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The Vampire Chronicles #10
Blood Canticle
Fiery, fierce, and erotic, Blood Canticle marks the triumphant culmination of Anne Rice’s bestselling Vampire Chronicles, as Lestat tells his astounding tale of the pleasures and tortures that lie between death’s shadow and immortality. . . .Surrounded by its brooding swampscape, Blackwood Farm is alive with the comings and goings of the bewitched and the bewitching. Among them is the ageless vampire Lestat, vainglorious enough to believe that he can become a saint, weak enough to fall impossibly in love.Gripped by his unspeakable desire for the mortal Rowan Mayfair and taking the not so innocent, new-to-the-blood Mona Mayfair under his wing, Lestat braves the wrath of paterfamilias Julien Mayfair and ventures to a private island off the coast of Haiti. There, Saint Lestat will get his chance to slay his dragon. For Mona and the Mayfairs share an explosive, secret blood bond to another deathless a five-thousand-year-old race of Taltos, strangers held in the throes of evil itself.
416 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2003
380 people are currently reading
26452 people want to read
About the author
Anne Rice
492 books27.5k followersAnne Rice (born Howard Allen Frances O'Brien) was a best-selling American author of gothic, supernatural, historical, erotica, and later religious themed books. Best known for The Vampire Chronicles, her prevailing thematic focus is on love, death, immortality, existentialism, and the human condition. She was married to poet Stan Rice for 41 years until his death in 2002. Her books have sold nearly 100 million copies, making her one of the most widely read authors in modern history.
Anne Rice passed on December 11, 2021 due to complications from a stroke. She was eighty years old at the time of her death.
She uses the pseudonym Anne Rampling for adult-themed fiction (i.e., erotica) and A.N. Roquelaure for fiction featuring sexually explicit sado-masochism.
Anne Rice passed on December 11, 2021 due to complications from a stroke. She was eighty years old at the time of her death.
She uses the pseudonym Anne Rampling for adult-themed fiction (i.e., erotica) and A.N. Roquelaure for fiction featuring sexually explicit sado-masochism.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 734 reviews
November 20, 2012
Honestly, never in a million years had I ever imagined giving any of these books a 1 out of 5.
But Blood Canticle is like Anne Rice woke up one day, smelled the roses, opened the balcony doors to be greeted by the shouts of her adoring fans, and then proceeded to perch on the railing and shit on all of them. I'm talking diarreah, buddy.
Lestat is a pussy. No seriously, if you have one of those Edward vs. Lestat arguments, hide this and never use it in your arsenal. I've warned you.
Second...hell, I can't even remember. I don't think I ever got past page 100. Maybe, maybe, I reached 150. This coming from a fan.
One day, I will return and give a more coherent review other than "I'm bitter, this is a mockery of my favorite vampires".
It won't be soon.
But Blood Canticle is like Anne Rice woke up one day, smelled the roses, opened the balcony doors to be greeted by the shouts of her adoring fans, and then proceeded to perch on the railing and shit on all of them. I'm talking diarreah, buddy.
Lestat is a pussy. No seriously, if you have one of those Edward vs. Lestat arguments, hide this and never use it in your arsenal. I've warned you.
Second...hell, I can't even remember. I don't think I ever got past page 100. Maybe, maybe, I reached 150. This coming from a fan.
One day, I will return and give a more coherent review other than "I'm bitter, this is a mockery of my favorite vampires".
It won't be soon.
December 4, 2013
I swear, it isn't intentional. My recent reading of the Beauty trilogy coincidentally led up to picking up Blood Canticle on the bargain rack. I'm a long-time fan of The Vampire Chronicles as well as her tales of the Mayfair Witches, and my lust for this book, the one in which the two series merge, moved it to the top of my reading list.
Oh, the horror.
::: The Plot :::
For those of you who are unfamiliar with Anne Rice's novels, there are two major series: one about vampires starring the Vampire Lestat, and the other about a family of witches. The Vampire Lestat has always been the star of the Vampire Chronicles, creating new vampires, finding the original two vampires, losing his vampire body to a mortal, and journeying to Heaven and Hell.
The Mayfair Witches stories involve a rather inbred family of Louisiana witches, who, when certain family members meet, create what is known as the Taltos, a child who unfolds to a full adult upon its birth, knowing its name and the full history of the Taltos, also leaving its human mother unable to bear more children.
In Blood Canticle, the story begins with Lestat "saving" the dying Mayfair witch Mona, the most recent bearer of a Taltos. Mona has been dying in a hospital for two years. Of course, before we even get to the plot itself, we are subjected to an over-colloquialized raving from Lestat (who narrates the Chronicles) about his desire to be a saint. And visit the Pope. And be worshipped.
Once Mona is made a vampire, we meet Rowan Mayfair, the de facto head of the Mayfair witches and Mayfair Medical, a huge sprawling complex of medical services and research. Rowan bore her own Taltos, a child possessed by the spirit who haunted the Mayfair House, Lasher. For over 100 pages, the reader is held at bay to hear the story of Rowan and Mona and the Taltos, which any devoted reader of the Mayfair Witches stories already knows.
Of course, Lestat falls in love with the human Rowan, and in the course of helping Mona and Rowan find out what happened to the remaining Taltos (Mona's daughter Morrigan and the centuries-old "purebred" Taltos Ash who Rowan met in the Mayfair stories), he rids Mona's cousin Quinn's farm of Quinn's mother's ghost (Quinn killed her in the previous Chronicle, Blackwood Farm), contacts Maharet, know the "ruler" of the Vampires, kills druglords and finds out the fate of the Taltos.
::: There's Nothing Good Here (Why I Hated It) :::
The only good thing about this book is that it is supposed to be the last Vampire Chronicle. I mean that. This is the first book that Rice wrote after the death of her husband, the poet Stan Rice (to whom she dedicates this book) and sorry, Stan, but she dedicated one horrendous book to you.
Rice can never seem to find Lestat's voice in the course of this novel, and he goes back and forth from sounding like a ranting raving teenager to the cultured and demanding Lestat we know from Interview with the Vampire, to some crazy hormones-raging young adult. At points, Lestat, who has always been enamored with new things, acts like he's about to join the Society for Creative Anachronism and ignore all new technology by refusing to learn how to email.
Rice also can't seem to find the character of Mona anywhere in this book. The Mona we met in the Mayfair books was a child genius. She was sexually precocious, but at the same time, almost a small adult. In Blood Canticle, Mona is a vacuous slut, flitting about almost willy-nilly, crying at the drop of a hat, baiting Lestat, and wearing odd slutty clothes that belonged to Quinn's Aunt Queen. The Mona Mayfair that Mayfair Witches fans knew and loved is gone.
Worst of all is Rice's plot construction. The first half of the book drags on endlessly, making you wonder if the book is even going to have a conclusion or just end ambiguously, leaving the reader to find the fate of the Taltos in some forthcoming book. But much like an old rickety roller coaster, the climb is much longer than the descent. The plot contrivances that Rice uses to get Mona, Quinn, and Lestat to where they will find the fate of the Taltos are numerous, unbelievable, and far too convenient, and for good measure, Rice tosses in a gratuitous sex scene. I actually laughed out loud at the conclusion of this book.
::: Why You Should Thank Me :::
I wanted to quit reading this book by the end of Chapter 1. Really. I kept reading it only to find out how Rice would merge the series and so I could write this review. It has NEVER taken me a week to read a book this short, but I could only read it in small doses; sometimes a page or two were all I could manage in one sitting.
I'm not sure if Rice has lost her touch or I've simply outgrown her, but my disappointment in this book is crushing. As a long-time Rice fan, I have to say this book is best suited to use as toilet paper.
This review previously published at Epinions: http://www.epinions.com/review/Blood_...
Oh, the horror.
