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bolivianrash's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Violence, Blood, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Death, Gore, Slavery, and War
Minor: Incest, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Excrement, Kidnapping, and Abandonment
citrusandwords's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Incest, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail
econsidine's review against another edition
- 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? Yes
4.25
Lestat is a great narrator, particularly because he is horrible. He is a misogynist and a terrible friend, with a giant ego, a violent streak, and no impulse control. He's definitely got some kind of incestuous relationship going on with his mother. And he's also a literal monster and kills people all the time. There is no redeeming him--which feels very much on purpose--and yet Anne Rice makes you empathize with him all the same. She never lets you forget how much of a monster he is, but also makes it clear that he feels immense love and pain at the same time. It's a refusal to equate evil with unfeeling that I find refreshing. It can be easy, in both stories and in real life, to try and see abusers/criminals/perpetrators of harm as coldhearted, lacking in self-awareness, and detached from humanity, but that's not necessarily the case. People can be loving and smart and self-aware, passionate and well-intentioned and victimized themselves, and can still do horrible things and be forces for evil. And Rice makes both the evil and the love unavoidable parts of her characters.
As a book, it's also a historical adventure story, moving from Auvergne to Gaul to Egypt to San Francisco and a whole lot of other places in the middle. There's also a lot of other characters' stories in this one, despite the title. The book reads almost like interconnected short stories, which makes sense for a tale about immortals.
And I guess that brings me to the other thing that strikes me about this book, the immortality of it all. Like the first book, but even more so, this book has a lot of philosophical musings about immortality and making it all meaningful and who is best suited to continue raging against that dying light the longest. Really, it feels like a way to discuss how to make an actual mortal lifetime meaningful, with the maybe-easier-to-digest natural phases and metamorphoses of an eternal lifetime acting as comparison. It reads, to me, like something written by someone who is very worried about death and about making life count. Though maybe that is projecting a bit too much. Either way, there's a lot going on here and it hit home for me.
Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Torture, Violence, and Blood
Moderate: Animal death, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, and Abandonment
Minor: Incest, Sexual assault, and Car accident
Sexual assault clarification:tbd24's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gore, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Blood, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Incest and Racism
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Slavery, Violence, and War
crisisalide's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Death, Violence, and Blood
Moderate: Suicide and Terminal illness
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Sexual violence, and Kidnapping
claire_3lyse's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, and Murder
Moderate: Kidnapping and Abandonment
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Gore, Incest, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Excrement, Vomit, Trafficking, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
vampireph4ze's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Terminal illness
shayh's review against another edition
3.75
This book includes a "story within a story" at some points- something to keep in mind if you are interested in that type of narration.
I question the validity of Ancient Egyptian mythology in this book. From my education, Osiris was slain by his brother Seth. And the people of Ancient Egypt were not "sun burnt" nor tan; they were Black.
The narration is mainly my source of inspiration when it comes to writing. It's more of the words and speaking than the story telling. It's what helps with my writing style for my own novels.
Moderate: Animal death and Incest
Minor: Death, Terminal illness, Religious bigotry, and Fire/Fire injury
meganpbennett's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- 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
4.0
Graphic: Violence and Blood
Moderate: Death
Minor: Incest, Slavery, Terminal illness, Vomit, and Grief