I found this an overall enjoyable book, but I'm honestly not sure how much I would have enjoyed it if I hadn't been bringing my fondness of the webseries to it. The writing is admittedly a little clunky but no worse than other novelisations, but I don't think I would have formed a connection to the characters as written here if, again, I hadn't already cared about them. While I liked getting to revisit the world of Silas University in a different format, I don't think this adds much to the series.

A note: LaFontaine, whose pronouns are they/them, is misgendered in the narrative by the author on occasion. This definitely needed catching earlier, and shouldn't have happened in the first place.

I voluntarily read and reviewed and advanced copy of this book, received through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

To be honest... I didn't like this at all. I already knew of Carmilla because of the webseries and, as such, I had an idea of what could I expect from this book... But I wasn't prepared for what I read. I was expecting something completely different, more like a lesfic vampire story. Instead, I found terribly childish writing, characters that felt more like a cartoon extravaganza and complete nonsense. I just don't know what to make of it.

Overall, this book just felt like a caricature of the webseries. Nothing made any sense. For instance, the characters were supposed to be inn university, for me, that seemed more like the first years of high school. Everyone had this utterly stupid reckless streak, like calling names to the face of someone they were afraid of (i.e. the Dean) or giving information about them in an anonymous vlog (investigating the disappearance of their roommate? Really?). Mislabelled genderqueer characters, flying fish (seriously, flying fish), a complete disregard for actual storytelling... Just watch the series, it's better than the book.

Having loved the web series, this really falls short. The writing is really plain and not much is shown outside of what we see in the show. So much lost opportunity to show all the weirdness that was going on. There's a lot of stuff mentioned in the web series that necessarily happens off camera that could have been explored here. Also the characters seemed to fall pretty flat on the page compared to the show. They're shadows of their actual selves. The author really fails at capturing them well. And in particular, LaFontaine gets outright misgendered by the author. Did this not get proofread at all? Admittedly I have an ARC, so hopefully the final version got fixed?

I read Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu years ago when I was in university. I loved the book! I was always fascinated with it because it is a vampire story that came out years before Dracula. Carmilla was the original vampire story.

This story was a fun adaptation. I haven’t read a vampire story in years! There were some serious parts, but many things were quite funny. In particular, the frat boys were funny. They insisted on “protecting” the girls from whoever was kidnapping the other students, but they always showed up when they weren’t wanted.

This story is also an adaptation of a Canadian movie. It didn’t read like an adaptation of a movie. I’ve read other books that were written after a movie, and they weren’t as well written. They often sound like the closed captions that would go with the movie. This book was like an original story.

I really enjoyed this story. I’m going to watch the movie version next!

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I saw this on a list of queer books coming out this year, and when I saw that this was about lesbian vampires and was based on a web series, I was like… yes. Obviously. And simply put, the book completely delivers. It’s tropey, it’s charming, and it’s clearly written for fans of Buffy or who have Twilight among their problematic faves. I loved it.

I don’t have a whole lot else to say about this book except that it made me laugh in a way that a lot of books don’t, and I was truly surprised that in a pretty light read, it had fantastic, accessible genderqueer representation that made this enby’s heart swell. Carmilla came out on May 7th, so order it, and treat yourself. Get a spooky bath bomb, too. (Unfortunately, the one in the photo is out of production, but my forever fave is Secret Arts.) You won’t regret it.

This book was fun, but it was cheesy and sometimes the wording was pretty awkward. It was enjoyable enough, but I didn't love it. It doesn't quite live up to the series it's based on.

This is so bad that I could only laugh and laugh and laugh and ended up liking it. So this story is set in Austria but this could not have a more American vibe if it was between two buns and covered in ketchup. Weirdly enough, the innocent girl controlled by her father that color-coded her wardrobe made me think of Tessa from "After" by Anna Todd but thank gods she is a lesbian because if I had to swallow one more hetero love story I would have died.
I really loved Carmilla and her sharp tongue and I think that is kinda the point, I will fight anyone that doesn't like and Laura is tolerable. The mysteries are laughable and a lot doesn't make sense but just take in stride. I liked the book more than the web series.

