Vampires, Footnotes, and Secret Histories: How Carmen Maria Machado Reinvented “Carmilla”

This review concerns two different texts: Carmilla, a novella by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, serialized in 1871-2, and the edited, introduced text of Carmilla, published in paperback by Lanternfish Press this month. The second text encloses the first, but the two remain distinct. Carmilla’s editor for its new release is Carmen Maria Machado, whose blazing reputation illuminates the 150-year-old text, and whose canny notes on Carmilla make the reading experience at once more playful and more mysterious than it would otherwise be. Both texts are intriguing and resonant, even if they never do entirely mesh into one.

Continue Reading

Vol.1 Brooklyn’s April 2019 Book Preview

Rumor has it that it’s now springtime. And while we’re tempted to volley forth a “spring cleaning? more like spring reading, am I right?”-level salvo, it may be the wiser course of action to simply make with the book recommendations. And thus, here were go, with April’s notable titles encompassing everything from fictional trips into the uncanny to nonfiction that may bring clarity to a frustrating world. Here are some of the books that have caught our eye this month. 

Continue Reading