Rating: 
Summary: whine whine whine whine
Review: Dear Abbey,
I have had an imaginary companion since childhood. My mother wants to be a country and western singer and hates me, i don't know why. The ghost of my grandfather's wife keeps hitting on me. The imaginary companion also wants to have sex with me. My Aunt Queen has a companion who i want to have sex with. All the ladies in my house wear incredibly high heels. I have a thing about women's feet. My girlfriend is a witch and can also see ghosts. I want to marry her, but no one will let us cause we are not allowed to have sex because she gets pregnant and miscarries at the drop of a hat and this is making her very ill.
I am really quite fed up with all this. I am Catholic and feel guilt about all this and more.
By the way i am a vampire so actually I can no longer have sex with anyone.
Is this normal??
I look forward to your reply.
Quinn BlackwoodDear Quinn,
All teenagers go through an phase when they are not certain about their sexuality. This is perfectly normal. Your perception that everyone wants to have sex with you may well be a projection of the fact that you want to have sex with everyone else. I suggest you get over your obsession by getting out, making friends with people your own age and taking up some healthy activities. As for your girlfriend, i suggest you choose a reliable form of contraception, i hope you are practising safe sex.
You might want to start by joining a local church group in your area. As for you being a vampire, many young people experiment with alternative lifestyles, you will no doubt get over this in time.
I wish you all the best. Abbey.
Rating: 
Summary: A welcome return from Rice's last few "pulps"....
Review: Blackwood Far provided a welcome return to Ms. Rice's style. After several obviously half-hearted efforts in her Vampire Chronicle, Rice seems her old self again. Writing both characters and scenary richly and lush. The addition of a few new character and visits of from some old friends (most notably the Mayfair and the beautiful, young lolita Mona Mayfair especially)makes the read very enjoyable. Anne Rice has succeeded in Blackwood Farm where she failed in several of her past attempts. She wrote characters you can actually give a damn about. That being said, this is a "candy" read and no reader should expect much more of it. A guilty pleasure, but a pleasure nonetheless.
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining, but...
Review: Blackwood Farm was entertaining, but I couldn't help but find Quinn ... a little annoying. Of all the characters introduced in this book, the only one that I was honestly interested in was Goblin (I think that I could have done without Mona Mayfair altogether) -- and to top it all off, the ending rather disappointed me. While decently entertaining, and definately not a _bad_ book, it's probably not one that I'll be coming back to anytime soon.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Disappointment
Review: A hopeful beginning, with the dashing, young, and beautiful vampire Quinn Blackwood begging cult vampire icon and favorite Lestat de Lioncourt for his assitance in ridding himself of his doppelganger, Goblin, who has tormented Quinn for years with his relentless companionship and, most recently, violent assaults on loved ones and Quinn himself. Quinn, after causing much trouble, successfully persuades Lestat to help him, and thus leads him to his family's estate, Blackwood Farm. From here it plunges straight down hill. As Quinn begins to re-cap the story of his life to Lestat, it becomes quite apparent that Anne Rice has lost the clarity and eloquence her prose once posessed. Most definitely a far cry from the likes of Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, and the rest of the original Vampire Chronicles. You almost get the impression that writing it had to have been a chore. Her lack of creativity is also painfully obvious in the way she builds (or rather, doesn't build) Quinn's relationships with Goblin and the love of his life Mona Mayfair. Mona and Quinn fall in love, instantly sure in less than tweny four hours that they are meant to be. Rice doesn't even come close to making this believable. Her once unrivaled flair for spontaneous romance seems a thing of the past, and Mona & Quinn's love for one another would be much better suited for the $1.99 discount bin at the used book store. Quinn's connection to Goblin is equally unfulilling, centering it's developement on tasteless and unnecessary eroticism. Otherwise Goblin is largely neglected, eventually appearing with only a mention here & there. Her unskillful weaving of the Chronicles and the Mayfair Witches into one grand saga is a disappointment, and the new characters do not captivate and inspire as our orginal vampire cast once did. The plot, which somehow dredges on forever, leaves no room for adequate character developement. The book itself is only so long due to Rice's incessant need for forced eloquence in her lengthy, and disappointingly unromantic, scene descriptions. By the end, you'll find yourself longing for Louis, Marius, Armand, and the rest of the old gang. Indeed, the only major highlight is Lestat's presence. I cannot say I hated Blackwood Farm. It was good if only for it being a part of the beloved Vampire Chronicles, and though Rice fails to develope the Mayfair characters, Quinn is still a fascinating addition to the saga. The story itself is wonderful, but the quality of Rice's writing slaughters it. Perhaps the greatest tragedy is that it could have been written so much better, and that Anne Rice has done herself a horrible injustice by letting her lack of creativity get the better of her.
Rating:
Summary: Over-the-top, but fun
Review: So many of the reviews in this forum are really beginning to entertain me. They're so--how should I put this--"bloodthirsty", raving about Anne Rice's faults and shortcomings when every last word of her novels don't slavishly reflect the world THEY want. Lestat's not the main focus anymore? GET OVER IT. Let the writer broaden her (and our) horizons by trying something NEW, for God's sake, and quit your witless pouting.
