Ratings7
Average rating3.1
Before Dracula, before Nosferatu, there was...CARMILLA. Inspired by the gothic novel that started the vampire genre and layered with dark Chinese folklore, this queer, feminist murder mystery graphic novel is a tale of identity, obsession and fateful family secrets. At the height of the Lunar New Year in 1990s New York City, an idealistic social worker turns detective when she discovers young, homeless LGBTQ+ women are being murdered and no one, especially the police, seems to care. A series of clues points her to Carmilla's, a mysterious nightclub in the heart of her neighborhood, Chinatown. There she falls for the next likely target, landing her at the center of a real-life horror story—and face-to-face with illusions about herself, her life, and her hidden past. “A sophisticated and modern reimagination of one of the great classics of the horror genre, Chu and Lee have crafted a Vampire story you do not want to miss.”—James Tynion IV (Something Is Killing The Children, The Department of Truth) “Part of the challenge when writing about the Asian-American experience is attempting to define something that feels so amorphous. Chu and Lee ingeniously meld one of Western horror's oldest icons with the touchstones of the East.”—Pornsak Pichetshote (The Good Asian, Infidel) "Amy Chu and Soo Lee have cut a perfect gem of a story from the collective unconscious, with an archetypal monster that’s at once both deeply mysterious and itchingly familiar—like anything that truly haunts us.” —Lilah Sturges (House of Mystery, The Science of Ghosts) "A refreshing take on vampire lore. Athena is the kind of heroine everyone craves; empathetic and grounded, but also flawed. [Carmilla is] subtle in its storytelling, yet evocative in its world-building.”—Ethan Young (Nanjing: The Burning City, Life Between Panels) “Carmilla is an itch in the back of your head, the horror of knowing something’s right behind you, whether it be a creature, a nightmare, or a terrible love. Amy Chu and Soo Lee weave a beautiful tale full of mystery in an unsettling New York. I highly recommend it.”—Chip Zdarsky (Batman, Sex Criminals) "Amy and Soo are the perfect new blood to revive this gothic classic. Dripping with style, this seductive story is sure to leave a mark."—Casey Gilly (Buffy the Last Vampire Slayer, Ravenloft: Orphan of Agony Isle) "In Carmilla, Chu and Lee open the doors to a dangerous and yet seductive world where I wanted to stay in more and more at every page turn, like a moth drawn to the flame."—Fàbio Moon (Daytripper, Casanova)
Featured Series
1 primary bookCarmilla is a 1-book series first released in 2023 with contributions by Amy Chu.
Reviews with the most likes.
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.
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.