Anne Rice: The Vampire Lestat

Hi everyone

This is my review for Anne Rice’s second book in The Vampire Chronicles; The Vampire Lestat.
I got it as a gift from friends and it has 550 pages.

“The story begins in our own time with Lestat, tall, blond, and handsome, a world-renowned rock star. His gifts are timeless, his youth never withers. But he was not always the powerful and famous child of darkness. Before his long earth-encrusted sleep, he was an aristocrat in the heady days of pre-Revolutionary France. It was then that he came face-to-face with the incarnation of evil and the temptations of love that he has ravenously pursued through time. Where it has led him and what he has become is the heart of the tale that has captured millions of readers.”

                                                *   SPOILERS   *

The Vampire Lestat didn’t blow me away like I had hoped it would.
It’s not a bad book in general, I’d almost call it good but it just didn’t capture me.
I never felt compelled to read on, I wasn’t captivated by the characters and what happened to them didn’t really interest me.

Lestat is a brilliant character and I loved how Rice made him seem human in his emotions and actions. Marius is great too and I like the history he tells us.
Nicolas, Armand and Gabrielle though, they aggravated me so much! I did not care for them at all and they felt very unrealistic both in character and actions.
The pacing was off too, especially when Lestat moved to different parts in the world the plot would go down and the story got really boring in some chapters of the book.
And lastly; the book was too dramatic for me. I absolutely hate drama for drama’s sake and Rice drowned us in it.

I enjoyed the story (though it might have been shorter) and most of the characters but the book just didn’t grab me.

2.5 STARS

Happy reading!
Helena