Review: Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu

Like its successor, Dracula, Carmilla suffers from an ending that is anything but epic.

Set at a isolated castle in the Austria countryside, Carmilla is a horror novel in which the now teenage Laura recounts how she was preyed upon by the vampire Carmilla, and how Laura’s father and his friends eventually stop her.

I went into this book knowing nothing about it. But I deduced Carmilla was a vampire immediately, so when the big revelation came, I was not surprised at all.

Though, I was surprised how much lesbian subtext this book oozed. Carmilla professes her love to Laura and kisses her several times throughout and is possessive of Laura’s attention and affection to a disturbing degree, getting violent when Laura doesn’t do what she asks or dares contradict her. I found the whole thing toxic and perverse, when you consider Carmilla is over a century old.

I didn’t enjoy this nearly as much as Dracula, as I thought it dragged in a lot of places and had several chapters with little plot advancement. I also thought how they found Carmilla’s final resting place was a huge deus ex machina. I also thought the ending was even more anticlimactic than Dracula.

Overall, I thought this book was rather boring and don’t recommend it. I give Carmilla  2.5 out of 5.0 stars.  

Review: Bram Stoker’s Dracula

The OG Undead GOAT.

Long before Twilight, Bram Stoker’s tale of blood and supernal creatures swept the world and made vampires and count Dracula horror icons. Though, not the first vampire book, Carmilla by Le Fanu beat it by a few decades and featured a femme fatale bloodsucker, Dracula established most of the tropes and “rules” associated with these creatures.

The story takes place primarily in England at the turn of the eighteenth and follows several characters as they try to stop the eponymous Dracula. Like many novels of its day, Dracula is told through a series of letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles.

While I found the prose over formal and a bit antiquated, it held my attention throughout. I particularly loved the chase sequence and the other action-packed scenes.

Things keep building to the final confrontation with Dracula, then it ends in the most boring way. There was no epic fight; they stake him, chop off his head, and call it a day.

Aside from these issues, the latter of which I found glaringly bad, I loved this book and recommend it to anyone who loves horror or who wants something pulse-pounding to read/listen. Just go into it knowing it fizzles out in the end.

I give Bram Stoker’s Dracula  3.5 out of 5.0 stars.