Reviews tagging 'Death'

Queen of the Damned by Anne Rice

27 reviews

hocuscrocus's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny reflective slow-paced

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

3.0

I really didn't enjoy this book overall, but

the chapter with Daniel and Armand

was so delightfully unhinged that I can't stop talking about how much I loved it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Incest, Rape, Sexual assault, Blood, and Pregnancy

madamenovelist's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Islamophobia, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcohol

Minor: Excrement, Vomit, and Abortion

eleasofia's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

i know that a lot of people perceived this book as too slow-paced, but it almost felt medium-paced to me to be honest. my reference point for what "slow" is might be off, but i was so drawn into the story, it definitely didn't feel slow to me. yes, the story is told differently than before with alternating narrators/ povs, most of which are characters that are newly introduced. in the beginning, some of the chapters are a bit hard to get into because it feels a bit like starting a new book for the first pages, but i got through that quickly and then those chapters were interesting to me too. it makes the story complex and sometimes repetitive, and maybe unnecessarily so, but i actually enjoyed most of it. the same story could've probably been told from less povs and with less side stories, but with the exception of one,

the baby jenks chapter

, i liked them. some of them did more for the furthering of the plot than others, but they were all meaningfully connected in one way or another. and even if they didn't serve the plot, i felt like they served the world building and lore and that's probably what i love most about the series beides the various characters. regarding the story itself, i really enjoyed how everything came together and how all ends of the individual stories were tied up. the ending was very satisfying to me. i'm definitely going to read the next book, but the first three books could very well be a trilogy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Genocide, Rape, Cannibalism, and Murder

seanamcphie's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Violence, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

nytephoenyx's review against another edition

informative mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

Queen of the Damned is not a story that allows the reader to spectate while the characters have adventures - the reader instead stands back and listens to the characters as they discuss histories and current events. In that way, Queen of the Damned is a critically acclaimed info dump.

The story is interesting, but I find the delivery shallow and lazy. It’s consistent with the rest of the Vampire Chronicles - I think I forget in between reads. Anne Rice holds the standard to which vampire books are held (Anne Rice and Bram Stoker) but while the imagination is there, the technique is lacking. If you’re interested in the origin of Rice’s vampires, Queen of the Damned delivers the story like reading a Wikipedia article. But you do get the history of the creatures. So there’s that?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Death, Blood, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, and Pregnancy

peggy_racham's review against another edition

5.0

"The past may instruct us. But it won’t save us."

Women's rights and wrongs but has Akasha ever been right?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

mysimas's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective slow-paced

• 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

2.5

The plot was lost in too much navel-gazing and prolonged scenes of characters just talking or sometimes even just standing and staring at each other awkwardly. Lestat’s concert was exactly that: a bunch of vampires standing in the crowd and observing one another. And you know how in movies, at the end, the villain always discloses their whole philosophy and motives? Well, that was Akasha’s whole shtick, all her scenes were either about that or about letting Lestat drink from her and then teaching him his new super powers. Got old pretty quick.

I did enjoy some parts though — the end was good, as was the worldbuilding, like it always is with this author (though I wish it wasn’t all built around a rape, like why). But in the end I would only recommend this to people already curious about the lore. If it wasn’t for the show I would never have bothered to finish — I really wanted to know what’s the deal with Daniel and Armand, and I sincerely hope the show will elevate it with all the changes that are already in place.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Genocide, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, and Murder

anjalirenee's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

obviously it's good. standouts for me are the characters of Akasha and Khayman. I loved how complicated and three dimensional Akasha was for a female villain. That being said it was EXTREMELY slow GODDDD. The whole Maharet plotline was so dragged out, her flashback exposition was THREE CHAPTERS. The flashback was interesting and it gave a great look into Akasha's character, but other than that it just felt like info dumping lore that could have been extras on a fan website. Literally felt like pulling teeth when I had to read about the Maharet/Mekare stuff. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Blood

Moderate: Genocide, Incest, and Suicidal thoughts

bolivianrash's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny hopeful inspiring mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Genocide, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, Dysphoria, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, and Colonisation

calcified_boner's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

the devil's minion chapter ily 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Genocide, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, and Colonisation

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Islamophobia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Pregnancy, and Alcohol