CARMILLA
Author: Kim Turrisi
Release Date: May 7, 2019
Publisher: Kids Can Press
Formats: Hardcover, eBook
Pages: 224
Description:
An adaptation of Shaftesbury's award-winning, groundbreaking queer vampire web series of the same name, Carmilla mixes the camp of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the snark of Veronica Mars, and the mysterious atmosphere of Welcome to Nightvale.
Newly
escaped from the stifling boredom of a small town, college freshman
Laura is ready to make the most of her first year at Silas University.
But when her roommate, Betty, vanishes and a sarcastic, nocturnal
philosophy student named Carmilla
moves into Betty's side of the room, Laura decides to play detective.
Turns out Betty isn't the first girl to go missing ? she's just the
first girl not to come back.
All
over campus, girls have been vanishing, and they are completely changed
when (or if) they return. Even more disturbing are the strange dreams
they recount: smothering darkness, and a strange pale figure haunting their rooms. Dreams that Laura is starting to have herself.
As Laura closes in on the answers, tensions rise with Carmilla. Is this just a roommate relationship that isn't working out, or does Carmilla know more than she's letting on about the disappearances?
What
will Laura do if it turns out her roommate isn't just selfish and
insensitive, but completely inhuman? And what will she do with the
feelings she's starting to have for Carmilla?
Produced by Shaftesbury, and available on the YouTube channel KindaTV, Carmilla
is a global sensation. A scripted transmedia series that puts a modern
spin on the cult-classic gothic vampire novella by Joseph Sheridan LeFanu, Carmilla
has generated over 71 million views and 245 million minutes of watch
time across three seasons since its launch in 2014. It has been
translated into more than 20 languages and also been made into a feature film.
Author Kim Turrisi
brings her trademark humor and sensitivity to an adaptation that offers
a deep dive for existing fans and a portal for new fans around the
world.
Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle, B&N, TBD
After another night of insomnia, I stare at my stack of text- books. I’m certain I look like a wreck. Rat’s nest for hair, ice cream stains on my T-shirt. I’m surrounded by coffee, cookies and a box of my favorite chocolate-crunch cereal, attempting to start the outline for the big paper that counts as half of my grade. I don’t have one single word written, and I never procrastinate. College is hard. And different. At least this one is.
After half an hour, I have to admit I just can’t concentrate. I’ll work on my journalism project instead. It’s turning into more of a detailed video account of the manhunt for my lost roommate. Hey, that’s a strange phenomenon at Silas University, right? Every time I try to talk about anything, it turns into my quest to locate Betty.
Carmilla is nowhere to be found, which is fine by me. The less I have to interact with her, the better. I wish she was the one who was lost.
I turn the camera on and begin my vlog entry, keeping my voice low just in case. “Betty is still missing and she has been replaced with the roommate from hell. Look at this footage.” I click a link to what the camera caught while I was in class this week. “She steals my chocolate, she wears Betty’s clothes, she’s never up before four o’clock and there’s a nonstop stream of girls in our room. Check this out — this is a girl from my anthropology class with Carmilla on my bed.”
Danny should be there with me.
After half an hour, I have to admit I just can’t concentrate. I’ll work on my journalism project instead. It’s turning into more of a detailed video account of the manhunt for my lost roommate. Hey, that’s a strange phenomenon at Silas University, right? Every time I try to talk about anything, it turns into my quest to locate Betty.
Carmilla is nowhere to be found, which is fine by me. The less I have to interact with her, the better. I wish she was the one who was lost.
I turn the camera on and begin my vlog entry, keeping my voice low just in case. “Betty is still missing and she has been replaced with the roommate from hell. Look at this footage.” I click a link to what the camera caught while I was in class this week. “She steals my chocolate, she wears Betty’s clothes, she’s never up before four o’clock and there’s a nonstop stream of girls in our room. Check this out — this is a girl from my anthropology class with Carmilla on my bed.”
Danny should be there with me.
“Carmilla is the worst.”
