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4.6 out of 5 stars
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anne rice blood canticle vampire chronicles blackwood farm brat prince memnoch the devil queen of the damned witching hour interview with the vampire rowan mayfair vampire lestat mrs rice body thief tale of the body new orleans blood and gold read her books rice fan quinn and mona loose ends
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Southern Sherry
5.0 out of 5 stars The best of both series!
Reviewed in the United States on December 22, 2018
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I loved the Mayfair Witches and have read any and all Anne Rice's books that even mentions Rowan, Mona, Michael, Oncle Julien , and Stella! Of course, if your an Anne Rice fan like I am then you have read all the Vampire Chronicles! I have read all the stand alone books like Ramses the Great, I've read them all but the Mayfair family still is my obsession and I wait patiently (well, not really! I've never been very patient) for the next story that brings me back to that jewel of a house in the Garden District. Rowan's fate and what becomes of that gorgeous Irish man, Michael? You can't help but have a crush on that beautiful man. I want something great to happen to Michael. For him to finally find happiness and the family he dreams of having. Did I enjoy this book? Absolutely!!
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Angel Roman
5.0 out of 5 stars She did it again folks
Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2021
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Anne rice by far my favorite author I get lost in this world she has created. Lestat is of course my favorite character. He gave me comfort when I quit drugs I've been sober 3 years and I couldn't imagine doing it without you. Thank you Anne for another day of sobriety when I'm feeling weak I open up your book and all my sorrows and people I've lost disappear.
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Dianna Clark ok?
2.0 out of 5 stars Lestat sucks
Reviewed in the United States on April 10, 2019
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This book was ridiculous. It's hard enough to read Rice because of the way she forgets she is supposed to speak and think like a man. All this intricate description of clothes and shoes and on and on. No man does this unless he is gay, alright? I finished it, but I was disgusted with the sloppy way she wrote it and the stupid way she ended plots. Sloppy. I resent paying the money I paid because I will probably never read this again. A few of her books are great and I have read them a couple several times each or more. Anyway, whatever
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txgemini
3.0 out of 5 stars Too many monologues
Reviewed in the United States on May 11, 2017
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Cut the first two chapters of Lestat's defensive blabbing and several paragraphs of the last and you have an ok story. It was good to get an update on the Mayfairs and the Taltos and it intertwined adequately with the vampire stories.

Given all the references to Memnoch the Devil, which I loved, Lestat's shallow perspective was pretty disappointing. I found it especially unbelievable that the love of his life turned out to be the sociopathic Rowan, one of the most unlikable cold characters I've encountered in Rice's writing.
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G.Gallowtree
1.0 out of 5 stars Go read some Fan Fiction instead.
Reviewed in the United States on October 13, 2021
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Buying this book is the Amazon purchase I regret the most. I like Anne Rice, I love the Mayfair Witches story, I love Interview With a Vampire, but this book is so hard to read! It's hard because it reads like a teenager wrote it. Find a free version at a garage sale or thrift store, there are probably plenty of copies floating around out there in the world, unwanted and unreadable.
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Colin Harrison
2.0 out of 5 stars Not A Complete Disaster But Far From Anne Rice's Best
Reviewed in the United States on February 19, 2015
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Given the many scathing reviews of "Blood Canticle," I had very low expectations starting in on this. My verdict after reading it is, basically, it is not the disaster others have found, but it is a book with major flaws. It is nowhere near as bad as "Memnoch the Devil" (hard to imagine that anything that could be) but it is far from Rice's best work. But along with the flaws there are strengths as well. For those who have loved the Vampire Chronicles and the Mayfair Witches trilogy, and especially those (like me) who loved "Blackwood Farm," "Blood Canticle" is worth reading although one has to put up with major annoyances along the way.

Anne Rice has three major gifts as a writer, and they are formidable: (1) she knows how to tell a story and spin a plot, (2) she creates vivid and fascinating characters, and (3) she is an excellent wordsmith and her writing style, at its best, is rich and compelling. But she is a mediocre philosopher and an even worse religious thinker, and so when she veers off into these areas, her books suffer. (It was because "Memnoch" had a minimum of plot and an overdose of philosopy and religion that made it so awful.) The biggest problem with "Blood Canticle" is that, while the plot is good, the characters and the writing are very uneven, and there is too much of Lestat pondering Good And Evil and wanting to be a saint (yes, really).

"Blood Canticle"s greatest strength is that underneath all the annoying stuff, there is a good story. And some of the characters are well-drawn, especially Tante Oscar and Dolly Jean. Vampire Quinn doesn't have much to do except moon protectively over Mona and so he is a bit of a cipher, nowhere near as vivid as in "Blackwood Farm." I liked Vampire Mona. Of course, I liked Mortal Mona (I know others didn't), and her undead incarnation was in line with that I would have expected her to be. Rowan Mayfair gets the hots for Lestat while poor long-suffering Michael Curry looks on patiently. We meet some new Taltos who are OK but nowhere near as vivid as Ashlar or Morrigan.