::: The Plot :::
For those of you who are unfamiliar with Anne Rice's novels, there are two major series: one about vampires starring the Vampire Lestat, and the other about a family of witches. The Vampire Lestat has always been the star of the Vampire Chronicles, creating new vampires, finding the original two vampires, losing his vampire body to a mortal, and journeying to Heaven and Hell.
The Mayfair Witches stories involve a rather inbred family of Louisiana witches, who, when certain family members meet, create what is known as the Taltos, a child who unfolds to a full adult upon its birth, knowing its name and the full history of the Taltos, also leaving its human mother unable to bear more children.
In Blood Canticle, the story begins with Lestat "saving" the dying Mayfair witch Mona, the most recent bearer of a Taltos. Mona has been dying in a hospital for two years. Of course, before we even get to the plot itself, we are subjected to an over-colloquialized raving from Lestat (who narrates the Chronicles) about his desire to be a saint. And visit the Pope. And be worshipped.
Once Mona is made a vampire, we meet Rowan Mayfair, the de facto head of the Mayfair witches and Mayfair Medical, a huge sprawling complex of medical services and research. Rowan bore her own Taltos, a child possessed by the spirit who haunted the Mayfair House, Lasher. For over 100 pages, the reader is held at bay to hear the story of Rowan and Mona and the Taltos, which any devoted reader of the Mayfair Witches stories already knows.
Of course, Lestat falls in love with the human Rowan, and in the course of helping Mona and Rowan find out what happened to the remaining Taltos (Mona's daughter Morrigan and the centuries-old "purebred" Taltos Ash who Rowan met in the Mayfair stories), he rids Mona's cousin Quinn's farm of Quinn's mother's ghost (Quinn killed her in the previous Chronicle, Blackwood Farm), contacts Maharet, know the "ruler" of the Vampires, kills druglords and finds out the fate of the Taltos.
::: There's Nothing Good Here (Why I Hated It) :::
The only good thing about this book is that it is supposed to be the last Vampire Chronicle. I mean that. This is the first book that Rice wrote after the death of her husband, the poet Stan Rice (to whom she dedicates this book) and sorry, Stan, but she dedicated one horrendous book to you.
Rice can never seem to find Lestat's voice in the course of this novel, and he goes back and forth from sounding like a ranting raving teenager to the cultured and demanding Lestat we know from Interview with the Vampire, to some crazy hormones-raging young adult. At points, Lestat, who has always been enamored with new things, acts like he's about to join the Society for Creative Anachronism and ignore all new technology by refusing to learn how to email.
Rice also can't seem to find the character of Mona anywhere in this book. The Mona we met in the Mayfair books was a child genius. She was sexually precocious, but at the same time, almost a small adult. In Blood Canticle, Mona is a vacuous slut, flitting about almost willy-nilly, crying at the drop of a hat, baiting Lestat, and wearing odd slutty clothes that belonged to Quinn's Aunt Queen. The Mona Mayfair that Mayfair Witches fans knew and loved is gone.
Worst of all is Rice's plot construction. The first half of the book drags on endlessly, making you wonder if the book is even going to have a conclusion or just end ambiguously, leaving the reader to find the fate of the Taltos in some forthcoming book. But much like an old rickety roller coaster, the climb is much longer than the descent. The plot contrivances that Rice uses to get Mona, Quinn, and Lestat to where they will find the fate of the Taltos are numerous, unbelievable, and far too convenient, and for good measure, Rice tosses in a gratuitous sex scene. I actually laughed out loud at the conclusion of this book.
::: Why You Should Thank Me :::
I wanted to quit reading this book by the end of Chapter 1. Really. I kept reading it only to find out how Rice would merge the series and so I could write this review. It has NEVER taken me a week to read a book this short, but I could only read it in small doses; sometimes a page or two were all I could manage in one sitting.
I'm not sure if Rice has lost her touch or I've simply outgrown her, but my disappointment in this book is crushing. As a long-time Rice fan, I have to say this book is best suited to use as toilet paper.
This review previously published at Epinions: http://www.epinions.com/review/Blood_...
November 25, 2017
Ya por fin los Mayfair se meten de lleno con los personajes de las crónicas y es increíble. A pesar de que Mona no es muy de mi agrado la historia fue muy entretenida, tal vez divagó en cosas un poco extrañas y que no eran muy necesarias, pero el general está bueno.
Si hay un tomo más de esta saga yo lo leeré, punto.
Si hay un tomo más de esta saga yo lo leeré, punto.
February 18, 2008
As much of a die hard Anne Rice fan as I claim to be, I have yet to finish this book. Supposedly it's the last she'll ever write in her vampire series. I got about halfway through and wanted to throw the book across the room. It's like a different person is writing.. and it seems like Anne just doesn't care about this series or the vampire world anymore. Lestat saying the word 'dude' was pretty much the last straw. I'll come back to this book eventually, and I'll hopefully be less bitter the next time I give it a try. This book just felt like a kick in the face for anyone who has loved her vampire series.
October 13, 2014
Now Mona is a vampire and not facing her inevitable death, she is able to ask hard questions – like where her daughter is and what has become of the Taltos
The big dark secret of the Mayfair family is finally open and ready to be resolved.
I have a problem.
When I reviewed Blackwood Farm I gave it 0.5 fangs. I do not regret that rating, it most definitely deserved that rating. But now I have a problem, because Blood Canticle is even worse but, out of some odd twisted sense of needing to finish this series, I finished it so I can’t DNF it.
Normally I like to sum up all the positive things with the book first. This will not take long. I like that the book addresses Mona becoming a vampire and how, as a woman, the sheer safety from attack that comes with vampiric power means a lot more than it would to, say, Quinn. It’s a nice mention – it’s one line
There’s the good. I can think if not one more positive thing to add. Now to the much much much longer lists of negative.
Firstly, this book opens with a rather awful screed from Lestat chastising readers for not appreciating the brilliance of Memnoch The Devil (a book that was much criticised and, no, I didn’t like it either). I’ve seen authors respond to negative reviews before and it’s never good, but to actually have your title character scold readers for not UNDERSTANDING the insight of your oh-so-perfect book in a later book in the series is rather shockingly childish and ridiculous. It did not make me positively inclined towards this book
Then we have Lestat running through this strangely bizarre joyous ode to Catholicism, including shovelling over a lot of problematic issues (in a series that likes to make every character bisexual – well so long as their loves are under-aged – praising the church in glowing terms then throwing aside the homophobia as a 3 word bracketed reference is insulting) which then develops into a confused, incoherent ramble of Lestat wanting to be a saint and the Pope and the spiritual joys of an obscure saint that will keep popping up throughout the whole book without any real need or relevance (and it’s not like the books need more reasons to deviate).
After all this (and a brief, strange idea of lecturing the pope that the super-rich and luxurious would totally save the world so why worry about wealth divides), we move towards the story. Well, no, we move towards lots of sitting around and talking, info-dumping, lecturing and great big melodramatic emotional outbursts, commenting on people’s clothes in huge detail, a lot of recapping and a whole lot of nothing happening
But all of this happens with Lestat having “updated” his language. I think this is a response to people complaining about how over-elaborate the language of these books are – especially when Quinn showed up speaking in exactly the same voice as Lestat – so now Lestat drops random “yo” “cool” and “dude”. It is cringingly awful. It’s like your granddad trying to be “hip”. This continues through the book, it is never not awful.
