3.76 AVERAGE

dark emotional mysterious slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
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: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

During my years as a Poppy Z. Brite devotee, I always felt a smidge of guilt at having never finished IWTV, and now that I’ve fallen in love with the show, I figured it was time to give it another shot.

The good:
- A cornerstone of vampire literature. Spawned one of the greatest television experiences of my life.

- A bit of a good, a bit of a bad: the immeasurable grief this is infused with, the emotion that defines Louis more than anything else. It hampers the story slightly, when it is told by the world’s saddest man, but it is also this book’s emotional core and the whole reason it was written. It’s the thing that resonates most.
It seemed to me that she had never existed. That she had been some illogical, fantastical dream that was too precious and too personal for me ever to confide in anyone.

- The overwrought writing did send me a bit to sleep at times, but I mostly appreciated it.

The bad: 
- I’ll just throw out the obvious here: weird skeezy stuff between Claudia and Louis that turned me off the first time I tried to read this. And of course the slave owning and general racism. Can’t forget that.

- Very slow paced, really drags in the beginning and the end and maybe even the middle as well (though I think the initial Paris sections are my favourite).

- There’s a lot of dispassionate telling rather than showing that sort of kills the pace, especially in relation to Lestat in the early parts of the book.

Not my favourite thing I’ve ever read, but worth it all the same.
dark emotional medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated
challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
adventurous mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No
dark reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated
adventurous dark emotional reflective tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Took me way too long to finish this one, but can highly recommend for any vampire lovers out there! Didn't give it 5 stars due to some pacing issues in the middle, plus
the Claudia/Louis plotline has aged real bad.
dark mysterious 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

My favorite of the vampire chronicles. Exquisite detail.