Did you know that Bram Stoker was NOT the father of vampire fiction? I mean, Dracula is one of the most recognised names in horror fiction, a monster for the ages. However.....

Year previously, Sheridan Le Fanu had written Carmilla. Without ever using the V word Le Fanu created an entire genre, Carmilla, the beautiful, young, elegant woman who found herself constantly in need of rescue in the vicinity of other beautiful young ladies. These young ladies would find themselves with strange (aka erotic) feeling, strange (aka erotic) dreams, and find themselves changing in many ways. It couldn’t be the fault of their intense, passionate friendship with the mysterious Mircalla, uh, I mean, Millarca, uh, I mean Carmilla, right?

Meet the father of erotic Lesbian Vampires.

Kim Turrisi imagines what would happen if Carmilla existed right here and now. After all of those years hunting young women, all of that death, what if she finally had enough. What if she finally met the girl that she was willing to fight for?

The book is a companion to an Internet tv series. Done as a series of web uploads from Carmilla’s lovely young room mate in college, who knows that something strange is going one, the series is clever. The book not only fills in all of the parts of the web series that are lacking, but it also does the opposite. If you read this book, you want to watch the series.

The characters in the book are ten times more layered. Even just the explanation of the non-binary character LaFontaine makes the book so much more powerful. Plus the sexual tension between Laura and Carmilla is so much more vivid.

Perhaps the thing that I loved the most was giving a reason for Carmilla’s actions. Her agency has been curtailed by her vampiric mother. She has lived and loved and suffered beneath her mothers power, and has only found a reason to fight because of Laura.

I will now be off watching season 2, and hoping for more novelisations

This was an extremely quick (one-sitting) read.

I wanted to like this book. I watched the webseries, but it's been a few years so I was looking forward to refreshing my memory about what happened way back at the beginning. I got that, but that's about all I got. The book sticks firmly to Laura's point of view, very rarely explores outside her dorm room, and the majority of the book ends up being transcriptions of things that are said and done in the episodes. A novel seemed like the ideal place to throw off the restrictions that come with having a budget, and it's disappointing that the author didn't take advantage of that.

The book suffers from a lot of talking instead of doing, telling other characters what was done instead of showing it happen. Again, this is from the webseries where they COULDN'T go to multiple locations. Why not use the webseries descriptions as a template and flesh it out?

The oddest thing is that the big climactic battle IS seen in the book... and then Laura proceeds to explain to us what just happened. That was necessary in the webseries, not so much in a book where it literally just happened.

I am glad, overall, that this book is available. Fans will appreciate having a companion version of the story rather than watching hours of videos. But for the uninitiated or people who don't already know the show, this book is not a good place to start.

So many mixed feelings about this one. On the one hand, I loved the web series this novel is based on and it was so nice to read a novelization that filled in some of the off-camera bits. And it was genuinely a fun read! On the other hand, I didn't feel that the writing was very strong, and I really wanted more depth and fleshing out of storylines / characters. I really wanted more overall from a novelization of this web series that I loved. But still, it was fun to revisit these characters and Laura's first year at Silas University, so I'm glad to have read it.

Basically I’d definitely recommend it to people who loved the series, but not as a jumping in point for anyone who hasn’t seen it.

I was really hoping this book was going to be great. I loved this webseries and gay girls deserve way more representation than they get. Unfortunately, I found Carmilla to be mediocre at best. Those familiar with the podcast will note some key differences right off the bat in setting, set-up, and tone. Laura is brought to school on the first day by a father she doesn't even say goodbye to, he literally just disappears between paragraphs. Her first party-minded roommate apparently has long talks with her throughout the night that lead Laura to the out-of-character thought of 'I feel like we've been best friends forever!'. Carmilla's initial description is "the raven-haired girl" which is just ... subpar writing.

All in all, Carmilla could have been a good book but the tone of the dialogue and Laura's thoughts are juvenile in comparison to the audience this book is intended for. I felt like I was reading middle-grade dialogue in a book that should be for YA+ audiences, and it was incredibly disappointing. I would have quit reading a few chapters in if it wasn't an ARC book. Had potential because of the initial idea and familiarity with the material but ultimately fell short.

Sapphic vampires, you say? Please and thanks.
Except I didn't really like Carmilla. Going into the book I was aware it's based on a Web Series I haven't watched. I didn't want to have any expectations to compare the book to because once you've seen a live-action that's pretty much what you picture.
I couldn't stand the over dramatic characters. It felt too soap opera(y). I ended up skimming most of the book. The closest thing I can compare it to in my opinion is The Vampire Academy. I also didn't like that but I know many people did. I hope others enjoy it. If nothing else it has made me want to check out the Web Series. 💞

Thank you to Netgalley and Kids Can Press for the opportunity to read Carmilla.