An excellent read! Fun from the beginning to the end. Lots of mystery, twists and romance. Something for everyone.
I saw a few episodes of the web series a few years back. I wanted to continue, but kept forgetting to. I still want to, and am especially interested after reading the book. The story just keeps getting more and more interesting as the tale goes on. I don’t know if this covers the scope of the web series, but if there are more books, I will be excited to read them!

I expected a deliciously gothic, sapphic vampire novel. Instead I got something that bombed harder than the Tsar Bomba.

There are no characters here, only caricatures. The writing was so horrendously juvenile, and the characters more so, making it seem like they were freshmen to kindergarten rather than university. It genuinely read like a 15 year old trying to write about what uni life would be like, I kid you not.

By a mere 10% in, I was so irritated that I went into Nitpick Mode, in which things I wouldn't mind in an otherwise good book annoy the everloving hell out of me. Usually I wouldn't have continued reading, except that this was (of course) a Netgalley book and it wasn't very long. Of course, I didn't need to go into Nitpick Mode, because there were so many glaringly obvious flaws that essentially slapped me across the face.

I honestly do not know where to start with all the things that annoyed me about this book. Perhaps some of the "legends" of Silas University, such as students being digitized in the library - a.k.a. something ripped straight out of Doctor Who? Was it that somebody was described as "kinda PTSD"? Was it that Laura was so outrageously judgy it made me want to stab myself in the eye?

Carmilla is presented at first as The Roommate from Hell, Laura once saying "after everything she's put me through". Bitch!! What did she do?? She was sarcastic to you and ate your cookies! For the love of Jesus, Mary, Joseph and the entire Communion of Saints, GET OVER YOURSELF! You're in university, not elementary school!

An (incomplete, otherwise I'll bore you out of your skull) list of other things that annoyed me:

- LaFontaine, a genderqueer character who goes by they/them pronouns, is misgendered IN THE NARRATIVE. Ultimate YIKES that nobody spotted that.

- When the Dean, a.k.a cookie-cutter cartoon supervillain appears, LaFontaine (and everyone else) is terrified of her but then calls her "Your Disapprovingness" to her FACE? Why would they do that!! That's not realistic!

- It's at like 40% before they decide Fo Realz that she's a vampire. WE KNOW SHE'S A VAMPIRE!!!!!!!!!!!

- Laura has some stupid frickin vlog documenting her search for Betty in which she literally says she suspects Carmilla and she's going to spy on her. First of all, if Carmilla WAS the culprit, then she'd OBVIOUSLY be watching the vlog to see if Laura was getting close. Did Sherlock Holmes have a vlog in which he was like, "Hey, I'm pretty sure this Moriarty dude is the guy behind everything, but I'm not quite sure yet so I'm going to spy on him. Stay tuned!"

- WHY DOES EVERYONE KEEP THROWING FISH?

- WHAT was that scene were LaFontaine just decked a professor over a disagreement about the Illuminati? It wasn't even a distraction for anything (I don't think). Literally, what the hell was that??

- What the HELL were the sentient INDEX CARDS that attacked them in the library? I know the original show was supposed to have a comedic slant, so maybe that's why, but none of this read like comedy or satire, it just read like a 14 year old writing their first fanfiction on ff.net without having anybody beta read it.

- When Carmilla was telling her Super Serious Story about her past and Laura just??? Gets sock puppets??? WHAT. THE. ACTUAL. HELL!!!!!

I am. I am genuinely, actually flabbergasted that this got published. It's an absolute joke. It's like if someone edited My Immortal to get rid of the spelling and grammar mistakes. I am legitimately - I am just done. I am amazed. I am - and I mean this in a way I have never meant it before - SHOOKETH. To my core.

Carmilla is a wonderful webseries, but the novelization fails at capturing just how great the story is. There’s an opportunity for creators to expand the world-building and setting in this novel, considering there isn’t a budget to put words on a page, and that is really not taken advantage of. As novelizations go, even Laura’s internal monologue misses the mark and comes off sounding a bit childish and flat.

I’m a huge fan of the webseries, so while this book does entertain me a bit, there’s an overall atmosphere of disappointment surrounding the story. They could have done a lot more with it than they did, from exploring different places and maybe even different POVs, despite the series focusing on Laura’s perspective of things.