The characterisation is appalling, especially Mona. Quinn just kind of fades away into the background. Lestat is histrionic and overly dramatic and spends most of the book arguing with Oncle Julien’s ghost, quite why this paedophile is haunting Lestat isn’t really explained, he just appears and he and Lestat melodramatically argue with each other in ridiculously overwrought language for pages on end. Mona is a disaster though – she throws off vast temper tantrums, is slut shamed horrendously both for her sexual past (accepting the blame for “seducing” a male relative when she was 13!) and for how she dresses (which Lestat finds distracting so of course she must change!). She is portrayed as histrionic and bad tempered and spiteful – even when she’s reasonable (she doesn’t like Rowan for good reasons, but her anger is portrayed as spite. She objects to how Lestat speaks to her but she is considered unreasonable). Lestat constantly thinks of her with words like “harpy”. To top it off, of course she apologises to Lestat for not being sufficiently meek and subservient to him. The characterisation is truly cringeworthy.
The story is crammed at the end. Before that we have an excruciatingly long info-dump of what I assume is the plot of the Mayfair Witches books since these two series have now been mushed together (to no-one’s shock, Lestat is now madly in love with Rowan Mayfair. Because Lestat falls in love with everyone the second he sees them. Always.) in between which we have random dramas and temper tantrums from ghostly Patsy (musical interval! Just like Lord of the Rings and just as boring) and Oncle Julien. Finally after all these tantrums and lectures we learn that the Taltos are out there and need finding.
Read More
The big dark secret of the Mayfair family is finally open and ready to be resolved.
I have a problem.
When I reviewed Blackwood Farm I gave it 0.5 fangs. I do not regret that rating, it most definitely deserved that rating. But now I have a problem, because Blood Canticle is even worse but, out of some odd twisted sense of needing to finish this series, I finished it so I can’t DNF it.
Normally I like to sum up all the positive things with the book first. This will not take long. I like that the book addresses Mona becoming a vampire and how, as a woman, the sheer safety from attack that comes with vampiric power means a lot more than it would to, say, Quinn. It’s a nice mention – it’s one line
There’s the good. I can think if not one more positive thing to add. Now to the much much much longer lists of negative.
Firstly, this book opens with a rather awful screed from Lestat chastising readers for not appreciating the brilliance of Memnoch The Devil (a book that was much criticised and, no, I didn’t like it either). I’ve seen authors respond to negative reviews before and it’s never good, but to actually have your title character scold readers for not UNDERSTANDING the insight of your oh-so-perfect book in a later book in the series is rather shockingly childish and ridiculous. It did not make me positively inclined towards this book
Then we have Lestat running through this strangely bizarre joyous ode to Catholicism, including shovelling over a lot of problematic issues (in a series that likes to make every character bisexual – well so long as their loves are under-aged – praising the church in glowing terms then throwing aside the homophobia as a 3 word bracketed reference is insulting) which then develops into a confused, incoherent ramble of Lestat wanting to be a saint and the Pope and the spiritual joys of an obscure saint that will keep popping up throughout the whole book without any real need or relevance (and it’s not like the books need more reasons to deviate).
After all this (and a brief, strange idea of lecturing the pope that the super-rich and luxurious would totally save the world so why worry about wealth divides), we move towards the story. Well, no, we move towards lots of sitting around and talking, info-dumping, lecturing and great big melodramatic emotional outbursts, commenting on people’s clothes in huge detail, a lot of recapping and a whole lot of nothing happening
But all of this happens with Lestat having “updated” his language. I think this is a response to people complaining about how over-elaborate the language of these books are – especially when Quinn showed up speaking in exactly the same voice as Lestat – so now Lestat drops random “yo” “cool” and “dude”. It is cringingly awful. It’s like your granddad trying to be “hip”. This continues through the book, it is never not awful.
The characterisation is appalling, especially Mona. Quinn just kind of fades away into the background. Lestat is histrionic and overly dramatic and spends most of the book arguing with Oncle Julien’s ghost, quite why this paedophile is haunting Lestat isn’t really explained, he just appears and he and Lestat melodramatically argue with each other in ridiculously overwrought language for pages on end. Mona is a disaster though – she throws off vast temper tantrums, is slut shamed horrendously both for her sexual past (accepting the blame for “seducing” a male relative when she was 13!) and for how she dresses (which Lestat finds distracting so of course she must change!). She is portrayed as histrionic and bad tempered and spiteful – even when she’s reasonable (she doesn’t like Rowan for good reasons, but her anger is portrayed as spite. She objects to how Lestat speaks to her but she is considered unreasonable). Lestat constantly thinks of her with words like “harpy”. To top it off, of course she apologises to Lestat for not being sufficiently meek and subservient to him. The characterisation is truly cringeworthy.
The story is crammed at the end. Before that we have an excruciatingly long info-dump of what I assume is the plot of the Mayfair Witches books since these two series have now been mushed together (to no-one’s shock, Lestat is now madly in love with Rowan Mayfair. Because Lestat falls in love with everyone the second he sees them. Always.) in between which we have random dramas and temper tantrums from ghostly Patsy (musical interval! Just like Lord of the Rings and just as boring) and Oncle Julien. Finally after all these tantrums and lectures we learn that the Taltos are out there and need finding.
Read More
December 4, 2013
After finally finishing my journey with Anne Rice and her vampires, something I started at age 14, I come to the end pretty dissapointed with the turn Anne Rice has taken with her writing. Theres not much I can say about this book that others havent already said, however I just have to vent about one thing Anne Rice increasingly does with her later books:
Her feticisization of coloured people, especially creoles of the south. I say this as a mixed creole (also on this note excuse my english) who at first really appreciated Anne Rice's inclusion of our history and shed light on what I never find in other books that take place in the gulf coast south, where everyone, white or not, at some point in their family history probably has got some creole blood (in my opinion anyways)
One, please quit describing how ~exotic~ and different mixed people are: how we have all the "desirable" features of white people and black people combined. And for the love of baby jesus STOP DESCRIBING OUR SKIN WITH DIFFERENT FLAVOURS OF CHOCOCOLATE.
To sum up my frustration (which I apologize if it comes across as a little incoherent) Anne, there is no doubt in my mind you are a smart and well-read woman, as well as a master story teller despite my dissapoint with some of your novels. However, you are the epitome of someone striving to not be racist while ultimately pulling out every stereotype imaginable and coming off as racist and clueless with regards to people of colour.
Her feticisization of coloured people, especially creoles of the south. I say this as a mixed creole (also on this note excuse my english) who at first really appreciated Anne Rice's inclusion of our history and shed light on what I never find in other books that take place in the gulf coast south, where everyone, white or not, at some point in their family history probably has got some creole blood (in my opinion anyways)
One, please quit describing how ~exotic~ and different mixed people are: how we have all the "desirable" features of white people and black people combined. And for the love of baby jesus STOP DESCRIBING OUR SKIN WITH DIFFERENT FLAVOURS OF CHOCOCOLATE.
To sum up my frustration (which I apologize if it comes across as a little incoherent) Anne, there is no doubt in my mind you are a smart and well-read woman, as well as a master story teller despite my dissapoint with some of your novels. However, you are the epitome of someone striving to not be racist while ultimately pulling out every stereotype imaginable and coming off as racist and clueless with regards to people of colour.
June 11, 2020
Either I had a horribly low bar for what good writing is as a teen, or the author's had a major writing crisis since I was a teen. Too scared to pick up one of her (even) older books to find out which one it is. ^^' [prtf]
December 20, 2025
Narrated by the redemption-seeking Lestat, his anguish is palpable, relatable, and adds yet another layer of complexity to Rice's complicated, charismatic, and undead protagonist. Struggling with his compulsion to acquire sainthood while battling his vampiric urges contributes to the novel's depth amid distinctive, lyrical prose.
