To be completely honest, I’ve never been much into vampires. Even in the midst of the Twilight craze (which caught me in my late teens). I really liked Dracula and enjoyed Polidori’s Vampyre, so this book was the one that I needed to cover my classic vampires. A friend talked to me about this one a long time ago, but I never really cared about it till last summer, when I found the webseries Carmilla I decided to read it finally.

The book is really interesting and intriguing, as it works mostly with the psychological aspect of the characters. Laura, the narrator, talks about her life with her father in their family castle in Styria. She’s mostly a lonely girl, as there are not other girls her age around. But her father promises her that one of his friends will come with his own daughter, who is about Laura’s age. Sadly, this girl dies and Laura is still left looking for a friend.

Soon after, however, a woman and her daughter arrive at the castle after having some sort of accident. The woman asks if the girl can stay, because she needs to go away for something very important and the girl is sick.

Yes, she is the title Carmilla.

Laura’s father lets her stay, and the girls soon become friends. They share a connection based on a dream they had when they were little, of a woman/girl that appeared in their rooms. Carmilla is also very mysterious: she sleeps for most of the day (though I have to contest this, sleeping is THE BEST), eats very little and hates anything religious.

Later, Laura finds a picture of one of her ancestors who looks exactly as Carmilla, though she’s called Mircalla (I know, what a hard code to crack!). Laura’s health begins to decline and has lots of nightmares about being bitten in her sleep. Her father decides to find out what is going on, so they go to Karnstein (where the woman in the picture came from). On the way there, they meet the captain (the one with the dead daughter). He tells them his story; that a young girl and her mother met them at a party. And since then, his daughter began to waste away.

So, they finally crack the code. Carmilla is Mircalla! And she’s undead (duh, she lived centuries ago and is still walking around). And they decide to finish her off.

The book is probably known mostly for the “lesbian”vampire. It’s actually really interesting to read this in the light of how women who didn’t need men were seen in the 19th century. Carmilla is not only dangerous for being a vampire, but also for how she encourages young women to establish relationships that exclude men. She’s more dangerous because of that than because how she shows that men are not needed. In the same way that Dracula represented all the things Victorian society thought they were scared of, Carmilla is scary because she is a threat to the most basic units in Victorian ages. Especially regarding women’s roles.

And that’s awesome.

So, read it. It’s always interesting to have a different view of vampires. And watch the webseries (it’s on YouTube), because it gives a lot of representation for GSD people. And the second season is coming!