The story just… doesn’t seem to do any work to aside from being a transcript of the series? And not a very good one at that. The way the author keeps using she/her pronouns to refer to LaFontaine despite them preferring they/them pronouns. There also isn’t any depth added to the story in the writing. The series has way more heart than the novelization. It’s really really disappointing, because this could have been great.

This entire book was like a bad fever dream. I got the idea but it was poorly executed and badly written. It's trying to be a grown-up fantasy circa 2009 with Evernight and Fallen vibes but fails miserably. The era of schools shrouded in mystery and fantasy has passed and this isn't going to be the book that brings it back. It felt disjointed and rushed. Nothing about this book was enjoyable. The dialogue was awful, the characters bled into each other and the plot was predictable.

I was so excited to read this book and in hindsight, I think maybe that was solely based on the fact that they used Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Veronica Mars comparisons in the description. It just goes to show that I have a problem and will auto-click almost anything referencing my favorite 90s and early 00s obsessions. Seriously, it’s an issue you guys. And unfortunately it did not pan out for me this time, because this book was just not for me. Everything in the description appealed to me-- queer vampires, murder mystery, college setting-- but I just could not get into the writing.

I know this is a web series, and it’s not something I’ve ever watched, so hopefully that was part of the reason why I had some trouble with it. I don’t always enjoy adaptation writing, because it tends to be overly simplistic because most people have already watched or listened to whatever material is being adapted. And that’s all on me, I probably shouldn’t have assumed it wouldn’t matter just because the plot sounded good. (Yet again, BUFFY! And VERONICA MARS!) But I also had trouble with the characters because they just fell completely flat for me. The only one who seemed to have any substance at all was Carmilla, and even she was just snarky one-liners and seductive flirting the majority of the time. This is another area where I’m thinking maybe having watched the webseries would have been better for me, because I honestly just couldn’t get past the thought that all the decisions and reactions of these characters were...ignorant? They’re just constantly missing very obvious things and I’m sure that’s part of the campy element, but it just came off as far too simplistic and unintelligent for me.

So this one is definitely hard for me to rate because I feel like hopefully if I had watched the webseries I would have enjoyed it more, but at the end of the day unfortunately I don’t think this style of writing would have appealed to me.

This might be for anyone who is a fan of lesbian vampire fiction. Of course, it is far fetched but it was wildly imaginative. I think that much imagination is what had me trying to figure out what was going on in this story. Carmilla is the lesbian vampire and Laura is the main character who is trying to figure out who is behind the disappearances at the college they both attend. Laura employs many in her investigation and the one behind the disappearances is quite shocking. It wasn't my cup of tea for it was quite slow in many instances throughout the book. However, if you like lesbians and vampires, this might be the book for you.
I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Carmilla is based on the extremely popular Youtube web-series of the same name, which tells the story of university student Laura whose party-loving roommate mysteriously vanishes and is replaced by a mysterious, sexy stranger named Carmilla who likes to pour blood on her cereal. Laura turns detective, vlogging her quest to find her missing roommate, and soon discovers that Betty isn’t the only girl who’s gone missing – and that Carmilla might know more than she’s letting on…

I watched along as I read the book (which was totally doable; the web-series is super watchable, with most episodes coming in at under five minutes each) and I would highly recommend doing this – the two go very well together, but I feel like the book is nowhere near as strong without the source material to accompany it. It’s a very faithful adaptation, so if you prefer your adaptations to stick very closely to the original then you’ll like this a lot. That being said, if you’d have liked to see certain things developed more, then you may be a little bit disappointed. Sadly, that was the side I fell on.

There were a lot of things I enjoyed about this book. It was fun to read, the writing style was simple and easy to get through, and the pacing was great. There was always something going on. I enjoyed the snarky dialogue, and it was great to get Laura’s internal monologue and get a sense of exactly what’s going on in her head that obviously you don’t get when watching the series. The characters are all great, they all had very distinct personalities and made me laugh. There’s also an enby side-character, which is always great to see. Previous reviews have stated that this character was consistently misgendered throughout the book, and I can confirm that in the copy I read this was almost entirely rectified. One character does deadname and misgender the enby character, whose name is LaFontaine, but this is called out by the other characters and not justified by the narrative.