Take it from me, it's difficult to transport a reader into a world that cannot be researched, one created in its entirety from the author's imagination. The worldbuilding Rice gives us in Blood Canticle awakens all the senses, while the ominous characters practically leap from the pages, prompting, I'm sure, many to occasionally glance over a shoulder before finishing the novel and perhaps for some time after. For this reason alone, the novel deserves the highest possible rating. RIP, Anne. You are greatly missed by fantasy/horror readers the world over. ♥
Take it from me, it's difficult to transport a reader into a world that cannot be researched, one created in its entirety from the author's imagination. The worldbuilding Rice gives us in Blood Canticle awakens all the senses, while the ominous characters practically leap from the pages, prompting, I'm sure, many to occasionally glance over a shoulder before finishing the novel and perhaps for some time after. For this reason alone, the novel deserves the highest possible rating. RIP, Anne. You are greatly missed by fantasy/horror readers the world over. ♥
April 19, 2025
I actually liked this much better on this reread.
March 28, 2017
Anne Rice has said this is the last of the Vampire Chronicles, I'm not sure if this is the last of the Mayfair Witches, but this review is written under the belief that Blood Canticle is the end of both. Anne Rice is my favorite author. The Witching Hour is my favorite book. As I reached the end of the chronicles and the time came to read Blood Canticle I didn't want to. I wanted to stay on those cracked humid sidewalks of the French Quarter and bask in the flickering light of the gaslamps. I feel not only connected to her characters, but to my beloved New Orleans. There are always rereads, but this would be the end of my first time through the series, the book would never again have this freshness. I looked at the end of it all and started reading while aware of the polarizing reviews. I did not like the way the book started out, Lestat was way too self aware and it took me out of the story. There was a difference in the writing, for example (not in text): Night Air. Click of heels. Mosquitos. There seemed to be a lot of these short clunky pieces without the velvety smooth signature Anne Rice richness to envelop them. Lestat's new swing for slang was annoying, why would he even bother? And for that matter why would an almost godlike vampire Maharet use email instead of telepathy or a face to face encounter to deliver her news? What’s her email address? The book is too short, especially so considering this ties up both the Mayfair and Vampire books. Mona's transformation was superficial (aside from her wanting to reunite with Morrigan and her trials at Mayfair Medical (I would have LOVED for that to have been developed more) and so much about Aunt Queen's clothes and not enough about her possible trouble/guilt/growing pains at having to feed off the living and being undead. In one chapter she gets a computer and offers meditations but I would have prefered if it had been developed as the book progressed instead of being thrown at me all at once. While most of the plot was about Mona (her turning into a vamp, looking for the Taltos) poor Quinn fell by the wayside when he could have used more development considering the book Blackwood Farm just ended and how he was adjusting to the changes. I also did not like how Rowan fell for Lestat. I did not believe their "lovestruck" obsession until the end of the book in the last chapter when the attraction was beautifully expressed, but at the same time should it have even existed in the first place? What about Michael? I really liked him and he is just a shadow in this book- a doormat. At times it seemed like there were too many characters in the scenes, overcomplicating the plot and robbing their development. I could keep going on, Patty, the Ghosts, the search, but it all boils down to that this book was too short. Blood Canticle was supposed to be about Lestat's redemption by not being selfish in the act of turning Rowan over to the blood, it could have worked, I would not have been as peeved at Michael's neglect, Rowan and Lestat's romance would have been more believable if only it had been longer! More development that looks like a quilt instead of a brick wall. The book ends with Lestat being hungry and I am too! I understand Anne Rice went through some tough times while finishing this book, and I hold nothing against her. I love you TONS Anne Rice!
August 1, 2009
Easily one of the single most awful books I've read. The writing was excruciating, the story ridiculous. This made me want to flee into the arms of Anne's earlier work, fold myself into the lush, lyrical writing of novels past, and dismiss this book and the one preceding it as cruel jokes; as nightmares; as phantoms I'd never need to acknowledge ever again. I'm very passionate about the fact that the end of this series is dead to me. I'd just as soon pretend trees had never been felled to print this trash.
This is not Anne Rice.
This is not Anne Rice.
May 28, 2023
must a book be "good" to enjoy it?? objectively this is horrendous. it has nearly nothing to do with the original books in the vampire chronicles (stop at book three queen of the damned seriously) but i love the mayfairs and blackwoods so 5/5 anne rice i love you
December 4, 2013
I was so upset with this book. It's nothing like her other ones, and I get the honest feeling that she just wanted to finish the entire vampire chronicle series, and mayfair witch series by wrapping up all the loose ends together in one book. It definitely shows. First of all, Mona. She's a character I genuinely liked, fierce, independent, intelligent, a little arrogant but wickedly fun, and full of potential. And what did rice do to tie off that end? Made her sick, turned her into a vampire, and threw her into the lovelorn arms of Quinn Blackwood.....okay... Then, there is just too much going on, extra padding, and not enough vampire to even consider this a part of the vampire chronicles. But above all, I'm sick to death of Rowan Mayfair, and it sickens me even more that this woman, who is lackluster, boring, and described as cold and rigid, is the fall of Lestat. He becomes a lovesick idiot in her "thrall". After the first mayfair book, I was already bored with her, she was idealized far too much, descriptions of her only said how tremendous a person she was, but her character never struck me the way others did. I cannot begin to express my disappointment with the way Rice wrote that even LESTAT was unable to fight the pheromones. I really wish i'd never read this book, because i'll carry this with me forever as the official, straight from the authors mind, end to a story that was a part of my childhood, adolesence, and finally, my entrance into adulthood. The only book that tops this in that category
"Worst end to a promising series" is Stephenie Meyer's Breaking Dawn.
"Worst end to a promising series" is Stephenie Meyer's Breaking Dawn.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 9, 2010
Ick. Way enough already. Can vampires be redeemed? Oh my god, if he asks this question one more time, just kill him for good and put him out of his angst. Is Anne putting a little too much of her own insecurity into her vampires?
Redeemed from what? Surviving on human blood? They are predators for crissakes, a different species. Can humans be redeemed for eating red meat? It's the blood of another species, after all. Get over it already. One book, was good. 2 or 3, and I still didn't ask why vampires around since before Christianity would be obsessed with christian principles like redemption. I picked up this book to see if she had gotten anywhere yet. Apparently not, it's like watching a hamster run in a wheel for years and years. This hamster should have passed out long ago. Too bad they're immortal. But the series doesn't have to go on forever, does it?
Redeemed from what? Surviving on human blood? They are predators for crissakes, a different species. Can humans be redeemed for eating red meat? It's the blood of another species, after all. Get over it already. One book, was good. 2 or 3, and I still didn't ask why vampires around since before Christianity would be obsessed with christian principles like redemption. I picked up this book to see if she had gotten anywhere yet. Apparently not, it's like watching a hamster run in a wheel for years and years. This hamster should have passed out long ago. Too bad they're immortal. But the series doesn't have to go on forever, does it?
October 10, 2022
4 stars. Feels like Lestat hasn’t been the main character in forever and he’s finally back in the lead in this one! So for that alone I enjoyed this a lot because I missed my soft emo boy. He’s in book nine, yes, but that’s mainly Quinn’s story whereas this one is focused more on Lestat. This was intriguing and super odd. I liked the Mayfair characters quite a bit and it made me even more excited to get to Rice’s Lives of the Mayfair Witches series.
Some of the writing choices were bizarre. The book opens with Rice using Lestat to scold readers for not liking book five Memnoch the Devil and I honestly thought it was absurd and absolutely hilarious. It was so random. Lestat is a bit out of character here and inconsistent but a lot of the surrounding characters and the story itself is what really made this for me. All of the weirdness aside I still enjoyed this.
Some of the writing choices were bizarre. The book opens with Rice using Lestat to scold readers for not liking book five Memnoch the Devil and I honestly thought it was absurd and absolutely hilarious. It was so random. Lestat is a bit out of character here and inconsistent but a lot of the surrounding characters and the story itself is what really made this for me. All of the weirdness aside I still enjoyed this.
