#all of the horrors that happened because of and surrounding lestat

[garashir]

foaming at the mouth

[nalyra-dreaming]

I have a question because I don't remember what actually happened in the books, just what impression it left on me. But I keep seeing people talking about Armand and Lestat like it was this grand passionate MUTUAL love affair and I always saw it as pretty one-sided on Armand's side. Lestat came to love him eventually, but to me it was never passionate or romantic. More like the way you have love for someone who has been around most of your big life moments so that history creates connection and love. More of a platonic, familial type of thing. But then I just saw someone describe them as "feral for each other" and I'm confused. Am I remembering wrong? Or are people creating headcanons?

Wellllllllll.... It depends a bit on how you want to see it I guess.

I do think that Lestat is mightily attracted to Armand. And Armand to him. And in the "Cinderella scene" (I'll post it below), there is a lot of talk about love and desire.

But it also becomes clear through the scene that Armand is spell-binding Lestat, in order to (force-) feed on him. And thereby blows it - ultimately forever.

And against the far wall, a backdrop of satin and filigree, I saw, out of the corner of my eye, like something imagined, Armand. Armand. If there had been a summons, I never heard it. If there was a greeting, I didn't sense it now. He was merely looking at me, a radiant creature in jewels and scalloped lace. And it was Cinderella revealed at the ball, this vision, Sleeping Beauty opening her eyes under a mesh of cobwebs and wiping them all away with one sweep of her warm hand. The sheer pitch of incarnate beauty made me gasp. Yes, perfect mortal raiment, and yet he seemed all the more supernatural, his face too dazzling, his dark eyes fathomless and just for a split second glinting as if they were windows to the fires of hell. And when his voice came it was low and almost teasing, forcing me to concentrate to hear it: All night you've been searching for me, he said, and here I am, waiting for you. I have been waiting for you all along. I think I sensed even then, as I stood unable to look away, that never in my years of wandering this earth would I ever have such a rich revelation of the true horror that we are. Heartbreakingly innocent he seemed in the midst of the crowd.

Yet I saw crypts when I looked at him, and I heard the beat of the kettledrums. I saw torchlit fields where I had never been, heard vague incantations, felt the heat of raging fires on my face. And they didn't come out of him, these visions. Rather I drew them out on my own. Yet never had Nicolas, mortal or immortal, been so alluring. Never had Gabrielle held me so in thrall. Dear God, this is love. This is desire. And all my past amours have been but the shadow of this. And it seemed in a murmuring pulse of thought he gave me to know that I had been very foolish to think it would not be so. Who can love us, you and I, as we can love each other, he whispered and it seemed his lips actually moved. Others looked at him. I saw them drifting with a ludicrous slowness; I saw their eyes pass over him, I saw the light fall on him at a rich new angle as he lowered his head. I was moving towards him. It seemed he raised his right hand and beckoned and then he didn't, and he had turned and I saw the figure of a young boy ahead of me, with narrow waist and straight shoulders and high firm calves under silk stockings, a boy who turned as he opened a door and beckoned again. A mad thought came to me. I was moving after him, and it seemed that none of the other things had happened. There was no crypt under les Innocents, and he had not been that ancient fearful fiend. We were somehow safe. We were the sum of our desires and this was saving us, and the vast untasted horror of my own immortality did not lie before me, and we were navigating calm seas with familiar beacons, and it was time to be in each other's arms. A dark room surrounded us, private, cold. The noise of the ball was far away. He was heated with the blood he'd drunk and I could hear the strong force of his heart.

He drew me closer to him, and beyond the high windows there flashed the passing lights of the carriages, with dim incessant sounds that spoke of safety and comfort, and all the things that Paris was. I had never died. The world was beginning again. I put out my arms and felt his heart against me, and calling out to my Nicolas, I tried to warn him, to tell him we were all of us doomed. Our life was slipping inch by inch from us, and seeing the apple trees in the orchard, drenched in green sunlight, I felt I would go mad. "No, no, my dearest one, " he was whispering, "nothing but peace and sweetness and your arms in mine. "

"You know it was the damnedest luck! " I whispered suddenly. "I am an unwilling devil. I cry like some vagrant child. I want to go home. " Yes, yes, his lips tasted like blood, but it was not human blood. It was that elixir that Magnus had given me, and I felt myself recoil. I could get away this time. I had another chance. The wheel had turned full round. I was crying out that I wouldn't drink; I wouldn't, and then I felt the two hot shafts driven hard through my neck and down to my soul. I couldn't move. It was coming as it had come that night, the rapture, a thousandfold what it was when I held mortals in my arms. And I knew what he was doing! He was feeding upon me! He was draining me. And going down on my knees, I felt myself held by him, the blood pouring out of me with a monstrous volition I couldn't stop.

"Devil! " I tried to scream. I forced the word up and up until it broke from my lips and the paralysis broke from my limbs. "Devil! " I roared again and I caught him in his swoon and hurled him backwards to the floor.

Now, Lestat fights Armand off after this, but I think this is what a lot of the passion stems from - and also the reason why it will never come to pass.

Because Lestat does desire Armand. But Armand forced him, just after Magnus forced him. And that ended it, before it could really start, until time changed it into a more gentle love.

[shadowvalkyrie]

One of the differences between the Vampire Chronicles books and the Interview with a Vampire TV show I find most striking is the focus on the character's relationships with each other.

One of the central elements of the books (especially the earlier ones) is loneliness. A persistent sense of alienation that is only partially explained by being a predatory monster amongst humans.

Louis is already lonely as a human, and becoming immortal just adds more weight to that loneliness. There is a sense of being in the wrong place, in the wrong time, surrounded people that don't really understand him and his bottomless grief.

Meanwhile, Lestat is a narcissist, unable to genuinely connect to anyone, because they keep betraying him and/or dying, so he creates this solipsistic existence in which he is the centre of the universe and everyone else just exists to adore him, but because that fails to fill the persistent void in his soul, he has to stage ever more elaborate adventures in a pointless search for meaning. He falls in love with sometimes his prey - fated to be brief moments of stirring tragedy for him to bask in, catching fleeting glimpses of their souls as he drinks them up - and other times the people least interested in him, so that he can always be on a quest to win them over - only to drop/kill them once he has. And of course Louis is his main obsession, because Louis cannot be won over.

Louis is too lost in his depression to respond the way Lestat (thinks he) wants. So they are doomed to forever circle around each other in throes of agonised wishful thinking and longing for a mutual understanding that just cannot happen. (Symbolised by the way their thoughts are always closed to each other as sire and fledgeling.)

