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Book Review: ‘The Vampire Lestat’ by Anne Rice

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Interview with the Vampire was first released by Anne Rice almost fifty years ago. Rice followed it with the sequel, The Vampire Lestat came almost a decade later, but that’s just a drop in the bucket for a vampire. Covering Lestat’s early life, his transformation into an immortal, his early missteps, and his glorious rebirth, Anne Rice covers a much larger time span in The Vampire Lestat than she did in Interview with the Vampire . We find out that in terms of immortals, Lestat is still very young, but his impact on the world of vampires has been huge. And in classic Lestat fashion, it’s about to be even bigger. Lestat is a devil but he’s one that everyone loves, which is the most dangerous kind.

[ Warning: My review of The Vampire Lestat contains some spoilers! If you want to also read my review of Interview With The Vampire novel, check out the link below! ]

Book Review: Anne Rice’s Interview With The Vampire

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Anne Rice’s vampires need therapists

“Vampires need therapists.” That was my big thought while I was reading The Vampire Lestat . I mean, anyone reading Interview with the Vampire can clearly see that Louis is depressed. He needs help. Lestat, on the other hand, is manic. He does have fits of despair, though, so I guess he’s more bipolar than just straight manic. Either way, they can’t take pharmaceuticals, so they need some serious therapy. 

Honestly, and it might just be the result of how becoming immortal messes with your mind, but there isn’t really a single vampire that doesn’t have some kind of mental health issues. Of course, if they were all perfectly well-adjusted and morally honorable, Rice’s work would be rather boring, so she made the right choice, but man, having all these psychotic superhumans running around hits differently now than it did when I was a teenager! I spent a good deal of time thinking, “please, just go talk to a professional” while I was reading The Vampire Lestat .

A familiar trope but very well done in The Vampire Lestat

Lestat is one of a kind. There is no one else like him, alive or undead. Sort of. His brand of loveable devil, chaos with remorse, is actually a really old and very common trope in literature, movies, and even life. We all knew that kid who was always making trouble, but then they’d smile just right at the teacher and all was forgiven.

Currently, Loki in the MCU is the fan favorite villain turned hero. In fact, Lestat reminds me very much of Loki, right down to his brand of humor. Something about the bad boy that wants to be good (but not too good) just seems to really resonate with people.

The good thing about using such a familiar template for Lestat is that we instantly feel like we know him. Sure, if you read Interview with the Vampire, you already knew him. But you knew Louis’ interpretation of Lestat, not Lestat himself. When we get to know him through his own thoughts in The Vampire Lestat we see things a little differently. We come to understand a lot of what he did and why. Not justifying it, there is no justifying some of the things Lestat did, but understanding leads to forgiveness and allows us as readers to really love Lestat. 

Anne Rices's Interview with the Vampire

Now, the bad part of using a common character template is that it can make the character very boring and predictable. Rice manages to avoid doing this with Lestat. Even though he is very much a Loki/Puck/Lucifer character, he has a style and flair that’s all his own. He is remarkably dramatic and more willing to punish himself than some other characters that belong to his type. I believe this is because he has a very strong poor-me mind set that mixes oddly, but not unbelievably, with his high confidence levels. There are plenty of real people out there with this same type of personality. They are exhausting, especially if you’re not pulled in by their charm.

Now because of a little thing I call narrator prejudice, we as readers become emotionally invested in the narrator (or main character) and that leads to us liking them even if they’re not actually that likable. So instead of wishing he would go away (like in real life), we find ourselves rooting for him.

I find myself swinging back and forth between “Lestat you’re terrible” and “Lestat I totally understand you” whenever I read The Vampire Lestat, but  my general feelings towards him are still warm and indulgent. Interestingly enough, I always dislike Lestat in Interview with a Vampire and find him annoying or tiresome in the other Vampire Chronicle novels.

Interview with the Vampire s eries tie-in

If you’re watching the Interview with the Vampire series on AMC+ then I highly recommend reading The Vampire Lestat now. There is at least one episode in season 2 that draws from Anne Rice’s extended backstory. It’s in The Vampire Lestat that we learn about how Lestat is tied to the Theatres des Vampires and their leader Armand. It’s a complicated story and while I’m sure AMC+ will do their best, nothing beats a novel for truly understanding a complicated situation.

The series is very well done. They made some changes, of course, aging up Claudia ( Bailey Bass ) and changing the time frame to the 1920s instead of the 1790s, but these are minor. What’s important is they did an outstanding job with the characters and their interpersonal connections. And that’s what these stories are really all about, the connections between these beings who live forever yet are so alone. 

Interview With The Vampire Trio

The first season took us up to Louis ( Jacob Anderson ) and Claudia’s betrayal of Lestat ( Sam Reid ). Which means that the second season still has a considerable amount of ground to cover from Interview with the Vampire. There is some clarification and background that is revealed in The Vampire Lestat that would be nice to include as the story moves towards a very emotional ending . After that, I hope the series continues to adapt Rice’s work, sharing more of The Vampire Lestat and moving on to the other Vampire Chronicles works.

Interview with the Vampire season 2 began on May 12, 2024 on AMC at 9/8c. New episodes will air each week on AMC as well as being available for streaming on AMC+. There will be eight episodes airing one each Sunday through the end of June. If you haven’t watched the show, yet I highly recommend it. 

The Vampire Lestat sets up The Queen of the Damned

I do enjoy The Vampire Lestat . If I’m being honest with you, it’s way better than Interview with the Vampire . But to be completely honest, my favorite thing about The Vampire Lestat is that it sets up The Queen of the Damned, which is my absolute favorite Anne Rice book.

The Vampire Lestat ’s ending directly leads into The Queen of the Damned and to be honest, I can’t see reading The Queen of the Damned without reading The Vampire Lestat , there’d be a lot of missing backstory. But I also can’t imagine reading The Vampire Lestat without instantly going to the shelf and grabbing The Queen of the Damned . So read The Vampire Lestat . Revel in his selfishness and joy, then go grab The Queen of the Damned and enjoy that too, you can’t have one without the other.

Rating: 8/10

You can find Anne Rice’s The Vampire Lestat,   Interview with the Vampire and The Queen of the Damned most places books are sold. Have you read either of these novels? How do you think the new series on AMC compares? Let us know on social media @mycosmiccircus or in The Cosmic Circus Discord.

Interview With The Vampire Season 2 Premiere Review

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Book Review: The Witching Hour (Lives of Mayfair Witches 1) by Anne Rice

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Luna Gauthier

I've always been a bookworm and fantasy is my favortie genre. I never imagined (okay, I imagined but I didn't think) that I could get those books sent to me for just my opinion. Now I am a very happy bookworm! @Lunagauthier19 on Twitter

Luna Gauthier has 235 posts and counting. See all posts by Luna Gauthier

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Book Review: The Vampire Lestat (The Vampire Chronicles Book 2) by Anne Rice

Book Review: The Vampire Lestat (The Vampire Chronicles Book 2) by Anne Rice

Time for another super long review that no one will read!