April 19, 2023
Do you know how much I suffer when I give one Vampire Chronicles book a bad rating when I genuinely love this series so much, for some reason I don't even understand myself? Well, you should know.
Surprisingly enough, I thought the plot was interesting to an extent. It made me curious enough to want to give the Mayfair Witches books a chance, even if I don't like the characters from that series that have made an appearance in The Vampire Chronicles so far.
The first half of the book does drag and feels too slow when the characters are, basically, doing nothing. From there, you get an enormous summary of the Mayfair Witches trilogy, which is extremely confusing and tedious to someone who has not read it, like me. And after that, what at first looked like a challenge for the main characters and what appeared to be one of the main plotlines of the book is solved by another vampire emaling Lestat the direction of the super secret place they needed to find. I'm serious.
Again, my main complaint about Blood Canticle is the same I had with Blackwood Farm: the crossover between series doesn't work at all. Maybe it would have with a different approach, but it did not happen here and certainly, it didn't happen in the last book.
Unfortunately, Lestat has gone from unreliable narrator to know-it-all, the unquestionable authority in TVC. Mona Mayfair grew on me even if I was somewhat disappointed in the end, but at certain moments she was a nice opponent for Lestat when she challenged and questioned him, calling him out when he deserved it. But Anne Rice puts so much of herself into Lestat that it has made her unable to let a character oppose him for too long before they comply and apologise, realising that Lestat was right the entire time even when he is terribly wrong. What made Mona bold and stand out in the book lasted for 3 paragraphs.
Quinn Blackwood, the main character of the previous book, completely blended into the background in this one. He was barely there, barely speaking and participating in the action when he originally was much more compelling. Alas, Rice forgetting about a character happens more often than not in TVC due to the large cast it has.
Rowan Mayfair is a whole other thing. It's been a while since I have seen a character so bland and uninteresting, she gave absolutely nothing but for some reason that nothing obsesses Lestat and that's why we have to suffer her for 300 pages even when she is not in the scene. I should have gotten used to the instalove after 10 books, but it still bothers me and I find it nonsensical and badly written.
Lestat's narrative voice felt off for this entire book. The dramatic, flowery, theatrical prose that characterises Anne Rice and her vampires in this book is a watered-down version of it mixed with slang, which does allow some funny moments and quotes but, in the end, it feels sloppy and too casual. There is an abysmal difference between the writing in Interview with the Vampire and Blood Canticle. Nevertheless I'm still hopeful and looking forward to the final trilogy, hoping we get the original essence back.
It does make me feel bad to know that Rice was not in a good place while she was writing this book, her mind was on other things, but I can't get over the fact that at one point and for years, this was considered the last Vampire Chronicles book. This was supposed to be the great conclusion of this series of up-and-downs, and that would have been so tragic. This book does not do TVC justice, and I believe it is the worst one so far.
Surprisingly enough, I thought the plot was interesting to an extent. It made me curious enough to want to give the Mayfair Witches books a chance, even if I don't like the characters from that series that have made an appearance in The Vampire Chronicles so far.
The first half of the book does drag and feels too slow when the characters are, basically, doing nothing. From there, you get an enormous summary of the Mayfair Witches trilogy, which is extremely confusing and tedious to someone who has not read it, like me. And after that, what at first looked like a challenge for the main characters and what appeared to be one of the main plotlines of the book is solved by another vampire emaling Lestat the direction of the super secret place they needed to find. I'm serious.
Again, my main complaint about Blood Canticle is the same I had with Blackwood Farm: the crossover between series doesn't work at all. Maybe it would have with a different approach, but it did not happen here and certainly, it didn't happen in the last book.
Unfortunately, Lestat has gone from unreliable narrator to know-it-all, the unquestionable authority in TVC. Mona Mayfair grew on me even if I was somewhat disappointed in the end, but at certain moments she was a nice opponent for Lestat when she challenged and questioned him, calling him out when he deserved it. But Anne Rice puts so much of herself into Lestat that it has made her unable to let a character oppose him for too long before they comply and apologise, realising that Lestat was right the entire time even when he is terribly wrong. What made Mona bold and stand out in the book lasted for 3 paragraphs.
Quinn Blackwood, the main character of the previous book, completely blended into the background in this one. He was barely there, barely speaking and participating in the action when he originally was much more compelling. Alas, Rice forgetting about a character happens more often than not in TVC due to the large cast it has.
Rowan Mayfair is a whole other thing. It's been a while since I have seen a character so bland and uninteresting, she gave absolutely nothing but for some reason that nothing obsesses Lestat and that's why we have to suffer her for 300 pages even when she is not in the scene. I should have gotten used to the instalove after 10 books, but it still bothers me and I find it nonsensical and badly written.
Lestat's narrative voice felt off for this entire book. The dramatic, flowery, theatrical prose that characterises Anne Rice and her vampires in this book is a watered-down version of it mixed with slang, which does allow some funny moments and quotes but, in the end, it feels sloppy and too casual. There is an abysmal difference between the writing in Interview with the Vampire and Blood Canticle. Nevertheless I'm still hopeful and looking forward to the final trilogy, hoping we get the original essence back.
It does make me feel bad to know that Rice was not in a good place while she was writing this book, her mind was on other things, but I can't get over the fact that at one point and for years, this was considered the last Vampire Chronicles book. This was supposed to be the great conclusion of this series of up-and-downs, and that would have been so tragic. This book does not do TVC justice, and I believe it is the worst one so far.
October 28, 2010
The peak of Anne Rice's breakdown - this is basically an excuse for long-atheist characters to pound their fists about religion, to ruminate on how the former, late Pope is doing, and generally a way to pretend that whatever random assortment of stuff she was thinking about/interested in during the few months she spent writing this made a story if all compressed together.
Famous for her getting on Amazon and blasting people who gave it a bad review.
Famous for her getting on Amazon and blasting people who gave it a bad review.
January 2, 2012
It was great to read an Anne Rice book that combined her two most popular series, the Vampire Chronicles and the Mayfair Witches, in a story that was so full of motion. I've read many of her books, and as a fan even I have to admit that she can occasionally get bogged down in the detailed description of things (clothing, art, architecture, geography, etc). Not so with Blood Canticle. In this book, written through Lestat, the book has an energy and a feeling that the last several books in the vampire series (largely without Lestat) have lacked. Perhaps she felt comfortable bypassing detailed description because there were honestly no new vital characters that were introduced in this story. In fact, all of the players have had important roles in other books in the two series, most of them in the vampire book that preceded this novel, Blackwood Farm. That is the only reason that I'd maybe not recommend this book to everyone; if you haven't already developed an understanding of Lestat, Rowan, Mona and Julien Mayfair, and the Taltos, I think you'd be missing major pieces of these characters and would not enjoy the book nearly as much as I did. However, if you were/are a fan of the Vampire Chronicles (especially the first few books, through Memnoch) and/or you are a fan of her Mayfair witch series, then I think that you'll thoroughly enjoy this story. However, I would also recommend that you read Blackwood Farm first, as that story has vital descriptions of the setting and many main characters that you'll need to know.
August 30, 2017
So here I finished last book of Vampire Chronicles.
First pages made me laugh how childish Lestat acts. I think it might be childish to dream to be a saint, but in other ways he just wants to help people. Which is nice. But I started to miss good old Lestat. He changed over all books. No more that arrogant Frenchman. Mona...yeah... I cannot stand her the same as Rowan. I already got my opinion in "Blackwood Farm".
Umm.. Taltos, yes. That was the most interesting part of the book. I enjoyed reading how they look like, how they act, their history. The plot was great too, I think it was a book mostly full of action of all Vampire Chronicles. But I really missed how Louis and David lives.... I missed good old characters. And Armand? Marius?
And the end of book? Sad. Very sad. Maybe too sad. In fact, it's a book that isn't easy to read. But I very liked it because of so much action and something complitely new.
