the fall around Halloween.

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