“Deep in the forgotten hills of Massachusetts stands Saint Perpetua’s College. Isolated and ancient, it is not a place for timid girls. Here, secrets are currency, ambition is lifeblood, and strange ceremonies welcome students into the fold.
On her first day of class, Laura Sheridan is thrust into an intense academic rivalry with the beautiful and enigmatic Carmilla. Together, they are drawn into the confidence of their demanding poetry professor, De Lafontaine, who holds her own dark obsession with Carmilla.
But as their rivalry blossoms into something far more delicious, Laura must confront her own strange hungers. Tangled in a sinister game of politics, bloodthirsty professors and magic, Laura and Carmilla must decide how much they are willing to sacrifice in their ruthless pursuit of knowledge.”
One of the things that drew me to this book is that I am just familiar enough with the history of Gothic and vampire literature to know that this book is a retelling of Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla, one of the inspirations for Dracula. I haven’t actually read the original, but I know the general outline of the story. And as far as I can tell, Gibson’s book is a fairly close retelling.
This novel taps into the current trend of dark academia, which I think is a good choice for a novel based on a Gothic source. The isolation of a private school, the abundance of older architecture, the hints of secret traditions and initiations, all play directly into the elements that make Gothic stories so unique in their tone. I can definitely imagine some of the older colleges back east being home to a vampire or two!
Something else that this novel’s blend of Gothic and dark academia highlights is how many modern scenarios seem designed to consume us in one way or another. A vampire is just a physical manifestation of that. I’ve seen discussions about how vampires are used in literature as a metaphor for the darker desires and urges that we all have–it’s a fair point, I think, and applying it in a modern setting like a college works quite well.
I found it interesting that the vampiric element in this book took so long to come to the forefront. A lot of the story leans more towards the more mundane obsessions of the two main characters for each other, and of the main character towards her need for validation from their teacher. The supernatural element adds a twist to all of that, and I actually think that holding off on it was a good idea. It lets the author explore those emotions on their own without making it seem like there might be something else fueling them.
Overall, I think this novel is a good addition to the dark academia booklist. While I wasn’t blown away by it, it kept my interest, and I read through it pretty quickly. Choosing to base it on a classic that isn’t as well-known as others like Dracula also keeps it from feeling derivative.
