Brandon > Recent Status Updates

Khayman my Khayman:( he is such an emotional center to this part of the book! another character I wish anne rice hadn’t lost interest in in later books:(
(also, I don’t think I realized how that whole part ii is just back and forth between Daniel and Khayman! that actually means so much to me.)

really striking how the enforcement of white supremacy, both violent and systemic, shapes every aspect of American cultural history

oop updated to wrong page#

a lot going on, as usual. i just can’t quite reconcile the tone and the romance and the plot all together. anyway, i got so emotional over Cameron’s brother and the stuffed animal. i am not immune to tuoy.

I think Jesse is one of the few characters who ever really cares about Claudia. The tragedy of it makes her sick, makes her somewhat disgusted with the usually-popular male characters of IWTV. Her character is really fascinating, with that tensions between the talamasca and The Family (the Summer, at least). Something very poignant about it all coming to a head that fall.

This chapter felt like it was about The Mandarin only tangentially, as opposed to Schraffts and HJ’s being the focus of their respective chapters. Also I couldn’t shake the judgement that Cecilia Chiang just gives off an elitist vibe….idk. He really kind of tries to tell the entirety of Chinese immigrant history in USA and can’t quite do it.

like low key idk if they have chemistry. it feels forced.

“Oh i have cool milf aunt giving me money to do anything i want my whole life and then i get chosen to join a group where i get unlimited money to just do research” fuck you fuck you fuck you (jk Jesse ily. miss u girl.)

OH. NOT WHAT I EXPECTED AT THE HALFWAY POINT.

Something something white-American love of “exotic” food while simultaneously enacting systemic and social racism on the immigrants connected with it. thinking about (marxist?) alienation and also double-think / cognitive dissonance.

a lot going on. very hard for me to judge the pacing of a story the way i read in fits and starts😭

“How could you possibly be erect right now!”

Classism vs racism once again

Khayman u deserved so much better, man

sometimes u forget italian immigrants were racialized to hell and back

LESMAND DYNAMIC YOU WILL ALWAYS BE FAMOUSSSS. Also Loustat reunion scene here never fails to Get me. We embraced as we never had in the past.

Lestat is suuuuuch a marysue it’s kind of unbelievable. okay ms rice.

Updating goodreads to procrastinate reading through the elder’s story. i didn’t even wanna read marius’ 🫠

Ah Gabrielle. She really did try to keep him with her.

Armand/Lestat dynamic you will always be famous

He just wanted to be good :( Anyway let’s be vampires with mama. And now it’s time to slog through the les Innocents philosophy debate

I feel like some of the characterization/drives are just random. Inconsistent. But also I’ve been reading this in weird chunks without a lot of enthusiasm, so eh,