Although I enjoyed reading this, I do think it was a bit of a missed opportunity. From what I can infer, Carmilla was a series filmed by a group of students on a limited budget, and as a result it was all filmed in one room, so that we heard a lot of dramatic scenes through the form of exposition as Laura explained what had occurred outside of her dorm room to all of her viewers. The book could have done something really great with this, showing us the world outside of this one room – but it didn’t, and I feel like it really dropped the ball. Although we were taken outside of the room quite a few times and shown certain events, these scenes felt rushed and a lot less fleshed out than the scenes that were directly transposed from the show. We also then had to sit through more exposition as Laura then explained what had just happened to her audience. This could have easily been cut, as it was quite frustrating to have events recounted to us after we’d just seen them unfold. These scenes could have really added an extra element to Carmilla’s story if they had been expanded a little, because there are no budgetary constraints – what couldn’t be shown in a tiny, low-budget web-series by a bunch of college students could have been painted in glorious technicolour in a book. Another example is the phone calls Laura makes: in the series, when Laura makes phone calls to various people, such as her dad or members of the university administration, we only hear her half of the dialogue. All the book had to do was fill in the blanks; it wouldn’t have been difficult or time consuming to do. Instead, all we get is Laura’s side of the conversation and no awareness of what the other person is saying. Considering that this a first person narrative, this makes no sense. Tiny things like that could have brought the story to life and made it grow – instead, it made the book feel more like a transcript of the series than a fully fleshed-out adaptation.

There were also certain aspects of the development that felt a bit rushed – namely Laura and Carmilla’s relationship. When watching it play out onscreen, the acting provided some subtlety to the characters’ interactions and you could see their relationship growing more organically. Sadly, I felt this was somewhat lost in the book; Laura’s internal dialogue gave little impression of a changing perspective of Carmilla, and she seemed to do a very dramatic 180 on terms of her feelings towards her. While I enjoyed the drama and the bickering between them, I just felt like their relationship didn’t seem fully developed and it came across kind of like insta-love, which was a shame.

This book wasn’t bad by any means. I enjoyed the reading experience, it was a speedy read and I found the characters likeable. The whole thing was campy and fun – I just wished it had taken what the series started and really run with it, rather than taking a leisurely walk.

Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this book.

Trigger/content warnings: deadnaming and misgendering of a genderqueer side character (on purpose and by accident), kidnapping and gore.


Before I start I just want to say I had such high hopes for this one. I mean, kick-ass lesbian vampire and f/f romance in a college setting? I was so excited for the LGBTQ+ rep and paranormal aspect, and while I hate leaving ranty reviews like this, I really think it needs to be said.

In hindsight, I probably should’ve watched the web series before requesting this, but I wanted it to be a surprise, as it’s probably the equivalent of watching the movie before reading the book.

I have so much to say about this, I couldn’t possibly fit it all into 1 review, even this is longer than anticipated! So I am going to stick to the basics of why this didn’t work for me.

Things I liked:

-The LGBTQ+ rep: I was really happy to see that this book features 3 lesbian characters and 1 genderqueer side character (more info on that rep later)
-That cover is stunning
-Vampire/paranormal aspect
-Due to it being so fast-paced, I finished this in one sitting, plus, it’s relatively short, at under 300 pages.


Things I didn’t like/had issues with:

-Major problems with the genderqueer rep in this book. Heres why:
LaFontaine, a side character in this book, identifies as genderqueer and uses they/them pronouns. This book definitely needs some proofreading because I noticed at least 6 instances where the author used “she/her” pronouns instead of “they/them” here are some quotes to prove:

“LaFontaine got it from the campus hospital. She told them she needed it for some experiment”

“LaFontaine turns to Carmilla. “So you just serve them up like pizzas?” When she puts it that way.”

“LaFontaine stammers “uh, dean.” she sort of bows. “Your disapprovingness.”

‘”A little dramatic, even for you” they tease. Perry smacks her.“


I really hope these mistakes are fixed before publication.

Disclaimer #2: I do not identify as genderqueer myself, I just noticed these mistakes.


Now onto Perry, LaFontaine’s “friend of 16 years”.

