Graphic Novel Review - 'When I Arrived at the Castle' by E.M. Carroll

'When I Arrived at the Castle' has got to be one of the most baffling and frustrating things I have ever read and reread. And reread and reread. And reread again.

And after much deliberation and lost sleep, I have found that I both love it and hate it, hence the three star rating.

Even though I am normally not a horror fan, I demand clarity on why I should be scared, and endings that make sense, damn it!

That ending and "explanation" has driven me up the wall more than Freddy Krueger, I swear.

There's more blood here than in all the 'Nightmare on Elm Street' movies combined, I bet.

Whatever else it may be, 'When I Arrived at the Castle' is certainly a unique piece of graphic novel art. And a bloody staple in horror comics. All-female led horror comics.

It may well be a masterpiece. A carefully crafted, original horror fairy tale for adults who are not faint of heart. I hope it truly is, with all the litany of interpretations I've thought up for it.

Or it could be that the younger E.M. Carroll bit (heh) off more than they could chew, and ended up creating a mess of many different ideas crammed into one little tale.

Please let it be the former.

'When I Arrived at the Castle' is a LBGTQ+ monster tale about a countess vampire and a catwoman (that this would have been cute in any other context makes is further unsettling and unnerving). But oh, it is so much more than that.

It borrows elements from - and the heavily dark vibes of - 'Dracula', 'Jane Eyre', 'Bluebeard', the legend of Elizabeth Báthory, and the works of Angela Carter. There is blood, lots of blood, and sex, and teeth, and bathing, and mentions of knives, skin-cutting, and shepherdesses. There are themes - direct, vague, and vaguer still - of monsters and prey, killing and desire, animals, animal instincts, deception, and identity crises.

There is a lot aligning to my tastes, and that I appreciate.

So while 'When I Arrived at the Castle' didn't so much as make my skin crawl or my blood curdle as give me a headache, the fact that I've obsessed over it to such a degree that can equate to real fear proves its power over its readership (that I could hardly sleep with it preying on my mind wasn't just from how scary it is). It has a creepy, violent, morbid, macabre fairy tale sense to it, definitely, and it operates on dream/nightmare logic more than anything.

Yeah. I'll go with that.

I love this irresistible, maddening, sickeningly sweet gothic horror comic.

'When I Arrived at the Castle'--and I keep thinking of the similarly titled 'We Have Always Lived in the Castle' by Shirley Jackson, another "feminist" gothic horror mistresspiece that I need to reread, whenever I see it.

I also like E.M. Carroll's recent graphic novel, 'A Guest in the House'. It seems their penchant for ambiguous endings, plus tragic stories about trapped women, is part of their horror style. Their horrific artistry.

I apologise if this review makes no sense. Hey, it's not like the gothic graphic novel featuring a lesbian vampire and a hellcat is simple! Maybe my writing makes as much sense as that.

Maybe I'm having one of my late sleepless nights as I'm typing this, and I really ought to go to bed.

After my bloodbath and skin-shedding, of course.

Final Score: 3/5