A few decades before the classic vampire story “Dracula” was written, another vampire story existed: “Carmilla.” Written first as a serial in a newspaper back in 1871, this story is now one of the lesser-known classics in gothic horror.
The story follows a young girl named Laura who lives in a manor with her father. One night there is a carriage accident outside of her house. The carriage contained a mother and a daughter, and the daughter got injured in the accident. The mother begged Laura’s father to watch her daughter as she got better because the mother could not wait and had to leave her behind. Laura’s father, being a gentleman, promised to look after the young girl named Carmilla. Laura and Carmilla soon form a friendship, but suspicions grow as an unknown illness causes women of the village to die over the next couple of weeks.
This story is not a long one, but it does amazing work to establish the mood of the story and several themes that are common in Gothic literature like loneliness and love. That being said, the book takes a break in the middle to do a flashback to show how Carmilla hunts people, which took away from her hunting Laura. The death of the vampire at the end was sudden and fast and not the grand fight one may want when reading this story.
Rating: 7.5/10
Elise Bosely | Dec 9, 2024 at 11:28 pm
Carmilla and laura didn’t just have a friendship, they were lovers. “Carmilla” is a tragic sapphic love story, which was important because of the time of which it was written.
Mark Allen Maynard | Dec 7, 2024 at 5:26 pm
I have this book. I liked it very much.