ha fascinado el erotismo que transmite esta historia de terror que es capaz de mezclar el clasicismo literario más decimonónico con la estética de los cuentos de hadas, de la cultura japonesa y del cine de terror.
Me ha encantado esta historia que continúa la mejor tradición del LESBOVAMPIRISMO de Carmilla a Stoker pasando por todas las referencias más o menos eróticas de las vampiras lesbianas desde mediados del siglo XX hasta nuestros dias.
Y me ha encantado la forma en la que la autora es capaz de usar recursos plásticos impactantes que juegan con los sentidos del espectador: desde la paleta de colores todo es rojo, blanco y negro, negrísimo, hasta el uso de las dobles páginas, de las fuentes y de unos dibujos que casi parecen salir del libro para morderte en la yugular.
I'm really disappointed. Emily Carroll is one of my favorite comic artists and horror authors, but this was just way too confusing, I usually don't mind twisty stuff, but I'm honestly not sure what this was even about, From start to finish, this relied solely on the selfindulgent aesthetic of spooky women to drive the narrative, I need more than pretty pictures to enjoy a story,
I just don't get why this got a print release when it makes absolutely no sense and many of Carroll's other work both look better and actually have a point.
"A castle, a killer, and prey all bound and blurred by lust and blood, "
Like many before her that have never come back, she's made it to the Countess' castle determined to snuff out the horror, but she could never be prepared for what hides within its turrets what unfurls under its fluttering flags.
Emily Carroll has fashioned a rich gothic horror charged with eroticism that doesn't just make your skin crawl, it crawls into it, I'm so confused. I have no words to describe the plot and I cannot comprehend this story fully, I don't even know where to start but this book is more confusing than Carroll's Into the Woods, I need time to comprehend and theorize this book, But I did immensely enjoy this book but I'm confused, This is such a fantastic, atmospheric little horror comic, Its longer than the tales in Carrolls Through the Woods, which I loved each page feels like a gift the art is so gorgeous, and I only wish there were more.
In terms of actual plot, honestly I barely know what happened, I read it for a second time the instant I finished, which helped a bit, and let me savor it a little more, but still very much a “what the hell did I just read” vibe.
Which I love!!
On my first read I thought “damn, I expected this to be queerer” the cover is the catwoman and the monster lady all bloody and looking like theyre about to kiss, so I had Expectations, but then on the second read I thought, “wow, that was hella queer” in the sort of traditional spookyerotic way of vampire stories, you know And a fair bit of sensual amp bloody nudity.
Anyway, I loved it, but know going in that this is no Carmilla, Its much darker, and weirder, Quién haya leído sitelinkCruzando el bosque, cinco historias autoconclusivas de Emily Carroll publicadas entambién por Sapristi, sabe más o menos lo que va encontrarse con La noche en que llegue al castillo.
Eso sí, quizás, con un estilo narrativo aún más depurado y un final mucho más redondo, Carroll nos transporta hasta un castillo repleto de sombras y pasillos infinitos donde vive una perturbadora y sensual Condesa que no deja de recordar a Erzsebét Bathory que no deja vivo a visitante alguno.
Sin embargo, pese a la leyenda, una nueva visitante, una chica con cara y orejas de gato, quiere lograrlo y de paso, asesinar a la Condesa.
Un relato fascinante, terrorífico y sensual que supone todo un viaje gótico con regusto a cuento antiguo que deambula entre lo sobrecogedor, onírico y seductor por cada una de sus páginas.
La lujuriosa relación que se establece entre ambas y la sutil atmósfera de terror bajo el siniestro dibujo de Carroll hace encoger al lector con cada viñeta y no permitir tomar aliento hasta el instante final, cuando el ambiguo velo de realidad parece caer ante nuestros ojos.
Un dibujo poderoso, macabro pero bonito, nos hipnotiza en sus peculiares estructuras cual cuentacuentos bajo un manto de terror eróticogótico que planea por todo el cómic bajo la habitual paleta de negros, blancos y rojos que Emily Carroll acostumbra a utilizar.