I dunk a Pop-Tart in my coffee. “Well, guess what,” I continue.
“I told the girl of the week that Carmilla has a longtime girlfriend. She went crazy. Bam, revenge is mine. Now, I’m gonna use her soy milk on my cereal.” Maybe no one is following my video blog, but I sure feel better.
I reach into the fridge for her box of nondairy blech. MINE is scrawled in black Sharpie across the front, like she has to protect it. She has one thing in the fridge and lays claim to it while eating all of my food as she pleases.
I pop open the box and pour the soy milk all over my cereal. And I’m not gonna lie — I feel smug and victorious until I look down. The shrieking sound I’m sure the entire campus just heard came from the depths of my being.
This isn’t soy milk at all.
It’s blood. Or something that looks suspiciously like it.
“I told the girl of the week that Carmilla has a longtime girlfriend. She went crazy. Bam, revenge is mine. Now, I’m gonna use her soy milk on my cereal.” Maybe no one is following my video blog, but I sure feel better.
I reach into the fridge for her box of nondairy blech. MINE is scrawled in black Sharpie across the front, like she has to protect it. She has one thing in the fridge and lays claim to it while eating all of my food as she pleases.
I pop open the box and pour the soy milk all over my cereal. And I’m not gonna lie — I feel smug and victorious until I look down. The shrieking sound I’m sure the entire campus just heard came from the depths of my being.
This isn’t soy milk at all.
It’s blood. Or something that looks suspiciously like it.
A graduate of Florida State University, Kim Turrisi
began her career in film and television. After a year of on-set
production (getting coffee, wrangling actors and taking lunch orders)
Kim segued to the development side of the business. First working as a
development executive at Columbia-Tri-Star and eventually shepherding
many projects in family entertainment for Disney, Viacom and Hallmark.
Kim
created and wrote an online web series for which she won a Daytime
Emmy. She wrote for ABC Family's webisode series, PRETTY DIRTY SECRETS,
an internet companion piece to smash hit PRETTY LITTLE LIARS.
While
she’s always been a voracious reader and writer, she never thought
about writing for teens until she immersed herself in the children’s
publishing world as the Director of Special Projects for the Society of
Book writers and Illustrators. There, reading children’s literature is a
big part of her job.
Her
debut Young Adult novel JUST A NORMAL TUESDAY is loosely based on the
author's own experience, the debut YA novel follows 16-year-old Kai as
she struggles through the emotional aftermath of her sister's suicide.
Kai spends a month at grief camp, discovering a roadmap to piecing her
broken heart back together.
One
of Kim’s favorite parts of the writing process is to create playlists
for her characters that she listens to when she writes. When she revises
her manuscripts, she’s generally in mismatched plaid and her desk is
riddled with junk food. She collects Chuck Taylor’s, Van’s, and has a
killer sock collection.
Born
in Hawaii, she credits her love of travel to her life as an Air Force
brat moving every two years. When she isn’t writing or reading, she can
be found obsessing over her dogs, Riley and Rocco.
Represented by Tricia Lawrence at EMLA
Follow her on Twitter and Instagram @kimmyt22
(3) winners will receive a finished copy of CARMILLA - US Only.
Tour Schedule:
Week One:
4/29/2019- A Dream Within A Dream- Excerpt
4/30/2019- BookHounds- Excerpt
5/1/2019- Books Coffee and Repeat- Excerpt
5/2/2019- Dani Reviews Things- Review
5/3/2019- Novel Novice- Review
Week Two:
5/6/2019- Fyrekatz- Review
5/7/2019- Literary Meanderings- Excerpt
5/8/2019- Here's to Happy Endings- Review
5/9/2019- The Layaway Dragon- Review
Great excerpt! This book sounds fascinating as I love mysteries.
ReplyDeleteThis looks and sounds like sophisticated fun! To define "Buffy" and "Veronica Mars" as mere "camp" and "snark" is--oh, I just don't know where to begin!
ReplyDelete