Things I Disliked/Things I Didn’t Mind but Others Might Dislike:

– The book was long, and between the flashbacks of Armand’s and Marius’s lives and Lestat’s kind of long-winded way of talking about everything, the story moved forward at a very slow pace sometimes, which made me impatient.

– A lot of the characters’ actions and words were dramatic and/or strange to the point of being unrealistic, but somehow it just worked and never pulled me out of the story.

– The parts about Lestat kissing and wanting to ravage his mother were… odd.

Things I Liked:

– I was impressed with the way Anne Rice was able to portray the perspective of an immortal who had been around for a long time and had seen the world change. The way Lestat viewed all the changes… they were things I’d have never thought about, but, once I did think about them, they made sense.

– The characters were all so complex, like WOW.

– The writing was engrossing and sucked me in. (Thankfully Lestat didn’t use the word ‘plump’ to describe everyone like Louis did lol.)

– It was interesting to learn some background that related to Interview, like how the Theatre des Vampires got started.

My Thoughts on the Characters (there might be *SPOILERS* in this section):

– Lestat. People told me I would change my mind about Lestat once I read this book. In a way, they were right. But in a way, they were also wrong.

In reference to everything that happened in Interview, what we have here, essentially, is a case of “he said, she said.” Louis has one version of the story, Lestat has another, and all we have to go on is their words.

But, if Louis was telling the truth about how Lestat treated him—and I’m inclined to believe he was, since Claudia felt the same way—nothing in this book changes the fact that Lestat was abusive toward them. (Here’s where I get a little more pedantic than I normally do in reviews, but I think this is an important topic.) Lestat’s past, his sadness, etc. doesn’t excuse that. His love for Louis and his claims that Louis misunderstood everything don’t excuse that. Even the fact that Louis did in fact misunderstand some things (like that Lestat mostly fed from evildoers) and did leave some things out (like some of their good times together) doesn’t excuse that. Because guess what? Someone can be a good person in some ways, do nice things, etc. but still be abusive. I can’t even blame Louis for leaving out the good times they had because people do seem to have this belief that if someone does nice things sometimes, if the abuser and victim ever have fun together, if the abuser and victim love each other, then it means the abuser can’t possibly be abusive in any way; so no one would have believed Louis had he mentioned the good times. And, quite frankly, when Lestat was talking about how great his relationship with Louis was, well, people who are emotionally abusive and manipulative often do say things just like that. There are plenty of abusive people in the world who refuse to see or admit even to themselves that their behavior is abuse and who believe their relationship with the victim is caring and supportive even when it’s not. Just as Louis’s narrative was biased in some ways, so was Lestat’s. For example, he stated that he hid his powers from Louis because Louis couldn’t handle it, but that’s just proof that he was keeping secrets and making decisions about what was best for Louis instead of letting Louis make those decisions himself. And let’s not forget, Lestat left things out of his version too, like how there was SO MUCH he could’ve told them about their kind without having to get into personal stuff and without breaking his promise to Marius. And how he taunted Louis and said mean things to him (and to Claudia). He himself even said that he’s selfish—and he is—so there was nothing in this book that makes me think that Louis actually lied in his story.

TL;DR: Will we ever know the true, unbiased tale of exactly what happened between Louis and Lestat? Probably not. Do I believe Louis did have some good times with Lestat, that he had some feelings for Lestat, that he too was afraid of being alone and wanted the companionship they had? Yes, but I already said that in my review of Interview. Do I believe Lestat has good qualities and did some good things with Louis? Absolutely. But do I believe any of that makes his abusive behavior toward Louis and Claudia any less abusive? No.

I will concede, however, that Louis’s version of what happened in Paris was all wrong. Of course, that’s Armand’s fault for purposely setting everything up to appear that way to Louis. It made me feel for awful for Lestat though when I realized that he didn’t mean to get Claudia killed, didn’t even know they were in Paris, and that he was treated just as badly by Armand.

What I find sad about the whole thing though is that it seems like Lestat and Louis could have had a great relationship if only Lestat had treated him a little better. Lestat is someone who seems to like to think and learn too, who appreciates beauty in things, who loves mortals, and still has a lot of love and humanity left in him. Despite their issues, I kind of ship Louis and Lestat and would’ve liked to know more about the close/good parts of their relationship. But by the end of this book, they seemed to understand each other better, so maybe things will at least be better between them from now on.

Anyway, despite Lestat’s negative traits (or maybe because of them), I still feel that he’s a fantastically complex character and one that I found myself feeling for. So the people who said I’d change my mind were right in that I do see him in a completely different light now. And there’s just something about him. You can’t not be drawn to him. I mean, the man wakes up after who know how many years literally underground, and within days he’s decked out in leather and riding a motorcycle around New Orleans. Despite being dead, he’s so full of life and vitality. He’s so emotional and dramatic about everything. He feels so deeply. Apparently he was like that even as a human. And I did feel bad for him at times; even if he did bring some of his problems onto himself with his impulsiveness, rebelliousness, and selfishness, he didn’t deserve all the bad things that happened to him.

– Armand. So… Armand is awful. But also very complex. I feel like he never actually cares for any of the vampires he keeps company with, not even the ones he takes as companions. I mean, he manipulated Louis to turn someone else into a vampire (which destroyed Louis emotionally), and he killed Claudia (which further destroyed Louis) so that he could have Louis to himself. He also let Louis kill the other vampires in his coven, and he himself killed most of the vampires in his previous coven. And even after everything Lestat did for him, when Lestat needed help, Armand just used him, forced him to rat out Claudia because it served his (Armand’s) own purposes, then pushed him off a building. I don’t think he even understands what love is. He jumps around from vampire to vampire, telling them he loves them within like five minutes of meeting them, but it’s never actually love. Maybe that’s because the first “love” he ever felt sounded to me more like Stockholm Syndrome after being taken and sold as a kid. (I don’t mean to imply that Marius treated him badly; in fact, Marius was the first to treat him well, but he did still essentially own Armand.) And as he said himself, because he was taken as a child, he never had a normal human life, which was why he didn’t even know how to exist among mortals.

– Nicolas. I think Nicolas was the one I felt the worst for. Imagine things from his perspective: giving up everything and being disowned by your family to run away to a new city with your lover; seeing your lover being kidnapped and hearing him shout for you as he’s pulled through a window; worrying that your lover has been killed or something awful has happened to him; all the sudden being showered with gifts from your lover but still with no explanation or visit from him only for him to one day show up at the theatre where you work, put on some grand supernatural display, and then run off again, still with no explanation to you. Then, to top it all off, he was kidnapped and nearly drained by a bunch of vampires in an underground crypt, turned into a vampire himself, and had his hands—his most important body parts as a violinist—cut off. Nevermind that they were reattached, it would still be awful. No wonder the poor guy went mad. No wonder he hated Lestat. No wonder he decided to go into the fire. I liked Nicolas, and I shipped Nicostat, so that whole storyline was very tragic.

