Book of the Week

 This is one of my favorite books. It's a short story, which is a shame, I'd have liked to go deeper into the story of Carmilla and Laura. But it's short story full of beauty. A story of love and repulsion, opposing feelings, terrifying truths. A story full of sensuality and sexuality, narrated so subtly that it is irresistible.

 “Nevertheless, life and death are mysterious states, and we know little of the resources of either.”

  Laura begins her tale by relating her childhood in a "picturesque and solitary" castle in the midst of an extensive forest in Styria, where she lives with her father, a wealthy English widower, retired from the Austrian Service. When she was six years old, Laura had a vision of a beautiful visitor in her bedchamber. She later claims to have been bitten on the chest, although no wounds are found on her.
 Twelve years later, a carriage accident outside Laura's home unexpectedly brings a girl of Laura's age into the family's care. Her name is Carmilla. Both girls instantly recognize the other from the "dream" they both had when they were young. Carmilla appears injured after her carriage accident, but her mysterious mother informs Laura's father that her journey is urgent and cannot be delayed. She arranges to leave her daughter with Laura and her father until she can return in three months.