#once was Anne Rice - Queen of the Damned

[zombie-bait]

not me getting a lil teary eyed after reading Devil’s Minion and thinking about Armand, fellas I think this is what they call 🙏 mental illness 🙏

[v-e-l-v-e-t-g-o-l-d-m-i-n-e]

Lestat and his constant protectiveness/worry over Louis in the books

I saw Gabrielle break through the side door before the car hit the ground. And she and I were both rolling over on the grassy slope as the car capsized and exploded with a deafening roar." Louis!" I shouted. I scrambled towards the blaze. I would have gone right into it after him: But the glass of the back portal splintered as he came through it. He hit the embankment just as I reached him. And with my cape I beat at his smoking garments, Gabrielle ripping off her jacket to do the same. - The Vampire Lestat

What was she doing? Assessing their power? Looking from one to the other, and then back to me. A stranger looking down from some lofty height. And so now the fire comes, Lestat. Don’t dare to look at Gabrielle or Louis, lest she turn it that way. Die first, like a coward, and then you don’t have to see them die. - The Queen of the Damned

“Ah, Louis, forgive me.” The dark neglected hallway. I shuddered. “I came here because I was so concerned . . . about you.” “No need,” he said considerately. “It was just a little pilgrimage I had to make.” I touched his face with my fingers; so warm from the kill. “She’s not here, Louis,” I said. “It was something Jesse imagined.” “Yes, so it seems,” he said. “We live forever; but they don’t come back.” - The Queen of the Damned

"All right," he said despairingly. "I hope you discover the man's seduced you with a pack of lies, that all he wants is the Dark Blood, and that you send him straight to hell. Once more, let me warn you, if I see him, if he threatens me, I shall kill him. I haven't your strength. I depend upon my anonymity, that my little memoir, as you always call it, was so very far removed from the world of this century that no one took it as fact." "I won't let him harm you, Louis," I said. I turned and threw an evil glance at him. "I would never ever have let anyone harm you." And with this I left. Of course, this was an accusation, and he felt the keen edge of it, I'd seen that to my satisfaction, before I turned again and went out. - The Tale of the Body Thief

Oh, yes, I had asked for it, as mortals so often declare. And I had done this despicable thing of letting loose the Body Thief with my powers. True. Guilty again of spectacular blunders and experiments. But had I ever dreamed of what it would truly mean to be stripped utterly of my powers and on the outside looking in? The others knew; they must know. And they had let Marius come to render the judgment, to let me know that for what I had done, I was cast out! But Louis, my beautiful Louis, how could he have spurned me! I would have defied heaven to help Louis! I had so counted upon Louis, I had so counted upon waking this night with the old blood running powerful and true in my veins. - The Tale of the Body Thief

I thought then of Louis's rejection, and that I would very soon see him again, and an evil satisfaction rilled me. Ah, he would be so very surprised. Then a little fear came over me. How would I forgive him? How would I keep my precious temper from exploding like a great wanton flame? - The Tale of the Body Thief

No scent of a mortal signaled an intruder. In fact, I knew the step that was approaching. I had heard it so many times in my life both mortal and preternatural. Yet I didn't dare to believe in such a rescue from my misery, until the unheralded figure appeared in the courtyard, his velvet coat dusty, his yellow hair tangled, his violet eyes looking at once to the grim and appalling visage of Louis: It was Lestat. With an awkward step, as though his body, so long unused, revolted against him, he made his way closer to Merrick, who turned her tearstained face to him as if she too were seeing a Savior come in answer to her directionless prayers. - Merrick

Lestat seemed to be considering these things. How could he not? Once, he himself had gone into the sunlight in a distant desert place, and, having been burnt again and again, without release, he came back. His skin was still golden from this hurtful and terrible disaster. He would carry that imprint of the sun's power for many years to come. Straightaway, he stepped in front of Merrick, and as both of us watched, he knelt down beside the coffin, and he moved very close to the figure, and then he drew back. With his fingers, quite as delicately as she had done it, he touched the blackened hands, and he left no mark. Slowly, lightly, he touched the forehead, and once more, he left no mark. He drew back, kneeling up, and, lifting his right hand to his mouth, he gashed his wrist with his own teeth before either Merrick or I knew what he meant to do. At once a thick stream of blood poured down onto the perfectly molded face of the figure in the coffin, and as the vein sought to heal itself, again Lestat gashed it and let the blood flow. - Merrick

“Come now, enough of these ‘things,’ ” he said with a tone of remarkable weariness. “New Orleans waits. Louis waits. And if he hasn’t come down to New Orleans as you asked, I say we go to New York and get him.” He had mentioned Louis countless times in the last six months, but the strange thing was, I didn’t trust him with all these mentions of how I needed Louis, and ought to write to Louis, and ought to pick up one of the many telephones around me and call Louis. I had some deep fear that he was in fact jealous of Louis, but I was ashamed of that feeling. Now he was saying, Let’s go, let’s find Louis. [...] This troubled me, and I wasn’t sure quite why. What if he suddenly wanted to hurt Louis? What if he became jealous of Louis—of my affection for Louis? “Nonsense, go to him,” he said. Calm voice. Manly voice. “Am I jealous of your son, Viktor? Am I jealous of your beloved daughter, Rose? You need Louis and you know it, and he’s ready now to surrender. - Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis

And so it was done. Louis was putting on his jacket and scarf. I was unhappy. I watched him pulling on his gloves. I couldn’t imagine how this could end productively or happily. I didn’t want Louis to be humiliated, but what could Fareed and Seth say to talk of the silver cord? If they became impatient and short with him, I’d be furious. - Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis

I knew that the monster had other resources. We all do, the clever ones, who don’t wish to move through eternity like tramps. He had gold and jewels in hiding places. He had wealth undreamt of and unrecorded. And dwellings perhaps of which no one knew. And now he had taken my Louis, my helpless Louis. Penetrated our most fortified refuge, and taken Louis away. [...] Again, I was not thinking. I was merely knowing—and knowing that Louis, Louis the most vulnerable of us all, was in the grip of that monster—or already dead. - Blood Communion

“In all these centuries,” said Cyril, “never have we known one whom we could see as our champion. You can’t really know, boss, just what you are now to the others. You think you know, but you don’t, and that’s why I’ll be right outside your door again sleeping in the passage, sleeping here so nothing and no one can get at you or hurt you—as long as I live and breathe.” Then I was alone in the chilling darkness—with the villain Armand despised, and the son who had not protected his mother, and the lover who had never protected Louis from himself or others, and the miserable pupil of Marius who had so misjudged Rhoshamandes that now Marius was dead. - Blood Communion

[avalonia320]

IWTV Thoughts

I finally got to watch the finale last night and when I tell you I am SHOOK to my damn core. I don't know how to put it into words. I'm older than a lot of people here. I first read the Vampire Chronicles when I was 11; I found them in a box that belonged to my mother. When I tell you I devoured those books, re-read them over and over and over, fell in love with Lestat and New Orleans & Paris, cried over Claudia and Louis...I was totally besotted by the world Anne Rice created.

When the movie was announced when I was a teen (yes I'm that old), first I was so excited and then I was furious, as many of us Anne Rice devotees were, when Tom Cruise was cast as Lestat. I could not imagine an actor further away from how I had imagined Lestat. But still, I had to see it, and while it was still miles away from what I had wanted, I came away impressed with Tom Cruise. He still wasn't my Lestat, but he threw himself into the role in a way that made me believe he'd been waiting his whole life to let his inner Queen off the chain.

The movie itself...I had loved parts of it, but there was still so much more that I wanted. When the sequel came out (Queen of the Damned) I liked parts of that too and I actually enjoyed Stuart Townsend as Lestat. I hated most of it though, especially what they did with Marius (to this day I don't know what the hell that was about) but it was obvious at that point that I was never going to see the vampire world I was so enthralled with on the screen.

Then this series comes out. And while my expectations were low, I was still pretty excited. And then I watched it.

Holy fucking shitballs, you guys. I am normally so protective of my favorite books, resenting any little change unless it makes sense but everything they've done with this series, everything they've changed makes so much fucking sense. I don't want to try and break it down, I don't have the words. Lestat was always my big love in the books, but in this series, I've fallen in love with Louis and Claudia in a way I never imagined. I always loved their characters, don't get me wrong, but I never connected with them this way until now. And don't even get me started on Daniel, who I will admit I actively disliked in the books for the unforgivable crime of being boring. Um....that's a word I will never ever use in connect to Daniel Molloy ever ever ever again. And Armand and Madeleine and...I can't.

And Lestat. I loved him in the first season but in the second season, when he showed up with that long hair, I saw him for the first time like someone took the Lestat that has lived in my head since I was 11 years old and put him on the screen. He is EXACTLY how I imagined him. The way he looks, the way he talks, his emotion, his breakdowns, his unbelievable flair for the dramatic...this is HIM. I feel like I've been been unconsciously waiting decades for him to show up and for people to see him the way I saw him back then. I can't be the only old school fan that feels this way. It's just so surreal to see it so exact, it takes me right back to my childhood and the way I fell into stories then. The way you feel things when you're so young is something so hard to recapture but I feel like I'm right back there again on my bed, reading the books over and over again.

I'm just so grateful. To everyone involved with this series, the writers, the cast...I know i'm getting overly emotional but everything's been so shit lately and we've all needed an escape, a good one for once. I needed this so badly.

And I have to believe, wherever she is now, Anne Rice is so fucking proud.

[sizeofyoursoul]

She saw an enormous painting against the far wall. She placed it at once as Renaissance, and probably Venetian. It was done in egg tempera on wood. And it had the marvelous sheen of such paintings, a gloss that no synthetic material can create. She read the Latin title along with the name of the artist, in small Roman-style letters painted in the lower right corner. “The Temptation of Amadeo” by Marius She stood back to study it. A splendid choir of black-winged angels hovered around a single kneeling figure, that of a young auburn-haired boy. The cobalt sky behind them, seen through a series of arches, was splendidly done with masses of gilded clouds. And the marble floor before the figures had a photographic perfection to it. One could feel its coldness, see the veins in the stone. But the figures were the true glory of the picture. The faces of the angels were exquisitely modeled, their pastel robes and black feathered wings extravagantly detailed. And the boy, the boy was very simply alive! His dark brown eyes veritably glistened as he stared forward out of the painting. His skin appeared moist. He was about to move or speak. In fact, it was all too realistic to be Renaissance. The figures were particular rather than ideal. The angels wore expressions of faint amusement, almost bitterness. And the fabric of the boy’s tunic and leggings, it was too exactly rendered. She could even see the mends in it, a tiny tear, the dust on his sleeve. There were other such details—dried leaves here and there on the floor, and two paintbrushes lying to one side for no apparent reason. “Who is this Marius?” she whispered. The name meant nothing. And never had she seen an Italian painting with so many disturbing elements. Black-winged angels . . . 

Jesse sees The Temptation of Amadeo, The Queen of the Damned by Anne Rice

[nightcolorz]

Top ten dumb pop songs that you didn’t know were actually written about Part 1, Chapter 4 of Queen of the Damned, The Story of Daniel, the Devil’s Minion, or the Boy from Interview with the Vampire!!!!All the creators of these songs u often hear on the radio actually were inspired bu thus iconic chapter in Anne Rice’s queen of the damned!!! Featuring evidence

Teeth by five seconds of summer (it’s about a guy going crazy over his crazy girlfriend with teeth and blood metaphors 🤷)

ET by Katy Perry (Katy perry is in love with a sexy alien, she wants to be his victim and his lover, she isn’t sure if he’s a devil or an angel. 🤷 he’s from a whole nother world, a different dimension. Just replace alien with ginger boy vampire and it’s basically devils minion chapter by Anne rice)

Your love is my drug by Kesha (daniel molloy said this about Armand but rlly he’s just addicted to his blood womp womp. Ur blood is my drug, laugh out loud)

Addicted by Kelly Clarkson (same as the last one but uses the metaphor of addiction to portray how a fucked up relationship is consuming Kelly. Your love is my drug intense scary version. Devils minion the way Daniel is addicted to that thang)

One way or another by blondie (one way or another he’s gonna find ya he’s gonna getcha getcha getcha getcha. Haha run boy 🏃🏃🏃haha)

Tainted love by soft cell (once I ran to you 🕺🕺now I run from you 💃💃 this tainted love you’ve given, I give you all a boy could give you 🕺🕺take my tears and that’s not nearly allll —-Daniel molloy. Yknow they’ve got that tainted love yknow.)

Bad blood by Taylor swift (controversial but true) (um idk blood and break ups and stuff lol, it’s funny)

Pompeii by bastille (cuz they first got together in Pompeii and then their relationship fell apart lmao I’m clever) (Pompeii getting exploded by the big volcano is a metaphor for Armand and Daniel breaking up 💔)

Animals by maroon 5 (this song is so odd lmao, but you can start over you can run free, but u can’t stay away from me, baby I’m praying on you tonight 😾 hunt u down eat u alive 🦁🦁 baby u think that u can hide but I can smell ur scent for miles 🐺🐺. This song is aboit Maroon Five having a abusive relationship where he is threatening some gal about how no matter how she tries to move on he’s gonna hunt her down and swallow her alive like deviant art so like just like Armand devils minion am I right tumblr ha ha)

sweet but psycho by Ava max (I think that Daniel wrote down the lyrics to this song feverishly in his journal as original poetry venting his complex feelings on Armand as he hunts him down)

paparazzi by lady Gaga: (armand he stalks Daniel Lmao)

BONUS: Anne rice actually did irl say that she associates the nine inch nails song “the only time” with Armand and Daniel’s romance so do with that what u will

LEAVE UR DEVILS MINION SONGS IN THE COMMENTS BELOOW??!!

[cbrownjc]

hi! i had some questions for you as someone who only got into iwtv post season 1 of the show starting to air. i read from some of your other posts that you've been a fan since the 90s, and you mentioned how DM fans were disappointed post TVA. so i was wondering, what was the fandom like back then? did people mostly write about the chase/human!daniel era, or did people ever try to write fanfics that continued their story with them still together as vampires despite what anne rice decided on? i know what the trends were like on ao3 (i got obsessed with DM before season 1 even finished airing, i read the books that fast) but i was wondering if it looked different at all back then (pre-ao3). secondly, i was also wondering if most people ignored the "no sex" element of canon and included sex scenes in their fanworks, or if most of the work you saw was more at the canon level of erotica/blood drinking level? it's okay if you don't really remember, i'm just curious about fandom trends. the tidbit about the "boss" thing being fanon since the 90s despite it only being said once was very amusing to me (i noticed that myself haha)

Hello! Sorry for just getting to your question today, real-life things, and all that. 🙂

So, from what I remember from back then, (from the mid-90s to the early 2000s), at least from when fanfic was still not banned yet (😉) is that when it came to Devil's Minion, fanfic did have a mix of people writing things were Daniel was still human and people speculating on what Daniel and Armand's relationship was like after Queen of the Damned and Daniel had been turned. But I would say the Devil's Minion era -- when Daniel was still human -- was much more focused on a bit more since, at that point, there were only four books out, and not too much time had passed between book 3 and book 4. And because the Devil's Minion Era lasted 12 years in total there were at least more situations and ideas that were easier to get ideas to write about.

When it came to post-Daniel being turned, before The Vampire Armand came out, there just wasn't much of anything to go on. So it really was just speculation galore on that front, but there wasn't all that much to solidly speculate on.

At least until Armand seemingly killed himself at the end of Memnoch the Devil. Then I remember a lot of angsty Daniel-focus stories during that time after that happened. Or, angry fix-it fic because there was a very vocal group who kept arguing that Armand killing himself over what he did was just wildly OOC in the first place.

As to the "no sex" thing, there were some who very strictly followed it and those who, IIRC, would put a disclaimer at the start of stories stating that the characters would have physical sex in the story. Stories that had physical sex scenes between characters still tended to have the character still do blood drinking too, however.

In remembering things from back then, however, I'd say more people leaned into the "no sex" thing more than they did the characters having physical sex . . . even after The Vampire Armand book came out. Because even with the things that happened of a sexual nature in that book, there was a hot debate about if what went on between Armand and Marius, and Armand/Marius/Bianca really counted as sex or not. And most people fell on the "it wasn't sex" side of things about all of that.

In fact, I remember a long email chain post in my mailing list after that book came out arguing about this and someone even adding it to the FAQ for the mailing list that no, it did NOT count as sex because as a vampire, Marius wouldn't have/didn't get aroused or use his genitalia during the moment between himself and Armand in the bath; and then again with Bianca neither Armand nor Marius could have gotten aroused in that way because they were vampires, despite Bianca getting pleasure during that encounter because she was still human at the time; so it didn't matter that Marius used his finger on her and whatever, vampires still couldn't have sex.

No there were not a lot of human AU stories back then, not even to get around the "no sex" thing wrt canon back then either. People either stuck to the blood-drinking as erotic or, again, put disclaimers at the start to say the characters were having physical sex. That was it.

[m-ia--m-ia--m-ia]

And today's award for best idiots in love goes to: Louis once again rendering Lestat speechless and making him bumble like an idiot (please note the redundancy of "stupidly" and "like a fool", because he's just that gone for Louis). Love that for them:

- Queen of the Damned, Anne Rice, 1988

[savagewildnerness]

Well, my first re-read of Memnoch The Devil in a long time is complete (I must have read it several times as a teenager. Otherwise my old copy of the book would be with the Vampire Chronicles I only read once, and it isn't there - my old copy is hidden somewhere, meaning I must have reread it and mislaid it when I did so.)

It took me a long time to read it - partly because I knew that as a teenager, after The Vampire Lestat and Queen of the Damned it was my favourite book... and I was very afraid that I might hate it now... and partly with S2 of the TV show and so Memnoch was put aside... And partly as some bits are very long bits of just talking!

But now I have finished.

And what I think is that... well... I can't speak for teenaged me and what I thought then.

But me now finds that Memnoch has something which isn't that common in The Vampire Chronicles - a beautifully resonant and perfectly tragically satisfying, almost Shakespearian ending.

Anne Rice is wonderful at creating these worlds and especially the characters and conveying their emotion and experience and internal philosophy and existential quests... but sometimes books trail off at the end a little into a "...get ready for something coming in the future..." or even into comparative mundanity... Which is fine as it's not about the ending for them... but not Memnoch. What a wonderful ending Memnoch has. Which I won't talk about as it isn't to be talked about, just to be read.

But I will say - Memnoch's letter. The way Memnoch is so Lestattian in his own character, and so you could imagine in part he was just conjured by Lestat's broken mind... The sadness of the ending and the horror of it and all that it is made clear is happening, which which Lestat doesn't fully describe.

I love how it harkens back to Nicolas and Claudia and The Witches Place and I am back in The Vampire Lestat in a way I haven't been since The Vampire Lestat in the last parts of this book. I love the tenderness of Louis. I love the confused horror. The realness of Hell so you feel like you are there.

I wouldn't say I adored the whole book.... Roger's story is LONG. Memnoch really does go ON (it's interesting... but it's long!)

But the last 1/3 of the book, oh yes - I loved it. I wish all of the Vampire Chronicles had endings as powerful and meaningful as Memnoch does.

Well, just my brief thoughts. Is Memnoch a polarising book?

[rottenbrainstuff]

Haha ok I am convinced. It takes a LOT to motivate me to watch a new show, but I am so convinced by what I've seen of IWTV that I am going to give it a try tonight. I even have one single glass of red wine left for it!

The thing is: I am extremely ambivalent about this whole... what.. franchise? Series? Little coven of crying gay babies?

I was a big giant fan of the vampire chronicles in the 90s and 2000s. I really do legit love the characters that were created: I love their damage, I love how articulate Anne Rice was about describing their issues, how vampirism has fucked up each and every one of them. I loved how sensual the books were, the beautiful descriptions of everything. I found it so interesting how everything could be so sexy when it very specifically contained no sex. I loved her vampire lore, I loved her take on traditional vampires. I know sensual romantic vampires are a bit of an eye-roll these days but I feel like back in the 90s it actually was something a bit more fresh.

Interview especially had some really amazing ideas in it. I remember really loving that book.

Lestat was an interesting book but tbh she lost me a bit with some of the lore. It really put a lot of Interview into perspective though. (is Lestat's mom in this show??? She seems like a bad bitch I'd like to see pop in)

I read about half of Armand and oddly couldn't make myself finish it, or read any more of the chronicles. I actually don't even remember what happened in that book anymore.

(I had a copy of Queen of the Damned but I can’t remember if I read it or not. If I did, I don’t remember anything from the plot)

As much as I remember enjoying reading Interview, I found it increasingly hard to reconcile my enjoyment of the books with my knowledge of what a nasty person Anne Rice was, and the extremely shitty things she did in (or I guess TO) the fandom. As the books went on I found the writing style less interesting and more irritating and pretentious. I gave an attempt to start that witch coven series and was surprised by how I couldn't get into it. I tried reading her Sleeping Beauty series and got viscerally disgusted. (disgust aside, it was a shock how poorly written I thought it was) Again, her reactions to the fandom for that were bemusing as well. Her weird and personal obsession with her own characters is extremely reminiscent to me of Stephanie Meyer if she was goth instead of mormon, and it makes it difficult for me to take it all seriously sometimes.

So........ I'm in this position where I think I do genuinely like the characters and the ideas, but I intensely dislike Anne Rice and view her as generally overrated as an author, and that soured the whole series for me. But I've been seeing all these clips online and I dunno. I like what I see. It feels the characters I like were pulled out of her weird mean hands and dusted off. I like that absolutely no clips I've seen really match anything that I remember reading in the books. I like that it looks actually, unambiguously gay. I like that in almost every single clip I've seen, all the characters ever seem to be doing is screaming at each other for stupid shit. I like that it looks ridiculous and deranged. I dunno. I kinda have high hopes that with this show, I'll be able to learn how to like these characters again.

(I'm being smacked in the face btw with my age once again - so many of you mention that you never watched the old (not very good) Tom Cruise movie. If you were a teenager in the 90s I think it was impossible to have avoided it. Or is it just that my friend group was particularly strange?)

I'll pop my thoughts in here but I'll tag appropriately, so if you don't want that nonsense, you don't have to see it.

[thenightling]

Queer Horror

It's pride month so here is a (NOT complete) list of horror icons real and fictional who are of the LGBTQAI+ community. Writers / directors / Actors Oscar Wilde Clive Barker Caitlin R. Kiernan William Joseph Martin James Whale (director of Frankenstein) Ernest Thesiger (Doctor Pretorius in Bride of Frankenstein) Anthony Perkins Vincent Price David Geffen (producer of Interview with the vampire movie and Beetlejuice) Jonathan Frid (Dark Shadows) Louis Edmonds (Dark Shadows) Ed Wood Elvira (Casandra Peterson) Amanda Beares (Fright Night, 1985) Merritt Butrick (Fright Night Part 2) Roddy McDowall (Hell House, Fright Night, Fright Night: Part 2, and Carmilla) _________________________ Characters Mephisto (Faust, 1922) Countess Zeleska (Dracula's Daughter) Carmilla (The Vampire Lovers, 1970 and all film adapations of Carmilla) Louis, Lestat, Daniel Malloy, Armand (Interview with the vampire movie and show and The Vampire Chronicles book series) Claudia, Madeleine, Nicolas (Interview with the vampire TV series) Jerry Dandridge, Billy Cole, Peter Vincent, Evil Ed, and possibly Amy (Fright Night, original 1985 version) Regine and Belle (Fright Night part 2, 1988) Miriam Blaylock (The Hunger movie and novel by Whitley Streiber, along with its sequels) Marius (Queen of the damned movie and novels) Glen / Glenda (Seed of Chucky) Dracula (Marvel comics, Dario Argento's Dracula, Steven Moffat's Dracula, Frank Wildhorn's Dracula The musical) Alucard, Striga, Morana, (Castlevania) The Corinthian, Hal Carter, Wanda, Judy, Donna (Foxglove), Hazel, Alexander Burgess, Paul McGuire, Cluracaun, Mazikeen, Lucifer, Loki, Desire, Johanna Constantine, John Constantine, Rachel, Chantel, Zelda, Aristaeus the Satyr, Jim / Peggy, (Neil Gaiman's The Sandman) Echo, Ruin, Heather After (From Sandman spin-off comics) April Spink and Miriam Forcible (Coraline) Angela and Sera (Marvel comics) Sam Black Crow (American Gods) EVERYONE! - Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles EVERYONE! - Lost Girl (TV series)

Snow White (Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman) Dorian Gray, Lord Henry Wotton, and Basil Hallward (The Picture of Dorian Gray) Captain Shaekespeare (Stardust) Loki (all incarantions) John Constantine (All versions) Aziraphale and Crowley (Good Omens) Renfield (Original Dracula novel, speculated by scholars) Mephistopheles, Faust, and Satan - Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe and Faust by Goethe. Carmilla and Laura (All versions of Carmilla) Eli and Oskar (Let the Right One In) Lily and The mermaid Queen (She-Creature, 2001 version) Radu (Dark Prince: The True Story of Dracula) Lexington (Disney's Gargoyles, not canon until the comics) Dorothy and Ruby AAK Red (Once Upon a Tme) Tara and Willow (Buffy The Vampire Slayer TV series) Lorne (Angel) Ethan, Dorian Gray, Angelique, and Professor Lyle (Penny Dreadful) Thelma Bates (Hex) Joe (Midnight Texas) Skully (Scary Godmother) Mitch (ParaNorman) Henry Fitzroy (Blood Ties) Thomas Jerome Newton (The Man who fell to Earth) Any Clive Barker character NOT confirmed to be straight is presumed LGBTQAI+. There are many, many more but my fingers are starting to ache and these are the ones I could think of off the top of my head.

[frankenpagie]

I am pretty disappointed in this copy of Prince Lestat. I've never had bad luck with thriftbooks before. And they did refund me for this pretty sad condition. I'm just gonna rough it out until it's time to shelve and then replace with a nicer copy.

This morning I thought about how it's kind of fitting. I started this Vampire Chronicles journey when I unboxed Realms of Atlantis at work. I hadn't really kept up with the books as a while series and had read Interview and the Vampire Lestat a few times. So I figured it was time for a proper go through.

That was probably in 2018. I took The Vampire Lestat with me to visit my family in California in 2018 and had to keep replacing it once home because every accident happened to it.

I also had 3 job location upheavals, one promotion and two car accidents. I started working from home. I started the Witching Hour the day Anne Rice and my father passed away. I read Lasher and Taltos while my husband went through one of the toughest bouts of depression I've ever witnessed. I started Blood & Gold and endured a job loss. My copy of the Vampire Armand is missing half the cover from being shoved in an enormous purse With Things. I survived since 2018 and these books have helped me through it.and Hail to the Raisin. It's been here since Queen of the Damned. We're re not done yet.....

[watching-pictures-move]

Movie Review | Queen of the Damned (Rymer, 2002)

I put this on because it was about to leave Tubi and I was craving some garbage early 2000s vibes out of some misplaced sense of nostalgia. As far as nu metal cinema goes, this has a lot of nu metal music (including everyone's favourite track "Down With the Sickness", you know, the one that starts "Wakakaka! Ugh Ugh!") but little nu metal energy. Some of the problem can be attributed to the weird pacing. Aaliyah's tragic death during production is probably partially to blame, as there isn’t much Queen of the Damned in Queen of the Damned (although I understand principal photography had been completed). And maybe I was zoning out more than usual, but all the stuff about Lena Olin and her law abiding vampires is introduced way too late in the movie, and the climax feels thrown in with very little buildup.

I will say that the movie has its charms. I got a good chuckle out of the bit where Stuart Townsend sits beside two groupies and then crawls up to the ceiling and swoops down to bite them... when he could have just stayed seated and bit them as they were already right beside him. I guess scaring your victims makes their blood taste better. Jeez, I hope nobody quotes that out of context. Also, there’s a goofy motion blur effect during the action scenes, leading me to believe that vampires all gyrate spasmodically when in combat. But as Ebert points out in his review, “the filmmakers labor under the impression that Anne Rice's works must be treated respectfully”, so the movie mostly feels too staid to be all that fun.

Maybe the movie’s obvious failings are beside the point. On a certain level, this is meant to be appreciated as eye candy, for the audience to get an eyeful of all the hot gothy vampires (and hot non-vampiric goths) standing around giving each other smouldering looks and slithering line readings. And given all the choker necklaces, fishnet tops and tight pants, it probably delivers on that level. But I do think it has the fatal problem of having no chemistry between the two leads. Ebert once again nails the problem, this time more amusingly.

“The Lestat-Akasha romance suffers by being conducted in declarative mode, with Akasha addressing her lover with the intimacy Queen Victoria would have lavished on her footman. Lestat digs her, though, because when he drinks her blood, it makes him wild. Nothing good can come of this.”

Aaliyah would have been pretty inexperienced as an actress, and she does try to sink her teeth into the role, but the bigger problem is Stuart Townsend, best known for doing everybody a huge favour by getting fired from The Lord of the Rings. Listen, as a straight man I’m not going to be susceptible to his obvious charms, but imagine if he hadn’t been fired from that other gig and we got Viggo Mortensen in this role instead. Picture the menace and sexual potency Mortensen would have imbued into his smoulder. Townsend’s smoulder has no teeth. We deserve a better class of smoulder.

[books-of-ochre]

"The Vampire Chronicles is a series of gothic vampire novels and a media franchise, created by American writer Anne Rice, that revolves around the fictional character Lestat de Lioncourt, a French nobleman turned into a vampire in the 18th century." - Wikipedia

Note: Would highly recommend reading in order. First 3 books are great, but do not think you need to read all 13. I explain more at the end.

Interview with a Vampire (1976) Based on a short story Rice wrote around 1968, the novel centers on vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac, who tells the story of his life to a reporter.

Good Reads || My Rating: 5/5

The Vampire Lestat (1985) Lestat. The vampire hero of Anne Rice's enthralling new novel is a creature of the darkest and richest imagination. Once an aristocrat in the heady days of pre-revolutionary France, now a rock star in the demonic, shimmering 1980s, he rushes through the centuries in search of others like him, seeking answers to the mystery of his eternal, terrifying existence. His is a mesmerizing story --- passionate, complex, and thrilling.

Good Reads || My Rating: 5/5 (personal favorite)

The Queen of the Damned (1988) The rock star Vampire Lestat prepares for a concert in San Francisco, unaware that hundreds of vampires will be among the fans that night and that they are committed to destroying him for risking exposing them all. The sleep of a group of men and women, vampires and mortals, around the world is disturbed by a mysterious dream of red-haired twins who suffer an unspeakable tragedy. The dreamers, as if pulled, move toward each other, the nightmare becoming clearer the closer they get. Some die on the way, some live to face they terrifying fate their pilgrimage is building to. Lestat's journey to a cavern deep beneath a Greek Island on his quest for the origins of the vampire race awakened Akasha, Queen of the Damned and mother of all vampires, from her 6,000 year sleep. Awake and angry, Akasha plans to save mankind from itself by elevating herself and her chosen son/lover to the level of the gods. As these three threads wind seamlessly together, the origins and culture of vampires are revealed, as is the length and breadth of their effect on the mortal world. The threads are brought together in the twentieth century when the fate of the living and the living dead is rewritten. 

Good Reads || My Rating: 5/5

The Tale of the Body Thief (1992) For centuries, Lestat—vampire-hero, enchanter, seducer of mortals—has been a courted prince in the dark and flourishing universe of the living dead. Now he is alone. And in his overwhelming need to destroy his doubts and his loneliness, Lestat embarks on the most dangerous enterprise he has undertaken in all the years of his haunted existence.

Good Reads || My Rating: 4/5

Memnoch the Devil (1995) In the fifth Vampire Chronicle, Lestat is searching for Dora, the beautiful and charismatic mortal daughter of a drug lord. Dora has moved Lestat like no other mortal ever has, and he cannot get her out of his visions. At the same time, he is increasingly aware that the Devil knows who he is and wants something from him. While torn betwen his vampire world and his passion for Dora, Lestat is sucked in by Memnoch, who claims to be the Devil himself. Memnoch presents Lestat with unimagined opportunities: to witness creation, to visit purgatory, to be treated like a prophet. Lestat faces a choice between the Devil or God. Whom does he believe in? Who does he serve? What are the element of religious belief? Lestat finds himself caught in a whirlpool of the ultimate choice.

Good Reads || My Rating: 3.5/5

The Vampire Armond (1998) Now, we go with Armand across the centuries to the Kiev Rus of his boyhood - a ruined city under Mongol dominion - and to ancient Constantinople, where Tartar raiders sell him into slavery. And in a magnificent palazzo in the Venice of the Renaissance we see him emotionally and intellectually in thrall to the great vampire Marius, who masquerades among humankind as a mysterious, reclusive painter and who will bestow upon Armand the gift of vampiric blood. As the novel races to its climax, moving through scenes of luxury and elegance, of ambush, fire, and devil worship to nineteenth-century Paris and today's New Orleans, we see its eternally vulnerable and romantic hero forced to choose between his twilight immortality and the salvation of his immortal soul.

Good Reads || My Rating: 4/5

Merrick (2000) We again meet Louis, Lestat, and David. They are followed by the beautiful witch Merrick Mayfair, an offshoot of the Mayfair clan, with Julien Mayfair as one of her ancestors. She knew David when he was a mortal man working as a member of the Talamasca and it is through David that Louis seeks Merrick's help in resurrecting the spirit of Claudia.

Good Reads || My Rating: 2/5

Blood and Gold (2001) Here is the gorgeous and sinister story of Marius, patrician by birth, scholar by choice, one of the oldest vampires of them all, which sweeps from his genesis in ancient Rome, in the time of the Emperor Augustus, to his meeting in the present day with a creature of snow and ice. Thorne is a Northern vampire in search of Maharet, his 'maker', the ancient Egyptian vampire queen who holds him and others in thrall with chains made of her red hair, 'bound with steel and with her blood and gold'. When the Visigoths sack his city, Marius is there; with the resurgence of the glory that was Rome, he is there, still searching for his lost love Pandora, but bewitched in turn by Botticelli, the Renaissance beauty Bianca, with her sordid secrets, and the boy he calls Amadeo (otherwise known as the Vampire Armand). Criss-crossing through the stories of other vampires from Rice's glorious Pantheon of the undead, haunted by Pandora and by his alter ego Mael, tracked by the Talamasca, the tale of Marius, the self-styled guardian of 'those who must be kept' is the most wondrous and mind-blowing of them all.

Good Reads || My Rating: 3/5

Blackwood Farm (2002) Lestat is back, saviour and demon, presiding over a gothic story of family greed and hatred through generations, a terrifying drama of blood lust and betrayal, possession and matricide. Blackwood Farm with its grand Southern mansion, set among dark cypress swamps in Louisiana, harbours terrible blood-stained secrets and family ghosts. Heir to them all is Quinn Blackwood, young, rash and beautiful, himself a 'bloodhunter' whom Lestat takes under his wing. But Quinn is in thrall not only to the past and his own appetites but, even more dangerously, to a companion spirit, a 'goblin' succubus who could destroy him and others. Only the unearthly power of Lestat combined with the earthly powers of the Mayfair clan could hope to save Quinn from himself and his ghosts, or to rescue the doomed girl Quinn loves from her own mortality.

Good Reads || My Rating: 2/5

Blood Canticle (2003) Lestat is back with a vengeance and in thrall to Rowan Mayfair. Both demon and angel, he is drawn to kill but tempted by goodness as he moves among the pantheon of Anne Rice's unforgettable characters. Julien Mayfair, his tormentor; Rowan, witch and neurosurgeon, who attracts spirits to herself, casts spells on others and finds herself dangerously drawn to Lestat; Patsy, country and western singer, who was killed by Quinn Blackwood and dumped in a swamp; Ash Templeton, a 5,000 year old Taltos whose genes live on in the Mayfairs. Now, Lestat fights to save Patsy's ghost from the dark realms of the Earthbound, to uncover the mystery of the Taltos and to decide the fate of Rowan Mayfair.

Good Reads || My Rating: 1/5 (least favorite)

Prince Lestat (2014) The vampire world is in crisis – their kind have been proliferating out of control and, thanks to technologies undreamed of in previous centuries, they can communicate as never before. Roused from their earth-bound slumber, ancient ones are in thrall to the Voice: which commands that they burn fledgling vampires in cities from Paris to Mumbai, Hong Kong to Kyoto and San Francisco. Immolation, huge massacres, have commenced all over the world. Who – or what – is the Voice? What does it desire, and why? There is only one vampire, only one blood drinker, truly known to the entire world of the Undead. Will the dazzling hero-wanderer, the dangerous rebel-outlaw Lestat heed the call to unite the Children of Darkness as they face this new twilight?

Good Reads || My Rating: 2.5/5

Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis (2016) The vampire Lestat de Lioncourt, hero, leader, inspirer, irresistible force, irrepressible spirit, battling (and ultimately reconciling with) a strange otherworldly form that has somehow taken possession of Lestat's undead body and soul. This ancient and mysterious power and unearthly spirit of vampire lore has all the force, history, and insidious reach of the unknowable Universe.

Good Reads || My Rating: 1/5 (this one is also pretty bad)

Blood Communion (2018) Lestat takes us from his ancestral castle in the snow-covered mountains of France to the verdant wilds of lush Louisiana, with its lingering fragrances of magnolias and night jasmine; from the far reaches of the Pacific’s untouched islands to the 18th-century city of St. Petersburg and the court of the Empress Catherine. He speaks of his fierce battle of wits and words with the mysterious Rhoshamandes, proud Child of the Millennia, reviled outcast for his senseless slaughter of the legendary ancient vampire Maharet, avowed enemy of Queen Akasha, who refuses to live in harmony at court and who threatens all Lestat has dreamt of....

Good Reads || My Rating: 2/5

Overall, my opinion of the series is that it went on for far too long. After Queen of the Damned, it should have ended, but instead we got 10 other books with varying levels of rereadablity. After Merrick, the quality that I usually see within Rice's work seemed to suddenly fade with each new book. Then we got to Blood Canticle and I wanted to give up. I ended up finishing the series to see if things go better. Unfortunately, they did not.

Anne Rice is an amazing writer, but like Stephen King, has misses within her discography. The Vampire Chronicles has always been hit or miss, with many loving and adoring the books, hating them, or somewhere in between. Personally, I am of the opinion that this series has very high highs and the lowest of lows, and its many faults are due to the author not knowing when enough is enough.

Series Rating: 3.8/5

[murfpersonalblog]

My Ranking of Anne Rice's Books

Full disclosure: My ranking is totally not based on the quality of AR's writing (which I absolutely love); it's just reflecting my own personal preferences for certain characters, plots, and themes. Some of her books I deliberately chose not to read; while some I only read once and didn't care for them, hence their low rank on my list. (I saw the Feast of All Saints movie but never read the book.)

S Tier: The Witching Hour, The Vampire Armand, Taltos, The Wolf Gift, The Wolves of Midwinter, Blood Communion

A Tier: Cry to Heaven, Servant of the Bones, Blackwood Farm, Prince Lestat, Queen of the Damned, Memnoch the Devil

B Tier: Realms of Atlantis, The Vampire Lestat, Lasher

C Tier: Blood & Gold, Interview with the Vampire, The Mummy

D Tier: Blood Canticle, Tale of the Body Thief, Merrick, Angel Time, Of Love and Evil, Pandora, Vittorio, Violin

(I used the tier template here as my base.)

MY THOUGHTS (I tried not to spoil anything):

S Tier: Spectacular!

13/10 The Witching Hour

My favorite Anne Rice book. The plot was utterly insane. The buildup surrounding the mystery of The 13, and the Door, and what exactly Lasher was and what he wanted was SO good. I thought Rowan was a effing idiot, but I LOVED seeing Michael slowly realize what his purpose was, in the face of this loooong tragic history about the "eunuch" Mayfair husbands. Julien Mayfair is really the GOAT! I was on the edge of my seat; it's a legitimately scary ghost story! IMO Lasher is AR's best villain, cuz he's so awful. (I'm waiting for Season 1 of AMC's Mayfair Witches to finish before I watch it--I'm already bummed from the changes I heard about. [EDIT] I watched it, and it's trash. 🤦)

10/10 The Vampire Armand

I am HELLA biased. TVA was one of the very first AR books I read in full, and I was hooked. Marius/Armand are my favorite vampire ship, leave me alone--the Renaissance was a different time; read a book. Armand and Lestat are my fave vamps, cuz they're both fabulous and crazy. But I empathized with Armand more, because he was so YOUNG. I saw the IWTV movie before I read TVA, and was so shocked that he was just a kid! (Antonio Banderas was fiiiiine AF though!) I was fascinated by Marius since TVL, and getting to see him in his natural habitat was such a treat, as he tried to deal with his feelings for his beloved black-winged angel/demon Amadeo. Plus we got to learn A LOT about the Children of Satan/Darkness, and it was SO effed up what happened with M/A & Santino.

10/10 Taltos

This is the payoff I was waiting for after The Witching Hour. I could care less about Lasher--ASHLAR was precisely the type of Taltos I wanted to know more about. I loved getting his perspective on all the Celtic lore about the Picts and Stonehenge, and the dwarves, etc--it was so mythological; I love it. And the whole icky background about the Talamasca, and the lengths they went through to get the Taltos together...dang. SUCH a good story. 10/10.

10/10 The Wolf Gift & The Wolves of Midwinter

These two are tied--the WoMW sequel flows perfectly from TWG, and I never read one without reading the other immediately after. AR is famous for her vampires, but IMO her werewolves are her very best immortals. They're just really well-adjusted to immortality, and are a big happy wholesome family, the way the rest of her immortal species are NOT. Like, there are very few setbacks to being an AR werewolf, compared to other types of supernatural--especially if you have Margon and the Goldings looking after you (Stuart, you lucky bum!). I want to live at Nideck Point, throwing holiday festivals and carousing with the woodland creatures. I guess kinda like WoMW slightly more, because it continues following the pack as they settle in together, but TWG sets up AR's werewolf universe so perfectly that it gives it that slight edge.

10/10 Blood Communion

I hate that AR was so nasty to fanfic authors and scared a lot of the fandom away, cuz all I want is 500k+ on The Chateau Era, as the vampires live together being fancy and lavish and finally getting their ish together. Blood Communion only gave me a taste of that, cuz it was so dang short (the illustrations were such a cute touch!). But my favorite part was definitely when Armand flipped the eff out over Marius--I was like YES! FINALLY!!!! ^0^ I was so tired of this will they/won't they thing that had stretched out between M/A ever since QoTD, and I just wanted them to come clean about how they REALLY felt. Plus, I was glad/relieved that Louis & Lestat finally ironed everything out; I felt really bad for them, for once! I just wanted more, but I kinda felt Blood Communion was likely where AR was gonna end everything, and TBF it was a really good stopping point.

A Tier: Awesome!

9.5/10 Cry to Heaven

Who knew reading about castrati could be HOT!? This book made me cry--the title was apt! Guido is one of my favorite AR characters; I felt so bad for him!!! Tonio reminds me a lot of Armand, but...I felt worse for Armand? Like, yeah, being castrated sucks, but Tonio got to have this amazing career, and the book ends on a high note--LOL! But Armand was literally psychologically tortured for 300+ years and never really recovers--he gets Trinity Gate & Night Island & his coven, but he's clearly unhinged and maladjusted. I just felt that Tonio was lucky to have a support system in Guido & his patrons, and Armand was decidedly more unlucky, and hence more tragic? Whatever--this was a really good book, even without any supernatural elements.

9.5 Servant of the Bones

I looooooove this book~! I'm a sucker for mythology and world religions and immortality and all of it--this was SO GOOD. If supernatural creatures were real, I legit think AR might be on to something--you can't tell me SOMEONE didn't do human sacrifices like that, trying to make their own "genie" or whatever. VERY Solomon's Ring. And I love how AR threw in all these historical events & characters--making deals with the "devil." It was so creepy; yet thoroughly tragic, as usual with this woman. I just wish we got a bit more clarification on what exactly Azriel was--cuz there's NO WAY he's an angel/djinn/demon, if everything that happened in Memnoch & Angel Time was legit. Is he just an incredibly powerful GHOST, like Lasher??? 🤷 (Azriel would beat the dog snot out of Lasher in a fight, IMO. He's just way more experienced.)

9.5 Blackwood Farm

I LOVE AR's ghost stories. Between Amel, Lasher, Azriel, and Goblin, I pitied Goblin the most. He's VERY similar to Amel, but because of the way he was created, and how he had to exist, I just really felt for him and just wanted to give him a HUG--my poor baby! :( I enjoyed seeing Lestat in a domestic sphere, with the grandma tryna adopt this whole vampire living under her roof, cuz the Blackwoods are like: meh, what's another spook; we're used to weird shenanigans in this family. XD And Mona Mayfair--she won me over here, cuz I did NOT like her around Michael & Rowan; get friends your own age, brat. I'm mad at what AR did with Merrick Mayfair though, like really???

9.5 Prince Lestat

AMEL. O_O I was already fascinated by whatever Amel was when Maharet gave her backstory in QoTD, but once AR started fleshing (LOL!) him out in the Prince Lestat trilogy I was like yaaaaaaaas~! I need DETAILS! As much as I like the other VC books, I really enjoy reading QoTD and PL back to back, cuz it's just a natural continuation of what happened to ALL the vampires afterwards. And it's effed up. Lestat's one bold soul, cuz I would NEVER.

9/10 Queen of the Damned

The hype was real! Maharet's lovely, but Mekare's the GOAT. I was TOTALLY on board with Akasha's plan though, NGL. But you could tell that she was crazy, too. However, getting Amel's perspective in the later books, and seeing what happened with Rhoshamandes, I sympathize with Akasha even more, cuz how much of that was REALLY her???? But yeah, she had to go. (I cannot wait to see who AMC casts--no one can beat Aaliyah's performance, but I want to see them at least try to prove me wrong.) However, the build up to the concert and facing Akasha was a bit too drawn out for my liking (I could care less about Tough Cookie and Killer and all the random AF auxiliary vampires that showed up at Armand's, or the compound. And I DO NOT like Devil's Minion--I love Armand to pieces, but Daniel was INSANE, and vampirism ALMOST turned him into another Nicky, which I was NOT feeling).

8.5/10 Memnoch the Devil

Dante's Inferno meets Dracula. I like this book. But it was confusing, because I was like what was the point? I would've tried WAY harder to keep Lestat in Hell, if I was serious about making THE Devil's Minion. I felt like MtD was an elaborate excuse for AR to bench Lestat, so she could focus on Armand & Marius & Louis for a few books. Like, we know Lestat's trash, but dang--just leaving him on the floor like that? XD And Memnoch's even more mysterious than Azriel in SotB, cuz what is he really? He was able to psychologically torture Lestat in that church from...another dimension?? WHERE was Lestat's eyeball REALLY? Were they LEGIT demons? Like...? Cuz I had the same questions about Louis in Merrick, like, was what he was seeing REAL? We know powerful vampires like Armand can use the Mind Gift to create whole worlds in people's heads. So who knows what actually happened to Lestat.

B Tier: Bravo!

8/10 Realms of Atlantis

I like the alien plot--SUE ME. It's weird AF, and I don't really like what happened to Amel (I'm undecided about trusting that he's redeemable and if he can be excused for being a literal MENACE), but I enjoyed getting those final answers. In TVA Armand said he saw a city of glass when he turned, and I nearly jumped out of my seat when I read RoA, cuz it tracks! And the alien parasites made sense. Look at what happens when regular HUMAN ghosts gained autonomy in AR's books. Look at GOBLIN in BwF. Look at Memnoch even--whatever he is [EDIT: I'm not buying AR's weak AF retcon that he's a ghost Replimoid, cuz then what was Angel Time for?]. Of course a whole extraterrestrial species would have drastic consequences on humans.

8/10 The Vampire Lestat

A must-read for context and mining information, but TVL's never been a book I ever go back to just cuz I want to reread it for funsies. But I enjoyed it WAY more than IWTV, mostly cuz the tone was drastically different.

8/10 Lasher

Anne Boleyn. Really? XD And folks wanna complain about aliens? XD I was not here for Lasher--let the devil speak and tell his story blah blah blah. I was with Michael the whole time, just counting down to when Lasher would stfu already so we could get back to business. There was NOTHING Lasher could say to make me care. Regardless of what he was when he was alive, in death he was thoroughly EVIL. Lasher's a very interesting parallel with Lestat, who was also very religious and wanted to be a priest and was physically & prematurely ripped from his home and from his life. And yes, vampires are mass murderers, and Lestat likely killed way more people than Lasher. And they're both totally selfish; parasites feeding off the living. But it's the METHOD that bothers me with Lasher. Vampires killing just to drink blood is one thing. But Lasher RUINED that family--it was SICK, the things he did to the Mayfairs--both in the past, and present. He DELIBERATELY drove people crazy and abused people for sport and strategically hunted the "eunuch" husbands and turned women into his sex toys, and god knows what he was up to with Julien--and for WHAT??? Lasher was NOTHING like St. Ashlar, and it shows. Bye, Felicia.

C Tier: Can't Love It

7/10 Blood & Gold

I was so hyped for Blood and Gold, cuz Santino was just a PLAGUE upon these poor vampires! I got a lot of answers that I really wanted after TVA, but I understand why some people hate Marius, cuz really my guy?????? It really is his way or the highway. I still love Marius, but my opinion of him definitely dropped quite a few notches--I was PISSED at him just like Armand was, all the way up to Blood Communion.

7/10 Interview with the Vampire

Groundbreaking, iconic, never done before, etc etc. But IWTV is one of my least favorite AR books. I honestly think she just got better as she kept writing. But also the tone of IWTV, and especially Louis as a character just never appealed to me. Louis never had a personality other than bitterness, like…. I just couldn't relate to him at all, like what are you complaining about???? If you hate being a vampire so dang much, END IT. Lestat honestly impressed me (Armand's patience was impressive too!), cuz I'd've been GONE, and left Louis to his own devices; eff how pretty he is. The movie--as fun and awesome as it is--definitely didn't improve my opinion of Louis; he was even more mopey, wtf! (AMC's IWTV handled Louis BRILLIANTLY, and went a LONG way endearing me to Louis, where I absolutely LOVE him now--protect Louis at all costs!)

6/10 The Mummy

This was REALLY good, until it wasn't. I got similar vibes with SotB, as ancient civilizations grappled with magic and immortality and the divine and the dead/undead--my bread and butter. But Ramses just reads as way more naive and clumsy than Azriel. It got tiresome, seeing Ramses scramble to fix all the mistakes he kept making, like omg dude--LEARN. And what was the purpose of that girl? Whatever her name was. Like...yawn. And then Cleopatra.... 🤦 Why is she so evil? Is it just the brain damage? What a walking disaster--and Ramses was AGAIN at fault! I couldn't take anymore, it got frustrating.

D Tier: Didn't Care

4/10 Blood Canticle

This book was DEPRESSING. First of all, I honestly don't understand why Lestat was even there? Just let Quinn & Mona & Rowan & Michael deal with it--a drug/gun cartel? REALLY? Morrigan! Ashlar was one thing, but come on, REALLY?? I was so bummed! Then Rowan had the NERVE--! I was disgusted. I never liked her, but even the scraps of empathy I felt for her EVAPORATED. Poor Michael! :(

4/10 Tale of the Body Thief

I was squicked out. There was nothing appealing about this situation. If he was in his OWN body, like if Dr. Fareed could "cure" vampirism, that would be one thing, but this was just...no. And poor David! I liked Mojo though?

4/10 Merrick

God, spare me. I never liked Louis in the books, so this was just one long psychological torture experience I wasn't feeling. Especially since I couldn't really be sure if the ghost was legit when I first read it. But having read so much more of AR's ghost stories, I'm more convinced now that it was the genuine ghost that had it out for Louis, which is awful, cuz that really puts into perspective what was going on in NOLA vs Europe/Paris. So, I feel bad for him--but the most interesting part was getting Lestat's reaction.

3/10 Angel Time

I barely remember what this book was about. It was a murder mystery in a hotel near a church in Cali somewhere and an angel selects some assassin because....? IIRC he went back in time and infiltrated a pogrom or something disguised as a monk? And.... I...don't remember.

-/10 Of Love and Evil

I own it, but literally don't even remember what this was about.

3/10 Pandora

I could care less about Pandora/Lydia/whatever her name was. I do not like this woman. I get that she's bitter about Marius ditching her, but omg. Stop. You don't see Bianca complaining; get over it already. There was something about bees and the Talamasca and Pandora being worshipped and....something.

-/10 Vittorio

I own it, but I literally don't even remember what this was about.

-/10 Violin

This was an impulse buy. I was so hyped at first, cuz I thought this was gonna be about Nicky and Lestat. Then I actually read the summary, and was immediately like wtf. But I gave it a go cuz there's wibbly wobbly timey wimey ghost stuff going on, but.... Nah.

Thanks for reading!

[bleachersgirl]

i kind of want to read the vampire armand next because armand is simultaneously my special baby boy / my beautiful princess with a disorder and also the devil / my enemy forever for what he did to claudia and he is soooo interesting and compelling to me but also. it has taken me MANY months to read queen of the damned and i still have 100ish pages to go so maybe that’s a sign to lay off the anne rice for a while once i finish it.

[jurassic-cunt]

What are you, an immortal idiot?

The Queen of the Damned, Anne Rice

this is for you @spookylestat

[text:

The meetings grew longer and longer. Conversations, sparring matches, and downright fights became the rule. Once Armand had dragged Daniel out of bed in New Orleans and shouted at him: "That telephone, I want you to dial Paris, I want to see if it can really talk to Paris."

"Goddamn it, do it yourself," Daniel had roared. "You're five hundred years old and you can't use a telephone? Read the directions. What are you, an immortal idiot? I will do no such thing!"

How surprised Armand had looked.

"All right, I'll call Paris for you. But you pay the bill."

"But of course," Armand had said innocently.He had drawn dozens of hundred-dollar bills out of his coat, sprinkling them on Daniel's bed.

end text]