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3.54 AVERAGE
3.54 AVERAGE
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
funny
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Lestat sure loves to get himself into situations lmao. this is such a fun read. i was a little disappointed because i imagined Louis would be a lot more present in this story; the few times he did show up were SO GOOD, though his inaction was infuriating. honestly i feel like this the true sequel to the vampire lestat - queen of the damned is alright but is overall a mess that can be ignored. i absolutely love Claudia haunting the narrative, and the guilt Lestat deals with in regards to her. in sum, i love the idiocy of Lestat and his choices lol
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
It’s the kind of book where you can’t help but want to know where it is going and want to keep reading
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
One more chance for this book in audio. I DNFd this during my attempted but doomed reread in 2022, because I didn‘t enjoy it much and the rape scene really put me off.
This time we don‘t spend much time with stories of days past and other, much older vampires. This one is very much focussed on Lestat‘s present. We have his single POV. And this is more of a plot summary than a review. Spoilers ahead.
The surviving vampires from the last book have all left the Night Island and gone their separate ways. After many conversations with David Talbot about god, soul, sin and religion and visiting Louis in New Orleans, Lestat tries to kill himself in the sun of the Gobi desert. Badly hurt, but still alive and none the wiser, he recuperates under the care of David Talbot.
Raglan James, the body thief, who has been following him for a while, finally catches up and makes his offer of swapping bodies for a limited time. Lestat obviously agrees, the silly man. 200 years old, but ultimately as gullible as ever. Or willfully ignorant of the obvious trap. He finds himself in a weak human body, abandoned, overwhelmed and robbed. His first attempts at using his human body are clumsy and even culminate in him raping a woman. This was the end of my reading trip last time. This time I decided to give Lestat another chance, considering that he felt disgusted with himself. A vampire with a conscience, who enjoys being evil. Blinded by the desire to be human, he eventually realizes how foolish it was to swap bodies.
In his total human cluelessness he becomes gravely ill. He hallucinates Claudia and relives her murdering him in his fever dreams. She is his guilty conscience. He ends up in hospital and is saved and nursed back to health by Gretchen, a nun on a sabbatical. She becomes his redemption and he falls in love with her. But the body thief needs to be dealt with, so Lestat finally dares to contact Louis for help… Big surprise, if you know Louis—the request for help does not go well. So Lestat needs to find other support to deal with Raglan James.
And here I stop my recounting of the plot, because… read it yourself! I really liked the ending, although it is again on the iffy side of anything resembling consent. Lestat embraces his inner devil. Probably didn‘t consider his fledglings ganging up on him. Again. Ok, this time they at least don’t kill him.
From a DNF to 🧛♂️🧛🧛♂️🧛 for the audiobook.
+*+*+
Re-read September 2022:
Lestat is turned back to human by swapping bodies, stupidly assuming that he can switch back after trying it out. Obviously, the other guy decides to keep Lestat’s body, powers and riches. D-oh. The rest of the book is Lestat trying to get his body back.
Read roughly 270 pages with some light skimming (a little under halfway, 45%). There were some scenes I remembered fondly, namely the part in the Gobi desert—which I had attributed to another part of the series. But overall, it felt dated and lacked tension. Knowing the plot wasn‘t helping, obviously. Too much detail, bla-bla and over exposition of almost everything. I skimmed quite a bit to get to the body swapping part, but was willing to plod on.
Then the rape happened—I had no recollection of that scene from previous reads. Or maybe I didn‘t understand and consider it rape before—it has been several decades since I read this last. That scene pretty much killed the book for me. I read on for a little bit, then put the book down with the plan to pick it up again at a later date. It‘s been sitting there for a month, looking at me and I feel absolutely no compunction to pick it up again.
(view spoiler)
Besides that, I was bored with the dated tone and endless navel-gazing and lost all interest in continuing. I can‘t even be bothered to skim my way to the end.
I have the next two books of this on my shelf. I am not sure if I want to continue. At this point I am considering to dump them and call it for this series, I‘ll see.
This time we don‘t spend much time with stories of days past and other, much older vampires. This one is very much focussed on Lestat‘s present. We have his single POV. And this is more of a plot summary than a review. Spoilers ahead.
The surviving vampires from the last book have all left the Night Island and gone their separate ways. After many conversations with David Talbot about god, soul, sin and religion and visiting Louis in New Orleans, Lestat tries to kill himself in the sun of the Gobi desert. Badly hurt, but still alive and none the wiser, he recuperates under the care of David Talbot.
Raglan James, the body thief, who has been following him for a while, finally catches up and makes his offer of swapping bodies for a limited time. Lestat obviously agrees, the silly man. 200 years old, but ultimately as gullible as ever. Or willfully ignorant of the obvious trap. He finds himself in a weak human body, abandoned, overwhelmed and robbed. His first attempts at using his human body are clumsy and even culminate in him raping a woman. This was the end of my reading trip last time. This time I decided to give Lestat another chance, considering that he felt disgusted with himself. A vampire with a conscience, who enjoys being evil. Blinded by the desire to be human, he eventually realizes how foolish it was to swap bodies.
In his total human cluelessness he becomes gravely ill. He hallucinates Claudia and relives her murdering him in his fever dreams. She is his guilty conscience. He ends up in hospital and is saved and nursed back to health by Gretchen, a nun on a sabbatical. She becomes his redemption and he falls in love with her. But the body thief needs to be dealt with, so Lestat finally dares to contact Louis for help… Big surprise, if you know Louis—the request for help does not go well. So Lestat needs to find other support to deal with Raglan James.
And here I stop my recounting of the plot, because… read it yourself! I really liked the ending, although it is again on the iffy side of anything resembling consent. Lestat embraces his inner devil. Probably didn‘t consider his fledglings ganging up on him. Again. Ok, this time they at least don’t kill him.
From a DNF to 🧛♂️🧛🧛♂️🧛 for the audiobook.
+*+*+
Re-read September 2022:
Lestat is turned back to human by swapping bodies, stupidly assuming that he can switch back after trying it out. Obviously, the other guy decides to keep Lestat’s body, powers and riches. D-oh. The rest of the book is Lestat trying to get his body back.
Read roughly 270 pages with some light skimming (a little under halfway, 45%). There were some scenes I remembered fondly, namely the part in the Gobi desert—which I had attributed to another part of the series. But overall, it felt dated and lacked tension. Knowing the plot wasn‘t helping, obviously. Too much detail, bla-bla and over exposition of almost everything. I skimmed quite a bit to get to the body swapping part, but was willing to plod on.
Then the rape happened—I had no recollection of that scene from previous reads. Or maybe I didn‘t understand and consider it rape before—it has been several decades since I read this last. That scene pretty much killed the book for me. I read on for a little bit, then put the book down with the plan to pick it up again at a later date. It‘s been sitting there for a month, looking at me and I feel absolutely no compunction to pick it up again.
(view spoiler)
Besides that, I was bored with the dated tone and endless navel-gazing and lost all interest in continuing. I can‘t even be bothered to skim my way to the end.
I have the next two books of this on my shelf. I am not sure if I want to continue. At this point I am considering to dump them and call it for this series, I‘ll see.
Tale of the Body Thief was actually pretty interesting and it was a good smooth read.
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes