The Vampire Lestat - Anne Rice

I have always been a bit of a sucker (forgive the pun) for a bad boy, and here he is the baddest of them all. Lestat De Lioncourt, I could hear him purring the words Anne Rice had written in his seductive French accent. He was telling his story directly to me as I read this book for the first time. I was seduced by the cold French winters, the heady New Orleansian (not a real word I know but the best word to describe the atmosphere created here) temperatures, the torture of immortality and the pain of forbidden love. The first Anne Rice I ever read was 'Interview with a vampire' and I felt pity for Louis, loved his nostalgia and wished he'd grow up ...  Read the complete review

I tell no fibs, honestly. Would I use a cheap trick like that? Following on from Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice wrote The Vampire Lestat as the second part of The Vampire Chronicles. As a quick recap (but if you haven’t read Interview with the Vampire or seen the film, this will mean nothing to you!), Lestat was Louis’ creator in Interview with the Vampire and well, wasn’t considered to be a popular ‘vamp’ by Louis in his narration. Lestat was regarded by Louis, as a bit secretive fellow who wouldn’t tell of the vampire secrets that Louis new that he knew (if you see what I mean). Louis and Claudia ...  Read the complete review

At once a sequel and a prequel to Interview with the Vampire, this fleshes out the charming, bloodthirsty Lestat. From a new perspective, Anne Rice develops her stories of the vampires that stalk the shadows. Again, they are shown as complicated characters, especially the anti-hero Lestat himself, with his talents and dreams. But his flamboyance attracts the attention of a creature of the night, who turns Lestat into an immortal vampire. From pre-Revolutionary France, to Egypt, to the modern US, Lestat plays out his ambitions and dreams of acclaim. Because this vampire wants not just blood, but admiration and love. Arrogant and ambitious, he disrupts a group of ...  Read the complete review

I have just finished reading the second book of Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles. It has taken just a few days to read. A fatter book than the first, it was compelling reading, and I just could not put it down. I found myself not only reading this at bedtime, but in the middle of the day too. If you have read my opinion on Interview With The Vampire, you will know that Anne Rice’s style of writing had made me start to fall in love with Lestat, the Master vampire. By the end of this book, I was now truly in love with him. This book is about his story, how he came to be vampire, his search for knowledge about his kind, and about the love and fears ...  Read the complete review

The Vampire Lestat is the second in the 'Vampire Chronicles' series by Anne Rice. Actually, just to cause confusion, it's technically the first as it precedes 'Interview with the Vampire' but was written and published many years later! The beauty of it is though that you really don't need to read one to read the other - you can read either and in either order too. The Vampire Lestat is literally all about the vampire called Lestat. It sounds so simple I know but as soon as you work your way through the first chapter you'll realise it's anything but. Anne Rice takes her readers on an incredible journey back in time to when Lestat was still human. I ...  Read the complete review