And it didn’t. Not until the last note, the last slide. Only then did I remember to breathe.
The first thing out of my mouth was: “I gotta read that book.”
Season three, titled The Vampire Lestat, finally pushed me over the edge. I sat down to read. It took me a while, but damn. Holy f**k me blonde.
Everyone who told me the series gets better with this book? You were so right. Lestat is… well, let’s just say I trust his narration far more than I trust Louis’.
We meet the Vampire Lestat in 1984, the year of his great and glorious massive concert. His band is far more popular than the television version, and they’re building toward the concert that will herald — in the show — the Great Conversion. In the book, it’s Lestat’s tell‑all. His announcement to mortals that vampires really do exist. And the rule is the same in both: you don’t confess to mortals and let them live.
But Lestat stops there to take us back to his beginning — to show us how he got here. Nicholas Lenfent. Magnus, the vampire who kidnapped him and turned him against his will. Marius, who turned Armand and later befriended Lestat when he needed guidance, introducing him to Those Who Must Be Kept — just as in the series, but in a different setting. Lestat’s backstory is far more interesting than Louis ever lets us believe.
Lestat as a character vacillates between cynicism and childlike wonder. In the end, he’s both. Louis is guilt turned outward — blaming everyone else for his vampiric life. Lestat is guilt turned inward — believing that if others see him as a monster, then he must be one.
It would take a lifetime to understand this match made in a Freudian psych ward. And yet, Lestat is so desperate to be loved that he gives his love freely.
And I love him for it. The Vampire Lestat sets up the ending of the television series and the launch of Queen of the Damned really well, too. I'm salivating to read it now.
Anne Rice wove a brilliant story with intricate characters, rich melodic storylines, and pacing that keeps you hooked to the last word. TVL, as fans call it, breathes life into a fictional society living in the fringes of darkness and makes them as real as you or me. The mark of a great author is the building of a world greater than our own — a mythology that captures the imagination so deeply that we want to live there.
I know I do.
If you haven’t read it — if, like me, Interview left you cold because there’s not a lot to like in those characters — then The Vampire Lestat will restore your faith in vampire lore and prove that Anne Rice knew exactly what she was doing.
Five out of five stars.
The Vampire Lestat is available in ebook, hardcover, paperback, and audio book through Amazon by clicking here.
