The Works of Anne Rice

[chiqui]

This was a guilty pleasure thread of mine from the board... what does everyone think? Hack or hag? How 'bout the fact her latest book is an autobiography of Jesus?

[mrpancake]

Not much to add, except I really liked Interview With A Vampire, but the Vampire Lestat seemed so self-serving and stupid to me...like she had bought into her own hype or something. Those are the only two books of hers I read, because as a rule I am not into that genre, but I did enjoy Interview and would recommend it.

[mrsbootsie]

An autobiography of Jesus? She's really lost her mind now.

I enjoyed Interview and especially enjoyed the first of the Mayfair books, The Witching Hour. I went ahead and read the later mayfair books, not knowing that they were the worst things ever written. Boy was I disappointed. Maybe if she just stuck to writing single books, not series of them, she would be a better writer.

Wasn't there supposed to be a tv movie of the Witching hour?

[jynni]

I'm currently working my way through The Vampire Lestat again. I read the Vampire Chronicles up through Tale of the Body Thief a few years back. I tried to start reading The Vampire Armand but couldn't make it past the first chapter. I think the whole series went downhill somewhere in the middle of Queen of the Damned.

Interview and Lestat are my two favorites. Interview, however, is tainted by the god-awful casting of the movie (except Kirsten Dunst as Claudia).

[Deleted]

I liked Interview with the Vampire, and then I liked the first two Mayfair books. Then I think she went off the beam. Plus she's a totally thinskinned, egotistical bitche who refuses to employ an editor, and it shows. Dear GOD, does it show.

All of her books seem to have the same theme-beautiful undead creatures whining about how much it sucks to be beautiful and undead in between massive bisexual orgies.

[Hamatron]

I was into her stuff for awhile... then I graduated from high school.

I've read the Vampire Chronicals through Tale of the Body Thief and got out of the series when I heard that the next in the series featured huge passages of religious wangst and philosophy. Queen of the Damned was my favorite though-- all my favorite characters smacked together in one crazy novel!

I also read that witch series, which sort of started out interesting (though very long-winded), then became increasingly lame with each book... Anne Rice cannot write believable teen dialogue... pretentious vampires? Yes. Teens? Nooooo.

Also, now that I know what a Mary Sue is, it seems like most of her characters would fit this definition-- they're flawed, but in romantic ways, they're all pretty hot (or at least you can tell Rice is trying to make them sound hot), and they all have super-special powers no mediocre abilities here. She definitely has a second career writing fan fiction/slash if she wanted to-- though I guess she sort of already does that now that she has a Jesus autobiography coming out and she does write all of those porno S&M fairy tale retellings.

[Casino Bride]

hamatron said:

Also, now that I know what a Mary Sue is, it seems like most of her characters would fit this definition

Didn't she once say that Lestat was her? Or at least who she wishes she could be. Yup, quite the Mary Sue.

I loved the first 3 Vampire Chronicles, but she started losing me with Body Thief. I don't even remember what the next one was called, 'cause I returned it to the library without finishing it. (Wasn't it Servant Of The Bones? Something like that.)

I loved Witching Hour and Lasher - but, once again, she lost me after that. I got disgusted with all the sleezy lolitas and incest going on.

And the less said about The Mummy, the better.

[Deleted]

casinobride said:

[Didn't she once say that Lestat was her? Or at least who she wishes she could be.

I always thought AR fell in love with Lestat, resulting in trying to redeem him in later books. I think I remember seeing an interview where she refered to him as her vampire lover, or something weird like that. Not that I don't have as many literary boyfriends as the next, but that skeeved me right out.

[Hamatron]

Yeah, I think I've read as much from her as well. If it's true she has pretty shitty taste in men.

Also, apparently Claudia was supposed to be her real life daughter that died pretty young (I think of cancer at 6 or so...). Originally she servived the first novel, but her editor insisted that she kill her off for the sake of the plot-- perhaps leading Rice down the long road to hating editors and feeling that she doesn't need them.

[chiqui]

Claudia was indeed Rice's daughter Michelle, who died at the age of 8 or so from leukemia. After her husband Stan died, she revealed that he had been the model for Lestat... OTOH, she's also said Lestat was herself, in drag... so, pick which explanation you like I guess.

I hadn't heard about Claudia surviving IWTV in the author's original version. Rice actually brought Claudia back later in Merrick as a disembodied spirit. But that Claudia and the IWTV Claudia have nothing to do with each other, it's like they're two totally different characters.