[Anne Rice]
You may remember that I’m currently doing a female horror author reading challenge – if you don’t know what I’m talking about, then you can read my ‘My Female Horror Authors Reading List’ post. Well, once I finished reading The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, I moved on to the next author on my list which was Anne Rice. I originally wanted to read Interview with the Vampire since I had already watched the film, but the book wasn’t available in the library (book fairy thieves have been at it again), so I decided to read Prince Lestat.
Anne Rice is an American author who writes horror, historical fiction, Christian fiction and erotica. She is best known for her Vampire Chronicles book series, which includes Interview with the Vampire and Prince Lestat. And with nearly 100 million copies of her books sold, she is one of the most widely read authors in the present time. I’ve never read anything written by Anne Rice, so I was keen to read the works of this popular author.
Prince Lestat is the 11th book in the Vampire Chronicles book series. The book is classed under horror and gothic, so since I couldn’t read Interview with the Vampire, I thought this would be a fine replacement.
[Prince Lestat by Anne Rice]
Prince Lestat is about the vampire world facing a new threat that is causing chaos. Following instructions from an invisible entity simply known as The Voice, the older vampires (Ancient Ones) are burning the vampire young (Fledglings) around the world. It’s down to one rebel outlaw called Prince Lestat to stop the burnings and unite the vampire world.
When I started reading the book, I was intrigued by the idea of vampires hearing voices – what’s scarier than not being able to trust your own mind? The story started well and kept my interest, but the more I read, the more I lost interest in the story. By the time I finished reading the book, I was (sorry, I’m going to be brutally honest here) glad it was over. If it wasn’t for my stubbornness, I would have never finished the book.
I didn’t find the story scary, even with the voice. I struggled to connect with the main character or any of the characters, to be honest. I’m not a fan of the romance genre, so knowing how attractive all of these vampires were was off-putting, and as for the plot, I did have high hopes, but I soon lost excitement for it; it dragged on, and nothing much happened. I also feel that there were too many characters and points of views for me to connect with any of the characters. The antagonist while threatening at first soon stopped being threatening and became annoying. Now, I did consider that I may not have enjoyed the book because I hadn’t read any of the previous books in the series, but I read some reviews on Goodreads, and they also felt the same way I did.
The story idea itself is a good one, but I think more focus should have been on the risk to the vampires, and I also think it would have been better to have fewer subplots. I must say that there’s nothing wrong with the writing. I just don’t feel that the book or style was for me (Remember, as writers, you can’t please everyone) So it was okay, which is why I rated it two stars, but it wasn’t one of my favourites.
Overall, I didn’t enjoy Prince Lestat, but I would still like to read Interview with the Vampire.
Have you read any of Anne Rice’s novels? If you have, then feel free to comment below with your recommendations.
Keep writing, folks!
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