Reviews with content warning for Blood - The Tale of the Body Thief

There are other reviewers who put it better, but this feels like the book where Anne Rice really, really wanted to remind readers that her main character Lestat is a terrible person. He's a fan favorite, since he's charismatic as hell and an entertaining narrator, but it's easy to forget that he's done and continues to do some horrendous things to the people he claims to care about. If you love Lestat and see him as a misunderstood/tortured soul, this will be a tough read. If you enjoy him as a character/narrator but would hate to meet him in real life, you'll probably still enjoy this one.

There's nothing really new or surprising if you've read the first three, unless you've been reading this character with major rose-colored glasses on, but this book really hammers home his selfishness, violence, and complete lack of respect for other people's bodily autonomy. In this book he (vague spoilers ahead; see tags)

Spoiler

rapes a woman, burns his lover's house down, and turns someone into a vampire against their will. He also murders a lot of people as vampires tend to do

. As narrator, he acts like all of this was on impulse and he had no control over himself, immediately regretting all actions afterward, though I'd argue none of this is portrayed as okay or redeemable in the text. The "Body Thief" of the title very much refers to Lestat in a LOT of ways other than the obvious.

If you're okay reading all that, then you'll get a few beautiful moments with Louis (in his best taking-no-bullshit-era), Claudia haunting everything, and one of the best dog characters ever. Otherwise it is a lot of Lestat being horrible and having conversations with his old man friend David. Which really doesn't interest me. All that to say, gonna pause here with the series for now.

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spellbookspines's review against another edition

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1.0

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moreau's review against another edition

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dark funny slow-paced

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

3.0

this was the most atrocious book I've ever read. worse than prince harry's, worse than all the tiresome classics and 2010s manga. i thought queen of the damned was mid, this is an abomination. i couldn't put it down, so i'm still giving it 3 stars. also david is a chad (as is ever character played by paul mcgann) but this is a violation to all the senses, even though its just words on paper. so many descriptions of piss and shit, the least sexy sex scenes, a full on rape scene and an extremely rapey vampire transformation. what even is the plot?? why the fuck are mortals psychic now? how do you get your fucking body stolen? lestat went from being the best character in the series to a mega mary sue. sure he was always a dick and somewhat abusive, but now he's a rapist?? and he's got every fucking vampire power and is so dumb he gets his body stolen. HIS BODY. STOLEN. he is so dumb, overpowered, abusive and over all circle tool flipaclip 2017 furry oc. anne rice shouldve been arrested for conjuring up this fuck of a book. im definetely reading something else between this and the next vampire chronicle as my head hurts from this bullshit.

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reclusivebookslug's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.25

Compared to previous entries in the series, this was a more straightforward narrative. I thought this would be a negative for me, in light of the almost Lovecraftian series of events in TQOTD, but I read through this quicker and easier than the rest. This was also a very dour experience for me. Vampiric existence seems so tragic and horrifying, but then so does human, mortal existence, so existence generally seems like a sort of trick. But if the alternative is nonexistence or leaping into the great unknown, that brings its own horror. There is no winning. I want everyone to be good and happy, but it's hard to imagine a truly positive path forward for them. I think I will be taking a slightly larger break from this series than usual before I dip back in to continue with the fifth.

Spoiler
One stand-out positive part of this reading experience was the humor in seeing Lestat fumble through the basics of being human in the modern era. He is horrified by his bodily functions, intolerant of his weakness and dull senses, and clueless as to how to get his basic needs met.

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vampirical_pirate's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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nausikaaah's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional medium-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

4.0

I want to review this properly but honestly, I am currently only able to think about a Tumblr post that pondered if Lestat had remained a rockstar... how long would it have taken for him to start singing about David Talbet the way Lana Del Rey sings about old men?

Good freaky Friday vibes, this better be included in the tv show.

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carrionkid's review against another edition

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3.0

This book could've been good. There were a lot of plot threads and concepts presented that could've been honed into a compelling final product. Unfortunately, miss Rice decided to fire her editor and my GOD does it show!

There's multiple completely incoherent passages. So many descriptions of pissing. Wildly unsexy erotic scenes. Wholesale rape. And the whole thing should've ended much sooner than it did, which she tried to play off coyly as a self aware joke in chapter thirty two, which ultimately fell flat because it should've ended well before even that.

However, it's a perfect example of why a published author needs an editor so I guess it serves one greater purpose.

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exclipse's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny slow-paced

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

3.75

The slowest paced of slow paces. Incredibly, shockingly slow. The writing style is beautiful but man Anne rambles on about completely irrelevant things. Still, I enjoyed it, I found the narration charming and humorous, even if I didn’t finish it. I don’t think I would recommend it to others though, since it’s slow and has a lot of potentially triggering -or just gross- content.

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