– Gabrielle. She’s not my favorite. Gabrielle’s not terrible, but she’s cold, and I can’t understand her desire to spend her life away from all civilization.

– Marius. He seems like a kind and understanding person, but I need to learn more about him before I can really form an opinion.

My Thoughts on Other Things (there might be *SPOILERS* in this section):

– I loved the scene when Lestat and Gabrielle rose in the church. You had these two powerful, deadly vampires, and they put on this whole theatrical show to terrify everyone in the church, but the only reason they did that—what the terrified people in the church would never have guessed—was because they themselves were terrified. The humor of their theatrics plus the kind of irony of them being just as terrified made that scene stand out in my mind.

– I’m gonna let my freak flag fly for a moment and say that I still remember the first time I read the scene when Lestat and Akasha drink from each other at the same time, and, at that time, I swear it was the most erotic thing I had ever read. To this day, I still love reading about two paranormal creatures drinking blood from each other at the same time.

– The ending got so intense when vampires started going up in flames and everything. I loved it. But I also loved that Louis was back and even that Gabrielle was back.

Overall Thoughts:

This review is long enough already, I’ll just say that I liked it, and the complexity of the characters has yet again given me a lot to think about!

*I’ve read this book multiple times. This review was written after my 2nd read.*

Reread Ratings: No Rating (1st Read – mid/late 2000s) 4 Stars (2nd Read – 2017)

Recommended For:

Fans of Book 1 in Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles. Anyone who likes beautiful yet deadly vampires, descriptive writing, and amazingly complex characters.

You Can Also Find My Review Here:

Goodreads | Amazon

More Books in the Series:

Book Review: Interview with the Vampire (The Vampire Chronicles Book 1) by Anne Rice

Graphic Novel Review: Interview with the Vampire: Claudia’s Story by Anne Rice & Ashley Marie Witter

Book Review: The Queen of the Damned (The Vampire Chronicles Book 3) by Anne Rice

Book Review: The Tale of the Body Thief (The Vampire Chronicles Book 4) by Anne Rice

Book Review: Memnoch the Devil (The Vampire Chronicles Book 5) by Anne Rice

Book Author: Anne Rice Publisher: Ballantine Books Series: The Vampire Chronicles Genre: Fantasy , Historical Fantasy , LGBTQIA , Low/Paranormal/Urban Fantasy My Rating: 4 Series/Standalone: Part of a Series

More Info (Possible Spoilers)

LGBT+ Rep: Bisexual (Main Character) Non-Human Type: Vampires Relationships/Sex: M-M

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I read this years ago and so I do not remember all the details in your review, but I did enjoy how thorough your review is. I loved this book when I read it, back before blogging when the notion of a “slow” book never entered my mind. I had time to kill back then, with no reading commitments, so long, drawn out stories didn’t bother me!

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I also originally read this series before I was blogging, back when I don’t think I ever really thought of books as slow either. I thought I would dislike the books upon rereading them, but it’s turning out that I’m really liking them! And I’m trying to let myself get back to just reading whatever the hell I want/enjoy and not worrying so much about numbers and whatnot. I’m doing alright w/ review copies, so I don’t have too many serious commitments right now.

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I really enjoyed reading your thoughts and I think I mentioned before it had been ages since I read the first one but amazing, you finally helped me realize how I could describe my feelings on it – I felt impatient. Maybe that’s why I’ve been in no hurry to continue!

Thanks! Yeah, impatient was the perfect word for me because sometimes I felt like, “Ok, so-and-so’s backstory is interesting, but I just want to know what’s going to happen to Lestat and Nicolas already! Or how Lestat came to be with Louis!” Etc.

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ok ok I promise to read ALL the review even if I have to come back a few times, because 1) it’s you and 2) hummm… no other reason worth mentioning

so you do have some quirky bloody fantasies! I think I’m kind of glad or relationship is virtual and you don’t have fangs [I think lol ].

Is tis book part of the movie too? I don;t remember Lestat “decked out in leather and riding a motorcycle around New Orleans”!! 🙂

Aww you don’t have to read the whole thing. It’s really long lol.

Muahahahaha you just don’t know about my fangs cuz you’ve never met me in person 😉

Nope, this isn’t part of the Interview movie. The movie “Queen of the Damned” however is kinda a combo of this and the next book (but from what I remember of the movie, I don’t rec it).

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Haha, you’re quite right, that was a lot review! But that’s okay, too, since it wasn’t a rambly and ranty kind of review, where much is written but little is said. You just had a lot of discussion points to go over! 🙂 I sometimes get carried away as well. Pretty sure my guest-post review of “I Am Legend” on ReadsandReels.com ran longer than the book itself! 😛

Exactly, I just had so many things I wanted to discuss! I try to keep my reviews under control in terms of length, but I’ve given up trying with this series lol.

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So… I have never read this, which seems weird, but yeah. I think it would be tough to realistically portray an immortal viewpoint, so it’s nice she captured that. I’m not sure either about the Lestat/ mom thing lol. Fascinating how there’s a different viewpoint on their relationship between Louis and Lestat, and each book is sort of their version each? I have to admit I don’t know a lot about this series, but there’s definitely a lot going on, seems like. Sounds like a wild ending too!

It would be tough, I think, but she’s done such a good job. It really is impressive. But yeah, the mom thing is still weird to me lol. I was kind of disappointed that there wasn’t more about the Lestat-Louis relationship, it really only vaguely touched upon that, but Lestat did claim a slightly different version of things.

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I never read the books, not sure if I feel inclined to do so. I loved Interview with the Vampire the movie and Queen of the Damned, but I don’t think I would pick up the books.

Loved your review. If anything, your review makes me curious enough and might make me reconsider reading these. The reviews that I’ve read are all over the place.

As cliche as this sounds, from what I remember of Queen of the Damned book and movie, the book was wayyyyyy better. But if the books aren’t to your taste, that’s totally understandable! But haha, yay, I feel accomplished that my review made you more curious XD

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I absolutely adore my complex characters and I think it makes a book ten times more intriguing than when the characters are straight forward or simple! I’m not sure how I am going to feel about the mother-related wants that the character gets sometimes. It sounds pretty odd to me! But I can take a slow paced book if the characters are going to be as wonderful as you described. And I can see from the character section of this review how many thoughts you had about them all individually as well!

These characters are sooooo complex. The mother thing was weird to me, but it wasn’t a huge thing in the story, so pretty easy to overlook. Oh yes, that’s right, you’re like me in that you can enjoy slow-paced if the characters are good enough 🙂

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You did a fantastic job summing this book up. I dare say I like your review a hell of a lot more than I liked mine. I loved that you focused on portions of the story that stood out and that you examined Lestat and Louis’ relationship so much. I admit I didn’t, but I guess when you read them out of order you end up taking Lestat’s side. Great review!

Thanks 😀 But your review is great too! We just talked about different things, and that’s kind of the beauty of reviews, isn’t it? That everyone notices diff things and has diff things to say. But yeah, I did focus a lot on Louis-Lestat thing. It does make sense that you might feel differently depending on the order you read in. But what Anne Rice did so well is that neither tale is completely unbiased.

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Yeah, this book didn’t change my feelings about Lestat much either. I definitely still loved this book because of the complexity of the characters, too. I am looking forward to your review of the third book because I can’t remember if I didn’t read the fourth book because the third one bored me, or I didn’t read the fourth book because I started reading it and it bored me. Ha ha. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I think I might do a re-read of the first three books in a year or two. 🙂

Glad to see I’m not the only one who doesn’t totally adore Lestat. I love him as a character because he’s complex and great to read about, but as a person, I feel like he’s not always likeable and his actions have hurt numerous people. Ah, it was probably the third book. It’s pretty slow. But you should totally do a reread! I want to hear more of your thoughts too!

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This is my favourite, I think, of the series. And no, none of these characters are blameless or pure – and nor do they pretend to be. They’re highly dramatic, supremely sexual, broken creatures with supernatural powers… and that’s what makes them so fascinating.

And Lestat will always be my fave – cos he’s so fabulous dammit!!!! Lol. Plus he always manages to hit you in the feels! XD

Well, actually, I feel like Lestat does kind of pretend to be less blameless than he is sometimes, whether on purpose or without meaning to. He makes it known that he’s impulsive and whatnot, but he plays himself up to be grand and larger-than-life and overlooks other things. Like, when talking about Louis’s book, he basically ignored a lot his own actions and tried to subtly make Louis look bad, like, “Oh I guess he didn’t mention all those times he came crying to me, begging me to never leave him, but I’ll be magnanimous and just let everything bad he said about me slide because I love him.” And he decided to become a rockstar and start a war just for kicks, but he never really acknowledged all the innocent humans who would come to harm because of that. But yes, he’s absolutely a complex character, and I love reading about him! He is fabulous, I will give you that, haha. So far this was my favorite book in the series too, but I’m only on Book 3 right now lol.

Honey, you gotta love a drama Queen! 😉 <3

Lol they do make for interesting reading sometimes.

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The Vampire Lestat: The seminal work of vampire fiction since Stoker

Posted by Rebecca Fisher and Tim Scheidler ´s rating: 5 | Anne Rice | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

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Anne Rice’s second vampire novel is both a prequel and a sequel to her original story Interview with the Vampire . A sequel because it is framed by a sequence of events in contemporary times, and a prequel because it recounts the history of the vampire Lestat, the sire of the protagonist Louis in Interview . After waking from centuries-sleep in 1980’s New Orleans, Lestat discovers the Interview manuscript and goes about setting the story straight, recounting his mortal life as a young French aristocrat, his transformation into a vampire, and his ongoing quest to find the answers behind his new condition. Stretching from the French Revolution to Egyptian myth to the modern day world, his journey is one that only an immortal could take, and we’re lucky enough to be taken along for the ride.

Lestat is perhaps Rice’s most popular creation, and it’s easy enough to see why: he is charismatic, merciful, deep-thinking and tormented; in other words a truly three-dimensional character and possibly the most relatable member of the undead in the huge vampiric canon of books and movies (well, with the possible exception of Angel and Spike). His moral crisis on becoming a vampire is especially intriguing, with his reluctance to destroy innocent mortals.

More than this however, is Rice’s (and consequently Lestat’s) exploration into the mythos of the vampire and the search for the origins of the vampire. She ingeniously melds the legends of ancient Britain, Greece and Egypt to tell the complete history of the vampire creatures, making especially good use of the myth of Osiris and Isis, whose existence bears a fascinating similarity to the making of a vampire. Finally Lestat gets to the heart of the matter after tracking down different vampires of increasing age, and the full truth behind the vampire and the creation of the first vampires. It is one of the most interesting and thought-provoking theories on the subject that I have ever read, and yields further revelations and connections on each re-reading.

As well as this, Rice includes Lestat’s complex relationships with his mother and best friend who become privy to his vampiric secret, and toward the end Louis and Claudia are mentioned also (so make sure you’ve read Interview as Lestat gives away the details of their life together). Fellow vampires such as Armand, Marius and Magnus make prominent appearances, all of whom had later novels dedicated to their characters and serve as “stepping stones” to Lestat’s journey of discovery, each yielding more clues and information to the intellectual path that he takes.

Anne Rice’s language is gorgeous to read, rich and poetic and full of sublime passages and descriptions. Sometimes she can go a little overboard: on more than one occasion I found myself reading a passage and realising I had no idea what was going on, but her rich detail and extensive knowledge of history sets her vampires in an utterly realistic and mysterious world. Concepts such as “the conversation,” the Savage Garden and the wolf killer echo through the novel, adding resonance and extra meaning to the unfolding story where the smallest detail can hold the greatest importance.

All in all, an immensely rich and rewarding read at times scary, beautiful, intriguing, and exceptionally clever. Rice has created a new breed of vampires that are both similar and extremely different from those of traditional folklore. Usually I dislike books that make vampires “good guys” and thereby strip them of any potency or menace whatsoever, but Rice is the only author that I know of (with the exception of Angel and Spike of course) who makes this work. I can’t wait to read more.

~Rebecca Fisher

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The first thing one should say about The Vampire Lestat in comparison with Interview with the Vampire is that if you spent the first novel sighing to yourself that all of this was rather good, but Louis was a whiny sort of fellow who liked to talk more than to act, you shall be overjoyed with this installment. Lestat is the vital, charismatic hero that Louis was not. If he loses some of Louis’s tragedy and philosophizing, he makes it up in the simple fact that he is from the first page a more relatable character. The narrative style of Lestat’s book is faster-paced and more direct than that of Louis’s, but leaves ample room for Rice’s trademark sensual imagery and dense characterization.

As always, something to be aware of when opening an Anne Rice novel is that if you are going in expecting some sort of monster bloodbath, you are likely to be disappointed. For better or for worse (it’s largely a matter of opinion), Rice is far more interested in the relational side of things than she is in the action. There are no instances of imaginatively gory killing sprees or daring vampire-on-vampire swordfights. Some readers may consequently find the book a little slow or wandering, but on the other hand, I think there are just as many (if not more) who will revel in its emotional depth.

Rice novels are like holiday chocolate: they’re rich, surprisingly sensual, and usually rather dark. The text, like Lestat himself, appears to be almost entirely concerned with deep, slow-moving emotions, teased and titillated until at last they begin to drift in the depths. Lestat is far more easygoing than Louis but his story is objectively far from light material. Rice does interesting things with that here, from a purely literary perspective, choosing her words with care particularly in the action scenes. The fight between Lestat and the wolves early on is a striking example of the way she uses her imagery to evoke a slow dread and sympathy for the boy who can possess such attitudes. To clarify, I do not mean to put The Vampire Lestat on a pedestal of intellectual brilliance. It is not necessarily a book for the Umberto Eco fan club to discuss at their next wine and cheese party. It does, however, try for a different emotional frequency than do most vampire novels, and for the most part it succeeds.

The book is not without flaws. Anne Rice is at her best when she is purely relating Lestat’s history. When she is setting up plot elements for the next book, the writing style dips a little in quality, as though she’s lost her rhythm somehow. The Vampire Lestat is a book within a book in format — that is, Lestat writes a book about himself, which is reproduced within the broader course of Lestat informing us about his exploits in what was the modern day when Rice wrote the book — and the framing narrative is far less impressive than the story it contains. I should also note that for all I’ve said on the subject of slow-moving emotion being an interesting choice and emotional depth being well and good, sometimes the book drops out of what might be called “deliberate” speed, and just becomes plain old draggy. This occurs particularly surrounding Armand’s history and Lestat’s painfully drawn-out, angsty world tour with Gabrielle.

In summary, I must recommend The Vampire Lestat because it is in so many ways a delightful book, alive with a powerful voice and a masterful command of language and symbolism. Rice manages to make the humanized vampire work for her (not an easy task), and on top of that provides some real depth of emotion and philosophy. The reader will come away believing that perhaps he or she understands a bit more fully the idea of living forever. While it is not a perfect novel, it is an excellent example of more-or-less contemporary vampire fiction and a must for fans of the genre.

~Tim Scheidler

The Vampire Chronicles — (1976- ) Publisher: Witness the confessions of a vampire. A novel of mesmerizing beauty and astonishing force, it is a story of danger and flight, love and loss, suspense and resolution, and the extraordinary power of the senses.

Anne Rice The Vampire Chronicles 1. Interview with the Vampire 2. The Vampire Lestat 3. The Queen of the Damned 4. The Tale of the Body Thief 5. Memnoch the Devil 6. The Vampire Armand 7. Merrick 8. Blood and Gold 9. Blackwood Farm 10. Blood Canticle

New Tales of the Vampires — (1998-1999) Publisher:  Anne Rice , creator of the Vampire Lestat, the Mayfair witches and the amazing worlds they inhabit, now gives us the first in a new series of novels linked together by the fledgling vampire David Talbot, who has set out to become a chronicler of his fellow Undead. The novel opens in present-day Paris in a crowded café, where David meets Pandora. She is two thousand years old, a Child of the Millennia, the first vampire ever made by the great Marius. David persuades her to tell the story of her life. Pandora begins, reluctantly at first and then with increasing passion, to recount her mesmerizing tale, which takes us through the ages, from Imperial Rome to eighteenth-century France to twentieth-century Paris and New Orleans. She carries us back to her mortal girlhood in the world of Caesar Augustus, a world chronicled by Ovid and Petronius. This is where Pandora meets and falls in love with the handsome, charismatic, lighthearted, still-mortal Marius. This is the Rome she is forced to flee in fear of assassination by conspirators plotting to take over the city. And we follow her to the exotic port of Antioch, where she is destined to be reunited with Marius, now immortal and haunted by his vampire nature, who will bestow on her the Dark Gift as they set out on the fraught and fantastic adventure of their two turbulent centuries together.

Anne Rice New Tales of the Vampires 1. Pandora 2. Vittorio the Vampire

CLICK HERE FOR MORE VAMPIRE CHRONICLES.

Rebecca Fisher

REBECCA FISHER, with us since January 2008, earned a Masters degree in literature at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. Her thesis included a comparison of how C.S. Lewis and Philip Pullman each use the idea of mankind’s Fall from Grace to structure the worldviews presented in their fantasy series. Rebecca is a firm believer that fantasy books written for children can be just as meaningful, well-written and enjoyable as those for adults, and in some cases, even more so. Rebecca lives in New Zealand. She is the winner of the 2015 Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best SFF Fan Writer.

Tim Scheidler

TIM SCHEIDLER, who's been with us since June 2011, holds a Master's Degree in Popular Literature from Trinity College Dublin. Tim enjoys many authors, but particularly loves J.R.R. Tolkien, Robin Hobb, George R.R. Martin, Neil Gaiman, and Susanna Clarke. When he’s not reading, Tim enjoys traveling, playing music, writing in any shape or form, and pretending he's an athlete.

April 5th, 2008. Rebecca Fisher and Tim Scheidler ´s rating: 5 | Anne Rice | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

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The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice

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  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

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  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

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  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

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  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot

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  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix

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The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice (The Vampire Chronicles: Book 2)

'Ah, the taste and feel of blood when all passion and greed is sharpened in that one desire!' Lestat: a vampire - but very much not the conventional undead, for Lestat is the truly alive. Lestat is vivid, ecstatic, stagestruck, and in his extravagant story he plunges from the lasciviousness of eighteenth-century Paris to the demonic Egypt of prehistory; from fin-de-siecle New Orleans to the frenetic twentieth-century world of rock superstardom - as, pursued by the living and the dead, he searches across time for the secret of his own dark immortality.

  • Buy on Amazon

Review by Floresiensis

Anne Rice biography

The Vampire Chronicles

  • Interview with the Vampire (The Vampire Chronicles: Book 1)
  • Blood Canticle (The Vampire Chronicles: Book 10)
  • Blood Communion (The Vampire Chronicles: Book 13)
  • The Vampire Lestat (The Vampire Chronicles: Book 2)
  • The Queen of the Damned (The Vampire Chronicles: Book 3)
  • The Tale of the Body Thief (The Vampire Chronicles: Book 4)
  • Memnoch the Devil (The Vampire Chronicles: Book 5)
  • The Vampire Armand (The Vampire Chronicles: Book 6)
  • Merrick (The Vampire Chronicles: Book 7)
  • Blood and Gold (The Vampire Chronicles: Book 8)
  • Blackwood Farm (The Vampire Chronicles: Book 9)

9 /10 from 1 reviews

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The Vampire Lestat Cover Picture

The Vampire Lestat

Published 1976        368 pages

Reviewed by Sandra

Summary (from the book jacket)

Lestat: a vampire - but very much not the conventional undead, for Lestat is the truly alive. Lestat is vivid, ecstatic, stage-struck, and in his extravagant story he plunges from the lasciviousness of eighteenth - century Paris to the demonic Egypt of prehistory; from fin-de-siecle New Orleans to the frenetic twentieth - century world of rock superstardom - as, pursued by the living and the dead, he searches across time for the secret of his own dark immortality.

This novel is the second book in the chronicles of the vampires by Anne Rice, and it would be strongly advised for fans of her work to read the first novel in the series, Interview with the Vampire first before the second book since it will have more meaning to it.

In Interview with the Vampire, the book was told from Louis’s point of view, this one is told from Lestat’s. Rice uses an interesting hook to bring the reader into his thoughts. Louis’s book has already been circulated in the human world, it is not enough that Lestat detests Louis’s having written the novel in the first place, he hates the lies he told about him, and more than anything else breaking the vampire code by telling the humans of them and their Dark Gift. Making his kind vulnerable if the humans took the novel seriously. Louis sees the book differently thinking no human would take it seriously at all – for them it would be a work of fiction, not one that would sound like the telling of a real life. Some could say he had it written to let Lestat know he was still walking among them, unafraid and welcoming in the new era where vampires would be looked on with a certain respect.

Lestat has been in hiding for too long and needs to get out more into the world of the humans. He recalls a time when he was human, yet another man had made him the vampire he is now. He has grown bored of his current life and needs to find something to perk him up so he doesn’t grow despondent. Lestat finds just the right thing when laid underground, listening to a rock band playing above him for several nights. He hears their dreams, aspirations, hears them play and recognizes their potential to be more than they are. The music they play is raw, brash and touches Lestat in ways he never thought possible – his urge to introduce himself to them grows until he thinks of a way to do just that. Lestat decides on a plan to tell them he can make them famous, a world renowned rock band but only if they will have him as their lead singer. They soon realize he can offer them all they ever wanted, and become the stars they always wanted to be.

Lestat sets about his plan, and later remembers his past with great clarity. Rice’s rock band idea at the beginning is just a side issue to tempt the reader in. What follows is several accounts of Lestat’s past, where he was born and raised, and the time he was made a vampire by Magnus.

Magnus comes to Lestat’s house where he and his brother reside, seeing potential in the young man, his anger and rage at the wolves who threatened him and his brother. Calling him ‘Wolfkiller’ and ‘Lelio’ he deliberately taunts him, and his is one of the first stories when the reader will see Lestat as a weak mortal, who is powerless against the immortal might of Magnus, an ages old vampire who has lived in the earth for centuries and goes out to feed, yet he gives his Dark Gift to Lestat without question, and also wants to pass his vampiric legacy over to the young, newly made vampire, and with that his immense power. Lestat does not realize the importance of what Magnus has left him as the knowledge Magnus carried for so long is to be passed to someone who he saw as strong enough, fearless enough to use it wisely.

As anyone knows, immortality comes at a price, as eventually in the case of Magnus, the body ages, as does the bones and the ability to use the power diminishes, leaving nothing more than a walking corpse. It is only when Magnus makes his demands, and shows him his hidden treasures that Lestat knows he is taking on someone else’s life path, and responsibility, but it does not end there. He knows he cannot see his family again, not when he has become a vampire, reviled, an outcast and feared by all.

The thought occurs in this novel that Lestat in making Louis a vampire was only doing what Magnus had done to him years before, creating someone who would continue his work. It is interesting to discover Lestat has the same feelings as Louis when Magnus leaves him to fend for himself. Louis views feeding on others as something against his own moral code and despairs of what a monster he has become. Being a religious type; he tries to invoke the adoration of the Madonna.

The novel is split into several intriguing chapters that chronicle Lestat's life or rebirth as a vampire; The Early Education and Adventures of the Vampire Lestat, Lelio Rising, The Legacy of Magnus, and Viaticum for the Marquise, The Children of Darkness, The Vampire Armand and others. Anne Rice has since this second novel was published created a whole series of novels in The Vampire Chronicles where Lestat has ceased to believe he is the only vampire on earth.

This is a larger book than the previous one, and has a lot more to give the reader; tales of what happened to rest of Lestat's family, Nicholas, his mother and how they ended up with a vampire coven. It also mentions when the Theatre Des Vampires began. Lestat and Louis are very much alike in their personalities, though Lestat adds more flamboyance to the story whereas Louis is more modest in his actions. The writer has created her own vampire reality from older times, through to modern ones where Lestat thinks all the magic has gone from being a vampire and wants to change into a new vampire form, one that can cope with the new generation of humans.

By the end of the novel, the beginning of a new one is created; a warning cry from Magnus comes from beyond of a new and thousand year old threat to the existing vampires that cannot be ignored.

An interesting word can be found in this novel: roquelaure.  Anne uses it to describe Lestat's sword, and is also another name she is known by, A.N. Roquelaure when she writes more steamy material in her spare time. Overall, this book is better than the first as it expands on the history of Lestat, Armand and Louis.

Anne Rice manages to evoke the atmosphere for her period vampire dramas, this one being no exception as her ability to tell the story from the point of view of the vampire Lestat is quite a feat, as she has made a certain amount of in-depth research. As usual her work is well written and in fact a pleasure to read due to the detailed way she writes, not leaving anything out that isn't the equivalent of uncovering a vast box of jewels for the first time. She uses purple prose and flowery language in her work, yet what she writes always works very well in print. Readers should expect a full telling of Lestat's life up to the third volume of The Vampire Chronicles, his exploits before he was bitten by the oldest vampire in existence, his life afterwards and his life in secret hoping to live off of other humans. The second book gives the reader an idea of the kind of person Lestat was during his long life. Anne goes into more detail about other vampires in the book such as, the vampire Armand, and obviously the much prized Louis.

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THE VAMPIRE LESTAT

From the the vampire chronicles series.

by Anne Rice ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 31, 1985

Vampires are getting classier. Rice's formidable Lestat (given a bad press by his protege Louis in the author's Interview With a Vampire , 1976) sets the record straight with his story—from 18th-century fang-y to 20th-century rock star—all in Rice's faintly erotic, red-velvet-tasseled prose, festooned with swags of philosophical-theological expository flights, intra-vampirian warfare and sanguinary nightcaps. The seventh son of an impecunious French nobleman, Lestat, the family hunter and wolf-killer, who with his soul-mate Nicholas, another rebel, pondered the "meaninglessness" of the universe, was initiated into the Dark Gifts of the vampire in Paris. All, the "taste and feel of blood when all passion and greed is sharpened in that one desire!" But Lestat as vampire is in trouble almost immediately with the vampire establishment, since he loves living as a mortal and wants to do good. To save his beloved mother from an imminent death, there's that blood-for-blood ceremony, and zingo! Mother becomes the luscious "Gabrielle," charter coven member. She'll join him in a sectarian battle with Vampire Armand's cemetery gang, who've captured Nicholas (Lestate rescues him but later can't resist merging circulatory systems). Eventually, in narratives by Armand. and Marius, keeper of ancient Egyptian gods and vampirian annals. Lestat will learn of the vampires' complex history. It's rooted in Earth Mother cults and took on the coloration of various periods and places—hence the sectarian battling of demonic immortals. Rice dots Lestat's tale with some marvelous chillers: a giant killer-god on the march; a splendid crypt entrance before a terrified congregation; night prowls and rock-concert screams with telltale "tiny white faces" in the San Francisco audience. But worry not: vampire rules dictate that mortals are perfectly safe in Vampire Bars. A vampire bonanza in appropriate dark, humid, spider-web narrative—Rice's specialty. One giant step beyond Bela.

Pub Date: Oct. 31, 1985

ISBN: 0345419642

Page Count: 680

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: April 9, 2012

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1985

FANTASY | GENERAL FANTASY | GENERAL SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY

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A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES

A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES

From the all souls trilogy series , vol. 1.

by Deborah Harkness ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 8, 2011

Entertaining, though not in the league of J.K. Rowling—or even Anne Rice. But please, people: no more vamps and wizards, OK?

Harry Potter meets Lestat de Lioncourt. Throw in a time machine, and you’ve got just about everything you need for a full-kit fantasy.

The protagonist is a witch. Her beau is a vampire. If you accept the argument that we’ve seen entirely too many of both kinds of characters in contemporary fiction, then you’re not alone. Yet, though Harkness seems to be arriving very late to a party that one hopes will soon break up, her debut novel has its merits; she writes well, for one thing, and, as a historian at the University of Southern California, she has a scholarly bent that plays out effectively here. Indeed, her tale opens in a library—and not just any library, but the Bodleian at Oxford, pride of England and the world. Diana Bishop is both tenured scholar and witch, and when her book-fetcher hauls up a medieval treatise on alchemy with “a faint, iridescent shimmer that seemed to be escaping from between the pages,” she knows what to do with it. Unfortunately, the library is crammed with other witches, some of malevolent intent, and Diana soon finds that books can be dangerous propositions. She’s a bit of a geek, and not shy of bragging, either, as when she trumpets the fact that she has “a prodigious, photographic memory” and could read and write before any of the other children of the coven could. Yet she blossoms, as befits a bodice-ripper no matter how learned, once neckbiter and renowned geneticist Matthew Clairmont enters the scene. He’s a smoothy, that one, “used to being the only active participant in a conversation,” smart and goal-oriented, and a valuable ally in the great mantomachy that follows—and besides, he’s a pretty good kisser, too. “It’s a vampire thing,” he modestly avers.

Pub Date: Feb. 8, 2011

ISBN: 978-0-670-02241-0

Page Count: 592

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2010

GENERAL SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | FANTASY | PARANORMAL FICTION | GENERAL FANTASY

THE BOOK OF LIFE

by Deborah Harkness

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DARK MATTER

by Blake Crouch ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 26, 2016

Suspenseful, frightening, and sometimes poignant—provided the reader has a generously willing suspension of disbelief.

A man walks out of a bar and his life becomes a kaleidoscope of altered states in this science-fiction thriller.

Crouch opens on a family in a warm, resonant domestic moment with three well-developed characters. At home in Chicago’s Logan Square, Jason Dessen dices an onion while his wife, Daniela, sips wine and chats on the phone. Their son, Charlie, an appealing 15-year-old, sketches on a pad. Still, an undertone of regret hovers over the couple, a preoccupation with roads not taken, a theme the book will literally explore, in multifarious ways. To start, both Jason and Daniela abandoned careers that might have soared, Jason as a physicist, Daniela as an artist. When Charlie was born, he suffered a major illness. Jason was forced to abandon promising research to teach undergraduates at a small college. Daniela turned from having gallery shows to teaching private art lessons to middle school students. On this bracing October evening, Jason visits a local bar to pay homage to Ryan Holder, a former college roommate who just received a major award for his work in neuroscience, an honor that rankles Jason, who, Ryan says, gave up on his career. Smarting from the comment, Jason suffers “a sucker punch” as he heads home that leaves him “standing on the precipice.” From behind Jason, a man with a “ghost white” face, “red, pursed lips," and "horrifying eyes” points a gun at Jason and forces him to drive an SUV, following preset navigational directions. At their destination, the abductor forces Jason to strip naked, beats him, then leads him into a vast, abandoned power plant. Here, Jason meets men and women who insist they want to help him. Attempting to escape, Jason opens a door that leads him into a series of dark, strange, yet eerily familiar encounters that sometimes strain credibility, especially in the tale's final moments.

Pub Date: July 26, 2016

ISBN: 978-1-101-90422-0

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Crown

Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016

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the vampire lestat book review

the vampire lestat book review

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The Vampire Lestat: The Second Book in the Vampire Chronicles

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the vampire lestat book review

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Book review: the vampire lestat by anne rice.

Title: The Vampire Lestat Author: Anne Rice Genre: Gothic Horror, Vampire Fiction, Supernatural Publisher: Random House Publication Date: October 7, 1982

The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice

Introduction: The allure of Anne Rice’s literary world has always been its ability to blend the ethereal beauty of the supernatural with the harsh realities of human nature. The Vampire Lestat is not merely a book; it's an odyssey that introduces us to the vampire Lestat, whose life spans across centuries filled with love, pain, and existential contemplation.

Summary: The Vampire Lestat unfolds the story of a young, gifted painter named Marius who turns into a vampire during the Napoleonic Wars. Seeking to escape his past and find meaning in eternal darkness, Marius is drawn to Lestat’s charismatic presence. Their relationship evolves from survival companionship to something deeper that transcends mere friendship. The narrative spans centuries as Lestat, now a notorious figure among vampires, struggles with his existence and the moral implications of his immortality.

Analysis: Rice's writing style in The Vampire Lestat is lyrical and evocative, often diving deep into the psyche of her characters. This allows readers to empathize with the tortured soul that is Lestat as he grapples with the dualities of life and death. The book explores themes of love, redemption, and identity in a world where both humans and vampires question their own nature.

One of the standout moments is when Lestat confronts his mortality after centuries of life, revealing the inner turmoil that comes with immortality. A notable quote from the book reads: "I am not alive; I am only existing." This line encapsulates Lestat's existential crisis and adds depth to Rice’s exploration of human (or in this case, vampire) nature.

Personal Reflection: As someone who has followed Rice’s journey through the Lives of the Mayfair Witches series and her other works, my relationship with her characters is deeply personal. The development of Lestat from a seemingly invincible vampire to an introspective being who questions his purpose resonated with me on a deeper level than expected.

Comparatively, The Vampire Lestat stands out for its nuanced portrayal of vampires as beings capable of love and sorrow rather than just creatures of the night. Rice’s ability to humanize her supernatural characters while maintaining the genre's essence is commendable.

Recommendation: I would recommend this book primarily to fans of Gothic horror and vampire fiction, but also to those interested in philosophical explorations on life, death, and existence. If you're intrigued by the duality between love and darkness, or if Anne Rice’s writing style has captured your imagination before, then The Vampire Lestat is a must-read.

Conclusion: "The Vampire Lestat" is more than just another vampire tale—it's a profound examination of existence that combines horror with emotional depth. This book invites readers to ponder their own lives and the mysteries they hold within themselves. As you delve into Lestat’s world, don't forget to share your thoughts in the comments section below or follow our blog for more insightful reviews.

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  1. Book Review: 'The Vampire Lestat' by Anne Rice

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  2. The Vampire Lestat #1 Reviews

    the vampire lestat book review

  3. The Vampire Lestat (Vampire Chronicles) by Anne Rice

    the vampire lestat book review

  4. Book Review: The Vampire Lestat (The Vampire Chronicles Book 2) by Anne

    the vampire lestat book review

  5. The Vampire Lestat Book

    the vampire lestat book review

  6. The Vampire Lestat

    the vampire lestat book review

VIDEO

  1. Lestat & Louis / Details / Interview with the Vampire

  2. Reviewing the vampire Lestat comic from 1990

  3. The Vampire Lestat

  4. louis + lestat || only love can hurt like this {1.07}

  5. Lestat's Lullaby

  6. The Vampire Lestat (The Vampire Chronicles #2)

COMMENTS

  1. THE VAMPIRE LESTAT

    Vampires are getting classier. Rice's formidable Lestat (given a bad press by his protege Louis in the author's Interview With a Vampire, 1976) sets the record straight with his story—from 18th-century fang-y to 20th-century rock star—all in Rice's faintly erotic, red-velvet-tasseled prose, festooned with swags of philosophical-theological expository flights, intra-vampirian warfare and ...

  2. Book Review: 'The Vampire Lestat' by Anne Rice

    Luna Gauthier shares her thoughts about Anne Rice's novel The Vampire Lestat as the 2nd season of Interview with the Vampire airs on AMC.

  3. Book Review: The Vampire Lestat (The Vampire Chronicles Book 2) by Anne

    Lestat has risen after many years in the ground, and, upon reading Louis's versions of events, decides to write his own memoir about his life as a human and a vampire. He also decides to beco…

  4. The Vampire Lestat: The seminal work of vampire fiction since Stoker

    The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice Anne Rice's second vampire novel is both a prequel and a sequel to her original story Interview with the Vampire. A sequel because it is framed by a sequence of events in contemporary times, and a prequel because it recounts the history of the vampire Lestat, the sire of the protagonist Louis in Interview.

  5. The Vampire Lestat

    The Vampire Lestat (1985) is a vampire novel by American writer Anne Rice, the second in her Vampire Chronicles, following Interview with the Vampire (1976). The story is told from the point of view of the vampire Lestat de Lioncourt as narrator, while Interview is narrated by Louis de Pointe du Lac. Several events in the two books appear to contradict each other, allowing the reader to decide ...

  6. Reviews

    The year is 1984, and Lestat is the famous lead singer of the group, The Vampire Lestat. He stumbles upon a simple little book, "Interview with the Vampire", starring Louis, his ersatz lover of sorts (because vampires don't exactly have lovers the same way humans do).

  7. Reviews

    The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice. Only show reviews with written explanations. billymac1962 ... I'll always give Rice blood red-roses for giving us vampire fans such a marvelously brash vampire. Lestat is the be-all-to-end-all, a legend in his own mind who wants to push the edges. I love reading this book just to kick my inspiration into how to ...

  8. The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice book review

    The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice (The Vampire Chronicles: Book 2) 'Ah, the taste and feel of blood when all passion and greed is sharpened in that one desire!' Lestat: a vampire - but very much not the conventional undead, for Lestat is the truly alive. Lestat is vivid, ecstatic, stagestruck, and in his extravagant story he plunges from the lasciviousness of eighteenth-century Paris to the ...

  9. The Vampire Lestat

    About The Vampire Lestat Returning to the hypnotic world she so brilliantly created in Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice demonstrates once again her power to enthrall."Brilliant … its undead characters are utterly alive."—The New York Times Book Review With the same richness of drama, atmosphere and incident, she tells the fantastic story of the vampire Lestat, whom we first ...

  10. The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice review

    The first half of the book chronicles Lestat's struggles against the stodgy, controlling, and self-hating culture of vampires that demand he live in misery because of what he is. Lestat chooses instead to embrace the life and power of a vampire for all its worth, inspiring some other vampires to follow suit.

  11. Vampire Lestat

    Vampire Lestat. Anne Rice. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, Sep 12, 1985 - Fiction - 496 pages. Returning to the hypnotic world she so brilliantly created in Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice demonstrates once again her power to enthrall. "Brilliant ... its undead characters are utterly alive."—The New York Times Book Review With the ...

  12. The Vampire Lestat

    The Vampire Lestat. Anne Rice. Random House Publishing Group, Nov 29, 1997 - Fiction - 512 pages. #1 New York Times Bestselling author - Surrender to fiction's greatest creature of the night - Book II of the Vampire Chronicles The vampire hero of Anne Rice's enthralling novel is a creature of the darkest and richest imagination.

  13. The Vampire Lestat (Vampire Chronicles Volume 2) by Anne Rice : Book Review

    The Review. This novel is the second book in the chronicles of the vampires by Anne Rice, and it would be strongly advised for fans of her work to read the first novel in the series, Interview with the Vampire first before the second book since it will have more meaning to it. In Interview with the Vampire, the book was told from Louis's ...

  14. THE VAMPIRE LESTAT

    Vampires are getting classier. Rice's formidable Lestat (given a bad press by his protege Louis in the author's Interview With a Vampire, 1976) sets the record straight with his story—from 18th-century fang-y to 20th-century rock star—all in Rice's faintly erotic, red-velvet-tasseled prose, festooned with swags of philosophical-theological expository flights, intra-vampirian warfare and ...

  15. The Vampire Lestat (The Vampire Chronicles, Book 2)

    But Lestat, the mischievous creator of Louis in Interview, finally emerged to tell his own story in the 1985 sequel, The Vampire Lestat. As with the first book in the series, the novel begins with a frame narrative.

  16. The Vampire Lestat: Rice, Anne: 9780394534435: Amazon.com: Books

    The Vampire Lestat. Hardcover - October 31, 1986. by Anne Rice (Author) 4.6 3,236 ratings. Book 2 of 13: Vampire Chronicles. See all formats and editions. Returning to the hypnotic world she so brilliantly created in Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice demonstrates once again her power to enthrall. With the same richness of drama ...

  17. The Vampire Lestat (Vampire Chronicles, Book II)

    The Vampire Lestat (Vampire Chronicles, Book II) Mass Market Paperback - September 12, 1986 by Anne Rice (Author) 4.7 3,259 ratings Book 2 of 13: Vampire Chronicles See all formats and editions #1 New York Times Bestselling author - Surrender to fiction's greatest creature of the night - Book II of the Vampire Chronicles

  18. The Vampire Lestat (Vampire Chronicles Series #2)|Paperback

    Overview #1 New York Times Bestselling author - Surrender to fiction's greatest creature of the night - Book II of the Vampire Chronicles The vampire hero of Anne Rice's enthralling novel is a creature of the darkest and richest imagination.

  19. The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice

    The Vampire Lestat: Volume 2 in series - Vampire Chronicles (Paperback) Anne Rice (author) ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 7 Reviews Sign in to write a review £10.99 Paperback 560 Pages Published: 16/10/2008 10+ in stock Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days Quantity Add to basket

  20. The Vampire Lestat: The Second Book in the Vampire Chronicles

    Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for The Vampire Lestat: The Second Book in the Vampire Chronicles at Amazon.com. Read honest and unbiased product reviews from our users.

  21. Book Review: The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice

    The Vampire Lestat is not merely a book; it's an odyssey that introduces us to the vampire Lestat, whose life spans across centuries filled with love, pain, and existential contemplation. Summary: The Vampire Lestat unfolds the story of a young, gifted painter named Marius who turns into a vampire during the Napoleonic Wars.