Rating: 
Summary: Great Way to Bring Everyone Together
Review: I got an ARC of this novel, and read it a couple of weeks before it came out. Anne Rice is one of my favorite writers, yet I find her one of the most inconsistent writers ever -- it's either brilliance or BS. Luckily, she's in brilliant territory here... still not as good as Interview, Lestat, or Tale, but it's close. If you've read all her books and enjoy the characters from the different chronicles, you'll love how she brings them all together, weaving their stories in like a grand tapestry.
Rating: 
Summary: A Mockery
Review: This book would have to be the worst perpetuation of tripe foisted upon her readers yet. Ms. Rice's writing ability has not only degraded in the last years, but her ability to create the sort of interesting and captivating characters which once put her in the bestseller list appears to have vanished without a trace. Merrick is nothing but a stereotype - a "Mary Sue", as it is known in the online community. Better, faster, brighter; she parades onto the scene and the former characters, Louis and Lestat and David and all of the vampires which gave birth to a revolution in the genre and the empire upon which Ms. Rice sits instantly fall at the feet of the newcomer to become as less than nothing. Far from actualy inspiring this awe, Merrick herself is a shallow facade of a character who engages the reader not at all, and the entire point of her existance, other than as a medium for a mockery of a story which paints all of the existing vampires as far out of character as one might go while still applying their names to them, is still as meaningless at the end of the book as it was at the beginning.Ms. Rice - one wonders why, once again, you felt the need to write a book placing your formerly vibrant vampires upon a stage that, in truth, would have been better served as a separate entity entirely. Merrick, if written of on her own, might have been interesting. Brought in to disrupt the lives of the vampire coven for insufficient reason, she is nothing but irritating to the reader. It calls to mind the expectations of sequels to good movies, and why so few of them actually work. These "new" tales of the vampires are just that - a poorly thought out and badly handled sequel, which can not hold a light to the originals.
Rating: 
Summary: Another Fascinating Tale
Review: I, as usual, was blown away by Anne Rice. This book was a long awaited joy. I have already read the entire book and find myself wondering what's next. For anyone who is an Anne Rice fan, Merrick delivers. For those of you who have never read an Anne Rice book, I suggest you do. This one may not be the one to start with. There was a lot of history from the other books. I found myself saying "Oh, I remember when that happened" or "I forgot about that". It was wonderful and I'm looking forward to another one!
Rating:
Summary: Great book!
Review: I never read an Anne Rice novel before, this was my first one. I thought it was great. and i would recommend it to everyone who loves to read about Vampires and Witches.
Rating:
Summary: Great vampiric romance
Review: Vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac asks vampiric detective David Talbot to find a way to contact the ghost of Claudia. David knows that if anyone has the ability to do this conjuring it would have to be Merrick Mayfair, a voodoo practitioner descended from a long line of witches. Although David has not seen Merrick in years, he still turns to her for assistance. As Merrick and David discuss the ethics of disturbing the dead, a spark ignites between them. However, soon she travels to a remote part of the Guatemalan jungle where ancient powerful runes exist. However, the powerful witch remains in doubt about assisting the vampire with his quest to communicate with a ghost. Maybe it is just this reviewer, but after twenty-two supernatural tales, the vampire chronicles seem a bit anemic. Still, once the great Anne Rice gets rolling, the story line takes off at a rapid speed as vampires converge on witchworld. The joy that holds MERRICK and the previous tales together remain Ms. Rice's ability to persuade the readers that the supernatural creatures and magical powers exist especially in New Orleans. The audience will find this tale turns extremely exciting in Central America and serves to tie up loose ends from previous novels as well as setting the stage for book XXIII. Vampire aficionados will relish Ms. Rice's latest entry in her beloved series. Harriet Klausner
Rating: 
Summary: No depth
Review: Fans of the Vampire Chronicles who are expecting to read about Lestat & Louis will be disappointed. There's too little of the beloved Louis and Lestat only turns up at the end of the story. The main part of the book is about Merrick, whom is likely the worst Anne Rice character to-date. Known for her beautiful prose, Anne Rice elaborated on Merrick's external features but the character obviously lacks the depths and dimensions that have made Rice's earlier characters - namely Lestat, Louis, Claudia and Armand lovable and adored by so many fans. I can see that Rice wants to bring new members into the 'Coven of the Articulate' but if doing so is the result of 'Merrick', then perhaps, returning to explore, nurture and develop her old characters would be a much better option. Fans have been dying for a chronicle from Lestat to tell more of his beloved Louis, Claudia and of his other encounters and adventures... Let's hope that's coming next.