The biggest problems with this book, as noted above, are (1) the character of Lestat, and (2) the erratic quality of the writing. Rice has, for some unfathomable reason, turned Lestat into a profoundly annoying person who talks in pseudo-hip lingo like some half-baked moronic Valley Girl. (At one point she has Lestat saying, "Pa-LEESE" - I kid you not.) Lestat is constantly making flip little asides as if Rice is trying to mock her own previous style of writing the character, and mocking her readers' expectations of Lestat. It doesn't work. Rice repeatedly breaks the "fourth wall" of fiction and inserts herself, Anne Rice, into the picture in a very irritating way. Worst of all, Rice has turned Lestat into a bore, a truly remarkable feat given the compelling and unique persona she has created over the years.

Readers should be warned that the first chapter is the worst, possibly the most God-awful writing ever to come from Anne Rice's pen. As I was reading it, with the kind of appalled fascination one has driving past a grisly car wreck, I thought, "I'm not going be able to make it through this." Things aren't helped by the fact that Rice, using Lestat's narrative voice, basically scolds and mocks her readers for not liking "Memnoch the Devil," even pointing out that the book sold more copies than any of her other books. It's pathetic. But...the first few chapters are the worst, and while Lestat continues to be deeply annoying throughout (and not in a good or provocative way), and while the quality of the writing continues to be far below Rice's considerable best, things do get better once Rice gets going on the story. So if you just persevere, you will eventually get past the unbearably irritating crap and find the book more readable. At least, I did.

I gather that the new "Prince Lestat" is a considerable improvement. I certainly hope so, because at her considerable best Anne Rice is one of the best and most entertaining fiction writers of our time.
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Kiki Sully
5.0 out of 5 stars Anne Rice is a must read for vampire lovers
Reviewed in the United States on April 28, 2013
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I am going to make this short....if you have even the slightest interest in vampire fiction Anne rice is a must read...
Anybody who hated the Twilight Saga and how the main vampire was a wuss and sparkled has no worries with the vampires of Anne Rice....Her vampire to have Beauty and a romantic side, but it is always in plain site that they are dangerous.
go the Anne's Bookshelf at [...] Start with the first book that started her fame "interview with a vampire" (yes it's better than the movie) and make your way through all the books in order....maybe even venture into her Mayfair Witches trilogy that blends in with the vampire world in a couple books. ENJOY!
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Mlp at g mail
4.0 out of 5 stars Blood Canticle
Reviewed in the United States on November 22, 2018
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Too wordy. Not enough substance to the characters and they act as if they have lost all common sense and sense of decorum. I struggled to complete this book compared to how I flew thru previous titles. I look forward to the next installment regardless
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Top reviews from other countries

LindaMM
5.0 out of 5 stars Lestat emerging
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 17, 2018
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Sardonic, self-condeming, sacrificial to his own amazement. If ever one could hug or share blood tears with a character then Lestat herein has earned such a shared vigil.
I have read this book was poorly received when first published. I can only agree with the author and with Lestat, if you don't want to hear his story told in his own way, close the book and read something else. People complained when Bob Dylan started to use electronic instruments. They forgot he was the artist not them! To restrict a musician or a writer to their past work and styles is to miss the point of creativity. It is to be controversial and it has to steer away from the formulaic. The author or the hero if you prefer has to tell the story in their own evolving fashion, true to their own heart. Almost, but this a paying enterprise, the audienc be damned.

For what it is worth i found this tale compelling and felt Lestat's prescence full fleshed in his Dark Blood. Read on if you dare to release the reigns to him.
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Michael
5.0 out of 5 stars Great romantic
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 3, 2020
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Follow on from Blackwood farm but through the eyes of lestat, another quest of mystery and love he always finds himself in
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C.
5.0 out of 5 stars Thoroughly enjoyed
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 12, 2021
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Good read. Not as slow and overly descriptive as some of the other books are. One of the best in the series.
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Kay
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 6, 2012
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This is the concluding book in the Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice, and if you are a fan of her books you wont be disappointed. Final book takes us on a journey with the Vampire Lestat and his versions of the events from the end of the Blackwood Farm book and the events that followed. This book includes the Mayfair Witch clan and goes some way to explaining their myths although after reading this i am now itching to read the three books Rice wrote on the Mayfair Witches.

A must have for any Vampire Chronicles fan.
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Stewart Lackey
5.0 out of 5 stars 👍
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 30, 2021
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Graphic, scary, rich and lavish. In other words an Anne Rice novel.
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