Una sucesión de viñetas evocadoras, incomodas y viscerales que harán las delicias de cualquier lector de terror, The story was fine but I found the artwork to be severely lacking compared to everything else Carroll has done before, "Didn't you ever wonder what happened to the ones who came before"
I loved this strange little horror graphic novel from Emily Carroll! The art is gorgeous, and the coloring sort of reminded me of the original Suspiria.
The story is sort of like a creepy fever dream, and you're never entirely sure what's going on, This one is super short, so I don't have a ton to say on it, but I really enjoyed reading it, There once was a girl that lived in a deep and damp and dark celler, . .
Caroll has crafted another beautifully atmospheric and decadent novel that skirts the line of horror and the gothic, A curious and courageous cateared girl braves the castle of a vampiric countess with plans to destroy her, Plans change and go pearshaped when the strange catgirl instead finds that the countess is waiting for her, Soon, the girl is sent into a maze of tragic fairy tales and stories that she must claw her way through holding as best she can on to her purpose and sanity.
The tales trapped behind red doors, the house, countess, and her all is not what it seems,
This story is a rich work that you need to read a few times to get all the meanings, It is beautifully executed, much is conveyed in the simple palette of three colors bone white, black, and blood red, It is gothic ornate when it needs to be and simple when it doesn't, The backgrounds are simple with repeating patterns, but still very useful, It is a hauntingly scary work for a short graphic novella much in the style of her other novels Out of Skin, Through The Woods and shouldn't be missed.
Omg, how gorgeous was this book It's a gothic romance with a heaping spoonful of body horror and dark fairytale, It's spooky, it's erotic, and it's an absolutely engrossing read, The coloring is genius and the style is mesmerizing, Emily Carroll is an absolute master and she strung me along by the nose start to bloody finish, A quick, spooky read before bed, having received it today as an early birthday present,
As always, Carroll's artwork is faultless, Possibly my favourite illustrator in contemporary graphic novels/short stories,
However, the narrative was unfortunately not as strong as her usual work, It was quite vague, and whilst I am not against a story with multiple interpretations and open endings, I feel as though the story didn't really have any hints of any direction it was a lacklustre plot.
I enjoyed it on the whole, though, and the artwork was chilling as ever, so worth a read for big Emily Carroll fans, but for those who are new to her work, I recommend 'Through the Woods' as a better starting point! i'm crushed.
i had to wait over a year to get my hands on a copy, read it twice in one sitting, and still don't understand the story, whatsoever.
more thoughts to come,
Trigger warnings for graphic body horror amp blood depiction, kidnapping, knife violence, suicide mentioned, and death themes,
Representation: f/f, . . relationship
sitelink Blog sitelinkTrigger Warning Database sitelinkTwitter sitelinkInstagram An enjoyable sexy vampire/cat story,
The story is slightly disjointed but I really loved the artwork and it was absolutely perfect for some candlelit bathtime indulgence in the holidays! Gothic erotic violent bloody and disturbing, as one expects horror by Emily Carroll to be.
A catlike girl arrives at a castle out of the cold and rain and is greeted by a beautiful woman of seductive beauty.
But others have been to the castle before
and her arrival was expected, Nothing is what it seems and the beautiful woman is only a skin inhabited by a horrible vampiric beast, Somehow our girl must kill this demon who has slayed the other innocent girls who came to eliminate her before, The story seems mostly an excuse for Carrolls gorgeous illustrations and is deliberately convoluted, Definitely not for children, with lesbian erotica and lots of disturbing bloody violence, David wrote an excellent review some hours back that had me thinking I shouldnt even attempt my own review and should just post a link to his.
Cant do that on my phone but will provide when I am at my computer next, It was a dark and stormy night
when a catlike humanoid rocked up to the vampiric Countess castle to slay her.
