Reviews tagging 'Death'

Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu

163 reviews

calais_'s review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

Justice for Carmilla 🧛🏻‍♀️✊🏻
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rainbowrocky's review against another edition

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mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book must've blown minds in 19th century Ireland. I can see why it's a literary classic. I loved it a lot even if the characters are a bit one dimensional. It's more about the atmosphere, the looming threat of death. We know what's happening to Laura, but she hasn't the faintest idea since she's so innocent. Spoilers:
Carmilla's death was a bit of a let down. I thought we were building to something more shocking but her death was over so quickly and unceremoniously.
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runefiction's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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nokvi's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

Only a homophobe could sit and go I'm writing this to explain that lesbianism is bad and then produce homoerotic content in 100 pages. Like Camilla was confessing and wooing this woman, and sometimes you felt her ick towards it (yeah could have had more lesbians)

0.5 star because there's a line where a character is stated to describe a hideous black woman and I'm taking it as racism because look at the time period of this book, mans was probably racist as well
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mutamam's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This vampire book was written before “Dracula”.

An intense novella that describes its story beautifully. The tense story alongside the beautiful prose leads the reader to feel anxious. As such it is a real page turner! Definitely recommend this book.

It contains contemporary views of homosexuality in a way that demonizes it. However, from a 21st century mindset it adds even more depth to the book and creates a perspective shift allowing the reader to actually empathize with the vampire as well!

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mary_stormageddon's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

In my opinion, all classics should be edited by Carmen Maria Machado. I'd enjoy them much more. 
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caitlin17's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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danilo_syrtis's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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pandemonicbaby's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

I recognize the importance of this book for being one of the first vampire stories to ever be published in the english language (and also, for strengthening the trope of the Lesbian Vampire™), but I do think it was a tiny bit underwhelming. The beginning was solid, and the gothic atmosphere was there, but as it went on, it felt like the author wasn't the best at developing characters or telling stories at all. The climax of the story felt very underwhelming, as if we were just being told a series of facts while reading a wikipedia page instead of living the scenes with the characters.
Also, the mystery aspect was not the best developed? While I know that being able to tell what was going on from a mile away was probably intentional, that wasn't really done in a way that makes it more interesting. I feel like, maybe, if the author gave us more specific scenes with the characters, scenes that had us observe them more closely and notice their intimacy, it would feel all the more vibrant and real, and the mystery aspect would make us feel more. But then again, it is a short story.
I feel like this is the kind of book that you could make a great adaptation out of (book, film, tv show), but as a standalone, it's just kind of okay.
I do really like it that they were lesbians tho. Laura was sooo in denial like Carmilla was like "I'm in love with you" and Laura was like "wow... so she's either a man in desguise and that's why she's in love with me, or she's in love with a guy somewhere and that's why she's acting so lovey-dovey around me. Because she likes someone else." Like GIRL!!!! SHE WANTS TO EAT YOU OUT!!!! DUMMY
Just feel like the lesbianism could've been a little more juicy as well!!!

Regarding this specific edition itself: just felt like they were enchendo linguiça, as we Brazilians like to say. Like, c'mon!!! This is supposed to be Carmilla!! It only says "Carmilla" on the cover!! It's fine that they added another old ass english vampire tale too, but then they started adding a shit ton of stuff that is so unnecessary !!! Like, the editor's letter regarding "Vampyre" is so unnecessarily long and fucking mysogynistic, and I know it at least mentions the context of this story (as to why and when it was written), but I got so fucking angry at that stupid fucking mysogynistic editor I didn't even give a damn. And then, after "Vampyre", they also added a nugu's letter about Lord Byron's vacation house in Greece??? Like, WHY???? HE DIDNT EVEN WRITE THE STORY???
The people who brought this edition together probably just wanted to make it longer to like. justify the price or something idfk
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hexedmaiden's review against another edition

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dark mysterious fast-paced

4.0

This one is a reread for me and having already read the original book I wanted to see what Carmen Maria Machado would add to the original text. I enjoyed her contributions a lot. It was already very queer and I feel as though Carmen's little edits and anecdotes made it even more abundantly queer
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