Carmilla

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla is an old Gothic classic that tells the story of Laura, a young lady who lives with her father in a large castle. Despite living in a castle, Laura is lonely and made lonelier when her father tells her that a girl her same age who was supposed to come visit has mysteriously died.

Luckily, a young girl named Carmilla stays with Laura and her father after she has a carriage accident nearby. Carmilla's mother, who was also in the carriage accident, asks Laura's father if she can leave her daughter at the castle for a few months because she must continue on her journey. Carmilla and Laura become the best of friends, and Laura finally finds happiness despite Carmilla's strange habits of refusing to pray, sleepwalking, and sleeping most of the day away.

Meanwhile, young women in the area begin dying mysteriously, and Laura starts to have horrible nightmares and eventually she becomes ill. Unanimously, Laura and her father decide to leave the castle, and they soon discover that Carmilla is actually Countess Karnstein, a famous vampire thought to have been defeated many years ago.

Baron Vordenburg, a vampire expert, sets off to find the hidden resting place of Countess Karnstein while Laura and her father only hope that he can destroy the monster before Laura is preyed upon once again by "Carmilla".

This thrilling story is one of the earliest vampire books written, and it sets the stage for an entire genre of exciting Gothic novels.