This is a retroactive blog post about Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu. Original post here.
I read a short book (kindle version) called
Carmilla (1872) by Sheridan Le Fanu ⭐⭐⭐
This Gothic vampire novella that predates Dracula by 25 years is said to have influenced Bram Stoker in writing his famous novel. This book builds suspense well, has some very effective scary parts, though is sort of anticlimactic in the end. This doesn’t really make a difference, because it’s all about the ride in this one. The protagonist is a female and it is written in first person, which I always like.
Three stars, though I think it could have garnered more points if the writer didn’t keep going back and forth between past and present tense early on and if it was a little longer, adding in some more frightening scenes.
Overall, good book, and a must read for vampire aficionados.
Here it is on gutenberg. https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/10007