First pages made me laugh how childish Lestat acts. I think it might be childish to dream to be a saint, but in other ways he just wants to help people. Which is nice. But I started to miss good old Lestat. He changed over all books. No more that arrogant Frenchman. Mona...yeah... I cannot stand her the same as Rowan. I already got my opinion in "Blackwood Farm".
Umm.. Taltos, yes. That was the most interesting part of the book. I enjoyed reading how they look like, how they act, their history. The plot was great too, I think it was a book mostly full of action of all Vampire Chronicles. But I really missed how Louis and David lives.... I missed good old characters. And Armand? Marius?
And the end of book? Sad. Very sad. Maybe too sad. In fact, it's a book that isn't easy to read. But I very liked it because of so much action and something complitely new.
September 13, 2024
jesus fucking christ this was bad
(i'm not giving it a one because it made laugh)
later update: i'm reading (and loving) prince lestat and it's making me think how bad this was so i'm dropping it to a one
(i'm not giving it a one because it made laugh)
later update: i'm reading (and loving) prince lestat and it's making me think how bad this was so i'm dropping it to a one
August 17, 2020
2.5
Este libro no tiene ningún argumento, Lestat no es más que una caricatura de lo que una vez fue y Quinn y Mona me importan un rábano... pero no lo odié, probablemente porque nada puede ser tan malo como El Santuario así que tenia mis expectativas increiblemente bajas.
Este libro no tiene ningún argumento, Lestat no es más que una caricatura de lo que una vez fue y Quinn y Mona me importan un rábano... pero no lo odié, probablemente porque nada puede ser tan malo como El Santuario así que tenia mis expectativas increiblemente bajas.
January 17, 2013
Spoiler Alert! I've read two books since I finished Blood Canticle, and I still find myself thinking about how disappointed I am by this book. I was so excited to see how this beloved and epic tale of The Vampire Chronicles would end. Despite having had to consciously try hard to get used to Blackwood Farm, I was sure Rice would write a book that would make this whole set end in a satisfying way. But no, I was dead wrong. It almost feels like a kick in the junk after reading the previous nine books. I'm so miffed that its hard to write an eloquent review of this crap. So I won't, because obviously Rice didn't go that mile with this book, and I treat a writer how they treat me as a reader.
Lestat has turned into a whiny little sissy who speaks in short, choppy sentences like an ADD sufferer describing a Michael Bay movie after nine beers - but only in chunks - the rest of the time, he speaks like he used to, for some reason. Several Chronicle-wide plot points and character-important decisions have apparently been forgotten or very vaguely excused away - like that whole War With The Freaking Talamasca thing we've been hearing about since Merrick, and the Bianca thing, and Louis ever actually hearing from the REAL Claudia again. I don't even want to remember anymore of the things Rice left us high and dry on. One thing that got me - and probably most of you - hooked on Rice, was her beautiful and elegant writing style. Well, you'll find about two pages of that in here. Instead of developing characters with depth and who you can relate to, she gives us one-dimensional personalities on a worse scale than the Disney Channel. One of the failures of this book that makes it so overwhelmingly insulting to me is that I haven't read the Mayfair stuff yet, and was thinking about it, until I saw the Mayfair characters in here to be vague and one-dimensional. Now it would be really hard to care about them in their own story, so I'll probably never read that.
Now, I understand that Rice went through a lot of hard things that anyone reading this review would probably already know about, and that she is an emotional writer in the first place, which is a good thing as far as her process is concerned (I think she uses it very well, usually). But I think she could have either powered through and given her writing greater attention, or taken a break. I'm sure that her publisher and fans would've been okay with her taking time to work things through - it would've been a lot better than being handed something which, if I didn't know better, would of seem to be a bootleg copy that a bad fan fiction author would've tried to sell us, like a Rollecks watch or a Sohnee TV out of the back of an old rusty Chevy van somewhere near my neighborhood's most luxurious illegal dumping site.
Thank you, Anne Rice, for being like so many drummers and ex-girlfriends, by making me love everything you do - right up until you take a gigantic shit all over my hopes and dreams and probably my couch, too. If you need me, I'll be chillin' with Bradbury, King, and Wells.
Lestat has turned into a whiny little sissy who speaks in short, choppy sentences like an ADD sufferer describing a Michael Bay movie after nine beers - but only in chunks - the rest of the time, he speaks like he used to, for some reason. Several Chronicle-wide plot points and character-important decisions have apparently been forgotten or very vaguely excused away - like that whole War With The Freaking Talamasca thing we've been hearing about since Merrick, and the Bianca thing, and Louis ever actually hearing from the REAL Claudia again. I don't even want to remember anymore of the things Rice left us high and dry on. One thing that got me - and probably most of you - hooked on Rice, was her beautiful and elegant writing style. Well, you'll find about two pages of that in here. Instead of developing characters with depth and who you can relate to, she gives us one-dimensional personalities on a worse scale than the Disney Channel. One of the failures of this book that makes it so overwhelmingly insulting to me is that I haven't read the Mayfair stuff yet, and was thinking about it, until I saw the Mayfair characters in here to be vague and one-dimensional. Now it would be really hard to care about them in their own story, so I'll probably never read that.
Now, I understand that Rice went through a lot of hard things that anyone reading this review would probably already know about, and that she is an emotional writer in the first place, which is a good thing as far as her process is concerned (I think she uses it very well, usually). But I think she could have either powered through and given her writing greater attention, or taken a break. I'm sure that her publisher and fans would've been okay with her taking time to work things through - it would've been a lot better than being handed something which, if I didn't know better, would of seem to be a bootleg copy that a bad fan fiction author would've tried to sell us, like a Rollecks watch or a Sohnee TV out of the back of an old rusty Chevy van somewhere near my neighborhood's most luxurious illegal dumping site.
Thank you, Anne Rice, for being like so many drummers and ex-girlfriends, by making me love everything you do - right up until you take a gigantic shit all over my hopes and dreams and probably my couch, too. If you need me, I'll be chillin' with Bradbury, King, and Wells.
September 3, 2014
What the hell did I just read??? This is not the Lestat I know! This adds nothing to the vampire canon! I mean, by god! I can´t with all the taltos thing. I JUST CAN'T. Those are some weird ass things that I couldn't help but feel repulsed by them. AND ALL THE FUCKING BOOK IS ABOUT THEM!
If Blackwood Farm was a let down with all the switch of focus on a character I didn't know and couldn't bring myself to care about throughout the book,this is a major setback for me.
I mean, those taltos things are soooo fucked up and just plain wrong
(Walking babies??? Looking for sex right after being born??? EVEN WITH THEIR OWN FLESH AND BLOOD????)
I haven't read any of the Mayfair books but after reading what I assume is the recap of the books told by Mona and Rowan I'm soooooo not doing it. And even less with those characters I disliked so much. Oh, my god, Mona is the most annoying character EVER in the Vampire chronicle's world and Rowan isn't far behind either. If that's what the Mayfairs are like I don't want to read anything about them. What a horrible representation of what powerful and independent women are supposed to be like! No wonder the black Mayfairs don't want to be involved with them!
I really hope Prince Lestat doesn't have any Mayfair (or Taltos for that matter), according to the summary it brings back all the (vampire) characters in the canon and doesn't mention any Mayfair witch and stuff, it may be a come back to the right path. Hopefully. Fingers crossed.
