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emtees's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I ended up enjoying this reread much more than I expected. I had a vague sense of this book as being a slog compared to the others, but that wasn’t how I experienced it at all this time. Instead I found myself really appreciating Rice’s use of language and setting and tone. It is unquestionably a slow book, and a very internal book, and so it’s not going to appeal if you don’t like philosophical musings on the nature of evil and Catholic guilt and hallucinatory dream sequences that are never really explained and love letters to cities inserted directly into the narrative - in other worlds, if you don’t like Louis, the protagonist. I like him a lot and so I really loved his story this time around. You can see as you’re reading the way this book slots in between the horror-style view of vampires and the modern brooding tragic hero versions. Louis is both a brooding tragic figure who doesn’t want to be a killer and a horror character who enjoys it and that works for me better than either of the other two options.
I also found it much more consistent with the later books than I thought it would be. Rice famously wrote this as a stand-alone and then, when she expanded into a series, retconned some relationships and even whole scenes, with a sort of in-world explanation that Louis was an unreliable narrator. And he definitely is - even within this book, its interesting to see the ways that comes across - but I was surprised that so many of the characters still feel like themselves from the later books. I wasn’t really intending to but I think this is going to make me reread the whole series and I’m not sorry.
The one thing that is keeping me from giving this book a 5 star rating, though, is something that hasn’t… well, “aged well” isn’t really right, because the aging isn’t the problem. The handling of race is bad in this book, no question. It’s not a huge piece of the story, but its prominent in the first half and it’s an issue. Louis is part of the weirdly extensive class of fictional vampires who started out plantation masters, but the problem here goes beyond a kind of “the times were different” handling of the subject. Every mention of Black characters in this book comes across as fetishistic, and the fact that Louis never has any thoughts about the fact that he participated in slavery even centuries later - despite the fact that his entire story is otherwise about interrogating his own morality - is a very noticeable gap.
Moderate: Racism, Child death, Toxic relationship, Pedophilia, and Slavery
A main character is a slave-owner, with no criticism of that in the book, and there is some racist language used. Basically every relationship, romantic or otherwise, is toxic. Child death/pedophilia warning:amotoquinha's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Violence, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, Kidnapping, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Grief, and Slavery
stooby's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child death, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Colonisation, Kidnapping, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Murder, Physical abuse, and Racism
abbylk's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.75
Graphic: Pedophilia, Child death, Death, Toxic relationship, and Murder
Moderate: Slavery
thesawyerbean's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
The story unfurls before us, laced with treachery, eroticism, death, love and a lot of blood; paced with twists, turns and climaxes; and underpinned with a nuanced discussion on existence and the concept of good and evil.
What made me not enjoy it as much as I could’ve was the lack of connection with the protagonist. I know fundamentally he is supposed to be evil as a murderous vampire, but I think in reading vampire fiction we suspend the vilification of this inhumanity as one both expected and understood. However, the seeming obsession in contemporary vampire fiction of making important characters have involvement in the slave trade/confederacy is so off-putting and honestly needless. In addition, his relationship with Claudia (although a grey area considering her actual temporal age), was very strange and gave off similar vibes to that in Lolita. Overall my empathy with Louis was extremely stunted from the get-go which made the rest of the story quite the slog.
That was a shame indeed, as the writing is incredible - vivid, atmospheric and poetic. If my gripes with the characterisation were non existent I’d be tempted to give it 5 stars just for that. As an important part of the vampire canon I’d say this was worth the read, especially for spooky month.
Graphic: Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Slavery, Stalking, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Violence
jackbifrost's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Colonisation, Grief, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Blood, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Child death, and Murder
Moderate: Child abuse, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicidal thoughts
melihooker's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, Slavery, Blood, Child death, Gore, Toxic friendship, Death, and Suicidal thoughts
biab00's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Mortal beauty often makes me ache, and mortal grandeur can fill me with that longing I felt so hopelessly in the Mediterranean Sea. But Paris drew me closer to her hear, so I forgot myself entirely. Forgot the damned and questing preternatural thing that doted on mortal skin and mortal clothing. Paris overwhelmed, and lightened and rewarded more richly than any promise.
Wasn't expecting liking it so much, it was beautifully written with complex characters that you can't really tell who's the villain and who's not.
Anne definitely made the vampires more human, they aren't only these mindless creatures that are out for blood, but also creatures with feelings like the common people and with their own internal crisis about their existence.
I'm really excited to read the second book, to see the perspective of Lestat because from what I've heard Louis is a unreliable narrator.
Graphic: Death, Grief, Blood, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Violence, Gore, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, and Torture
mooshake's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Blood, Child death, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, and Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Death and Slavery
dayla_fm's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Also, Lestat is an asshole who made me feel a LITTLE bad for him a couple of times and Louis needs to see a therapist.
I read as part of a book buddy read with my friends and that was great because when you read this, you really need to discuss the homoeroticism and the anger one might feel over certain situations.
Graphic: Pedophilia and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Racial slurs and Slavery
Minor: Death and Violence