-Perry constantly deadnames LaFontaine, even after they ask her not to call them Susan.
-If someone who identifies as genderqueer asks you to use their pronouns/name and you ignore them, and you constantly deadname and misgender them, on purpose, is that right? The answer is no, it’s not. Perry was a disgrace of a friend and a disgrace of a character.
-The worst part is, LaFontaine’s feelings on the matter are never addressed until much later on in the book, where they finally have enough of being deadnamed and misgendered and (rightfully so) have a go at Perry. But even then, Perry still has the audacity to call LaFontaine Susan.
-The thing that really takes the cake is the fact that Perry is made out to be the victim. No one even asks if LaFontaine is okay after being deadnamed and misgendered by their best friend for (probably) years.

Now onto the other things I didn’t really like:

–Lack of detailed descriptions for; characters, setting, magical element.
–Toxic love triangle and romance. There is zero chemistry between Laura and Carmilla and they only get together in the last 30%, up until that point they despise each other. The cover screams romance, it’s marketed as a romance, well it definitely did not read like a romance to me. Carmilla physically attacks Laura and bites her, without her permission. Laura films and uploads videos of Carmilla without her permission. Laura keeps Carmilla hostage for two weeks and forces her to recount her whole life for Laura’s blog. It’s not a healthy relationship!
-The only male characters (of which there are a grand total of 3) are all problematic and bordering on sexist. Two of them are even literal stalkers who don’t take no for an answer. Laura’s dad, who appears for practically 1 chapter, is extremely over the top protective, even going so far as to not allow his 18-year-old daughter anything but a flip phone, as he is scared she will send nudes to random people. The other two constantly refer to all the women in the book as “sexy, baby, hottie” etc. Telling them they are there to “protect” them. Oh, but they will only protect the women they deem worthy, which is a “7.5 or above” to them.
-The writing style wasn’t for me. I felt like It lacked depth and was way too fast paced.


Overall, I am really glad that I had the opportunity to read this book. There are many reasons why this might not have worked for me personally. Maybe it’s because it’s a novelisation of a web series that I haven’t watched. Maybe it’s because it’s meant to be read in a more humorous way that I didn’t catch. Maybe the whole thing just didn’t translate well in book format. Nonetheless, unfortunately, it didn’t work for me. But I would always recommend giving a book a go and seeing what you think for yourself. Just because I didn’t like it, doesn’t mean it a terrible book.

Disclaimer #3: All quotes taken from the ARC copy, these are subject to change.

This book missed the mark for me. It missed a lot of opportunities to do what the confines of the web series couldn't, but instead it just sort of summarized exactly what happened in the web series.
Instead of richly describing the world outside Laura's room, or breathing life into the scenes that happened off-screen, or even adapting certain scenes to play better in this new format (the puppet show was very cringey on the page) it just described exactly what we've already seen.
I was disappointed that this didn't embrace its format and add to the franchise. It's like the sparknotes to the web series.

This story works better as a webseries, one that accuses her age (it came out in 2014) because it reeks of Tumblr fangirling of the Superwholock era.
Everything is so ridiculous, and not even the entertaining kind of ridiculous, but the kind that makes you groan aloud, and it lacks the chemistry that there was originally between the lead and the romantic interest.

Carmella is a paranormal/romance novel. where the main characters felt underdeveloped. I was often left confused during abrupt shifts in the plot where little explanation was given.

Overall, I would recommend this only if you enjoy the paranormal genre and require reading material.

This is based off the web series of the same name, a web series about vampires, mystery, university life, and lesbian romance. Finally getting her freedom from small town life, Laura starts her first year at Silas University. Then her roommate goes missing and a new student moves in, Carmilla. It's up to Laura to find out why so many girls have gone missing on campus. This story is modern and entertaining, I could not put it down and finished in one day. but the characters could have been filled out a bit more for me. I think for me knowing it is based on a web series I expected more information to be filled in. *I have not watched the web series.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher KCP Loft for the opportunity to read this book.
I like to go into some books not knowing anything about them beforehand. In this instance it bit me. Pun intended. This was an easy read, but I kept feeling like I was missing something. I think to read this book about teens in college fighting evil alongside vampires, one would need to watch the YouTube tv series first. I think if I had known this book was an adaptation of the tv series I would have gone into it with different expectations. I would give this book two point seven five stars if I could. It was a quick, light and fluffy kind of read which I needed in between murder and psychological war fare that I have been reading.