Anne Rice (1) (1941–2021)

Smut book club
This is an erotic imagining of what would happen to Sleeping Beauty if she was awoken by a Prince who's kingdom took local young royals as erotic slaves as tribute for (what isn't exactly clear). Only the first little bit is about the Sleeping Beauty story. The rest is the exploration of this erotic framework.
The sex starts on page two and doesn't really let up. The plot is almost non-existent. Some of the "punishment" scenarios are creative, well most of them are, and to someone with an interest in dominance and submission and behavior modification and sadomasochism, namely me, the book has great inspiration for conversational talking points. Without those specific interests I can't really recommend it too much. The writing is beautiful and expressive, though.… (more)

The Vampire Lestat is undoubtedly my favourite vampire novel next to Dracula. I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a good story about vampires, and I would particularly recommend it to anyone who's read Interview with the Vampire. The Vampire Lestat is the sequel to Interview with the Vampire, and it centers around the character Lestat. When I first read the book I wasn't sure I was going to like reading only about a character who I really didn't like in Interview with the Vampire, but it really redeems him as a character, adding depth to him when he seemed so one-dimensional. My only complaint about this novel was that I found the writing to be a bit repetitive or lengthy in certain areas, and that's probably the only reason I haven't given it five stars.… (more)

Once again, Rice's prose is lush. This book didn't have any of the erotic scenes that she is known for. This was more a dissertation on good and evil and the power of love. It also answers the question: Do vampires have souls. And yes they do. At least in Rice's universe. But once again, I enjoyed the first half of the book, the description of Florence and the paintings of Lippi. But so many scenes were repetitive, I skimmed the second half since Vittorio repeated his same hopes and fears and religious arguments. This felt like it should have been a short novella and Rice had to pad it into a short novel.

Except for the descriptions, this book was boring. I didn't learn much about Vittorio as a person. Also, I'm not sure how old he's supposed to be. 16? Sometimes he refers to himself as a boy, as do others. Sometimes as a youth. He says he's not considered a man yet and his beard hasn't come in. I thought there were rules about not turning someone so young. I just found that talk about his age inconsistent.… (more)

I enjoyed the first half of the book which shows Armand's life before becoming a vampire, the circumstances that caused Marius to make him one at an age younger than he had wished, but the second half for me was bogged down in religious blahblahblah that I didn't find interesting or thought-provoking. They are things Rice has brought up before in her other books. I find these bog down the story. Her writing has always been voluptuously delicious. I love her descriptions of Renaissance Italy. I am no prude, by any means, but sometimes her descriptions of younger boys and girls, teens and tweens make me uncomfortable. I know in this era, things were different, but her descriptions in many instances aren't called for.

I believe I only own one more book in the vampire series, but after this, I think I am done with Rice. I have so many books to read, that I don't have times for ones that I don't enjoy to the fullest. I LOVED Interview with the Vampire, but each successive book I liked less and less. :(… (more)