Rating: 
Summary: I'm appalled
Review: I read it and I almost got sick. No. I literally got sick. Anne Rice is my favorite contemporary author. Her first four vampire chronicles are works of art in my point of view. Even Memnoch, Armand and Pandora, her new tales of the vampires, are equally good. But this...this is an awful downfall. She used to be a wonderful author, with a silken mesmerising style she created some of the most memorable charecters of our times and now she comes with this little story where they -Louis, Lestat, David Talbot- are mentioned but never really appear. The characters in Merrick have the same names but seem to be their lame [...] twin brothers. And Merrick, the main character, is said to be a wonderful being, irresistible and all too perfect, but we never get to know why. Even more, when reading Merrick instead of being fascinated by her I felt annoyed. She's an archetypical Mary-Sue. Go figure. Anne Rice has recently announced in her site that she's "deeply hurt" by fan fiction, but even when I'm not a fan fiction reader I could bet some of her fan's writings are better than this novel that seems to me like a bad piece of fan fiction where Lestat is something like a brooding teenager who goes to his room to listen to his music when displeased, Louis has lost his characteristic insight, his deep reflectiveness, his down to earth attitude and the mild melancholy which made him so alluring and complex. In the first books, Louis is Lestat's concience and his most beloved companion, Louis was different, weaker physically but stronger in his will and that made him special and alluring. In Merrick, Louis has become a character that could fit any teenager soup opera whose only yearning is " to belong". But not only Louis suffered a disastrous transformation in this book. David Talbot came from being an admirable scholar and father figure to be a dirty old man who stares at underage girls and has some kind of obsession with the Merrick's breasts. I really feel sad about this book since it seems Ms. Rice is now too busy trying to sell and not very inspired to create good stories. I found myself asking why I was reading the book. And I really got lost in all that Merrick's drinking rum, David staring at her bossom, or kissing it or touching it or Louis being someone else or Lestat being not himself at all [...] Let's mourn the death -even if temporary. I still have some faith and hope this Merrick was just a slip in Rice's career.-of a wonderful saga.
Rating: 
Summary: (2.5) Transfusing the Vampires.....
Review: I fell off Rice's fanwagon a few years ago. The problem may be market saturation, a good story spread too thin. Rice seems to have fallen prey to her publisher/public-demand, resulting in a series of inferior Vampire tales. But Rice has set her own standards. This current story, MERRICK, is an attempt to marry the Mayfair witches to the ageless Vampires.Enter Merrick Mayfair, who magically stuns any man who lays eyes on her fine self. However lush the praise, nothing in Merrick's character justifies this awe. The reader is not seduced by Merrick, only the Vampires, and the reader is left questioning this attraction. The story wanders around until the final chapters, when Louis and Lestat surface just in the nick of time. Louis falls instantly in love; even the intrepid Lestat returns from his topor, smitten himself (??????). Lestat bows to no one, mortal or immortal, and it strains credibility that he would share the spotlight with Merrick. Another major character in this novel, David Talbot, once afflicted by old age, has now assumed the body of a younger man for his Vampiric adventures. Talbot is now ready to rock and roll with the best of them. In his "old" suit, David has "known" passion with the youthful Merrick (shades of pedophilia....???). The entire plot appears to have one purpose: to create the scenario for the further adventures of three Vampires and a little lady. Other reviews have questioned where Anne Rice has gone, and with good reason. Certainly she established her strong characters and reaped the monetary benefits. Of course readers want more, but we want our blood rich and thick, not diluted by inferior quality. My personal favorites are the Mayfair Witch trilogy, so I know superior writing is possible. Perhaps Rice could reassess her priorities: checkbook or quality. I have put Rice on "library" status, no longer buy-to-keep.
Rating: 
Summary: do not read this book unless you are already hooked!
Review: If you are someone who has become addicted to Anne Rice's beautiful style and/or her Vampire characters, you should read this book! However, if you are not this type, not having read Rice's earlier work, I would advise against wasting your time or money. I say this because this book follows Anne Rice's formula for her later books, which is intolerable to anyone but her already loyal fans. It consists of a good introductary sequence, enough to catch the reader's attention, followed by an 100+ page boring life story, told in this book by the jerk of the century, David Talbot. Although at times amusingly unrealistic or even mildly exciting, David Talbot tells a story which is liable to put you to sleep! The only reason for anyone to read this book is for the breathtaking ending scene. Not only does this scene make up for the monotony of the entire book, it also astonishes the reader to the point of crying (on my part, anyway)! I guarantee some sort of emotional response to this book's late coming climax to any fan of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles! If you are not a long-time fan, however, pick up one of Rice's earlier works. Don't invest your time in this book, or any other installment of the Vampire Chronicles following Memnoch the Devil.
Rating:
Summary: About as faithfull as King Henry the 8th's wedding vows-_-
Review: 1 star may even be two high a rating. This is the 3ed book in a row to dissapoint me. It seems that everyone who hated Mamnock & the second half of Armand didn't like this one bit. 1)When I saw Merrick as the title, I expected a male character as it is a common name for a man. As usually, this story was composed of complex daialoge & consistant spontanious rambling like wandering off in thought while one should be studying. 2)The charicters don't act, speak, or think like their old selves. The stories are becoming overly religious & hetero, unlike the old defiancy that gave her early stories the real spice. What words could compare it to any other book? Normal, average, withdrawn, unfaithfull, inconsistant, dissapointing, unexpected, unwanted, untraditional, unnecessary. 3)Anne Rice has become rather selfish with her characters. She is going out of her way to elliminate all fanfiction based on her characters. Fanfiction is a way of expressing fandom, of letting the author know what they like & dislike, & a way of releaving anger or shock from something new & unwanted, a way of reversing it. That is highly unrespectable. 4)Most of my male friends are gay & I don't know 1 person, EXCEPT my own parents, who didn't believe that Louis & Lestat were in love. It was like being in denial, giving up, being untruthfull. Lestat should have fought against Merrick instead of standing aside & wishing Louis the best of luck with a witch who litterally put a spell on him. 5)We had 3 female Japanese transfurrs to our school, I let them borrow the book. One translated the story two the others & not one of them liked it, & all of them have read her earliest books in Japanese back home, seen the movie, & read the manga Yoake no Vampire based on IWtV. 6)Also, I have been told by 2 Italian ladies online not to read this, next time I'll take their advice.
Rating:
Summary: I hated Merrick
Review: No, I didn't hate the whole of Merrick, I hated her, the character, Merrick. She was absolutely despicable and unlikeable. While I cannot agree with some statements that say that Anne has constantly been failing in her latest novels (I myself loved Vittorio and Armand), I have to say that I agree with them when they say she could have, and should have, done better. This book is full of rambling and the going on about "oh how David loves Merrick so" and blah, blah, blah, while Merrick herself seems to take no pity on others feelings and just "does what she wants to do". I can only hope that Anne realizes this blunder and kills her off soon to save me the trouble of burning any book which I buy that she appears in and ticks me off so badly. Normally, I really feel drawn to the characters of Anne Rice, it makes me feel terrible that I can dislike one of them to this extent! Oh, and why do all her books suddenly seem to end so predictably (Reminding anyone, besides me, of the ending to the Body Thief and Armand?), I wish something different would happen. I love the Vampire Chronicles, I crave them, but this didn't satisfy my cravings, isn't that what a good book is supposed to do?
Rating: 
Summary: Merrick will bewitch you too.
Review: Once again Anee Rice has crafted a world steeped in mystery, sinister and alluring. She has once again filled this darkly inviting realm with some of her richest, most beloved characters. Louis, Lestat David Talbot and the fallen vampire-child Claudia. All are brought again to dazzling reality in Rice's most recent tale. These four are joined by Merrick Mayfair, one of New Orleans' most powerful witches. A decendant of the great Mayfair Witches, Merrick is completely removed from their world of money and political power. She knows of them only as the uptown Mayfairs. When Louis asks Talbot to find a way that he can speak to the dead vampire-girl, David seeks the aid of Merrick, who can make dead spirits come to her. Along with this incrdible power, Merrick Mayfair uses many of the other mysterious and occult powers at her disposal to weave a web so entangling, and seductive around the vampires that the course of all of thier lives will be altered.
Rating:
Summary: Where's the real Anne we all love and know?
