Name: Katie's review of Carmilla by Kim Turrisi
Item: Carmilla
Rating: 2
Author: Katie

Kim Turrisi

Der Roman zur Kultserie

Carmilla

Nine

An adaptation of ShaftesburyÕs award-winning, groundbreaking queer vampire web series, Carmilla. Newly escaped from the stifling boredom of a small town, college freshman Laura is ready for her first great adventure. But when her roommate, Betty, vanishes, and a sarcastic, nocturnal philosophy student named Carmilla moves into BettyÕs side of the room, Laura decides to play detective. Turns out, Betty isnÕt the first girl to go missing Ñ sheÕs just the first girl not to come back. As Laura closes in on answers, tensions rise with Carmilla. Is this just a roommate relationship that isn't working out, or does Carmilla know more than she's letting on about the disappearances? What will Laura do if it turns out her roommate isn't just selfish and insensitive, but completely inhuman? And what will she do with the feelings sheÕs starting to have for Carmilla?

Katie

The fact that no one told me there was a novelization of the web series that was literally my lesbian awakening is, quite frankly, homophobic.

5/31/19 UPDATE
Okay so this was..........meh. I think most of my enjoyment of this book came from my enjoyment of the web series. I love that series with all my heart and having a novelization of it was a novelty more than its own coherent story. I'm fairly certain I would have been super confused about the plot if I didn't already know the story. There were a few things that were fleshed out a bit more than they were in the web series, and a few things were changed to make the story make sense since we were seeing things as they happened rather than after the fact while Laura talked to her webcam, so that was cool.

This is very ramble-y. The point is, watch the web series. It's much better than this book. Sorry, book people.

Abbey

What is it with me reading books that feel like they belong on fanfiction websites? 

I’ve followed Carmilla since its debut in 2014. Over the years, I’ve grown attached to these characters. I’ve watched all of the extra videos Natasha and Elise have done together, bought the movie (with the huge bundle that includes all the behind-the-scenes perks and signed digital scripts) and watched all of their panels. You could say I’m a fan. 

When I saw that Carmilla was going to be made into (another) novel, I was excited. Who wouldn’t want one of their favourite shows available in another format? However, after some thought, I became worried. The show is unique, to say the least. The web series is filmed like a vlog (no, not the “YouTuber” kind of vlog), and these characters are loved by many. Whoever this author was, they would have a lot to consider and live up to when writing the novel. How would they go about writing a “vlog style” show? What style would they use? What changes would have to be made?

Naturally, I prepared myself for these inevitable changes. In the end, nothing could prepare me for the disappointment that hit me like a slice of cheese hitting a baby’s face.

Obviously, as I said before, the author changed the perspective of this story. Instead of watching Laura’s uploaded vlogs (which, to be fair, would've been hard to translate into a well-written novel), we read Carmilla through Laura’s perspective in the first person. Now, I will say that anything written in the first person is an immediate turn-off for me. Even then, what really got me was how juvenile and emotionless this book was.

A vast majority of the dialogue is taken directly from to show, with some differences here and there. A full conversation between characters would be copied and pasted from the show into the book with the exception of a new sentence placed at the end in some cases. I found that most of the “fun” dialogue - the dialogue that makes each character unique and connects us to them - have been excluded from this adaptation. It is instead replaced by bland comments and unenthusiastic replies.

When I watched the show, Laura’s speech quickly rolls right off of her tongue - among other things - (sorry, had to make that joke, sue me) and adds to her character. Laura is an energetic, funny, and clever character who could make nerdy references on the fly. In contrast, Carmilla is aggressive yet cool and has this nonchalant attitude and seductive air surrounding her at all times, which she carries into her speech. When I read the book, I barely got any of those characteristics through the dialogue. 

There’s a reason I alluded to this reading like a Wattpad fanfiction... because it does. 

I’ll give you an example.

In episode 3 of Season 1, Laura explains her “roommate situation” to her viewers. At one point, she tells the viewers everything she hates about her new roommate, Carmilla. One particular annoyance is how Carmilla is always up at night with “some girl” in Laura’s bed. To get revenge, Laura says: 


  “But it’s fine, really. Because when Carmilla’s latest ‘study buddy’ came over, I may have mentioned that Carmilla has raging cold sores and she should probably get herself checked out, because they are, like, super contagious. Boom! Revenge is mine. And so is Carmilla’s super special soy milk that I’m not supposed to touch because ‘that’s just the way the world works, cutie’ Hunh.”