Yup, that old chestnut! But who is the predator and who is the prey
Emily Carrolls When I Arrived at the Castle is a disappointingly weak and unmemorable lesbian/horror fairy tale, the kind of book I imagine Angela Carter wouldve produced if shed made comics.
Carroll mashes together elements of Dracula, Bluebeard and Beauty and the Beast into a barely coherent, rambling story whose obliqueness leaves very little impression behind.
Carrolls art is utterly beautiful though, The splashpages are intricate and imaginative dreamscapes gorgeously coloured in striking blacks, whites and reds and I loved the highly stylized, baroque designs of the castle.
Her take on the Countess is interesting and the character was genuinely creepy with some actually shocking scenes the keyhole!,
Visually this is an appealing book but the dreamlike story is much less compelling to read, And, like a dream or nightmare, not long after reading When I Arrived at the Castle Id already forgotten most of it and moved on! If youve not read it I recommend Emily Carrolls other, much better book, Through the Woods, instead.
A lovely little goth erotic horror tale, sublimely illustrated and with a satisfying enough story that felt just a tad too vague to warrant fullstars.
Carrolls signature color palette of black, white and red looks absolutely stunning here, and the visual structure of the book is really unique.
A great quick read just in time for the Halloween season, Creo que voy a tener que releerlo porque no estoy segura de haber entendido alla historia, Si calificara solo el arte sin duda sería/,
Lo mejor que se me ocurre para describirlo es una pesadilla gótica y lésbica entre una vampiresa y una mujer gato.
Por muy corto y ligero que parezca creo que es una historia que requiere de toda tu atención para ser descifrada.
Emily Carroll's bloody, beautiful, suggestive, ornately grotesque artwork is masterful, as always, but the story lacks coherency, I'm all for evocative mood and ambiguity, but I honestly do not understand the story after reading it twice it's spare and poetic and effectively so, but more confusing than any folkloric story should be.
I think I needed a little more
So,for the artwork, and the interplay between the art and the story,tofor the story itself, I am a huge fan of Emily Carroll, and very much like When I Arrived at the Castle, which might best be described as a lesbian horror fairy tale.
Heres a bit of what happens: A cateared human visits a Countess castle to kill her, We dont know why, but she isnt the first to try, She is surprised to find that the Countess is waiting for her, The catgirl is led to a series of red doors, behind each a tragic fairy tale she must navigate to survive and remain sane.
Its an ode here to literature, to fairy tales that scare and seduce us, What happens later is the sex part, which gets murky and complicated, as in dreams,
The Countess is a vampire, a femme fatale, alluring and dangerous and creepy, the flame to the catgirls moth, But how can we resist her attractions! And shes a shapechanger: one of the most alarming and amazing sequences happens as catgirl watches the Countess at her dressing table.
Successfully scary!
So its dark erotic fantasy in Carrolls signature black and white and bloody red, A touch of gothic, certainly, Decadent in the way of nineteenth century “decadent” art, A nod to things like Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre, after which she takes off in a swirlingly dangerous and delicious direction the Bronte women could not have taken but possibly allude to.
And complicated, in the ways of the best of fantasy, which leave us some space to dream in our own heads and maybe leave us a bit confused if we try to explain it all.
Which is to say it prioritizes atmosphere over plot, All about mysterious, intense feelings, in that Poe/Bronte romantic sense, At the intersection of violence and eroticism, which means it is not for kiddies,
And the art style fits the open, readerbased narrative of fantasy Carroll almost never uses a panel structure at all, favoring bloody splash pages in rhapsodic fashion.
Its a poetic structure that fits a “tale of mystery and imagination,” one that allows for the “grotesque, ”
Maybe for my tastes ahem! I like the slightly more conventional Through the Woods tales, but from light fantasy and YA her illustrated Speak to dark horror, Carroll can do it all, the best there is.
And you can find her stuff, wonderful short shorts, on her website for free sampling, too,
I guess I rate this asbecause I think the degree of confusion I still have after two readings is greater than I prefer, but the art isstars, for sure.
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