Similarly, the rest of the characters have their own issues. Claudia raging against being trapped in the body of a child forever, wanting to be free from the people who made her and deny her any agency, find people of her own, but unable to escape her limitations. Armand with his political machinations, games of power and control that don't, in the long run, go anywhere, because the older vampires he competes against and shares the playing field with are barely people anymore. Any triumphs and losses are doomed to be forever hollow and unfulfilling. And so it goes for practically everyone.

But of course all these thoughts and feelings are by their very nature deeply introspective. Excellent for a novel, but terrible for TV.

So instead of the interpersonal lacunae, the aimless eternal wanderings of the lost immortals through a changing world they cannot quite touch, the show focuses on the relationships of the characters with each other in a more immediate way. By exposing their dysfunctionality a lot more mercilessly than the books (where a lot of the love and longing is taken at face value, as the one constant between the lines of the unreliable narration - in a sense of "the love didn't fix anything but it was there"), it exposes that same lack of connection.

The characters don't seem as obviously lonely, because they spend more time together, and always have this strong focus on each other, the push and pull of passion at the centre, rather than the cold bleakness the books often depict, but in the end you get a similar sense of unbridgeable distance and inescapable grief (and the fine thread of psychological horror that comes with the enormity of it, stretched out over centuries), which I think is masterfully done.

[keldjinfae]

Tagged again by @oldefashioned, this time for my URL in movie titles. This one was just as painful as the one with song titles. Turns out I love a lot of movies that start with I, T, and H.

Kill Bill, vol. 1 and 2 Evil Dead (2023) Let Me In The Dark Knight John Wick (the whole series) Interview With the Vampire A Nightmare On Elm Street Friends With Benefits An American Tail Erin Brockovich North to Alaska

It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

X-Men and X2: X-Men United

Elf

Love Actually

Easy A

Tombstone

Howl's Moving Castle

Kill Bill: My sister and I are both major Tarantino fans, and fortunately for this list, both Kill Bill volumes happen to top our list. For all of the executive producers who were "shy" about putting out a movie that was led by a female protagonist, Tarantino told them to go fuck themselves and made movies like Kill Bill and Death Proof (which also would have made this list if I'd had more than one 'D' in my URL). Sis's favorite is Vol. 1 because of the focus on O-Ren as the main antagonist, whereas mine is Vol. 2 because of Elle Driver, as well as the actual confrontation between Beatrix (*beeeeeeep*) and Bill.

Evil Dead (2023): So my sister and I are the type of people who find comfort in horror movies. While the OG Evil Dead series is iconic, the remake was refreshingly not terrible. Also, earlier today, Sis was watching it and it got to the scene with the eggs, and I wasn't wearing my glasses as I passed through the room so I asked, "Is that Final Destination?" "No." "...The Bear?" notices the weird way she's cracking the eggs "Oh, Evil Dead. Bitchin'."

Let Me In: It still breaks my brain not just how this movie was good on its own merits, let alone as an adaptation, but also how good its main actors were, considering Chloe was believably portraying a child vampire. Yes, I am obviously aware that it had been done before, but Chloe just brought this different kind of menace and weight to her role. Additionally, I love just about anything Richard Jenkins is in (also obviously), so...

The Dark Knight: I saw this fucker so many times in theaters that I could just about quote it from start to finish for a while. Heath Ledger was perfection as the Joker, yes, but I was equally enthralled by Aaron Eckhart as Two-Face. He was menacing and tragic in equal measure, and it made him just as mesmerizing as the Joker's "do you want to know how I got these scars?" Also, I'm so damn glad they replaced Katie Holmes's Rachel Dawes with Maggie Gyllenhaal.

John Wick (the whole series): The most fascinating aspects of this franchise are the detailed world-building, and all of the characters surrounding the protagonist. Everyone is so unique and developed, I want to see them all in each movie. And Keanu is actually brilliant in a very understated way in this series--his character's personality shines through more in his actions. But while he says very little, the way he says things showcases his sense of humor, his emotions, all in the span of maybe a handful of words. Besides all of this, the soundtrack is fucking gorgeous, and there's a reference to The Warriors in the fourth film that had Sis and I shrieking and flailing at the cinema.

Interview With the Vampire: Another one of our comfort movies, but it was also one that Sis and I watched with our dad, frequently. Dad was our biggest influence when it came to horror and gothic films, particularly since our mom can't even get through Alien ('A' was another one I struggled like hell with, btw). Tom Cruise is... uh... many things, but one of those things is a damn good actor. He threw himself into proving he could play Lestat, and it showed. Also, again, bitchin' soundtrack. I still have some of the songs on my phone that I would circulate as ringtones for Sis and Dad.

A Nightmare On Elm Street: See above. Though, with how "formulaic" so many slasher/horror films have become over time, this one still remains one of my favorites because each character was someone you felt for, even if they had a short amount of screen time. Additionally, the characters had chemistry with each other, so it genuinely felt like friends were trying to help each other through some scary shit, but the scary shit got to them anyway.

Friends With Benefits: I'm not typically into romcoms (many of them push a little too hard into "cringe" territory when it comes to the comedy side), but the 'F' slot actually led to me debating whether to fill it with this one or Forgetting Sarah Marshall. The latter may have gotten more laughs out of me, and it's one I watch frequently with my sister, but the former had more of an emotional impact on me, and was one I used to watch with my father. There are elements that keep it from being yet another "we're best friends and oh no now we're also in love" film, like Jamie's relationship with her mother being very similar to the one I have with my own, or Dylan's father suffering from worsening dementia (and, again, being played by Robert Jenkins, who in this particular role reminded me so much of my late grandpa that it's almost painful to watch his deadpan delivery sometimes).

An American Tail: This was one of the first movies I remember seeing, period. The song is seared into my brain for all time, Fieval is so adorable and heartbreaking I almost can't stand it sometimes, and throughout all of it I love that his sister is the one who never loses hope that he's still alive.

Erin Brockovich: I loved the chemistry between Julia Robert and Albert Finney in this one. Overall, it's just a good story, but their chemistry not only sold it but elevated it to new heights. Plus, baby T.J. Thyne is in it, before he became one Jack Hodgins in Bones.

North to Alaska: My second favorite John Wayne film (my first being McClintock!, but damnit, no 'M's in my URLs). If you've never seen it before, it is fucking hilarious. There's this epic fight scene towards the end that is epic because it is an absolute catastrophe--there's no impressive choreography (though there is a moment when George and Sam coordinate exactly the right time to duck, which is actually very impressive if you've ever been in a free-for-all brawl), just pandemonium. And a goat. My favorite scene involves Sam (Wayne) seething into the middle distance because George is deliberately trying to bait him into a jealous rage, and when someone else points out that Sam needs to turn the stove on first in order to cook the bacon he has in the pan, he storms off after saying that if he doesn't like how he cooks it then he can do it himself.

