The Tale of the Body Thief

Rating:
Summary: Less vampirism but still a necessity
Review: This fourth edition to the Vampire Chronicles deals much less with the intriguing acts of vampirism than its prequels. But this chapter in the life of the Vampire Lestat is still a necessary edition. Lestat is finally given the opportunity to experience living as a human again. The most glorious moment in the book is when Rice made Lestat into a Christ figure; meaning, Lestat descended from his god-like vampire status to be reborn in the body of a human. I don't know if this was the writer's intention, but it was still beautiful, nonetheless. Also, Lestat's stuggle with the body thief seems much less important than his newfound appreciation for the Dark Trick.

Rice's style is as florid and lucid as ever, and the story never has a dull moment. The reader doesn't have to struggle with following three or four storylines, as was the case in "Queen of the Damned." No, in this book, Rice returns to that simple but oh-so charming and vivid style of "The Vampire Lestat," except the setting doesn't contain that hint of the otherworldly.

I only gave it four stars because of the whole body thief struggle. It was necessary for Lestat to have this experience, and I cannot see a better way for it to have happened, but the climax is no surprise. What happens is what is expected. But, the reader is rewarded with an unexpected cliffhanger final chapter that jumps up and knocks one in the jaw. I did not see this moment coming, and it makes me hurry to start reading "Memnoch the Devil."

So, if you like Lestat and you like Anne Rice, pick this book up. It's very clever and simple, but surprises await you.

Rating:
Summary: Lightweight installment
Review: I found this novel a lightweight installment of the Vampire Chronicles. Lestat was so serious in his attempts at being human that it was funny. Maybe, it would have been funnier if the Lestat had switched to a female body instead. Can anyone be so desperate to be human? I don't think so, but then again I am not a vampire.

The plot starts with Lestat yearning to be human and contracting to switch bodies. The story climaxes with mayhem onboard QE2 and the making of David Talbot into a vampire against his wishes. Enjoyable read but not an important part of the Vampire Chronicles.

Rating:
Summary: By far the best Vampire Chronicle!
Review: I couldn't put it down. I stayed up all night reading and savoring every word. I just started reading the Vampire Chronicles and I'm reading the 6th one now. Anne Rice makes one want to be a vampire. And how can one not fall in love with Lestat?!...

Rating:
Summary: Another genius novel
Review: The talented Anne Rice has done it again, the fourth addition of the vampire chronicles is excellent. The modernized vampire Lestat de Lioncourt embarks on yet another journey, this time he meets up with the crafty Raglan James, who offers Lestat the chance to be human again by switching bodies . Lestat considers this offer and tells his mortal friend David Talbot about it. David knows about Raglan and warns Lestat against it, explaining that he is an untrustworthy man. Naturaly, Lestat doesn't listen . Although it was agreed that it was a one day switch, Raglan runs off with Lestat's body for nearly two weeks. During this period Lestat discovers what it is like to eat, think, and yes even defecate like a human again. It all disgusts him greatly
The only part of being human he does enjoy is being able to wander about in daylight once again, and for the first time, make love to a women, and almost a man as well. With the help of David, Lestat is able to track down Raglan, and reclaim his body becoming once more The Vampire Lestat.
This book is amazing, pulling the reader in almost immediately. Being able to be inside the mind of this uncanny creature that ceases to amaze the people he comes in contact with, and the readers who enjoy this book, is such an adventure. With a suprise ending, this book about such a believable and realistic character is a thrill rid from cover to cover. Reading the first three chronicles will help understand the book even better, and each will leave you thirsting for more!

Rating:
Summary: Take a bite, you may enjoy it!
Review: This is the best novel in the Vampire Chronicles so far. As Lestat himself states in the opening, you don't have to have read the previous three novels to understand this one... but it helps.
Although its the best story, I don't think it is necessarily the best introduction to the character of Lestat. That would be the first book, Interview With A Vampire, even though it is told from the fledgling vampire Louis's somewhat distorted eyes.
As for Tale of the Body Thief, it chronicles Lestat's adventures as a human being. He trades his body with human and discovers the pleasures and pains of mortality. It has some excellent scenes including Lestate having sex with women, almost having sex with a man, tasting his first meals in centuries and seeing sunglight again through mortal eyes.
The book also has a shock ending, which is important for some of Anne Rice's future tales.

I have to add that Tale of the Body Thief is far better than Queen of the Damned, which seemed to lose its way half way through. Its better structured, faster paces and frankly more realistic. I know that may sound like a strange term to use in relation to a vampire tale, but it just seems that the antagonist in Body Thief has a much more realistic motive than the anagonist in Queen of the Damned. They are both flawed characters, as is Lestat, but at least the Body Thief anagonist is beleivable.

