Vampire Lestat

Rating:
Summary: How weird!
Review: This book is definetly not like the Queen of the Damned, Interview W/The Vampire, or Pandora. It was definetly a weird read, but still comes recommended.

Rating:
Summary: EXCELLENT!!
Review: I could not get enough of this book. It is so intricately and beautifully written that you almost feel like you know Lestat. He is portrayed to be a heartless monster in Interview with the Vampire, and we all get used to it. Then Anne Rice pulls out the sequel, showing more depth and character than we ever thought Lestat was capable of. Also, after reading Interview with the Vampire, we know Lestat from the beginning, and later know Claudia, and we see all of the actions through Louis' eyes. While reading The Vampire Lestat, I constantly thought of the time in the book when all of that starts happening, when I start remembering things from the last book, when I can finally find out the reasons for the things Lestat did. Anne Rice introduces characters, old and new, in a new and different way, giving descriptions that are so exact, that anyone could picture the characters. Vampires seem to be the newest way to explain all of life's mysteries, in the eternity that they live. It is not possible for this book to have been done any better!!

Rating:
Summary: A Book To Read Again and Again
Review: This book was as amazing as Anne Rices first book Interview With The Vampire. it is great at explaining the otherwise mystierious character Lestat. how he came about and other reasons for how he acted in the previous book.i have read this book twice already and hope to read it many more times. i have read other vampire books (buffy) and this one was way better. i am only 14 and this book has helped me leave the world of little whimpy kid books. it has opened new doors for me and i am glad to have read such a great piece of literature.

Rating:
Summary: The Vampire Lestat
Review: I loved this book...Anne Rice does a great job of making you fall in love with her characters in every book, but after reading this one you'll be obsessed with Lestat!

Rating:
Summary: Anne Rice classic
Review: This is the "classic" Anne Rice novel. Long after she pulled herself out of the depression that helped her write the sombre "Interview with a Vampire" Anne's success and move back to New Orleans gave her the enthusiasm to write this excellent novel. The Vampire Lestat is one of her very best novels. Period.

Rating:
Summary: Unnecessary, But Worthwhile
Review: Artistically, the greatest mistake Anne Rice ever made was flogging her best book to death by churning out sequels it didn't want or need. But Lestat is admittedly at least a good read, even if it doesn't really go anywhere but sideways.

Lestat awakens in the modern age to the new sound of rock music, and - vain creature that he is - can't resist the temptation to come out of the shadows and become a rock star, himself. Since he's up, he decides to tell us his story in some detail. And some more detail. And a whole lot more detail, after that.

This book has no reason to exist. It's pointless. It isn't a real story with a beginning or end, just a number of vignettes from the central character's life. It reads like a Goth soap opera.

But that doesn't mean it isn't entertaining. It's a wonderful read, if you just want to hear an immortal yack on (and on, and on) and give you a little perspective from the undead side of life.

Rice is a splendid writer. But if she's ever heard of a plot, she doesn't let on.

Rating:
Summary: Overrated
Review: The Vampire Lestat begins with a bang, ends with a bang, but has some long dull stretches in between. This is the second book in Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles. To read this book, one must first read Interview with the Vampire. However, once one has read Interview, one finds this book covering a lot of the same ground - at least thematically. Rice packs her novels to the brim with a lot of preachy, pop-existentialism, which gets very boring after a while; "life is meaningless..." yadda, yadda, yadda. It's a bit tiresome to hear this point expounded again and again - especially if one is not suffering from clinical depression and comes to realize that, difficult to accept as it may be, life isn't meaningless. We have not, as Nietzche said, moved "beyond good and evil." Good still exists, morality still exists, and - recent events notwithstanding - God is still in His Heaven.

One of the main gimmicks that Rice uses in her tails that is original is to tell her stories from the Vampire's perspective. This has advantages and disadvantages. She has rightly picked up on the fact that the heroes of Vampire tales are the vampires and not the "good guys." However, part of the charm of Dracula (who is ridiculed in this book) is that he is unapologetically bad - he simply is what he is, and does not make excuses for it. Therein, we have the central flaw of The Vampire Chronicles. By making excuses for their actions and blatantly asking us to sympathize with them, we actually lose sympathy with the vampires. They are living in "bad faith", to use Sartre's phrase. They are living (is it un-living?) in denial. How can one actually love Lestat when he is so head-over-heals in love with himself that there is no room for anyone else's affections. Throughout the book, he is constantly uttering pretentious bits of teenage nonsense like, "I've always rebelled against everything," and "I've always been good at everything." I kept waiting for him to say, "I'm a loner Dottie - a rebel!" It is only fitting to find out that Lestat started out as an actor - he has all of the actor's flaws: selfishness, self-centeredness, narcissism, vanity, cruelty... If Lestat was a real person today, he'd be one of those waiters with streaked hair who judges his acting ability by the number of visible abdominal muscles he has.

In the same vein, Rice is trying to pander to her audience. Past generations were 'bad' or 'ignorant' we are told, which is why Lestat took so long to rise from his grave. She is trying to kiss-up to young people by telling them they are so much wiser and more moral than their elders. As a member of the generation whose butt she is trying to kiss, I find this assessment to be laughable, and these passages sound like an older person trying to act young - sort of like when your parents try to act cool.

Now, all that having been said, the novel picks up considerably towards the end. We finally get some of the answers that we'd been told we never would. In doing so, we are introduced to the best new character - Akasha, The Queen of The Damned. Then we jump forward in time - covering the events in Interview from Lestat's perspective, and then on to modern day with Lestat as a "rock star" (although I doubt his concerts could really compare to Ozzy's). Old friends are reunited and just when things really begin to get interesting - the book ends, leaving me thinking, "I can't believe I'm actually going to get suckered into another one!"

Rating:
Summary: The Diary of...
Review: A great read... the words seem to come to life and allow you to "live the story" as it were. Anne Rice has a way with putting the reader "into" the story (truthfully I thought it was a fluke of sorts with 'Interview...', I quickly learned the error in that way)- allowing the the reader to "see" the events that happen AS they happen, all through the eyes of Lestat.
The story of Armand is expanded (a little), the story of Lestat's creator, and many more (not in any way less important)characters dance through the mind as the reader is captured by printed words.
I put the novel down only to sleep (even read as I cooked dinner, changed the baby's diaper,etc.: which is hard to do :) and the longer I was away from it, the more I longed to pick it up again.

Rating:
Summary: Long Live Lestat!
Review: In this book you really get to learn about Rice's dashing, charming, yet violent character, Lestat deLioncourt. This book will make you fall in love with him! I read it and could not put it down. Like in Interview, you gained a strong bond with Louis de Point duLac. In this book you learn more about deLioncourt and gain a strong bond with him. So in the end when you put down this book you will think about him nonstop. Even a year after you read it it will be on your mind thanks to Rice's amazing writing talents!
- Rosario

Rating:
Summary: A worthy sequel
Review: I loved Interview with the Vampire so I went out and got this book. I absolutly loved it. I thought Louis and Lestat were the most interesting characters in the first book so I was dying to read more about Lestat. In this book, you get a different picture of Lestat. You learn what he was like before he became a vampire, how he became one, and his adventures afterword. There is unfortunatly not much on his life with Louis and Claudia, but it's still a wonderful book. The ending is marvelous!