Review: I have read all the the vampire books and this would have to be the absolute worst of them. What is Anne doing? Merrick is completely unlikable as a character, and why Lestat doesn't rip her head off after all the trouble she caused is beyond me. Instead, he 'stares at her with obvious fascination' convieniently forgetting, it seems, that she almost caused the death of Louis and that she's just a complete pain in the arse. Even though Anne's books havn't been up to form lately and can't hold a candle to her brilliant earlier works, I was still excited when I heard of her new book, eager as most other fans were, to be reunited with Lestat and Louis. But this is so ... . The first fifty pages I was wondering what was going on, after a hundred, I"d resigned myself to a long boring read, compelled only to go on by the few good paragraphs and glimpses of Louis, and of course, the eventual ressurrection of Lestat. She's slowly killing the life out of her characters. Doesn't she realise a good character when she's got one? Apparently not. Instead she goes on and on about David, who has only recently become a vampire and just gets whinier and more boring, and now we have Merrick. Instead of all this boring exploration into these second-rate and uncompelling characters, why doesn't she return to her roots? Lestat is who we want to read about. Louis is who we want to read about. She's just crowding up her vampire world with all of these uneeded characters who hold no real interest to the fans who have been with her since the beginning. What confuses me while reading these other reviews, is that they seem completely split down the middle. There are the one's who are raving about Merrick, and the one's who hate it. All I can think of to justify the 'ravers' is that they obviously havn't read any of Anne's earlier works, or they'd know which novels really deserve the five stars. Please Anne, stop teasing us with these ghosts of stories, we deserve more and I know you can deliver.
Rating: 
Summary: Whoo-Hooo Witchy Woman!
Review: Merrick is the story of a young woman of color who belongs to the infamous Mayfair family and, although far removed from the so-called "white Mayfairs," is quite the witch in her own right. I enjoyed reading this book because it brought together many of the characters from Rice's previous vampire novels, such as Louis, Lestat, David, and Claudia. For someone who is not an Anne Rice fan, you will definitely want to read some of her previous books before reading this one. If you don't, you may be a little confused. For those of us who are Rice fans and have read many of her books, it's like old home week when you open the pages of this book. The basic plot of the story is that Louis is feeling sorry for himself and pining for his vampire companion of old, Claudia. In an attempt to make Louis happy, David contacts his ex-lover and old friend Merrick, a very powerful Voodoo witch, to ask if she will conjure up the spirit of Claudia for Louis to see one last time. To find out what happens from there, you must read the book, because I will not give away the rest of the story! The story does not encompass a very lengthy period of time; however, the story is told in flashbacks by David, and these flashbacks tell the story of who Merrick is and how she came to be associated with David and the Talamasca starting in her childhood and ending in the present time. While this book is not quite as lavish in its language and descriptions as some her previous novels, Anne Rice nevertheless does a fine job with this story. I would recommend it to all!
Rating:
Summary: The Best I've Read! Excellent!
Review: This is the first book that I've read from Anne Rice. I truly loved the book. It's great! I will not be able to rest until I have all Anne Rice books and until I read all of them. I recommend this book to everyone who finds vampires as fascinating creatures.
Rating:
Summary: Annie, Annie, where art thou Annie ?
Review: I find it hard, no, make that impossible to believe, that the same author who wrote "Interview...," "...Lestat," "Q O D," and "The Witching Hour" is the same author who wrote "Merrick." To be more thorough, beginning with "Violin" and including the entire "New Vampire Tales" and ending with "Merrick"....is this in fact the same author ?! I just can't believe it is. Ms. Rice has always been long winded, but her words were in depth, intriguing and beautiful. This new "mystery writer" is simply just long winded. Painfully long winded....the passages just seem to rattle on and on with no particular place to go. If you haven't read this novel yet, trust me, reading a dictionary is more exciting than reading "Merrick." There are no moments of dizzying heights, no intrigue, no wicked humor, no jaw-dropping surprises to be found. Just rattling....and when a minor incident finally happens, you try to convince yourself that it was major, out of love for the author. This book was yet another disappointment from the camp of Anne Rice, but, as a long time fan, I have a right to wonder which camper is writing it. Could it possibly be that she's allowing her young son Christopher, whom is a writer, to do her work for her ? Whatever is the case, I miss the real Anne Rice.
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