#when i arrived at the castle

[princesscomplexed]

femmes after a long day

[whisperthatruns]

Emily Carroll, When I Arrived at the Castle (Koyama Press, 2019)

[foreignfields]

When I Arrived at the Castle (2019) by Emily Carroll

[dearestaeneas]

bought a copy of When I Arrived at the Castle by Emily Carroll yesterday and got the most intense wave of inspiration that I've had in a while. super recommend!

word count: 854

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“You are nothing so easily removable,” she said as she cut off her skin and offered it to me. Her hide hung in one hand, the blade in the other. I hesitated, and she dropped her arms dramatically and with a huff: the very picture of an emotion I could not place, but understood intrinsically. “If it was you,” she said. “Would it come off so easily?”

I accepted the knife and stared at it, its weight heavy in my hands. Although motionless, its blade was frozen in movement as it snaked back and forth gently in an animalistic mimicry.

“If it were not me,” I countered. “Why would it move the way I want it to?”

Foolishly, I believed I had outsmarted her.

“And what is your explanation for when it does not listen? What is it when you are sick, when you are injured, when you hiccup? Sneeze?”

I did not take my eyes from the dagger.

“What is it,” she continued. “When it does not behave in the ways you want? Is that still you?”

She stepped closer to me then and held my chin with incredible care. She was warm and wet with blood. I could feel every tiny muscle in her fingers as they flexed against my flesh.

“You don’t need it.” Her voice was soft. It oozed with understanding, with sympathy. “You are more than this. Feel. Feel.”

My hands did not shake. I wondered at this, curious how they could so easily protect everything that was inside of me.

“If it were not me, why would I hesitate so?”

The wave of patience that had overtaken her disappeared. In this low tide, her eyes darkened.

“You-” She prodded an exposed finger into my chest with the word. “Are a stone in the ground. Feel it in your stomach, your chest. You are a stone in the ground with a name and dates. Everything around that stone can be scorched. Flooded. You are a stone in the ground, and the rest is circumstance.”

I tilted the knife and saw myself in the reflection. My face distorted slightly with its curves. Another tilt, and I saw her in it, as well. Her reflection was an exact copy of the figure stood before me.

“A stone can erode,” I said. “A stone can gather moss, or vines, or-”

She screamed then, frustration at its peak. In a single movement she flung her skin to the ground and rushed toward me, grabbing the knife from my hands. She swiped, but the blood that had pooled around her feet had made the floor slick and her usual dancer-like movements were awkward and clumsy as she regained her balance. I stepped back, the dagger only having broken a thin line of skin. This enraged her further and she rushed at me a second time, more careful and aware than before. I barely missed her this time, the meat of her shoulder knocking into my own. I ducked as she lunged, nearly slipping in her blood as my own fingers tightened around her discarded flesh.

I ran then, bare feet sticky as they pounded along the hardwood. I wound her skin close to me, taking care to make sure none trailed after me as I ran. She roared with fury, her own wet footsteps close behind. She chased me through the house in circles, but she did not appear to realize my plan as she became driven by rage above all else.

Finally, I found my way to the door and wrenched at its locks. It was of the heaviest wood, and I fought against its weight. She realized then and redoubled her speed. With the last burst of energy I could muster I pulled the door open and ran into the storm. Rain pelted down on my naked body like needles, but all I could do was laugh.

She stood on the porch, screaming. She had followed me down the stone steps, quickly learning that the gravel of the path found its way nicely between her tendons, and the water seeped between muscles to wash the blood out. She stumbled back to safety, howling.

We stood facing one another, mere feet between us.

“Please,” she begged. “Please give it back.”

“Why?” It was a cruel question.

“I won’t come after you,” she promised.

“I didn’t know you planned to.”

Such stupid words continued to fall from my mouth and I savored the taste of every one of them. She saw the joy on my face, which I had no intention of hiding. Desperation, rage, and fear overtook her.

I took a single step closer to the porch. She reached her hands out. They shook.

I dropped her skin in front of my own feet and grinned. Then, I turned and ran. I could hear her screams, filled with curses and wails, for what must have been miles. I do not know if she braved the rain to retrieve her skin. I find myself wondering if it would still fit. So many of those tiny stones found their way into every corner of it.

[smashpages]

Out this week: When I Arrived at the Castle (Silver Sprocket, $16.99): 

Emily Carroll’s bloody, gothic horror graphic novel returns to print this week courtesy of a new publisher.

See what other comics and graphic novels are arriving in stores this week.

[graphicpolicy]

Preview: When I Arrived at the Castle

When I Arrived at the Castle preview. Rich gothic horror charged with eroticism that doesn’t just make your skin crawl — it crawls into it #comics #comicbooks #graphicnovel

[libraryleopard]

Adult gothic horror graphic novel

A nameless woman arrives at a countess's castle on a dark night and finds herself entangled in a dark game of predator and prey

Sinister & erotic

Unsettling, vivid art

[pvtjoker22]

Darn, my rare book will soon be no longer rare!

Joking aside, it's nice that other folks will get a chance to experience this trippy lesbian vampire gothic literature with incredible visuals.

[semper-legens]

134. When I Arrived At The Castle, by Emily Carroll

Owned: No, library Page count: Unknown/not numbered My summary: She has come to the castle, like so many before. She wants to slay the vampire. And the vampire seems to be ready for her, ready to receive this unlikely guest. But when they clash, will they find blood, or warmth in each other's arms? My rating: 4/5 My commentary:

Okay. So. This is the exact process that led me to this graphic novel. A borrower comes into work to pick up a book he'd reserved. It's an Emily Carroll book. I think, "Neat! Emily Carroll is so great!" And then I realise that there's Emily Carroll books that I haven't read on our system, just waiting for me to order them. So I did that, and this was the first to arrive. It's an odd little book. It's not ready to tell you exactly what's going on and all the ins and outs of its setting, choosing instead to rely on implication, interpretation, and of course Carroll's atmospherically spooky visuals. Ultimately I liked it, but man alive it was not what I was expecting.

The story here is vague. A cat-featured person comes to a lady vampire's castle to destroy her, knowing that many before her have failed. We don't know exactly why this is happening - but hey, fairy-tale logic, she's a vampire and therefore needs destroying. The graphic novel blurs the line between murder and eroticism in a very satisfying manner. Carroll is wonderfully skilled at both body horror and showing the sensuality of the human body, and they both combine here, where we have no idea if the passion these women hold for each other is hate or rage or 1ust. But it's absolutely fascinating either way. It's a slim little volume, you'll likely read it in one setting, and it is totally worth a try.

Next up…well. It's back for another mishap at the House of Night.

[gummi-ships]

Kingdom Hearts 3 - Arendelle

[marlenacantswim]

hello hot fuzz fandom. i love you all dearly, and i'm sure it's been talked about before in the years before i found my way into this fandom, but you know what i don't see brought up much? that danny showed up at nicholas's door after he'd left the police station defeated.

what was he there to say? to do? whatever his intentions were, they were interrupted by the slightly more pressing matters of a knocked-out lurch and a nicholas with a relit determination. why was he there? doesn't it feel like, after nicholas decided to walk home alone, that danny sat there in the station ruminating on whether or not to go after him? like there was something he needed to tell him?

can't you imagine the scene that would have played out if there was no lurch? danny at nicholas's door while he's midway through getting ready for bed? saying something about how he hated to see nicholas go off alone, and wondered if he really needed someone with him afterall???

[vicsplinters]

This is gorgeous

'When I Arrived at the Castle' Is a Visceral and Stunning Graphic Novel

Silver Sprocket Press has announced the rerelease of the graphic novel When I Arrived at the Castle, by Emily Carroll. The work was originally published by Koyama Press but is returning to stores under the new label on April 10, 2024. This gothic thriller is beautifully illustrated and full of sapphic eroticism. A woman that appears with cat features arrives at a gothic castle, soaked to the skin…

[kraviolis]

Belos: I’m going to raise Luz as my daughter and ensure that she remains pure and loyal to me.

Also Belos: I’m going to let the 7-years-old clone of my brother take care of her I’m sure he’ll be able to do that.

you joke but thats LITERALLY his entire thought process at first. he's so isolated and arrogant that he couldnt possibly comprehend the idea that luz wouldnt see him as her father despite the fact he literally told hunter he was going to be her older brother and never once encouraged hunter to see him as anything but an uncle.

i attribute this to the fact that philip is an orphan who only ever knew his blood brother as his only caretaker, so he sorta took having a brother for granted and didn't realize that was something you could want rather than something that just Is.

(also caleb was the only person philip ever truly knew + loved and even well into his 300s he never once picked up a child psychology book and realized that Perhaps His Worldview Was Skewed Because Of That.)

he literally like. could not comprehend the idea that you could even choose your own family outside of like. being adopted by someone. thats the other thing with him being so annoyingly christian in this AU, he was taught that your blood family (esp yr parents) is always the most important thing in your life & you should always be grateful to them no matter what.

(this is another factor into why he keeps making grimwalkers. in his own twisted viewpoint, it's him giving caleb another chance. and another. and another-- at least in this specific characterization of him.)

philip thought that him adopting luz would mean she would immediately be eternally grateful to him and call him father and the whole nine yards. but he forget to actually express that expectation until it was too late (aka until he heard her call him uncle for the first time)

honestly, hes not MAD about it. he's just sorta :( about it bcus hes not actually insane and can still logically think like "she did say she had just lost her real father to an illness its perfectly reasonable for her to not want to replace him" (he doesnt think it outloud but he also enjoys living thru her vicariously

but also later on as she gets older it gets to a point where he's like "ok its been years now why isnt she trying to replace him yet" bcus he thinks its a normal + healthy part of the grieving process to replace the person you lost (figuratively or, in his case, Literally)

[afabstract]

When I Arrived at the Castle: Graphic Novel Review

When a young woman walks into the imposing castle of dangerous Countess, a tale of blood, lust, and revenge unfolds. Read our review of "When I Arrived at the Castle".

When the graphic novel “When I Arrived at the Castle” showed up on my ‘recommendations’ section, it instantly made me think of Shirley Jackson’s gothic horror novel “We’ve Always Lived in the Castle.” Both books fall in the same genre, but “When I Arrived at the Castle” by Emily Carroll is a lot more fantastical in nature, like a mash between “Carmilla” and “Twilight”. Instead of werewolves,…

[bookshelf-in-progress]

How many times do I have to learn the lesson that I should start the story when the story starts instead of trying to tack on introductory worldbuilding?

Seriously. My instincts about when to start the story are almost never wrong. But I always assume the first scene in my imagination requires set-up that people outside of my imagination don't have. So I tack on an intro to set the mood and to set up the plot and characters and world. And it's boring. When I should have just started where I wanted to start so I could weave explanations into a scene where things are actually happening.

[toestalucia]

anyway,,,,,,,,,

these r also great. theres always more panels than i think where vyrn is on grans head/shoulders LOLL