Rating:
Summary: ENDLESS
Review: It's been several years since I read it- I forced myself to get through it because it was a gift. The premise was creative, and the style is engaging, at times, but the book dragged on endlessly, and I felt that I was dying, too. I'll never read another Rice book.

Rating:
Summary: Good, Very Good.
Review: Lestat speaks. Vampire-hero, enchanter, seducer of mortals. For centuries he has been a courted prince in the dark and flourishing universe of the living dead. Lestat is alone. And suddenly all his vampire rationale--everything he has come to believe and feel safe with--is called into question. In his overwhelming need to destroy his doubts and his loneliness, Lestat embarks on the most dangerous enterprise he has undertaken in all the danger-haunted years of his long existence.

I found the book to differ in style from the first two, and of course the third, since it took the form of a fairytale in storytelling and a movie in the implementation of suspence moments and event construction.

Rating:
Summary: Classic Anne Rice, Unclassic Lestat?
Review:

As the book began, I was drawn into it pretty fast... most of what happens up until the body switch is very much Lestat, in my opinion. It's his initial (and following) reactions to being human that I just couldn't buy. Lestat in another body is still Lestat, and I couldn't see him reacting to physical weakness the way he did, moaning and sniveling and hating every second of 'being human'. Perhaps he had grown dependent on his powers after so long, but... I don't know, it seemed contrived.

After he gets sick, the book begins to improve. Anne writes a drawn out, jumbled and dreamlike sequence of Lestat's fever that to me was very believable... better than most cinematic portrayals of sickness, even. When he came out of it, I felt like I was coming out of something too. And the later scenes on the QE2 were a lot of fun... here the book kicked into high gear (finally), and there were reminiscences of "The Mummy" here, as well as plenty of other adventure.

The ending with David Talbot I thought maybe was unnecessary, although consider -- Lestat had regained his powers and was for the first time in hundreds of years comfortable being evil. Given this, his subsequent actions make more sense. And the way he reacted, cursing himself again immediately afterward... Rice has really made Lestat into a complex character by the end of the book, and I wish she had left him alone after that. I really got the feeling she was mentally and emotionally finished with Lestat by the end of "Tale of the Body Thief," but the fans just kept demanding. What would you do if you were a writer? You want to explore other characters, but the fans keep pressing... so she "disabled" the character to be left alone, so she could write freely again! If fans would chill out on writers, we'd have less ugliness like "Memnoch the Devil," and LeGuin's later books in the Earthsea series.

Overall, I give "Tale of the Body Thief" 4 stars for great entertainment value (narrowly missing a 5). Something for almost everyone here, and it "fleshes out" Lestat in ways you couldn't imagine! This is the last book of the "vampire" series I wholeheartedly enjoyed, and a fitting conclusion for Lestat. I just pretend there's nothing about Lestat after this one, and it works pretty well.

Rating:
Summary: Dylan Steyer's book review of The Tale of The Body Thief
Review: When I saw the mysterious cover of Ann Rices The Tale of the Body Theif, I thought that the book was going to be a "page turner" it turned out to be This book really dissapointed me. The book wasn't filled with the excitement of Interview with A Vampire.
Lestat, the main character, is a vampire who does not like being a vampire, yet he "likes the hunt" of draining the blood from humans. David is Lestat's best and only friend.
This book takes place in many different settings. The book starts off in Miami, then he goes to Amsterdam to follow David.
The plot of this book is basicly Lestat's journal. Lestat is going from various places doing things. He is in Miami when he kills a serial killer that prays on the weak and elderly. Then Lestat goes to Amsterdam to tell his friend David that he is going to the Gobi desert to kill himself. He went to the Gobi desert and awaited the sun, but when it came, he went through two days of awfull pain but he survived. From there he returned to David's untill he was able to leave.
There were few well written literary elements that Ann Rice made an attempt at writing. The plot description was excellent, however, like when she described the snow covered back streets of Amsterdam. Also she did a great job of discribing the bar where Lestat wrote a letter to david, apolgizing for the way he left him to go to the Gobi desert. Ann Rice did an okay job of describing irony, like when Lestat made David into a vampire. There wasn't much suspence to this book, it was very predictable.
My personal opinion of this book is that it was not a very good vampire books. When I think of vampire books I think of vampires fighting vampire hunters or anything where there is an enemy of some kind. This book is for the very patient and who likes to sit and read about the details of about a ten minute scene that takes fifty pages to describe, I am not one of these people. Yet I did liked when Lestat turned David into a vampire and the surprise ending. I recomend this book only to people who have a strange infatuation with vampires.

Rating:
Summary: I loved this book!
Review: like the title implies,i loved this book.although the first time i read it,i wasnt really into it.but the second time it was a lot better.Lestat is better then ever.the deal he makes with the body thief,and the lengths he goes to to catch himbefore he does unreparable harm,kept me reading til the end.i have been a fan of Anne Rice since i was 13,and this was one of her best.