It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World: No movie has ever made me laugh as much as this one from start to finish. It was made with the intention of throwing together as many comedians as it could, but actually giving them something to do. Making it even better for Sis and I personally, Buddy Hackett's character looks, talks, and acts so much like our dad, it's insane. When we try to describe what living with Dad was like towards "the end," we refer to the scenes between Hackett and Mickey Rooney, wherein Dad is Hackett, and Sis and I are both Rooney.

X-Men and X2: The series may have ended with a whimper, but up until that first X-Men movie, comic book films were not really considered "bankable." I grew up watching The Animated Series (cue theme song), so my 13-year-old body was ready for this movie. And look, there's a reason that Hugh Jackman has been the definitive Wolverine for over 20 years, but Sis and I both believe that Rebecca Romijn deserves just as much credit as Mystique, and Famke Janssen was the perfect Jean Grey. But that very first reveal of Mystique in the helicopter was just as iconic as Wolverine's in the cage fight. And that Wolverine vs Mystique fight scene, though. Holy shit. Also, again, great musical score--Mystique's theme song 10/10.

Elf: So, back when Will Ferrell was first starting out in movies, I couldn't stand most of them. It was when Stranger Than Fiction and Elf came along that the tones gelled better with my sense of humor--like in SNL, Ferrell seems to be more on his game when he's sharing the jokes with someone else, which doesn't mean I'm saying he sucks on his own; it means he's a collaborative spirit, and I can relate. I'm at my most creative/energetic/hilarious when I'm not working alone.

Love Actually: Okay, but the cast of this thing is ridiculous. I love (fittingly) all of the different kinds of love portrayed, from romantic love to familial love to the love between friends, and even the love between long-time coworkers.

Easy A: This movie "had me" from the moment Thomas Hayden Church was deadpanning about mismatched tires. The whole thing is about taking a look at The Scarlet Letter and questioning if we've actually made any progress since then, in regards to women and sexuality. Those who are familiar with what I reblog and tag and write have enough of an idea of my thoughts on the subject.

Tombstone: One of the "go-to" movies for my dad and me. For about the first half of my life, most of our discussions would lead to arguments... unless the topic was history, music, or movies. And one of the movies we would watch routinely (particularly when something in real life had emotionally impacted us and we needed a medium to process everything) was Tombstone. Additionally, this was also the first movie I remember seeing with Stephen Lang in it, who's been an almost lifelong crush of mine (though in this movie, he's a cowardly piece of shit who I still scream "JUST DIE ALREADY" at to this day; it wasn't until I saw Tall Tale that the "ohhhhhhhh okay, yeah" began).

Howl's Moving Castle: This movie's score has the same impact on me as An American Tail's does. I also actually like the way the movie adaptation rearranges/outright changes some things from the book. It's a wartime fairytale about curses and lifting them, and found family.

Sending out no-pressure tags to @dear-massacre (not, like, because she has an S in her name for a franchise I couldn't reference in my own or anything), @renmackree, @ice-mage, @greyhavenisback, and @nerdherderette

[rawiswhore]

Julian Sands x Fem Reader- “Catscratch Fever”

Here’s a fanfic about someone I haven’t written about in forever.

________________________________________________________________

One actress you've idolized for a long time is Nastassja (pronounced "nah-STAH-see-uh") Kinski, a popular Polish/German actress in the 1970's and 1980's, mostly the 1980's, who is the daughter of Klaus Kinski, a Polish/German actor from the 1960's to 1980's seemingly remembered more for being a severe nutcase than being an actor.

Luckily, Nastassja is more famous than her father.

Nastassja's most famous movie is "Cat People", a remake of a horror movie from the 1940's about a young woman whose sexual awakening brings horror when she learns her urges transform her into a black leopard.

Sounds good on paper, but the other plot to the movie is really disgusting and problematic, and I won't spoil it for you.

Despite the disgusting plot, you do somewhat like this movie, for the atmosphere, music and Nastassja Kinski.

So much, you're staring in a remake of this movie playing Nastassja's part, how awesome is that!

Even better, the person you hired to play Malcolm McDowell's character in the Nastassja Kinski movie is Julian Sands.

For those who don't know who Julian Sands is, he is a British actor during the 1980's and 1990's who still acts today, arguably his most famous role was in "Warlock", where he played the son of Satan, and "Boxing Helena", about a man so in lust with a woman, he acts his perverted sexual fetish out on her.

He was also that British man with long blond hair in "Arachnophobia" starring Jeff Daniels and John Goodman.  

Fun fact: He almost played Lestat in "Interview with The Vampire", Anne Rice really wanted Julian to play Lestat and so did her fans, but Hollywood wanted an actor much more famous than him, so they casted Tom Cruise.

Speaking of long hair, the icing on the cake is that Julian grew his hair slightly longer in this "Cat People" remake, that was your suggestion, because Julian looks so much hotter and sexier with long hair, just look at him in "Warlock II", "Boxing Helena", "Husbands and Lovers" and even "Arachnophobia".

Julian is so much hotter and sexier than Malcolm McDowell in your opinion.

You were standing in a room with a bed with Julian, he dressed in a silky black suit, looking as brooding and charming as ever.

Cameras were surrounding the two of you filming you as well as a microphone hovering above you, not being noticed or filmed during the movie.

He was coming onto you, walking up to you and placing his hand on one side of your face, trying to seduce you.

You were falling under his trap, his British accent is so sexy, your head's leaning back like you're having an orgasm.

You could nearly sink to the floor and swoon over his charm and sex appeal.

Since you're playing a person who turns into a leopard during her sexual urges, you buried your face into his neck, rubbing the side of your face with his, like how cats nudge their furry bodies against people's legs.

You're acting like Nastassja Kinski was during her love scene with Malcolm McDowell from the 80's "Cat People".

Before you can turn into a leopard, you have to mate with other "cat people", and you're not talking people who love and own several housecats ("crazy cat ladies" as they're called).

Julian's playing a role that was played by Malcolm McDowell in the 1982 version, and Malcolm's character just so happens to also be a "cat person"; someone who transforms into a feline, like a leopard or a panther.

Since you and Julian are both playing cat people, Julian buried his face into your neck as well, he smelling your perfume, the two of you slightly heavily breathing on one another, your breaths sound more like gasps.

On the inside, Julian thinks you smell so good, he could really bury and sink himself into you.

Speaking of sinking himself into you...

Julian took a little nibble of the skin on your neck, hopefully he doesn't taste the toxic perfume sprayed on your neck.

He took a little bite of you like he was a vampire, like a mother cat who was carrying her kitten by the scruff of its neck with her mouth.

But unlike a mother cat, he wasn't lifting you off of the ground.

