Booked on Sundays

Episode 18: Carmilla

Booked on Sundays

Show Notes

Bet you thought our vampire obsession was over, right? WRONG. We are back with the original, yes original sexy vampire - Carmilla. Is she our queer queen? Our "bad at aliases" love? Our blood drenched goddess? Put down your garlic bread and find out. This month we are mouths agape (fangs sold separately) talking about Carmilla, by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, specifically the edition edited and forwarded by Carmen Maria Machado, and illustrations by Robert Kraiza. I call this out as we will make significant mention of elements of this particular edition in the episode. Per usual, we will continue with our Season 2 spoiler-free intros, where we will discuss our initials thoughts about the book before turning spoiler full in the second half of the show.

For more bookish content, check us out on instagram @bookedonsundayspod and on tiktok @bookedonsundays. We are taking our summer holiday in August, so we will see you all in September! Don't forget to book your Sundays!

Book blurb: Isolated in a remote mansion in a central European forest, Laura longs for companionship—until a carriage accident brings another young woman into her life: the secretive and sometimes erratic Carmilla. As Carmilla’s actions become more puzzling and volatile, Laura develops bizarre symptoms, and as her health goes into decline, Laura and her father discover something monstrous.

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu’s compelling tale of a young woman’s seduction by a female vampire was a source of influence for Bram Stoker’s Dracula, which it predates by over a quarter century. Carmilla was originally serialized from 1871 to 1872 and went on to inspire adaptations in film, opera, and beyond, including the cult classic web series by the same name. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

More from Booked on Sundays

Sep 20, 2026

With this we say goodbye. Tune in for our season 4 and series finale of Booked On Sundays. We've kept it spoiler-free, and we launch into all the lore for books from all episodes. It's a giggly and emotional one, including podcast trivia, some true throwbacks, and our somewhat foggy memory of early episodes.

Aug 23, 2026

For our final book of our series, we've ended on a bit of messy one. But as per usual with book clubs, sometimes the best reads are reads you disagree on, reads that are chaotic, reads you don't quite understand? And Blind Owl by Sadegh Hedayat is all of those things. We get into our true feelings on novellas, imagery as patterns, and pose the question "to what end?".

Jul 19, 2026

Attention! This is your mess leader! Do you enjoy dystopian queer chaotic journeys through time? What about all our hot takes about the value of AI? Or perhaps you're a little alien trying to figure out your purpose. Well if any of those apply, then we've got a new episode for you and it's a delight! We are diving into science fiction with our discussion of Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh.

Jun 21, 2026

What do you call a chaotic beach at night? Wild Dark Shore perhaps? What if this chaotic beach includes tons of seals, a curious person washed ashore, and an isolated family protecting a treasure of great importance? Well that's also Wild Dark Shore! Tune into this episode about Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy as we dig into the wild, the dark, and the shore - dissecting character relationships, climate change, and precocious children.

May 24, 2026

Have you ever dreamed of being whisked away to an English mansion? How do you feel about rhododendrons? An older man? Societal expectations of the 1930s? Rebecca has it all! We're perhaps thrilled, perhaps just satisfied, and perhaps confused in our latest episode where we discuss Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. Tune into book club with us as we dig into this unfortunate narrator, the dos and don'ts of maintaining a large house, and whether the movie is worth a watch.

See all episodes →