Reviews with content warning for Terminal illness - The Vampire Lestat

If you liked the first book, I guarantee you will really like this second book. I've seen a lot of reviews characterize this as some kind of "redemption" or "justification" of Lestat, and it's not really that, nor is it a retelling of Interview with the Vampire--instead, it's essentially a prequel that makes the first book a lot more complex. It's also a lot more fun to read than the first (and I *liked* the first!) mainly because it's told by Lestat instead of Louis.

Lestat is a great narrator, particularly because he is horrible. He is a misogynist and a terrible friend, with a giant ego, a violent streak, and no impulse control. He's definitely got some kind of incestuous relationship going on with his mother. And he's also a literal monster and kills people all the time. There is no redeeming him--which feels very much on purpose--and yet Anne Rice makes you empathize with him all the same. She never lets you forget how much of a monster he is, but also makes it clear that he feels immense love and pain at the same time. It's a refusal to equate evil with unfeeling that I find refreshing. It can be easy, in both stories and in real life, to try and see abusers/criminals/perpetrators of harm as coldhearted, lacking in self-awareness, and detached from humanity, but that's not necessarily the case. People can be loving and smart and self-aware, passionate and well-intentioned and victimized themselves, and can still do horrible things and be forces for evil. And Rice makes both the evil and the love unavoidable parts of her characters.

As a book, it's also a historical adventure story, moving from Auvergne to Gaul to Egypt to San Francisco and a whole lot of other places in the middle. There's also a lot of other characters' stories in this one, despite the title. The book reads almost like interconnected short stories, which makes sense for a tale about immortals.

And I guess that brings me to the other thing that strikes me about this book, the immortality of it all. Like the first book, but even more so, this book has a lot of philosophical musings about immortality and making it all meaningful and who is best suited to continue raging against that dying light the longest. Really, it feels like a way to discuss how to make an actual mortal lifetime meaningful, with the maybe-easier-to-digest natural phases and metamorphoses of an eternal lifetime acting as comparison. It reads, to me, like something written by someone who is very worried about death and about making life count. Though maybe that is projecting a bit too much. Either way, there's a lot going on here and it hit home for me.

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tbd24's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

honestly I wasn’t convinced i was gonna continue the vampire chronicles at the end of IWAV, but right from the start this book got me interested. well maybe not RIGHT from the start but once Lestat started talking about his past. I loved his melodrama, the way he turns everything into a philosophical puzzle to be solved. And unpopular opinion lol but I like that Anne Rice made the vampires not care about human conventions like incest and age gaps, it shows how they are fundamentally changed from human kind. Even if these are still meant to be morally questionable actions, the modern vampires all maintain that they are evil creatures so why shouldn’t they commit horrific social crimes??? they

kill people lol

. Ultimately, i can understand why some people wouldn’t enjoy a book that happens mostly in someone’s thoughts and memory but boy is it my cup of tea, i’m so excited to read the next one

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crisisalide's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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claire_3lyse's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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vampireph4ze's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

absolutely phenomenal. i love looking at the same story in a different perspective, and while the plot of the interview with the vampire and the vampire lestat are largely different, hearing lestat's voice is refreshing - i have grown to love him much much more. have to unreliable narrators discuss similar things is riveting. the lore in this book is unmatched and feels like putting together a puzzle as the stories unfold. absolutely cannot wait to read the third book.

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shayh's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective tense slow-paced

3.75

The beginning held my attention very strongly due to the expectation I had after reading Interview With The Vampire, but I started losing interest over time. I struggled to get through the 70% mark, but immediately gained interest at around 95%. I will be reading the next book, Queen of The Damned.

This book includes a "story within a story" at some points- something to keep in mind if you are interested in that type of narration.

I question the validity of Ancient Egyptian mythology in this book. From my education, Osiris was slain by his brother Seth. And the people of Ancient Egypt were not "sun burnt" nor tan; they were Black.

The narration is mainly my source of inspiration when it comes to writing. It's more of the words and speaking than the story telling. It's what helps with my writing style for my own novels.

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meganpbennett's review against another edition

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challenging emotional slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

It is always hard to rate Anne Rice books, and The Vampire Lestat is no exception. Like Interview, it starts out strong, with action-packed pages and a lovable anti-hero. And, like Interview, it gets to a point where Lestat decides that it's time to tell his story in incredible, intimate detail. And it's not just his story. It's Armand's story. It's Marius' story. It's the story of Those Who Must Be Kept. The middle of the story - from around the time Lestat is turned into a Vampire until he departs for New Orleans - is a bit of a slog. The stories told are amazing and fantastical, but they seem to drag on and on. But if you make it through those pages, the action picks up again, and the book ends in a cliffhanger, setting off the sequel, The Queen of the Damned.

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