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3.99 AVERAGE
3.99 AVERAGE
I find Rice's writing intoxicating in its beauty and Lestat is truly a character of all time, deeply human, annoying and full of himself and so gorgeously complex. As a book it doesn't come together as well as I would like, it's less focused on the pure emotion than Interview and I think it's limited perspective holds it back in a way that the follow up, Queen of the Damned, is able to escape via the use of third person. That said, even when it is doing lore dumps those are expressed with such great feeling that you can't escape how human all her writing is.
Enjoyable for the first half, the second half was a drag. I did enjoy the characters and storytelling but the book has no business being 550 pages long!
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
dark
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Gay
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-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
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Lestat has a lot to say after reading Louis’ Interview with the Vampire (characters writing books within books—it’s a whole thing). He wants to set the record straight. He’s not that bad—and even if he is a damnable creature, he’s got his reasons.
This book is for you if you love getting lost in lush, ornate, atmospheric writing. It’s a slow, immersive experience that pulls you into a baroque, gothic world full of candlelight, bloodlust, and existential dread. It’s also for readers who enjoy morally gray characters and big philosophical questions: What does it mean to be good? Can a killer still love deeply? What do you do with eternity if you don’t want to go mad?
It can get verbose- Anne Rice loves her long-winded, poetic tangents, but I didn’t mind. Some scenes are genuinely creepy, others are unexpectedly profound. And emotionally? It’s all over the place in the best way.
Every character here is both lovable and hatable, often in the same scene. But Lestat? I mostly love him. He’s dramatic, manipulative, and arrogant…and also deeply lonely and weirdly romantic. And wow… this book is so gay, without quite being allowed to be gay. I really wish Rice had let her characters be more openly queer, because the subtext is basically text.
I liked this one more than the first book the series (Interview with the Vampire) Louis kind of did Lestat dirty with his version of the story, but then again, who knows how much of Lestat’s story is the truth?
Read if you like dark, gothic vibes and appreciate slow, character driven stories.
Maybe skip this series if you enjoy tight plots and fast pacing and don’t enjoy overly descriptive or old-fashioned writing.
Btw, the tv show is fantastic and not slow at all, and GAAAAAAY. Really well done adaptation of the series with some tasteful changes, I can’t wait for Lestat’s season that follows this book.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Chronic illness, Death, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Confinement, Incest, Cannibalism