Looking at the time frame from when this was written, Carmilla isn’t half bad. Its slow pace, the tension build up, and the language all fit the time and world in which the book is set and the writer is from. However, this book is severely overhyped as a sapphic and potentially erotic vampire tale. It might indeed have inspired Dracula, and it connects very well to the mythology of vampires at the time and the fear and superstition. But the female characters remain “flat” as well as there not being a great love story of bond building introduced in this short book.