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joonjxne'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
5.0
Graphic: Incest, Blood, Death, and Toxic relationship
citrusandwords's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Terminal illness, Dysphoria, Violence, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Mental illness, Incest, Grief, Animal death, Blood, Death, and Death of parent
stinkylou'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? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Confinement, Death, Kidnapping, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Animal death and Incest
Minor: Alcohol
avie_j's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Graphic: Death, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Torture, Violence, Gore, Blood, Body horror, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Suicide, Gaslighting, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Abandonment
Minor: Animal death, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, and Domestic abuse
econsidine's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
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.
Graphic: Confinement, Torture, Body horror, Violence, and Blood
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, Toxic friendship, Animal death, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Murder, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Terminal illness
Minor: Sexual assault, Car accident, and Incest
Sexual assault clarification:tbd24's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Death, Animal death, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Murder, Religious bigotry, Terminal illness, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Incest and Racism
Minor: Slavery, Adult/minor relationship, War, and Violence
claire_3lyse's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Terminal illness, Violence, Death, Animal death, Blood, Murder, and Suicide
Moderate: Abandonment and Kidnapping
Minor: Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, Incest, Sexual content, Child abuse, Child death, Torture, Vomit, Slavery, Toxic relationship, and Trafficking
nytephoenyx'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? It's complicated
3.5
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Chronic illness, Death, Grief, Murder, and Blood
Moderate: Incest
Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death
hungryheidi2013's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Death and Gore
Moderate: Incest
Minor: Stalking, Sexism, Slavery, and Toxic relationship
say what you will about anne rice but girlie could write the fuck out of an existential crisisthemelleh's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Graphic: Child death, Body horror, Suicide attempt, Classism, Death, Violence, Grief, Gaslighting, Gore, Blood, Colonisation, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship