The Works of Anne Rice

[Mutagen]

Soooooooo... I'm the only person who read Cry to Heaven? I haven't read it since high school, but I still think fondly of it. Looking back, it was fun in the same way it's fun to watch a truly terrible horror movie in which the actors try their very hardest -- way over the top, but hella fun.

[Ripley]

Was Cry to Heaven the one about the castrati? What was the one about mulatto families in New Orleans in the 1800s?

I know I bought CtH back when I still liked Anne Rice. It's been sitting on my bookshelf for almost 15 years. I wonder if I still like it? I should pick it up?

[chiqui]

Cry to Heaven was about the world of the castrati. I read it, and liked it, but it does get bogged down in parts, especially the latter half of the middle, where the protagonist gets involved with the painter. Rice's writing, being earlier, is more florid and fluid than her later books; I didn't exactly find it a chore to read, but I did skip ahead. The writer herself described it as a book in which nothing much happens, and she's right; but I found it fascinating for its historical detail. I still love the shock of the book's ending -- a combination Oedipal and Electran complex twist.

Christ the King has appeared in discount hardback and I'm tempting to buy it, though it's not as meaty as I thought. Her prose is that weird choppy stuff she started with Pandora.

[Deleted]

ripley said:

What was the one about mulatto families in New Orleans in the 1800s?

That must be The Feast of All Saints, which is my favorite of all her books (actually, I don't like too many of them). That's the one that focusses on the "quadroon" society, where the lighter skinned a black man or woman is, the better chance they have of moving up within their society. I think my favorite character was Marie who could (much to her family's joy) pass for white if she wanted to but instead fell in love with a young man who was -- and looked -- indisputably black. There were a lot of interesting characters in that book -- and there was no supernatural element to it at all.

[chiqui]

That must be The Feast of All Saints, which is my favorite of all her books (actually, I don't like too many of them). That's the one that focusses on the "quadroon" society, where the lighter skinned a black man or woman is, the better chance they have of moving up within their society.

Didn't they make this one into a miniseries, on Showtime maybe? It must be available on DVD by now.

[Sunnyhorse]

I liked "Cry to Heaven" the best of all her books.

I stopped reading her after "The Witching Hour," when I realized that she'd gotten lazy. There was some dinner-party scene in which she informed us that "the table was loaded with all kinds of beautiful and delicious things," and I thought, "You know, you're a @#@$#$^^ writer -- if you can't bother to describe anything, why should I bother to read your work?"

Now, of course, I loathe her because of her obnoxious aversion to editors.

[gemstone]

Sorry to dredge this old thread up but, after trying to slog through a Laurel K. Hamilton book I feel a need to revisit Interview with a Vampire. It's been a long time since I read it, and the next few Vampire Chronical books. If memory serves I liked Interview with a Vampire and The Vampire Lestat but hated Queen of the Damned and liked Tale of the Body Thief. After that I just sort of sporadically listened to them on CD and don't think I would have been able to force myself to read them. In the interest of full disclosure, however, I have to admit to actually liking Blackwood Farm and Blood Canticle in all their twisted, bloated glory.

I guess I don't mind her because deep down I'm a Mary Sue, too. Lets hope my happy memories won't be shattered upon my re-reading of the first few books. Oh, I'm also going to give Witching Hour a shot because I never managed to make it to that series.

[Deleted]

The Witching Hour is one of my favorite Ann Rice books. The first 100 pages are tough to get through, then I couldn't put it down. The sequels to this book are absolutely awful.

[kore]

There was a time that all I read were Anne Rice books! I mean everything.

I started with Interview, then Witching Hour and for some reason I decided to read The Sleeping Beauty series next. Then came Cry to Heaven.

I stopped reading the stores after awhile, they became predictable and a bit boring. I still bought the books, and have kept them, but I haven't found the urge to read them. I think what I needed from them at the time, I got. Now it's time for other stories.

Gem Stone, The Witching Hour is probably one of my favorites by Anne.

[funwithcats]

My mother in law just lent me the Sleeping Beauty series last week. I read it, and I'm no prude, but damn they were porny. It was a little much for my tastes, but I still slogged through them. . . by the end I was incredibly bored.