The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice

"When the world of man collapses in ruin, beauty will take over."

This is the sequel to Interview with the Vampire, where Lestat has returned to the limelight quite literally. Lestat has become a rock star, flaunting his vampireness to the world. He, having read Louis’s book, has decided to publish one of his own. His own memoir details his life as a human, his transformation into a vampire, and his quest for knowledge.

I actually liked this book a little more than Interview with the Vampire but not by much. Lestat is super narcissistic which is on par with his character from IwtV.  But unlike Louis’s story, Lestat has been changed from a creepy pedo into a killer of killers which makes him a little more likable, but makes the story inconsistent. I like the question it presents though: Which vampire is telling the truth?

As a human, he was a noble who felt trapped by his family. He longed to be an actor from a very young age and when he meets Nikki, a musician, that dream resurfaces. In the beginning, Lestat is made to be bold but vulnerable and his story is kind of sad, making me feel a little bit bad for him.

After his transformation, he develops a thirst for knowledge. He wants to understand the nature of vampires and where they come from. This curiosity becomes an obsession that drives a wedge between him and Gabrielle, his mother… And when I say mother I mean mother, not his maker.

It’s kind of when I stopped liking this book. I realized Lestat has a raging Oedipus complex. He’s in love with his mother and doesn’t hide it. You don’t have to be psychiatrist to see it, as Anne Rice has him making out with his mom after he transforms her into a vampire. I suppose on the bright side they are both consenting adults. But it is still a high Eww-Factor.

Gabrielle eventually gets sick of Lestat. He wants to blend in with humankind. She wants to live life feral and believes his search for answers is a futile waste of eternity. Eventually they part ways.

Enter Marius, one of the oldest vampires. He knows of Lestat; he has the answers to the questions Lestat has been asking. And at this point, I was asking the same questions: Where do vampires come from?

While I think Anne Rice may have been a little twisted for glorifying topics like pedophilia and incest, I think she totally nailed it when it came to the origin story of vampires and Lestat’s fascination with The Ones Who Must Be Kept.

Like Gabrielle and Nikki before him, Marius parts ways with Lestat. Lestat now has the answers he sought, but he’s isolated and alone, which brings me right back to feeling a little bit bad for him as he travels to the ‘new world’ and eventually to New Orleans.

I liked that Anne Rice was able to evoke a strong feeling of sympathy for a creature that is evil, but I disliked the themes of incest. She could have imagined Lestat taking any lover he wanted but decided what he wanted was his mother. I liked that parts of Lestat’s story threw Louis’s story into question, but I disliked that Anne Rice seemed to have forgotten the whole reason why Lestat was traveling to America in the first place leaving one big plot hole at the end.

This book isn’t going to be for everyone.