September 7, 2010
What a disappointing conclusion to the Vampire Chronicles and the tales of the Mayfair witches and the Taltos. It reads as though it were written by someone who had skimmed the Cliffs Notes of the previous books. The writing is terrible, the characters behave in bizarre and inconsistent ways, the text is full of errors, and the plot is full of holes. What happened to David Talbot and Louis, last ensconced in Lestat's flat on the Rue Royale? What happened to the Talamasca's declaration of enmity against the vampires? How likely is it that Dolly Jean knows not only about the "Walking Babies" but the "Blood Children"? What is that bizarre obsession with Saint Juan Diego? And are we really supposed to believe that the Taltos ended up on a Caribbean island overrun by drug lords? I should have known this one would be terrible when it began with a tirade, via Lestat, about the fact that no one liked Memnoch the Devil and pointed out that that book had outsold all of the other chronicles.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 23, 2019
I loved this book as I loved it’s predecessors. This was a great story brilliantly written. All Anne Rice’s characters are most intriguing, though I liked Rowan Mayfair least of all. I fail to understand why all the men found her so easy to fall in love with. I definitely shared Mona’s view on that. This book picks up where the Mayfairs and vampires Quinn and Lestat leave off in Blackwood Farm. it’s funny as well as tragic. I recommend it, but it’s characters are part of a long series, so it’s best to get to know them from previous books, especially The Mayfair Witches series.
August 17, 2023
Hopefully Anne Rice can’t read reviews in the afterlife because what the hell was that? It didn’t even seem like she wrote it. Lestat wouldn’t say dude or yo. What a bummer of a book.
January 15, 2013
This latest installment of Rice's "Vampire Chronicles" begins with a ranting soliloquy from the infamous vampire Lestat as he addresses readers of the previous books. He excoriates those who read his chronicles but did not understand what he was trying to say. He fantasizes about being good, about becoming a saint, about speaking to the Pope. The entire first chapter is taken up with nonsense that has nothing to do with the story, and then the novel's basic plot begins where Blackwood Farm ended. In that novel, Quinn Blackwood's unique voice narrated; unfortunately, in this sequel it is a boorish Lestat who tells the tale. In order to save the dying Mona Mayfair, whom Quinn loves, Lestat bestows the dark kiss, making her one of the undead. In this way Lestat becomes involved in the complex world of the Mayfair witches, even helping them to discover the secret of the mysterious Taltos who have haunted the Mayfairs throughout their history. This is not one of Rice's better efforts. [A version of this review appeared in Library Journal, Oct. 2003]
December 4, 2013
This is where Anne Rice and I became no longer "friends"...she cast aside this series in such a poor way it was insulting to her fans...very insulting. I wish I could give it 1/2 a star. And it only gets 1/2 a star on the coat tails of the good books and my love of the characters prior to this..
October 16, 2024
Well, what can I say about this one?! This is book 10 in the Vampire Chronicles series and what was intended to be the final book, bringing the series to a conclusion and to be completely honest at the moment, all I am thinking is - What have I just read?!
First of all, I would like to say that I have since discovered that Anne Rice clearly wasn’t in a good place when she wrote this book. From the date it was published (August 2003) it is obvious to me that she was grieving for her husband Stan (who according to the dedication at the front of the book died in 2002) when she was writing this, as that can be the only reasonable explanation for what is written and so as such, I blame the publishers for this… car crash of a story as much as Anne Rice. This book should never have been published as it was. Someone should’ve sat Anne Rice down and said ‘Look Anne, we cannot publish this as it is’ but they didn’t. I’ve watched interviews with Anne Rice and she came across in them as a very forceful character who knew exactly what she wanted and did not compromise at all. The fact she stopped using editors after the first three books (which in my opinion was a huge mistake) because ‘she knew her work best’ and ‘didn’t want it compromised’, explains the opening chapter in this book, as it seems she also didn’t take kindly to criticism of her work from her fans either. Someone should’ve stood up to her in this instance as this book is nothing more than huge ‘F U’ to her readers.
As the Vampire Chronicles stories have progressed, Anne Rice’s own views have become more and more apparent, overshadowing her characters. It was almost as though she became one of the characters, she was ‘The vampire Anne Rice’ in the earlier books when she was working through her own views on religion when she became a born again Christian and incorporating them into the stories – I mentioned this very fact previously in my reviews of The Tale of the Body Thief and Memnoch the Devil where it was most apparent that it was the authors views, thoughts and questions coming through rather than the characters themselves. But her voice is so apparent in this book, the writing so erratic and the characters so out of character that it almost comes across as one big tantrum.
This story begins with an astonishing rant. I couldn’t actually believe what I was reading, it was a rant filled with such erratic incoherent venom and bitterness towards her readers. It is written as though Lestat is voicing these words, but it is obviously all Anne Rice, and most surprisingly its content is how she felt slighted about how the book Memnoch the Devil was received by fans. The very fact it is that which caused it, (a book which had been published back in 1995) and she had stewed on that not entirely positive response to it for eight years and written four other books in the meantime, is astonishing and shows that she really could not have been thinking too clearly when she wrote this – that is the only reasonable explanation for it, as that opening chapter is not only petty it is downright bizarre and, in some parts, unhinged with its moments of shouty capitals and healthy doses of god complex and narcissism. Insulting your readers is never a good move, which is essentially what she does. It was uncomfortable to read as it was so shocking and out of character, as I knew Anne Rice could do far better than this.
Unfortunately, the story doesn’t improve it just goes downhill from that point. Lestat is the narrator of this story and spends a lot of Blood Canticle serving as Anne Rice’s mouthpiece throughout, getting little digs in here and there which just comes across as childish and once again the character has a lot to say about religion in particular about Roman Catholicism, which is totally at odds with what the character has previously said and done. It is really not Lestat as we know him from the previous books. Yes, he is vane, selfish and complex, he is after all the Brat Prince but he is also incredibly vulnerable. Not a raving narcissist who wants to be a saint! Characterisation has always been a strong point with Anne’s writing and the character Lestat is quite frankly a literary masterpiece… but not in this story! All her characters in this ‘story’ (and I use that term loosely) are shallow and one dimensional and in some cases just plain silly but Lestat is on another level, let’s be clear here - this is NOT Lestat, this is as far from Lestat as you could possibly get. This Lestat throws prudish tantrums and most bizarrely at times talks differently, using modern phrases which he has never done before. Lestat has always had an old-fashioned flowery dialogue and so reading him coming out with phrases like ‘hey dude’, ‘yo’ and ‘cool’ is jarring and cringeworthy, that along with all the little digs littering the dialogue, at times he basically sounds like an idiot in this book and it is all just so... wrong and completely at odds with everything we’ve learnt and know about this character. If I were to be uncharitable it almost feels like after Anne’s diatribe of the first chapter where she is basically saying her readers are not intelligent enough to ‘get’ Memnoch, she has responded by just offering up a ridiculously mindless non story to get her own back and the whole tone of it suggests she was ridiculing and punishing them.
From the completely out of character dialogue and erratic behaviour of the characters, on top of the dysfunctional and utterly outlandish plot this book, which was jaw droppingly mad at some points to say the very least. Although to be completely fair there were glimpses of what could’ve been a really good story in there, but they were lost amongst the erratic ravings and incredulous scenarios. The plot (what little of it there was) read like something written as an over enthusiastic fan fiction by someone who didn’t fully understand the characters or their backstory and simply took the story into la la land. It was in short, a complete car crash from beginning to end, and considering how good the early books were, that is really, really sad, as we expect far more than this from Anne Rice and we knew that she could write far better than this. This is not only an insult (and possibly considering what was written at some points, a deliberate one) to all her readers, it is an insult to herself, along with the characters she has created and the stories previously written in this series as it doesn’t do herself or them any favours to have this book in this series.
Anne Rice said herself at the time that this was meant to be the final book in the series and I can imagine at the time how disappointing that would be for the loyal readers who had followed them to this point. To be insulted so badly for what seems to be something incredibly petty – that is, bruising Anne Rice’s ego by not universally adoring the book Memnoch the Devil, eight years previously. I am coming to it with the benefit of hindsight knowing that three further books were written about 10 or so years later when Anne returned to the Chronicles universe, but this... this really should never have been written and certainly never have been published and I stand by my opening comments that someone at the publishers really dropped the ball with this one and should’ve stood up to Anne and said no.