Rating:
Summary: One of Ann Rice's Worst books
Review: This book was actually worse than Memnoch or Body Thief(which I hated both). Although not the worst book of hers that I have had the misfortune of reading and yes at one time she was one of my favorite authors. My advise avoid this book. It was so badly done that I never want to read another one of her books again. Read the first three books in the series and Pandora. They are actually worth it. The rest are not very good.
Rating:
Summary: Witchy woman
Review: Anne Rice tries to meld her two most popular series in "Merrick," where the Mayfair Witches and the seductive vampires collide. Unfortunately, with a limp title character and a meandering, weird plot, "Merrick" is most noteworthy for its unrealized potential and what it could have been, if Rice had cultivated it. David Talbot encounters his protege/semi-lover Merrick Mayfair, an octaroon witch who now works for the Talamasca. He has an odd request for her: Louis de Point du Lac, a tormented vampire, wants to call up the spirit of the child vampire Claudia, so he can be reassured of her fate. And he needs Merrick's help to do so, since she has the ability to call up and control the dead with her voodoo magic. David reflects on his first encounters with Merrick, her trips into the jungle in search of mystery artifacts, and the malevolent spirit of her dead sister Honey in the Sunshine. Now those artifacts may help her raise up Claudia's spirit, and might give Honey's spirit a way back into the world as well. But when Claudia is brought forth to speak with Louis, what she has to say may destroy him... "Merrick" was advertised as the spot where the Mayfair and Vampire Chronicles converged, but that's kind of misleading. Except for some mentions of Julian Mayfair, there's only a vague connection with the "white Mayfairs." It's mostly vampires and more vampires, with only the Talamasca (a sort of supernatural FBI) as a connecting point. As always, Rice's writing is lush and brimming over with steamy New Orleans atmosphere. But she could use some editing. There are constant references to Merrick getting snockered on rum, her breasts, her clothes, David lusting after her, Louis burbling about how he loves her, and so on. And Rice seems to lose her way in the final chapters, as if she wasn't entirely sure how to wrap up what she had started. The biggest flaw of the book is Merrick herself. She's certainly an intriguing character, a beautiful witch who wants to be a vampire, and isn't afraid to bend the men (and vampires) around her fingers to get what she wants. But she doesn't seem to have any flaws, motives, or recognizable emotions. We get no insights at all to what she's thinking. Louis is a rather ineffectual presence, and David is basically there to lust after Merrick. But Lestat's brief appearance toward the end sets the pages on fire. While "Merrick" is overflowing with promise, hardly any of that promise is actually used. Beautifully written but poorly characterized, "Merrick" tries to cast a spell but doesn't succeed.
Rating: 
Summary: A pleasent melding of two chronicles.
Review: Merrick is Anne Rice's return to her beloved Vampire Chronicles, this time with a little twist. She also melds her Mayfair Chronicles into the story, creating a thrilling page-turner of a book. The story follows Rice's best vampires, Lestat, David Talbot, Louis and Claudia.
Louis is even more melencholy than usual because Claudia is on his mind. Ever since Jesse, another member of the Talasmaca told him she knew of Claudia's ghost, Louis can't get her out of his head. Lestat is still in his deep slumber, so Louis enlists David to contact one of his old students, a powerful witch named Merrick Mayfair, who still works with the Talasmaca. Louis wants Merrick to contact Claudia's ghost, to see if she is at rest or if she still wanders lost for all time, so if she isn't at peace, either Merrick or him might make her move on. By doing this Louis feels he'll somehow fill a hole that's been there ever since Claudia was originally murdered way back in Interview with the Vampire.
David agrees and recounts serveral stories about his days with Merrick when he was still human. He tells many tales of how Aaron and him came to take her into their fold and many other tales of adventures they set out on together and how powerful a witch she really is. The story comes to an end with a fateful meeting with the ghost of Claudia and a few things that happen after the fact.
Don't be too fooled by the Vampire/witch meshing though. Although Merrick is a Mayfair, she's only of distant relations to all of the main characters from Rice's original witch chronicles. Not that Merrick isn't a great character, because she is, but it would have been nice to see some of the other Mayfair's make an appearance. Still, it's nice to see the two tales join together.
This book is another well written tale by Rice. Once again she paints rich new characters, as well as furthering the immensely interesting lives of her returning characters. The tale is rich in detail and has several adventerous parts like when Merrick and David go in search of a cave secreting lost artifacts. It's fast paced and always fun.
Rating:
Summary: Slow and Boring
Review: This one is a million milles away from Interview with the Vampire or Lestat the Vampire. Slow, boring... Anne keeps making again and again the same book, with the same structure, with the same characters (well and who wont, they have made her all what she is), with the same talentless use of adjetives (beautiful, wonderful, fantastic, marvellous...) a thousand times in the same page.
I love Anne Rice. At least the earlier books. But every new book she releases is even worse than the earlier.
Skip it if you are looking for a good horror novel.
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