20 hours ago
What to read this weekend: Vampires and more vampires
These are some recently released titles we think are worth adding to your reading list . This week, we read Hungerstone , a retelling of Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla, and EC Comics' first serialized miniseries, Blood Type.
I was pretty late in getting to this one, as it's been on my list for a good while now, but I really can't think of a better time to have finally picked up this retelling of the original sapphic vampire story, Carmilla , than during Pride Month. And what a treat it is. Hungerstone is a gothic novel that follows Lenore, a woman who has been uprooted from London and moved to the British moorlands by her husband, Henry, to fulfill his career ambitions. Henry is… not the best, and Lenore could definitely do with some companionship. Then, in walks Carmilla. Cue the yearning and craving.
Carmilla is actually brought in after a carriage accident to recover and overstays her welcome, making everyone in the house uncomfortable with her strange behaviors (wandering at night, forgoing food at mealtimes, etc). From the moment she arrives, Lenore can't stop thinking about her. Lenore is also having strange dreams, and girls in a nearby village soon begin catching a strange illness. This is all pretty familiar. There are some big differences between Hungerstone and the novella it's based on, though. Hungerstone further explores industrialization and the expectations and treatment of women in this time period. It delivers feminine rage and some really satisfying moments. $21 at Amazon
Blood Type , by Corinna Bechko and Andrea Sorrentino, is the first serialized miniseries from EC Comics, an imprint known for its anthologies that made its comeback to publishing last summer after a decades-long hiatus. We first met the series' bloodthirsty vampiress Ada in the third issue of EC's Epitaphs of the Abyss, but she now has her own dedicated spinoff. Blood Type #1 is kind of the perfect start-of-summer horror read: a vampire who has been at sea feasting on sailors makes a stop on a vacation island and finds some other evil has already taken root there. It's bloody, the tone strikes the right balance of dark and humorous and it's overall a pretty good time. Well, not for everyone in the story (except Ada), but I'm certainly having fun. $5 at Amazon
