Carmilla: The First Vampire

Overall it was better than the original Carmilla, in my opinion, but not by that much.

I put this on my list because the classic was honestly a big disappointment for me, so I put my hopes into a retelling. Carmilla has such good bones to be a great story but this is two iterations of it that I just feel didn't live up to its potential. I think especially with this telling, having the background be the 90s in New York with a queer POC being the main character, had the chance to be really interesting, but it was honestly average at best.

Bonus points for the creative inclusion of Chinese mythology and the side characters that I liked better than the main characters, to be honest, but other than that this book was pretty flat. It did kind of give A Dowry of Blood near the very end, when Carmilla was talking about all the girls before the MC and how “none of them mean anything compared to you” but that was probably the most interesting point in the whole story.

Also I just hate the cheating trope, even if she got manipulated into it. It automatically tanks any story rating for me.

Still disappointed, hoping I can find a Carmilla adaptation or inspiration that I can truly obsess over.

OK when I picked this up I had assumed it was just a straight (ha I mean like, literal...obviously still queer)-up graphic adaptation of the OG Carmilla but actually it's its own thing. But I like...I don't know, I wish there were more of it? It's also interesting to me to have something that's playing off a relatively-less-known story...like I got it because I read it right after reading Carmilla. But it's different than a Dracula retelling where that character is so familiar.

ANYWAY I felt like this maybe bit (ha) off a little more than it could chew for its length? But the art was beautiful and it was like, fine.