Your head was leaning back, you let out a cross between a moan and a gasp from your lips.

The camera was closing up on your face, looking like you were having an orgasm.

One of your hands was behind Julian's head, gripping onto his hair, but not too tightly.

Your fingers were sliding through his hair, down to the bottom of his hair strands.

He was speaking sexily to you in your ear, his voice low, seductive and husky.

Your clit is quivering over his voice.

Julian pushed you onto the bed, where you flopped your back on the mattress, the bed bounced when you fell onto the mattress.

He was standing above you, you were looking up at him.

He was busy undoing the buttons on his dress shirt, your eyes were watching him undress himself.

When his shirt was completely undone, he peeled his blazer and shirt off of his arms and body, standing there shirtless.

You slid your feet out of the stiletto shoes you were wearing, thank God you wore stilettos you can easily slide your feet out because of an up and coming scene.

He then slid into the bed you were laying on and kissed you, while you were laying there propping your elbows on the mattress and relaxing.

Your eyes had closed when his lips met yours, so did his eyes.

He placed his hands on both sides of your face and crawled into bed, standing on top of you.

One of your hands was behind his head, running your fingers through his hair, but not enough to mess his hair up.

You want him to look good for his movie!

Your other hand was caressing up and down his bare chest.

Julian's hands moved from your face to the front of his pants, where he unbuckled his belt and slid his belt out of his pants loops by pulling on the belt buckle, tossing the belt to the floor.

He then moved his hands to his pants and slid his zipper down, unbuttoning his pants afterwards.

Despite the camera not filming it, the top of Julian's feet was behind one of his heels (and you don't mean high heels), where he was kicking his shoes off.

You can distinctly hear him take his shoes off during this scene.

Julian started to pull his pants and boxers down, the camera not showing him pull his pants and boxers down his body.

When his pants and boxers were on the floor by now, one of his feet was pressing on the tip of his toes, pulling the sock off of his foot and sliding his foot out of the sock.

When that foot was bare, he stepped on his toes again, specifically the tip of his sock, where he slid his foot out of that sock.

Now both of his feet are bare.

Julian's hands, meanwhile, where gripping to the bottom of your sweater, where he pulled that sweater off of your torso and arms and over your head, tossing that sweater away.

Julian crawled further onto the bed, this time the two of you were laying in that bed together, still kissing one another.

His hands were sliding between and behind your back as well as between the mattress, where his hands managed to unhook your bra.

Since Julian has kissed your lips for far too long, his lips slid from your lips down to your neck, where he buried his face in your neck, his teeth taking another bite of your neck again, this time a different part on your neck.

While he was biting on your neck, his hands were sliding your bra straps down your arms until they slid below your wrists and hands, he tossing your bra away to the floor.

Your breasts could feel the chill air on your skin, his torso was pressing slightly on yours.

After he took your bra off, he put his hands on your miniskirt, he pulling your skirt and panties down at the same time.

He slid your skirt and panties all the way down your legs, until they were down to your ankles.

You lifted your feet out of your panties as well as your skirt.

Julian was wearing a sock around his genitals so his erection won't enter your twat, plus, the two of you don't want to catch AIDS.

Julian's hands were now on your face, one of his hands shifting behind your head, where he ran his fingers down and through your hair.

One of your hands was behind his head running it through and down his hair, whereas your other hand was on his chest.

One of Julian's hands reached for the lightswitch and turned the lights off, where the room was now mostly pitch black with a bit of blue in there as well.

Despite the room being dark, there was some light in the room so people can see the two of you have sex.

As this sex scene progressed on, Julian pretended to thrust himself into you, you letting some quiet, breathy moans while he pretended to thrust himself in and out of you.

The back of your head was resting on a pillow as he pretended to fuck you, your head was sticking up and your eyes were closed while he pretended to bang you.

The camera shot to his face, he leaning his head back a bit and looking like he really is having sex with you.

Julian is somewhat harsh to look at now that he's older, but he still is a little sexy.

You probably should've casted someone else besides Julian Sands, although sometimes his face looks completely wrinkle free and ageless.

Fun fact: in the 1982 "Cat People" version, Nastassja Kinski's character has a sex scene with some other guy (not played by Malcolm McDowell) while her hands are handcuffed to the bed.

In the "Cat People" remake you're in, the person you're having sex with when you recreate that handcuffs to the bed scene isn't Julian Sands, it's Tom Hiddleston!  

Other men you thought of casting in the handcuff sex scene is Sebastian Stan.

You had also thought of casting Michael Fassbender and Christian Bale in Julian Sands' role, but they turned it down.

If "Cat People" had been remade in the 90's instead of the 80's, Julian Sands would've played Malcolm McDowell's role, and if they couldn't get him, then Ralph Fiennes or some other brooding but seductive and sexy British actor.

Nastassja Kinksi's role would've obviously been played by Winona Ryder.

[theraistlinmajere]

THE “”GOTHIC”” REC LIST

Edited for my own use.

LET’S START WITH THE GATEWAY DRUG BOOK

1. Flowers in the Attic (VC Andrews): Published in 1979 and technically considered contemporary Gothic. The style closely resembles a lot of “original” Gothic fiction I’ve read, but the themes, story arc and style are distinctly contemporary and very psychological. Gets a bad rap because it’s over the top insane and averagely written (which most Gothic is, tbh). Flowers is light reading, and I think it’s a good gateway drug into heavier Gothic. Has several sequels but stands alone as well. I wish I could call this Victorian-inspired Gothic but honestly it’s just knockoff Victorian in a contemporary setting. If you don’t enjoy this book, it probably means you don’t like the over the top insanity and average writing. Skip it if you like!

1.5. But if you do like it, I hear My Sweet Audrina is pretty good. All of VC Andrews and her ghostwriters are like a hellhole people sometimes don’t escape tbh it’s a raging aesthetic disaster down there.

Note: I have a strong suspicion that “contemporary” Gothic published between 1965 and 1989 will eventually have its own movement name; you will see a decent amount of it on this list.

THE VICTORIAN GOTHIC PART OF THE LIST Most of these are available for free online due to copyright law being born late or whatever. 2. Carmilla (Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu): Considered the first English vampire story (Germans invented the European vampire allegedly), and published in 187…9? 1871? Something like that. A novella. Arguably a same-sex romance (VERY arguably), but can also be read as a close friendship. The writing is good, but not the absolute greatest I’ve ever read. The real strong point here is the imagery and the dawn of the English vampire. Great Halloween read; I read it almost every autumn. 3. “The Trifecta,” according to Gothic fans: Dracula (Bram Stoker), Frankenstein (Shelley), and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Swift & Stevenson): First mainstream vampire, original English monster movie fuel, and the dawn of psychological fiction. Shelley’s the best writer out of all of them but she’s a Romantic and I’m sort of biased against Romantics. She’s a precursor to true Victorian Gothic. Dracula is still one of the creepiest books I’ve ever read and it’s the only one in the trifecta I really really love (and finished).

