Ok, I finally finished Prince Lestat. Spoilers below the cut. And a long and angry rant. And a lot of wank.

Oh, boy. Where do I start?

Let me start saying that it’s not a bad book. It’s certainly better than Blackwood Farm, and definitely better than Blood Canticle (but anything is better than Blood Canticle, so…). It was well written and kept me interested… most of time.

But overall, really… what the fuck, Anne?

Not, really. What. The. Fuck.

Ok, ok, I’ll admit, the premise of the book is good enough. Intriguing. A Voice putting immortals against each other and all that, it’s interesting, but most of time, I just felt like Anne was trying to recreate the effect and epic proportions that Queen of the Damned had, but Prince Lestat doesn’t have half of what QotD had.

I have to say that since the start I hated, HATED the course of the history of the Twins. I hated the fact that Mekare was mindless, because I always believed that, despite all her physical and mental scars, she was sentient and quite intelligent, even if it was in a very wild way, so I felt like a bucket of ice water dropped on me with this part of the story.

And Maharet? Wise, old and powerful Maharet? Killed of by a vampire that was so easily defeated by Lestat? Yeah, I get that she was suicidal, but I don’t think I can forgive Anne for this one. Or for the sweet, odd Khayman. No, I really can’t swallow this part of the book.

I LOVED the story of the Twin Queens. I seriously LOVED it. It was one of my favorite aspects of the Vampire Chronicles, and I dreamed more than once about one or both of the Twins telling their stories. Anne just killed them off as if they were nothing. I was so mad when I read about Maharet’s death that I could barely touch the book for days. I’m still quite mad about it.

I liked some of the new characters. Fareed and Seth were interesting… even if the instant trust that ALL vampires placed on them sounded really unlikely. And the mortals in this book were so, so blank for me. I couldn’t care less for Viktor, and I didn’t really feel anything for Rose. Rose and Viktor were a fluffier, less annoying version of Mona and Quinn for me, and boy, I hate Quinn passionately.

And no, I’m not commenting about the part where Viktor is Lestat’s son. I’m seriously trying to erase it from my mind.

But one of the aspects that bothered me the most (besides, you know, MAHARET AND MEKARE AND KHAYMAN) was the fact that almost all the chapters that weren’t in Lestat’s POV were in the new characters’s POV. It bothered me because, you know, I wanted so, so much to see what the good old characters were thinking. Instead of so MANY chapters in the POV of Gregory and Rhoshamandes, why couldn’t we get at least some chapters with the POVs of Gabrielle, Bianca, Armand?

And since we are in this topic, what happened with the personality of the old characters? The only ones I could clearly recognize were Louis and Gabrielle, because really? Armand, of all people, would thought that Lestat was the perfect solution for a leader? ARMAND? Anne, do you even remember how to write your own characters? Hell, I read the VC books years ago, and I think that even I would write Armand better.

And the lack of the interaction between the old ones bothered me a LOT. Why didn’t we see a conversation between Armand and Bianca? Bianca and Marius? Or even a proper reunion between Lestat and Louis, or Lestat and Armand? Really, disappointing.

And WHY, do tell me, WHY would anyone think that Lestat was a good leader? WHY would you put the Sacred Core on Lestat? The vampire that has less than 300 years on the Blood and already went to live underground, that tried to kill himself in a desert, that is completely reckless in everything? Seriously, coven, did you even read the books?

And let me rage some more and ask, what is it with the idea of a vampire monarchy? Why would anyone think that it was a good idea to create a new vampire organization/cult? It didn’t work with Akasha, it didn’t work with the old gods from the Trees. Hell, it didn’t work out even in simpler organizations like the Children of Satan or the Théâtre des Vampires.

Ugh, I could barely read the last chapters in Lestat’s POV. Really, Anne? Really? Are you trying to sell me a well behaved Lestat, who follows rules and is predictable, that won’t get bonkers sometimes and will disappear for a few years? I’m sorry, this just isn’t the character I fell in love with years ago.

The most satisfying parts of this book are the parts where Gabrielle slaps Lestat and asks if he lost his fucking mind (I’m with you, sister) and Louis’s epilogue. It was strangely in character, considering the rest of the book. His “my heart is yours” moment with Lestat was quite sweet and made me “aww” on the middle of my rage for the Twins, even if is the only moment they’re alone together in a 450+ pages book .

One last thing that bothered me: the lack of a moral/philosophical dilemma. It may sound silly, but it was one of my favorite aspects of Anne’s books, and not only the vampire ones. I missed it quite a lot here.

All in all, I think it could be worse… but it could have been much, much better. And I don’t think I’ll ever get over how mediocre and meaningless Maharet’s death was :(