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Book Review of Carmilla

Carmilla
Carmilla
Genres: Teen & Young Adult, LGBTQ+ Books
Book Type: Hardcover
Litwolf avatar reviewed on + 34 more book reviews


This book is a huge disappointment. It has nothing of value to offer devoted fans of the webseries or new readers looking to engage in the Carmilla story. I'm a long-time fan of the series and was eager to read the novelization but it was a terrible book on all levels. PLEASE if you're at all interested in this story, go watch the three seasons of the show!

The writing was awful; every sentence was poorly written. I could overlook the bad writing if it still pulled me into the story but it couldn't even do that; impressive since I already know and love the story from the webseries and wanted to be pulled in. It felt like a poorly written school report where the author went to Wikipedia for the plot rather than watch the YouTube show.

I'd hoped the book would give a viewpoint outside of the webcam the show uses, but it did that rarely and, the times it did go outside of Laura and Carmilla's dormroom, it made no sense. Laura and Carmilla go on a date within hours of their friend Laf going missing? Seriously? And why even have the date in there when the entire point of season one is the building up of 'will they, won't they'? There's no tension that deliciously resolves with a kiss in the final scene if you have them dating right away.

I have read a lot of bad novelizations based on my favorite films and shows, but this one takes the cake with how terrible it is. I read it on my eReader so I didn't even have the pleasure of chucking it against the wall when I finished it. I settled for a frantic pressing of the delete button from my library.