Note: If, by any chance, you find yourself seriously obsessed with vampires at any point in time, please consult me for an extended list of vampire fiction because I have a shit-ton of it in my reading history and left most of it out so vampires wouldn’t clutter this list lmao.

4. Edgar Allan Poe, Completed Works. The Cask of Amontillado, The Masque of the Red Death, The Pit and the Pendulum, and The Tell-Tale Heart are all notable. His poetry is lovely–Annabelle Lee and The Raven are most culturally significant. Just solid and wonderful work that I like a lot but haven’t explored in a lot of detail. Will appeal to your interest in darkness imagery.

5. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories (Washington Irving): QUINTESSENTIAL HALLOWEEN READING. SPOOPY. WONDERFUL. I truly love this anthology. Will also appeal to your interest in darkness as a concept and a physical thing. 6. Nightmare Abbey (Thomas Love Peacock): an 1818 novel that makes fun of the Victorian Gothic movement. Hilarious, contains all the typical Victorian Gothic tropes and has the added benefit of actually falling into the Victorian Gothic movement ironically. Usually comes packaged with another novel called Crotchet Castle which is similar. 7. If, somehow, you haven’t had it with Victorian Gothic yet (and I got to this point, it happens, Victorian Gothic is a slippery slope)… Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (Susanna Clarke): A really bizarre story behind how this was published, at least it is to me. Published in 2004, Over 10 years in the making and is written in the Victorian Gothic style but with a quirky and modern twist. The writer takes a page out of contemporary social commentary and includes pages-long footnotes, heads up (they’re funny and entertaining though). HUGE. You could kill a man with this volume. Excellent writing; I’m halfway through. I hear there’s time travel (?) and there are about ten thousand characters. Neil Gaiman is a fan. 8. The Phantom of the Opera (Gaston Leroux) is not technically Victorian (Technically Edwardian? Also French; I’m not familiar with French literary eras) but of course it has a huge following. I’ve read a little so far; I like the style and I think it’s culturally significant. You might want to read this because it’s heavily inspired by a French opera house, the Palais Garnier in Paris. Amber tells me she read literature in French to help sharpen her skills in the language; you may consider picking up an un-translated version of this? A BRIEF INTERLUDE FOR MORE CONTEMPORARY 9. Interview with the Vampire (Anne Rice): One of my favorite books of all time! Possibly the dawn of the romanticized vampire. Falls into that 70s contemporary Gothic bracket and is pretty amazingly written, but markedly more angst-ridden than anything else on the list (save for maybe Flowers). Lots of “what is evil?” and “what does immortality imply?” type speculation. Also gets a bad rap because Anne Rice made it big and haters are rife tbh it’s a very solidly built book in my opinion (BUT SUPER EMOTIONAL VAMPIRES). If you like this, continue with The Vampire Chronicles (The Vampire Lestat, Queen of the Damned, Prince Lestat, and about 8 others in between that concern minor characters). Lestat is one of my favorite fictional characters of all time. 10. Coraline (Neil Gaiman): Quick, cute, I found myself actually afraid for a little while despite the audience being middle grade readers?? I enjoyed it. The only Neil Gaiman on the list because his other work doesn’t impress me very much. 11. The Spiderwick Chronicles (Holly Black and Tony Diterlizzi): More middle-grade creepy aesthetic stuff. Cute modern fantasy stories, five volumes. I can read these books at twenty years old and still enjoy them (like Coraline)! The only good thing Holly Black has ever produced, in my opinion, though many people like her and her ~aesthetic.

11.5. Should you find yourself in the mood for more quick middle-grade aesthetic-y stuff, Pure Dead Magic (Debi Gliori) is really an adorable book with two sequels. Victorian Gothic tropes such as the creepy mansion, creatures in the dungeon, family drama, and Weird Newcomers are all present, but it’s set in modern times. One of the main characters is a hacker. Addams family-esque.

THE SURREAL-ISH FICTION PART OF THE LIST

Not true surreal fiction; these are contemporary surreal-inspired works. 12. The Bloody Chamber (Angela Carter): An anthology of short stories which retell fairy tales. Falls into the contemporary surrealism movement and is not traditionally considered Gothic, but this is definitely your aesthetic. Very quick read, very vivid imagery, lots of second-wave feminism and some brief eating disorder symbolism. Carter was a phenomenal writer! My favorite story is “The Lady of the House of Love"

12.5 (Just as a reminder since I’ve mentioned these) See also: Nights at the Circus (Carter) and Mechanique: A tale of the Circus Tresaulti (Valentine) for your interest in circus books!

13. The Palace of Curiosities (Rosie Garland), which I also rec’d before. Similar style to Chamber, similar themes. Both beautiful books. 14. Deathless (Catherynne Valente): Oh, Deathless. Technically contemporary lit, but hails to Russian Gothic (one of the earlier Gothic movements which I haven’t read much of). Retelling of about a million Russian folk tales. I could go on about this book for a thousand years. Stylistically similar to The Bloody Chamber as well, but far more poetic. (Very) structurally inferior to every other book on this list, but so heart-wrenchingly romantic you won’t notice or care on the first read. Visually breathtaking, absolutely the closest thing to death and the maiden imagery I’ve found in fiction. I’m fairly confident you’ll appreciate this one! Might as well read it to test my theory!! There’s controversy surrounding the fact that the writer is not Russian–something to be aware of. 15. The Enchanted (Rene Denfeld): TREAD WITH CAUTION. This is contemporary literary fiction (not Gothic) written from the pov of a death row inmate. Nominated for approximately a billion awards in 2014 (and won a few); high caliber of writing. Incredibly visceral, horrific, psychological imagery that was too much for me, though I still liked it. Short but dense–I had to take a two-day break to ward off the anxiety it caused. But you are darker~ than I so you might like it more!

THE SOUTHERN GOTHIC PART OF THE LIST 16. Beloved (Toni Morrison): Contemporary Southern Gothic. Incredibly creepy imagery, explores the connection between women’s issues and racial issues. Uses abortion and slavery as metaphors for each other. Gracefully written, but Southern Gothic (even contemporary) tends to be textually dense so it’s something to really think about as you read. 17. As I Lay Dying (Faulkner): “True” Southern Gothic. DENSE AS HELL but I think Beloved is a good precursor to Faulkner. A lot of almost comedic family drama, similar to Flowers in that sense, but very srs bsns nonetheless.