This book doesn’t even deserve a single star rating it is so appallingly bad and so totally out of character – it is like night and day compared to the previous books in the series. I have to give it a rating though and due to the fact that I am choosing to believe she wasn’t in a good place when this was written and therefore I am ignoring the blatant insults of the first chapter and passive aggressive digs throughout and I am concentrating on the fact there were hints of a good story buried in there in places, I give it 1 ½ stars which I have rounded down to 1 star because it really was that bad, and it really upsets me to do so as on the whole I adore this series of books, and for the record I even gave Memnoch 2 stars as (up to this point) that was the only book I didn’t care for very much.
First of all, I would like to say that I have since discovered that Anne Rice clearly wasn’t in a good place when she wrote this book. From the date it was published (August 2003) it is obvious to me that she was grieving for her husband Stan (who according to the dedication at the front of the book died in 2002) when she was writing this, as that can be the only reasonable explanation for what is written and so as such, I blame the publishers for this… car crash of a story as much as Anne Rice. This book should never have been published as it was. Someone should’ve sat Anne Rice down and said ‘Look Anne, we cannot publish this as it is’ but they didn’t. I’ve watched interviews with Anne Rice and she came across in them as a very forceful character who knew exactly what she wanted and did not compromise at all. The fact she stopped using editors after the first three books (which in my opinion was a huge mistake) because ‘she knew her work best’ and ‘didn’t want it compromised’, explains the opening chapter in this book, as it seems she also didn’t take kindly to criticism of her work from her fans either. Someone should’ve stood up to her in this instance as this book is nothing more than huge ‘F U’ to her readers.
As the Vampire Chronicles stories have progressed, Anne Rice’s own views have become more and more apparent, overshadowing her characters. It was almost as though she became one of the characters, she was ‘The vampire Anne Rice’ in the earlier books when she was working through her own views on religion when she became a born again Christian and incorporating them into the stories – I mentioned this very fact previously in my reviews of The Tale of the Body Thief and Memnoch the Devil where it was most apparent that it was the authors views, thoughts and questions coming through rather than the characters themselves. But her voice is so apparent in this book, the writing so erratic and the characters so out of character that it almost comes across as one big tantrum.
This story begins with an astonishing rant. I couldn’t actually believe what I was reading, it was a rant filled with such erratic incoherent venom and bitterness towards her readers. It is written as though Lestat is voicing these words, but it is obviously all Anne Rice, and most surprisingly its content is how she felt slighted about how the book Memnoch the Devil was received by fans. The very fact it is that which caused it, (a book which had been published back in 1995) and she had stewed on that not entirely positive response to it for eight years and written four other books in the meantime, is astonishing and shows that she really could not have been thinking too clearly when she wrote this – that is the only reasonable explanation for it, as that opening chapter is not only petty it is downright bizarre and, in some parts, unhinged with its moments of shouty capitals and healthy doses of god complex and narcissism. Insulting your readers is never a good move, which is essentially what she does. It was uncomfortable to read as it was so shocking and out of character, as I knew Anne Rice could do far better than this.
Unfortunately, the story doesn’t improve it just goes downhill from that point. Lestat is the narrator of this story and spends a lot of Blood Canticle serving as Anne Rice’s mouthpiece throughout, getting little digs in here and there which just comes across as childish and once again the character has a lot to say about religion in particular about Roman Catholicism, which is totally at odds with what the character has previously said and done. It is really not Lestat as we know him from the previous books. Yes, he is vane, selfish and complex, he is after all the Brat Prince but he is also incredibly vulnerable. Not a raving narcissist who wants to be a saint! Characterisation has always been a strong point with Anne’s writing and the character Lestat is quite frankly a literary masterpiece… but not in this story! All her characters in this ‘story’ (and I use that term loosely) are shallow and one dimensional and in some cases just plain silly but Lestat is on another level, let’s be clear here - this is NOT Lestat, this is as far from Lestat as you could possibly get. This Lestat throws prudish tantrums and most bizarrely at times talks differently, using modern phrases which he has never done before. Lestat has always had an old-fashioned flowery dialogue and so reading him coming out with phrases like ‘hey dude’, ‘yo’ and ‘cool’ is jarring and cringeworthy, that along with all the little digs littering the dialogue, at times he basically sounds like an idiot in this book and it is all just so... wrong and completely at odds with everything we’ve learnt and know about this character. If I were to be uncharitable it almost feels like after Anne’s diatribe of the first chapter where she is basically saying her readers are not intelligent enough to ‘get’ Memnoch, she has responded by just offering up a ridiculously mindless non story to get her own back and the whole tone of it suggests she was ridiculing and punishing them.
From the completely out of character dialogue and erratic behaviour of the characters, on top of the dysfunctional and utterly outlandish plot this book, which was jaw droppingly mad at some points to say the very least. Although to be completely fair there were glimpses of what could’ve been a really good story in there, but they were lost amongst the erratic ravings and incredulous scenarios. The plot (what little of it there was) read like something written as an over enthusiastic fan fiction by someone who didn’t fully understand the characters or their backstory and simply took the story into la la land. It was in short, a complete car crash from beginning to end, and considering how good the early books were, that is really, really sad, as we expect far more than this from Anne Rice and we knew that she could write far better than this. This is not only an insult (and possibly considering what was written at some points, a deliberate one) to all her readers, it is an insult to herself, along with the characters she has created and the stories previously written in this series as it doesn’t do herself or them any favours to have this book in this series.
Anne Rice said herself at the time that this was meant to be the final book in the series and I can imagine at the time how disappointing that would be for the loyal readers who had followed them to this point. To be insulted so badly for what seems to be something incredibly petty – that is, bruising Anne Rice’s ego by not universally adoring the book Memnoch the Devil, eight years previously. I am coming to it with the benefit of hindsight knowing that three further books were written about 10 or so years later when Anne returned to the Chronicles universe, but this... this really should never have been written and certainly never have been published and I stand by my opening comments that someone at the publishers really dropped the ball with this one and should’ve stood up to Anne and said no.
This book doesn’t even deserve a single star rating it is so appallingly bad and so totally out of character – it is like night and day compared to the previous books in the series. I have to give it a rating though and due to the fact that I am choosing to believe she wasn’t in a good place when this was written and therefore I am ignoring the blatant insults of the first chapter and passive aggressive digs throughout and I am concentrating on the fact there were hints of a good story buried in there in places, I give it 1 ½ stars which I have rounded down to 1 star because it really was that bad, and it really upsets me to do so as on the whole I adore this series of books, and for the record I even gave Memnoch 2 stars as (up to this point) that was the only book I didn’t care for very much.
November 29, 2025
was this attempt of anne rice to conclude both her vampires and witches sagas by crossing them over and making their respective main characters fall in love ambitious? yes. was it good? no. is the infamous first chapter with lestat's mental breakdown stream of consciousness iconic? absolutely.
sjdvjkdsj indeed. in any case, despite being sick and tired of this series, i'm kinda glad that rice changed her decision to end it here and decided to send lestat to atlantis instead. i bet that book will turn out to be totally normal and not batshit at all. ig we'll find out next year.
"I'm too desperate! A psyche permanently set on overdrive, that's the fate of a thinking vampire. I should be out murdering a bad guy, lapping his blood as if he was a popsicle. Instead I'm writing a book."
sjdvjkdsj indeed. in any case, despite being sick and tired of this series, i'm kinda glad that rice changed her decision to end it here and decided to send lestat to atlantis instead. i bet that book will turn out to be totally normal and not batshit at all. ig we'll find out next year.
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