Review by puncturewounds - The Vampire Lestat

puncturewounds 's review for:

The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice

4.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Okayy this is not what I expected but I'm having a lot of fun.

I actually love the tonal whiplash/fake-out/whiplash bookending of the book's plot. Lestat is just a really fun & engaging narrator to follow compared to Louis, and I didn't start the book with a super favorable bias towards him. Also find a lot of the new characters/exploration of old characters to be really well done. Gabrielle is just. Sooo interesting to me I'm obsessed with her

and genuinely am SO hyped she made a surprise return at the end LET'S GOOO

I thought Marius' chapter would drag but it quickly turns into some of the coolest scenes in the book for me

spanning folk-horror inspired rituals and a gorey, surreal nightmare of a scene that's probably my favorite in the whole book

. Strong finish as well, really excited for what's getting set up here.

Some criticisms: I really love them, but I can see someone who isn't as invested in these characters being frustrated with slower scenes where the plot kind of stops so characters can have ethical/theological/philosophical/etc. discussions. I wouldn't argue if people found it a bit self-indulgent or pretentious. Personally I found some of the orientalism/colonialist narratives to be frustrating and a bit ridiculous. "There has never been a place for evil in the Western world." I disagree!! Maybe I'm dumb and that line is supposed to be ironic but idk, that whole conversation felt very strange to me considering, like, everything.

With that said, this is easily my favorite stop on Ms. Rice's wild ride so far.

Content Warnings