17.5. Basically all of Faulkner is considered Southern Gothic. He’s the father of Southern Gothic. If you enjoy this, you might also like Absalom! Absalom! and other such works. I loved As I Lay Dying but it’s possibly his easiest read, and while I love a good challenge I haven’t stepped up to this one yet.

Note: I use reading guides for all my classical works and Shakespeare, and I think there are good ones for Faulkner too, so that might be something to look into if you wanna vanish into this hell lol.

AN ADDENDUM: OTHER WRITERS

HP Lovecraft: Father of horror or whatever. Awful writer–anyone will agree. The guy had no command of language, but he’s known for over-the-top horror imagery that people really enjoy. Honestly I hate his writing so I haven’t bothered with much of it.

Oscar Wilde: If, by this point, you still want more Victorian-era writing, Wilde is here for you. Lots of social commentary, wrote basically one piece in the Gothic style (Chapter 16 of The Picture of Dorian Gray, my favorite novel), snarky as hell, incredibly gifted writer.

Neil Gaiman: Modern surreal in my opinion, sometimes called modern Gothic, well-loved and writes creepy things. I think he’s average because I’ve read too much Murakami (who does “modern surreal” way, way better) but many people really love him.

THE BLACKLIST Knockoff Gothic/Gothic themed things to avoid. I apologize if you like any of these okay ._.

The Grisha Trilogy (Leigh Bardugo): Contemporary YA, tries to be Russian Gothic and fails. Stick to Deathless. This book makes a mockery of Russian culture whereas at least Valente exhaustively researched her novel. Also doesn’t do romance very well.

The Night Circus (Morgenstern): What the hell is this book, tbh. 400 pages of obtuse and cliched imagery which you don’t have time for in your life. No plot. Two-dimensional characters, bad writing.

Those Across The River (Christopher Buehlman): Terrible. Just terrible.

[forthegothicheroine]

Best books I read in 2017

I read a lot of graphic novels this year, whose individual volumes artificially inflated my goodreads numbers.  In any case, here are my favorites- not necessarily books that came out this year, just ones I actually got to.

Behind this cut lies gothic horror, true crime, indie comics, weird history, magic realism, and muppets.

My Favorite Thing is Monsters: This one is my absolute favorite of the year.  Oh my god.  Heaven help me.  Oh god.  If you want a fantastic world of monster movies, private heartbreak, memoirs of libertine cults, and amazing color all narrated by an adorable lesbian werewolf girl, please read this book.  And join me in dancing around impatiently for the next volume.

The Faerie Handbook: Look, sometimes I just want to be twelve again and surround myself with fairy artwork and crafts and mythology, all provided by the editors of Faerie Magazine.  This book helps with that.

Haunted Castles: This is a collection of gothic novellas by Ray Russell, and it’s worth it for “Sardonicus” alone.  The other stories aren’t bad either (especially the super-nasty “The Fugitive Lovers”) and an introduction by Guillermo del Toro doesn’t hurt.

Swords Against Wizardry: I’ve talked about my love of the Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser series before, and this book is the best of all.  I love these two dorky adventurers, and this is the pinnacle of sword and sorcery as Coen Brothers-style dark comedy.  Steal invisible treasure!  Romance invisible maidens!  See what happens when you try to fence invisible treasure!  Say ‘screw it’ and end up fucking around in Gormenghast!  Such is the adventuring life.

The Rabbi’s Cat: Another graphic novel, this one is sad and cute in equal measure.  Don’t worry, it’s not a downer- it’s about a skinny, mischief-making cat who wants to become Jewish solely so he can keep getting petted by the Rabbi’s daughter.  The family’s life in 1930s Algeria fluctuates, as does the Rabbi’s faith, and through it all the cat wryly observes.

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown: Now this is the kind of YA vampire romance I want to read!  It’s genuinely exciting and the vampire dystopia portrayed is believably glamorous and grimy.  These are vampires I can believe in, both sympathetic and otherwise.  Plus, if you’ve ever wanted to punch out Lestat, you’ll be satisfied.

Conjure Wife: I had read this one before, but it rang especially true this time.  A college professor finds out his wife has been using witchcraft to prop up his entire career, and everything falls to hell when he makes her stop.  It has to be taken literally for an urban fantasy suspense romp, but you can also easily read it as a metaphor by replacing “witchcraft” with “emotional labor.”

The Refrigerator Monologues: Catherynne M. Valente is pretty hit or miss for me, but this worked for me in a big way.  Her anger at watching Gwen Stacy die on screen resulted in this work, where analogues for female comic book characters air their grievances from the afterlife (my favorite is the Harley Quinn one.)  You can tell her opinions- she thinks Jean Grey has been rebooted way too many crimes, and Daredevil is the only hero who comes off completely sympathetic- but whether you share her opinions or not, I think you’ll find value here.

My Friend Dahmer: ‘Derf’ Backderf went to high school with Jeffrey Dahmer.  The kid was weird, and they always laughed at his antics...until he got just a little too weird and they distanced theirselves from him.  Looking back, he wonders many things, chiefly why none of the adults recognized or cared about the warning signs that Dahmer was having serious problems.  @harkerling said this graphic novel memoir perfectly hit the balance between sympathizing with a killer and not excusing him, and it’s going to stick with me for a long time.

Nightmare Movies: Kim Newman is another hit or miss author for me, but I’m definitely going to check out more of his work now that I’ve read what he has to say about horror movies.  Even when I don’t agree, he’s always intelligent and insightful and notices things I somehow missed (is Hayley from Hard Candy actually a ghost or an avenging angel?)  I’ll fight him on a few movies he trashes, but it will be a gentle fight.

Paperbacks from Hell: Oh man this one is fun.  The author of the horror comedy novel Horrorstor gives us a look at the best and worst of pulp horror paperback covers, from the sixties through the nineties.  You’ll meet skeletons in funny poses, whip-weilding leprachauns, and plenty of gothic heroines running away from big houses in the middle of the night.  The only problem with this book is that it made my to-read list so much longer!

Romantic Outlaws: This dual biography of Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley filled in so many gap in my knowledge of gothic literature, broke my heart, and even helped me understand what these women saw in their wacky husbands.  It’s huge but it’s a page-turner, and you’ll feel like these women are your troubled but fascinating best friends.

Muppet Classics: Phantom of the Opera: Look, you’ll never know till you read this what a great Christine Miss Piggy is.  It works with the Leroux text adding not only Muppet characters and jokes but developing a semi-plausible background for the plot.  The casting is perfect, and don’t get too comfortable because muppets actually die!  Now I just need them to do Muppet Dracula.

