Stuff I love: The Vampire Chronicles

[cupcake_goth]

You knew I'd get around to wittering about my Stupid Egotistical Rock Star Vampire Boyfriend, don't look surprised.

For those of you into podcasts, The Night Library had an episode about Interview with the Vampire, where Rhias, Mal, and myself covered a lot of my feels about the series--including my giving a fast synopsis of what the hell has happened in the series since IwtV (SPACE BIRDS)--but I'm going to burble here, too!

I actually read The Vampire Lestat first. I found a copy at the library, and pretty much fell in love. Lestat is charming, he worries that the people he values don't actually like or love him, and he's a bundle of bombast. He's also a charismatic, egotistical walking example of poor impulse control. And did I mention rock star? And the red velvet frock coats?

Anyway, after reading TVL, I went and found the first book, where I discovered my precious murderbaby Claudia, a charismatic and manipulative version of Lestat, and Louis, who is a big mope who expects everyone else to do the emotional labor so he can wallow in guilt about his lost humanity. Don't get me wrong, Lestat and Louis are my Murder Husbands OTP #1, but I'm still not quite sure why Lestat is still head over heels about Louis.

And then the rest of the books descend into growing levels of crazycakes. Anne Rice is committed to her insanity and is confident in her writing, and I admire the hell out of that.

My favorites of the series, in order:

1. The Vampire Lestat.


2. Interview with the Vampire (mostly the parts with Claudia, and with the Theatre des Vampires).


3. Queen of the Damned, where the cracky nonsense starts.


4. Prince Lestat, because it reads like Lestat is writing the most over the top self-insert fanfic ever.


5. The Vampire Armand, because Armand is a drama queen of the first order.


6. Blood Communion, because it actually has a tight plot with twists I didn't see coming. (And almost ragequit the series over, but things were resolved to my satisfaction.)

... and then every other book, none of which I reread. We do not speak of Blood Canticle, because trying to tie the Mayfair Witches books to The Vampire Chronicles was epically boring. We only speak of Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis to stun other people with the information that ghosts of space aliens being responsible for the creation of vampires, and that those space aliens were created by OTHER space aliens, who are SPACE BIRDS.

In short: I read about my Stupid Egotistical Rock Star Vampire Boyfriend in my teens and imprinted HARD. Also, red velvet frock coats and ivory lace jabots.

Comments

[thatyourefuse]

I maybe liked Blood Canticle. Hypothetically. Although, hypothetically, I was like seventeen and what I actually liked was Mona eating the fucking world just, like, in whatever context.

[cupcake_goth]

I am for Mona eating the fucking world. Yes. And Lestat's philosophical What is reality? burblings fueled by ghostly hot chocolate with the ghost of Uncle Julian? Comedy gold. But ... Lestat falling in love with Rowan left me cold-to-exasperated.

However, I will reread Blood Canticle looooong before I'll ever touch Memnoch the Devil again.

[varianbetweenstars]

I've read the first two books, then somehow jumped ahead to Blood and Gold, and found myself wondering what happened to the series.

[dark_phoenix54]

It did amaze me how she could take two series (TVL and the Mayfairs) that I just loved and managed to make the tie in suck. Also, I gave up on the Vampire series after too many other vampires got brought in, and I refuse to read the Atlantis one because Lestat meeting God was more than I could handle.

[icprncs]

I also read The Vampire Lestat first. Reading Interview after that might have been my first realization of the effects of unreliable narrators.

I threw Tale of the Body Thief across the room and have never touched another of her books.

[carmenbeaudry]

I don’t even have the excuse of being a teen when I first met Lestat. He’s very French, Old Regime, and all angsty about it that appeals to my love of all things historic and French—-and then add being the Prince of the bloodsucking undead. Merrrrrowwwwww.

[sirriamnis]

I also read Lestat first, then for years just could not get into Interview, because Louis whining.

I liked Queen of the Damned, but yes, you are right. That is where it starts to go off the rails.

I HATED Tale of the Body Thief. Was bored to indifferent by the Mayfair Witches, and just stopped after that.

Now, her standalones that were more historical, like Cry to Heaven and Feast of All Saints, I really enjoy. But, we read your live blogging of reading the Atlantis book aloud at dinner and laughed until tears ran down our cheeks.

[ironed_orchid]

I read the first 3 books while sick in bed in my 20s and they were wonderful and just what the doctor ordered. Then I read Mayfair Witches books and they were entertaining enough. Then I read Body Theif and Memnoch and noped the fuck out. I don't even remember what it was about them that I disliked, just that I was done with them.