(I feel much better now! Whew!)
Having had my vent, I'll move on to "Blackwood Farm". I enjoyed it, which surprised me a bit, because I will admit that I've been off the Annewagon myself lately for a variety of reasons. (*ahem* Vittorio *ahem*) Anyhow, I got my recommended-daily-allowance of Rice with "Blackwood" because it gave me a fresh storyline introducing Quinn, a new young vampire (not just another Lestat-fest, thanks very much) as well as the expected overripe atmosphere, the lush descriptions, the gushy dialogue and the twisting, turning, sometimes frankly loony plotting. And even better? MAYFAIR WITCHES. Since "Witching Hour", I've frankly preferred the Mayfairs to the Vampires, and Anne's insistence on merging them together in this novel earned an absolute thumb's-up from me. It makes me look forward to her upcoming "Blood Canticle", which by all accounts is a pretty direct continuation from Blackwood's ending. Now, for those of you thinking I don't have a critical bone in my body,let me also say that "Blackwood Farm" has its downside. The middle of the book sags pretty drastically, though the start and finish manage to bolster it. As for Goblin, Quinn's more-than-just-an-Invisible-Friend Invisible Friend, well, he gets tiresome hundreds of pages before he probably should--and Petronia the He-She vampire is really a groaner. And if you're a fan of cameos, you'll be in heaven--but if you're not, prepare to have your eyes and mind glaze over from time to time. Still, the faults aren't dealbreakers by any means --if you just relax over the rough spots and read "Blackwood" for the melodramatic, swoony mayhem that Rice excels in, you'll have a good time.
Rating:
Summary: I really enjoy the way Blackwood Farm reads
Review: I have to say, I did not read this book in one day as I did the earlier books of the Chronicles but it was interesting nonetheless. When I've read Anne Rice books, I've enjoyed that fact that she didn't just put all of them in coffins, have them kill anyone they drunk blood from or terrorize a town. I like the fact that she 'humanizes' her vampires to they point where they do feel guilt and remorse and also there are those who WANT to do good. There is also that tone of being sexless and not bound by race - not caring if someone is male, female, black or white. I enjoyed reading about Quinn and the whole family and his new life. I didn't think the way he was turned was any graphic than anything I've seen on TV or read. It really didn't suprise me that Quinn and Mona were related - to me it just seemed a natural progression. I'm not sure I liked the way it began - I wanted to hear Quinn's story and as I read the book, I understood why there was so much going on in it and how Anne Rice might eventually start up a new storyline that wasn't so focused on Lestat and the others. So many things happen in this book it is hard to keep up with at times (and some things were so obvious like the little boy Jerome and hwo old he was - i knew Quinn was the father) but I'm hoping that Anne Rice will be able to follow up this book with something I will not want to put down until it's finished. I would not consider this a book for a teenager to read though due to some of the happenings in this particular book.
Rating: 
Summary: Some should drive a stake through her heart....
Review: And spare us so many pages of turgid prose, stilted dialogue, and by the number plotting. I can't believe we cut down trees for this garbage. Anne Rice once had a distinctive voice in the horror genre. Like her vampires, she will live on forever but only as a spectre of what she once was.
Rating:
Summary: 4 Stars
Review: I have read all of Anne's books; although this was not my favorite, I certainly was entertained by this one and could not put it down. I enjoyed Quinn but not the vampire who made him. I also could not get a grip on WHY Rebecca was killed in such a manner, though we are told when and how. Overall, it was a good read and I would recommend it to Anne's other fans.
Rating:
Summary: Good later Vampire Chronicle
Review: Anne Rice's "Blackwood Fram" is the tale of Quintin Blackwood, a rich recluse who sees ghosts. He was born with a doppleganger, named Goblin. He begs the Vampire Lestat for help. This is one of the better Vampire Chronicles, along with "Merrick". It is also the first to directly involve the Mayfair Witches of New Orleans, as Quintin falls in love with Mona Mayfair, and her guardians (Rowan Mayfair and Michael Curry) attempt to gently discourage the affair. I loved this book. Most of the Chronicles take place in the past, as a vampire tells his life story, and this one is no different except for one detail; Ouintin has only been a vampire for two years, so the whole story takes place in the 1990s instead of a time in the distant past. There is only one part of the book I didn't like, it has to do with Quintin's transformation into a vampire, it was disgusting in a way I could barely take. But it is still one of the best in the series, and I am looking forward to the next Chronicle.
Rating:
Summary: get real
Review: even for Anne Rice, this one is bit over the top. the main character is foppish and ridiculous. trust me, rich 18 yr. old boys in south Louisana DO NOT sleep (as chaste bedfellows) with the family help. give me a break. some of the dialogue was utterly absurd. this is some sort of pathetic caricature of southern life. NOT one of her best accomplishments.
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