Poirot and Me: Do you love David Suchet’s Poirot?  Do you want to know how an actual method actor works, as opposed to a publicity seeking jackass who annoys his fellow cast?  Read this book.  It’s precious and enlightening, and now when I watch Poirot I see how much work Suchet put into every motion and expression to perfectly match Agatha Christie’s creation.  (And to any of you who may have headcanoned Poirot as asexual, Suchet says you’re right.)

[i-want-my-iwtv]

Is it just me, or are most people in the VC fandom women? (Not saying I mind, I'm just legit curious if and why.)

(Reminder: I am/was not a gender studies major, nor a student of fandom. This is just an entertainment blog and all that follows is my opinion only.)

This is a highly sensitive topic that people study academically for many fandoms, and I will hardly do it justice here. But I felt it was important to share what I can, anyway. Some links are under the cut for further reading about this topic, even though they do not apply to VC fandom specifically.

The short answer is that, from my experience, yes, most ppl in the VC fandom seem to be women. This is based on the past 20 years of AR’s booksignings I’ve attended, online communities, interviews/articles over the years, AR’s FB (her own posts + comments from her People of the Page), and AR’s Twitter. However, I would add that she absolutely does have fans who are men, NB, agender, genderqueer, transgender, etc. It would be difficult to do a thorough demographic study of all of her fans (current/past/specific time period(s)/etc.), so I wouldn’t know what portion of the fanbase is made up of women.

Let’s take a brief look at our superfan from movie!IWTV:

^What is superfan thinking? Does she think Santiago is a REAL VAMPIRE? Does she want to die? … or, is she simply a groupie of that media and enjoying it as a fantasy situation? We don’t get her backstory in the movie, so we may never know.

^Santiago has had to deal with hecklers and admirers for years so he’s not really fazed by her disrupting his show, and when he shuts her offer down, it draws a laugh from the audience. Laugh at the fan who confessed her love for the fantasy of it all and offered herself as tribute. 

Before we specify why women are in VC fandom, one thing to consider is What is fandom? In my opinion, it’s a group of people who are drawn to a shared space bc of a shared interest in specific media. Within that, you still have to reach out to individuals in order to become friends. You don’t necessarily have to agree on every aspect of the media you each enjoy, but having chemistry certainly helps. Participating in fandom can also mean creating/consuming fanworks without having any personal connection with other fans. Sometimes it’s just in posting fic and/or leaving kudos. Some join a skype chat group so that they focus primarily on their personal connections with other fans. It’s a wide spectrum and there are different ways to engage with other fans within a fandom.

Why VC fandom? We all have our reasons for being in VC fandom. I would prefer not to speak for other fans as to their reasons, but everyone is welcome to respond in the comments/reblogs of this post, or message me on/off anon, and I might gather up those responses and add them to this post. 

Why I was drawn to VC: Personally, I’m a woman, and I’m in this fandom bc the canon/fanon is intellectually stimulating to me. I’ve made some of my best friends here. We share a love for these characters and we discuss them at length. This does not mean we 100% support everything the characters do in canon. We enjoy them as fictional characters, not necessarily as role models.

Secondly… I had posted a personal account about my reasons for being into VC canon, but later deleted that post bc I was informed that my reasons weren’t acceptable. That VC was not for straight women. I’ve given it a lot of thought and I’ll briefly tell you my reasons for being attached to VC, under the cut. 

Brief historical context:

These books are/were written by a straight white woman, and she’s always advised her fans to “write the book you want to read.” She currently writes for herself, presumably, as she does not use an editor in the traditional sense. She began VC in the early 1970s with the short story, “The Master of Rampling Gate” (which eventually became the full novel IWTV). The short story was published in Redbook magazine at the time, which is/was a magazine for women, and the short story was written in the vein (pun intended!) of the older gothic romance novels that were extremely popular in the ‘60s. 

^In fact, this edition of IWTV is straight-baiting, as the only female love interest that Louis might have gotten into that physical position with would be Babette, and that… definitely doesn’t happen.

IWTV is a dissection of Louis’ feelings, and Louis was a stand-in for Anne herself. VC in general has a lot of emotion, both in the dialogue, and the introspection woven into the narrative itself. The fact that these books are mostly written from the 1st person perspective is a very intimate means of communication to the reader, and makes the novels that much more emotionally rich. Some might say that such emotional writing tends to appeal to women.

The books are intimate. There is a constant thread of intimacy throughout which seems to appeal to women of all sexual orientations, in my opinion. I started the series with IWTV when I was 11 yrs old and I’ve heard from other fans of other genders that they also started VC when they were young, even around the age that I did. Being right before puberty, maybe that adds some extra addictive quality to it, that it explores a kind of intimacy when we’re in the phase of life where we’re just becoming interested in sexuality. I remember mooning over pics of Brad Pitt in my table group at lunch, and we would talk about him, but I doubt any of us would have wanted to actually kiss him at the time, we just wanted to speculate about dating and romance!

After the first book, the intimacy continues with TVL, where we get Lestat’s backstory, and as the series progresses, it just keeps going. Whichever book new VC fans enter the series, they’re going to hit that vein, more or less. It’s not as strong in the most current books, but it’s still there. I would say that AR found that the way she wrote the first 2 books was so well-received that she felt validated in her style of writing, that it was appealing to her readers, and continued to produce it.

There’s also quite a lot of wealthporn, where the characters describe their expensive clothes, jewelry, or lavish surroundings, none of them have to hold a dayjob or anything menial like that. Since many of us do not currently enjoy such luxuries of material goods and/or freedom of leisure time, it’s another element that might make it appealing to certain demographics. There’s a ton of wish fulfillment in the books. 

Hit the jump for a little more.

My reasons for being into VC

Basically, I was bullied when I was 11 (for having a bad fashion sense and bad teeth), which is right around the time that someone gave me a copy of IWTV. I had always loved horror novels and scary stories as a way to study monsters and see if I could unpack them and better understand them. I drew inspiration from the way the VC characters handled their own obstacles, I loved getting Lestat’s backstory, he was not just a colorful antagonist, he had his own reasons for acting the way he did. Reasons are not EXCUSES, but in understanding monstrous behavior, we can equip ourselves to weather it when we see it in real life. Eventually, I got braces, grew out of my 90′s grunge phase, and while the bullies changed form over time, I learned how to deal with them. 

Could I have drawn inspiration from other books/movies/music? Yes! And I did. But VC, for the intimacy of the stories, for the vibrancy of the characters, for so many reasons that I can’t go into on a post I’m trying to keep brief… this is a piece of media that I’ve held onto over the years. Not the only one, but certainly the main one, for me.

