La Fanu's Carmilla was originally published from 1871 through 1872. It was released in a serial narrative in The Dark Blue, a London-based literary magazine over the course of a year. The story grew in popularity due to its strange themes and ease of access to it. Joseph Le Fanu was an Irish Victorian author, known for his Gothic and horror works, although Carmilla has proved to be his most popular. Carmilla's gothic themes, like other Victorian vampire stories, rely on the character's suspicion or ignorance of the vampire character's true identity. Like Polidori’s The Vampyre or Stoker's Dracula, the characters in Carmilla do not know the vampire is a vampire, and this adds a layer of suspense, a defining feature of Victorian gothic stories. Le Fanu was also interested in how the horror genre affected readers psychologically and this is evident by the way he plays with loneliness and gaslighting in Carmilla. 
A prevalent and controversial theme in this story is lesbianism. La Fanu counters a lot of traditional rules that are seen in previous vampire stories. Instead of having vampirism infect the woman of the story like a disease, or be the cause of her death, Carmilla embraces her vampirism and seems to thrive and relish in her dark powers. However, the story is also the first to feature a queer vampire and began the “lesbian vampire” trope. This trope is explained here this article also dives into the issues this trope exhibits. The compassion between gay love and monstrosity signals that it is something “unnatural” or non-human” about queer relationships.
Having been written during the Victorian Era, we must examine Carmilla’s queer themes as they would have been expressed then. By simply having a lesbian character, Le Fanu was breaking Victorian societal norms by expressing female sexuality, which is a threat to patriarchal society. At the same time, during this era, female friendships were very encouraged and often romanticized. The York Historian explains here how some sapphic relationships between Victorian women went undiscovered because close female friendships were so passionate, and heteronormativity was the standard that if you saw two close women together it was assumed they were just friends. This could be seen especially with Carmilla and Laura’s relationship, specifically when the two began to get closer. Laura was incredibly isolated her entire life and longed for a close relationship with anyone besides her father and nurses.
Despite the queer representation in Carmilla the way the lesbian character is portrayed is basically predatory as she is literally a predator because of her vampirism but also Le Fanu almost cast her in this sexual predator light because expressing female sexuality other than submissive towards men was unheard of at the time. This story as become incredibly popular within the LGBTQIA2S+ community and is praised for the sapphic representation. However, it can’t be forgotten that it was written during the Victorian times and by a straight man, and thus the themes reflect this. Carmilla is the villain in this story and again, this falls into the “Lesbian Vampire” trope by demonizing the LGBTQ+ characters.