Reviews with content warning for Blood - Queen of the Damned

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Queen of the Damned by Anne Rice

35 reviews

zsabella's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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metamorphesque's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-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 want to hug these idiots so tightly. There's a deep love in me for this book that just grew and grew with each page. Just a gorgeous book and a gorgeous story with all the arguments in this absolutely fascinating me endlessly. To dismiss the novel as "boring" or "slow" is to miss out on the richly layered characterization that Anne Rice has crafted. The depth of the story lies not just in the events that unfold, but in the intricate web of relationships, histories, and existential dilemmas that haunt these immortal beings. Moreover, this book isn’t merely about plot; it’s an exploration of myth, power, and the burden of immortality. So if you've finished it and come away thinking it's simply boring, slow, or lacking in action, then you've fundamentally overlooked Anne Rice's nuanced characterization and misunderstood both the essence of the story and the depth of the characters. :)))

thought-provoking journey into the dark, seductive world of Anne Rice’s vampires, one that is well worth the investment
beautifully different characters with such intricate feelings and interpersonal relationships - this is fundamentally a character novel btwww so if you're reading it for the plot and complain about it ??? what are you doing?? lmao go read twilight instead.
there's a lot that goes on here politically ((idea of world peace ushered by genocide lol
not a whimsical fantasy or some lighthearted cozy vampire bs, it's a dense fucking book with thick prose that deals with heavy topics and complicated characters with trauma, and immortality, and religion mixed into all of it ofc
ancient characters full of biases my beloved
love that the message boils down to "No one needs or deserves a God stepping in to solve their problems with deceptively simple solutions, just as the global North should learn to keep it's hands out of the global South"
however, I am ON. THE. FLOOR. at this fucking 500yo grown ass vampire painstakingly feeding individual paper towels to the garbage disposal at 1am. Armand making smoothies and cooking rats in a toaster oven, come on now. <3
iCONIC. totally would give it 8/5 purely because of devil's minion.
I really enjoyed the different POVs, finally got to see khayman and jesse and maharet tho that plotline dragged a bit lol I can appreciate having the major arc of lestat and louis towards the end there though, so worth it
akasha is Meh for me like Gurl plz
the vampire mythology was interesting but personally I couldn't give a damn
which brings me to lestat's shenanigans and 'tell me how bad i am, it makes me feel so good’ lestat you whore are you ok ?? xd
unfortunately this book faces its share of criticisms, with some people out there lamenting the writing style, the slow pacing, or a perceived detachment that makes it feel like the reader is merely observing the vampires from a distance
- all these overlook a fundamental aspect of the novel: the narrative conceit that Lestat himself is the "author" of this story in-world. like girl he doesn't care about rules, he doesn't like them including those of writing novels by extension xd This rebellious approach isn't just a quirk of his either btw; it's deeply embedded in his character - he is impulsive, narcissistic, and insatiably curious, and the book's style mirrors these traits
- the sprawling narrative, the meandering reflections, and even the slower pacing are all deliberate choices that reflect Lestat's temperament; almost as though you are being brought into the mind of a vampire whose perspective spans centuries, with all the complexity and indulgence that entails, all the extravagance and horror of it too

Ultimately, if you come away from Queen of the Damned feeling that "nothing much happens," it suggests a misunderstanding of what Rice is attempting to achieve :)) The novel is a meditation on the vampire condition, a gothic tapestry where the beauty lies in the details, the characters’ introspections, and the lush, poetic language. To reduce it to a lack of conventional action is to overlook the artistry and nuance with which Rice breathes life into her world. Her work is not about meeting conventional expectations, but rather about challenging them, offering an experience that is as much about mood and atmosphere as it is about story :))

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hocuscrocus's review against another edition

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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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madamenovelist's review against another edition

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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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alexandryareads's review against another edition

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dark tense slow-paced

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

2.5

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eleasofia's review against another edition

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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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windurm's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.75

Really satisfying ending

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seanamcphie's review against another edition

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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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kittytales's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

5.0

Looove all the creativity in this book. Lots of awesome female characters. Really neat lore and world-building. Queen of the Damned really stands out and is so different from the other books in the series. I wish the books followed some of these awesome women around instead of a certain egotistical fellow.... I could have done without

the rape and the rapist being redeemed by the narrative, though

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nytephoenyx's review against another edition

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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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