A few good posts to check out re: women in fandom:

And I don’t mean to attack you, Anon, but these posts are written with a tone because there is so much criticism of what women in fandom are not allowed to enjoy. Please read at your own risk, but they have some very good points about why women might be into certain things in fandom.

a comprehensive guide to mlm shipping habits in transformative fandom

THE DEPTHS OF MISOGYNY THIS PLACE PLUMBS

villain-relatable marginalization 

[luanna801]

Incidentally, if you’re going to talk about Lestat and Dorian Gray and the respective messages their stories are sending about immortality, I think a crucial piece you can’t leave out of the conversation is how they became immortal in the first place.

Specifically, the very striking contrast between Dorian explicitly asking for immortality, saying he’d be willing to give his soul for it...

"How sad it is!" murmured Dorian Gray with his eyes still fixed upon his own portrait. "How sad it is! I shall grow old, and horrible, and dreadful. But this picture will remain always young. It will never be older than this particular day of June.... If it were only the other way! If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old! For that—for that—I would give everything! Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not give! I would give my soul for that!"

(The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 2)

... and Lestat having immortality forced on him, while he desperately tries to fight it off and begs that he doesn’t want this, in a scene that’s very arguably coded as a rape:

He watched me make the Sign of the Cross. He listened to me call upon God again and again.

He only smiled, making his face a perfect mask of comedy from the proscenium arch.

And I went into a spasm of crying like a child. "Then the devil reigns in heaven and heaven is hell," I said to him. "Oh, God, don't desert me..." I called on all the saints I had ever for a little while loved.

He struck me hard across the face. I fell to one side and almost slipped from the bed to the floor. The room went round. The sour taste of the wine rose in my mouth.

And I felt his fingers again on my neck.

"Yes, fight, Wolfkiller," he said. "Don't go into hell without a battle. Mock God."

"I don't mock!" I protested.

Once again he pulled me to himself.

And I fought him harder than I had ever fought anyone or anything in my existence, even the wolves. I beat on him, kicked him, tore at his hair. But I might as well have fought the animated gargoyles from a cathedral, he was that powerful.

He only smiled.

Then all the expression went out of his face. It seemed to become very long. The cheeks were hollow, the eyes wide and almost wondering, and he opened his mouth. The lower lip contracted. I saw the fangs.

"Damn you, damn you, damn you!" I was roaring and bellowing. And he drew closer and the teeth went through my flesh.

Not this time, I was raging, not this time. I will not feel it. I will resist. I will fight for my soul this time.

(The Vampire Lestat, Chapter 9)

In fact, Lestat explicitly gets told that he can be given immortality, and he still determinedly says no up until the minute that choice is taken away from him:

"The wine of all wines," he breathed. "This is my Body, this is my Blood." And then his arms surrounded me. They drew me to him and I felt a great warmth emanating from him, and he seemed to be filled not with blood but with love for me.

"Ask for it, Wolfkiller, and you will live forever," he said, but his voice sounded weary and spiritless, and there was something distant and tragic in his gaze.

I felt my head turn to the side, my body a heavy and damp thing that I couldn't control. I will not ask, I will die without asking, and then the great despair I feared so much lay before me, the emptiness that was death, and still I said No. In pure horror I said No. I will not bow down to it, the chaos and the horror. I said No.

"Life everlasting," he whispered.

My head fell on his shoulder.

"Stubborn Wolfkiller." His lips touched me, warm, odorless breath on my neck.

"Not stubborn," I whispered. My voice was so weak I wondered if he could hear me. "Brave. Not stubborn." It seemed pointless not to say it. What was vanity now? What was anything at all? And such a trivial word was stubborn, so cruel...

He lifted my face, and holding me with his right hand, he lifted his left hand and gashed his own throat with his nails.

My body bent double in a convulsion of terror, but he pressed my face to the wound, as he said: "Drink."

I heard my scream, deafening in my own ears. And the blood that was flowing out of the wound touched my parched and cracking lips.

Dorian asks for immortality - flippantly, unknowingly, not dreaming for a second that what he’s saying could actually become reality. But what happens is still directly the result of Dorian himself wishing for it.

By contrast, Lestat literally gets dragged kicking and screaming into immortality, and repeatedly says no “in pure horror” when it’s explicitly offered to him.

I don’t think that’s a difference you can just leave out when you’re trying to draw a parallel between their characters. You literally have one character saying “I would give my soul for that”, and the other one saying “I will fight for my soul”. There’s an incredibly striking contrast there, and one that I think colors the way their characters relate to immortality in a major way from that point onwards. Lestat, while he’s certainly guilty of plenty of sins later on, gains immortality as an innocent victim at someone else’s hands. Dorian, on the other hand, is the one who brings up the idea that he’d be willing to make a Faustian bargain if it meant never aging. And while it’s true that he doesn’t understand the very real consequences that will have, and he might have initially chosen differently if he had known that, it’s notable that once he does realize what’s going on, he explicitly chooses not to try and change the situation:

For a moment, he thought of praying that the horrible sympathy that existed between him and the picture might cease. It had changed in answer to a prayer; perhaps in answer to a prayer it might remain unchanged. And yet, who, that knew anything about life, would surrender the chance of remaining always young, however fantastic that chance might be, or with what fateful consequences it might be fraught? Besides, was it really under his control? Had it indeed been prayer that had produced the substitution? Might there not be some curious scientific reason for it all? If thought could exercise its influence upon a living organism, might not thought exercise an influence upon dead and inorganic things? Nay, without thought or conscious desire, might not things external to ourselves vibrate in unison with our moods and passions, atom calling to atom in secret love or strange affinity? But the reason was of no importance. He would never again tempt by a prayer any terrible power. If the picture was to alter, it was to alter. That was all. Why inquire too closely into it?

For there would be a real pleasure in watching it. He would be able to follow his mind into its secret places. This portrait would be to him the most magical of mirrors. As it had revealed to him his own body, so it would reveal to him his own soul. And when winter came upon it, he would still be standing where spring trembles on the verge of summer. When the blood crept from its face, and left behind a pallid mask of chalk with leaden eyes, he would keep the glamour of boyhood. Not one blossom of his loveliness would ever fade. Not one pulse of his life would ever weaken. Like the gods of the Greeks, he would be strong, and fleet, and joyous. What did it matter what happened to the coloured image on the canvas? He would be safe. That was everything.

(The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 8)

Unlike Lestat, who’s forced into becoming a vampire and doesn’t really have a way out of it (short of killing himself) from that point on, Dorian becomes immortal based on his own wishes - as far as we can tell - and there’s a legitimate possibility that he could’ve undone the whole thing in exactly the same way if he’d gone with his impulse here and prayed for it. But he doesn’t. Because Dorian, unlike Lestat, wants immortality. Dorian has agency and choice in this whole thing in a way that Lestat never does. And that’s a vital difference between them, IMO.