Yet, in the book, Turrisi states that Carmilla brings in a number of different girls into their shared room and writes the following:


  “Well, guess what, I told the girl of the week that Carmilla has a longtime girlfriend. She went crazy. Bam, revenge is mine. Now I'm going to enjoy her soy milk on my cereal.”


First of all, instead of a dorky energetic journalist student, Laura comes off as a jealous and bitter teenager, which is an insult to her character. Second of all, you see what I mean when I say that all the fun and emotion is sucked out? 

It is important to acknowledge that a large part of the reason why people love the show and characters is because of the chemistry between Natasha and Elise. Through their portrayals, dialogue that could be classified as “cringe-y” can be played off as dorky and endearing because of their acting. This also extends to Kirsch, who is more of a lovable and clueless dork in the show rather than a douchebag frat boy in the book. However, I’ve read a few media-to-novel adaptations that managed to not thoroughly ruin characters, so maybe I’m just particularly bitter because I know that these adaptations can be done well. In this case, it was not.

Now, onto Turrisi frequently misgendering the one genderqueer character in the entire novel.

Early on in the book - maybe around 30 pages in - we are introduced to LaFontaine and Perry. The author makes it very clear that LaFontaine is genderqueer, and that they go by they/them pronouns. LaFontaine is deadnamed and purposefully misgendered by Perry, which is a part of a conflict between the two life-long friends that is eventually resolved. Yet, the author then goes to misgender LaFontaine on five separate occasions, one of which is literally directly after the author writes Laf saying something along the lines of “I use they/them pronouns and my name is LaFontaine, not Susan.” It seemed like any importance of LaFontaine’s identity, experience and existence was thrown out the window. In fact, these critiques were made known when readers were sending reviews of ARCs, and it looks like there has been no effort to remedy these mistakes. Evidently, it seems like the author has not had any experience writing characters that are not cis, has not been educated on non-binary and genderqueer identities, has not been educated about how disrespectful and harmful misgendering is, and did not take the opportunity to fix the errors. 

I could keep rambling, but I have to sleep and I don't want to put any more energy into this novel. Let's wrap things up.

Some other things that annoyed me were:
- Laura’s obsession with Danny
- The fact that we only read one side of phone conversations
- The fact that the author chose not to mention that Carmilla’s Mother is not her actual Mother, which is kind of important to the story as a whole

Things I liked:
- The book took the reader beyond Carmilla and Laura’s dorm room 
- Lesbians 

All in all, reading this adaptation was a huge disappointment. Please go watch the web series. Peace out, creampuffs.

Jessica 

Blog | Twitter | Instagram


  I was sent an eARC of this novel from the publisher in exchange for my honest review. This does not change my view in any shape or form.
 2.5 star rating. Full review also found here at Booked J. 

One of the first web series that I ever watched was Carmilla, so I was beyond excited to see that there was an upcoming novelization of the web series. Not to be confused with the original story that both are based upon. As far as novelizations go, Carmilla was every bit as intriguing as the original series it is based on and fans are going to certainly enjoy it. 

This new novelization, too, will absolutely bring a new audience to the original series as well. Which is a massive plus. 

While I did enjoy this novel, it did feel, at times, a bit unnecessary. It adds very little to the original episodes. In reality, this could have done more to flesh out the story a bit more. Unfortunately, it did not do that. This isn't to say Carmilla is badly written or paced--it's entertaining as always--but it felt, at times, a little choppier on page than it does on screen. 

At the end of the day, one of the things that made Carmilla fall short in expectations was the length. I expected a little something more, a little something more descriptive and as atmospheric as the web series. In the process of translating it from screen to page, Carmilla loses a lot of its charm and just doesn't fit well with the narrative that was set up. 

There were points in the story that were stronger than others but I think that is merely because I was able to look back on the web series and see it play out in my head in a very specific way--one that just wasn't aptly explored in the novelization. 

In short, Carmilla could have benefited beautifully from the kind of development that books allow. I do think that Turrisi had the right idea, and had a particular kick to her portrayal of these characters, but in the end, the shortness of this novel was its biggest enemy. 

Still, there were some good things to note about Carmilla, including the obvious representation. Queer girls who kick-ass? Sign me up. I don't think that the novelization is nearly as indulgent and fun as the web series, but I do think that it will find its audience--which is all that matters.

Nine &
Carmilla by Kim Turrisi

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