Carmilla

A gothic vampire horror novella predating Dracula by a couple of decades, and perhaps the earliest example of the lesbian vampire trope.

Deep in the Austrian countryside, Laura is isolated away in a castle with her father (another write-up says “with only her father” but she has fuck tons of servants - but I guess the help doesn’t count as people) until Carmilla enters her life after a horse crash (is that what you call a crash with a horse-drawn carriage? Well it is now) injuring her left Carmilla in her family’s care while Carmilla’s mother had to continue on an urgent trip.

Laura and the entrancing Carmilla rapidly become inseparable as they fall deeply in love. But a plague starts killing off local girls as Carmilla’s behaviour becomes more volatile. Eventually, Laura succumbs to the “plague”, beset by nightmares and weakness.

I’m rooting for the vampire. 

Even if you’ve read Carmilla before, which I had, a few times, you’ve never experienced it like this. Carmen Maria Machado edited the story itself and wrote the introduction for this edition of J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s OG gothic vampire novella. But saying that belies the significance of what she’s done with this story, which is so much more than editing. Her touch was light, but so very thoughtful. Her footnotes are spare, but damn, they matter. When all is said and done, between the intro and the editing, Machado actually, well, mended this queer tale, which isn’t something I realized I needed until I started reading this edition. She magicked it into the version of my dreams that I didn’t know I’d been dreaming of since I first read it years ago. Such a gift.

Machado also agreed to a Perfectly Normal Interview about her edition of Carmilla for …