#however Danny does die in season two without getting raised to a vampire

[thecarmillacurator]

Monsters- Carmilla Fic Review & Recommendation

Title: Monsters

Author: andthatisterrible on Ao3 and @asleepinawell on Tumblr

Word Count: 69K

Chapters: 12

Rating: Mature (For violence and themes, rather than for the sexual content)

Ship: Hollstein

Tags I’d Assign: #hurt and comfort  #angst #vampire!laura  #ethereal #suspense #canon divergent AU #hollstein 

Author’s Synopsis: Over a year has passed since the events at the end of season 2. The final battle has been fought and the survivors have moved on with their lives, picking up the pieces as best they can. Carmilla has withdrawn from the world, isolating herself as far from her former companions as possible. But when a face from the past shows up on her doorstep one night she has no choice but to find herself pulled back into the events that sent her fleeing in the first place.

Readability: Prose reads smoothly. (I would *love* for someone to do a high-quality podcast-read of this story.)

Reviewer’s Plot Summary: Taking a slight detour late in Season Two, Carmilla has left Silas and her friends to their own devices, just like Laura wanted. Now, she’s holed up on an island paradise in a house that holds significant, yet horrible, memories, living a half-life of numb apathy and barely-acknowledged depression. And when LaFontaine arrives on an expensive yacht begging for her help, and refusing to explain how they even knew where to find her, Carmilla quickly finds out the worst has come true: As the crisis at Silas University continued on in her absence, determined and foolish Laura not only got herself killed, but turned.  Seemingly gone is the sweet, purely good person that was Laura Hollis, and in her place is an unteathered, zombie-like vampire. Carmilla was LaF’s last hope for Laura. But even as the cost of helping Laura is Carmilla’s having to slowly rip her own heart to shreds, the dark legacies of Silas aren’t done with them. Vacant humans, an abundance of crows, and a massing oceanic storm are all portents that Carmilla will be called upon to complete the sacrifice she started back when she and Laura were just roommates and the stakes were a paltry string of missing co-eds.

Recommended to Read:  Yes. It has a slowly building sense of foreboding that is wonderfully mixed with atmospheric writing and one of the heaviest-hitting takes on Hollstein I’ve read.

Review: If I had to save one and only one Carmilla story off of Ao3 while the servers burned, it would be this one, and I do not say that lightly.  And I’d urge you to consider reading it even if it’s outside your normally-enjoyed genre. For myself, I’m not a fan of suspense, or supernatural thrillers, but I’d suggest you to give this one a chance even if you primarily stick to fluff or less-serious AUs: It treats the deeper faults in the Hollstein dynamic of Season Two with thought and realism, and the sheer angst and hurt/comfort volume on this is turned up so high it’s beautiful. Finally, don’t be afraid to read this because of the

possibility of character death or because it’s a serious fic. ***If the possibility of character death is a deal-breaker for you like it usually is for me, I’ve buried a spoiler in the tags.

The story is written in third person limited, Carm’s point-of-view.  

The Good: This is my personal, official Movie replacement go-to fiction. It carries forward the darker supernatural suspense of Season Two and resolves the relationship between Laura and Carmilla in a way that is much heavier, and therefore more impactful, than how the series actually ends in the Movie. And it takes a more fine-tuned look at what Hollstein’s issues would be in the real-world beyond the often light and fluffy universe of the webseries. 

To make a full confession: Season Two was actually my least favorite season. I fell in love with Carmilla because of the fun zany-ness of it; I absolutely don’t do supernatural thrillers or horror movies in real life. (You can date me, but I will absolutely *not* go to a movie in those genres with you. I am a sensitive, sensitive soul who shies away from dark things, probably because I’ve seen a lot of the darkness of mankind in my profession and know it isn’t something to be taken lightly.) 

The author makes smart choices all along the way, from the immediate juxtaposition of the sun-filled, idyllic setting against Carm’s dark history and the darkness of the battle coming, to the achingly fine-tuned pacing of Laura’s progress in recovery mirroring how their relationship also needs not only time, but also effort to repair. And the author does something I appreciate so much: She calls Laura out on her selfish naivete from Season Two, and looks at the world from Carmilla’s perspective instead. And because of that, we see a level of real-world growth out of the Laura that didn’t happen enough in the series or Movie, something Carmilla deserved. Also? You won’t believe it, but Carmilla gets some healing where it comes to her “mother.” I could cry for Carmilla after reading this story.

The Concrit:  Season Three and all it’s wonderfulness doesn’t happen, since the story flows from an alternating chain of events. Also, the personality of the story doesn’t allow for the humor or whimsy we often enjoy in the series and in many fan-written stories. However, if you accept that this is a serious alternate-ending to what was a serious season and that it portrays a painful- yet wholly satisfying- movement of their love story that differs from how the Movie left us with a Carm and Laura who would never have a chance at more than a few decades together, then it’s worth the trade off.

NEXT IN THE QUE:  I have to be away next week, but a friend of the blog has graciously volunteered to review the Firefighter!Carmilla AU(s) (orphaned on Ao3) for next weekend!  Following that, I will probably review Star Filled Memories written by RunWithWolves / @ariabauer .

Leave your comments and send asks if you have thoughts and feels about the stories reviewed on this blog, both to me, but especially to the authors. Remember: They’ve given a tremendous amount of their time, effort, and passion to provide us with high-quality, free entertainment that keeps Carmilla alive for us. Let’s thank them.