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Er, after the one with the aliens I wasn’t sure I was ready to read this, but… I liked it! I might have been over-generous because it’s the last and also not as cracktastic as the previous one, but…

There were a few minor points of things I didn’t like, but… in general, I (sorry) appreciated the shipping. It tied up the series as a journey from isolation to community.

Things I didn’t like (in a good way): Benedict’s death—genuinely horrific. People thinking Gabrielle, Louis, and Marius were dead (but if Alessandra and Magnus came back, surely Anne wouldn’t do that to us in the last book!).

Things I didn’t like (in a bad way): Lestat famously preferred drinking evildoers until the previous book, where Amel hounded him for “innocent blood” and now that Amel is gone he’s still preferring “innocent blood” now? Boo!

I’m torn on Lestat having to make the hard decisions, provide evildoer humans for his new baby vampires to drink, order deaths, etc. Anne was always pretty insistent that they’re monsters, though. I was most dismayed by Kapetria (sp?) offering her almost will-free offspring as eternal lunch. I…. Oh boy. I… am not certain this meets my ethical standards.

But! Generally, it tied up the things, so.

I’m honestly not sure what to say about this one. I think I need to sit with it for a while.

I will say: Anne seems to love all her characters unconditionally, even when doing so doesn’t seem to make sense.

[Edited to add]

Okay.

Anne Rice loves to retrofit. It’s kind of her whole thing.

Louis: Lestat is awful! He’s a shallow snob who only cares about money and music.
Lestat: I can’t believe my ex wrote a book to splash all our messy drama everywhere! I’m actually quite deep!
Armand: Lestat made me out to be diabolical but let me tell you my tragic backstory!

It’s not just characters: The original origin of vampires! Bet you didn’t see this coming!

Etc, etc. By the time you get to book 11, it’s

Allesandra: I know I was a morally questionable old lady vampire who threw herself into the fire rather than give up on the Satanic Cult that ruined Armand’s life, but not only am I alive again because no one scattered my ashes, I’m now young and hot and acting like I was always a beloved good guy! And everyone else is also acting like this!

So… okay. Sure. It’s a thing.

So… Amel. Her most ambitious retrofit.

He was introduced in book three as an evil spirit who liked the red-haired twins Maharet and Mekare, Akasha is made out to be quite evil as well.

BUT WAS SHE?

In Prince Lestat, is Akasha exonerated by Amel’s actions? Is her murderous rampage of other vampires solely motivated by the spirit of Amel trying to reduce the number of vampires in the world because he’s painfully overextended? That’s what’s implied. I mean, okay, she’s also super offended by cannibalism. That… sounds aligned with modern cultural mores.

(I mean. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the moral inversion aspect of making a taboo holy. It was interesting. But sorry, no, not holding that against Akasha.)

The absolute weirdest part of Prince Lestat is Lestat telling Amel, someone who wasn’t even sentient for the previous books, that he loves him. I… the guy who made someone kidnap your son? The guy who made old vampires murder young ones? Really…? Okay? Sure, love your shadow and self-actualize, I guess?

That should have been my warning.

I………

Three and a half stars for enjoying it, but I feel like Anne abandoned plot in favor of the novel-length character sketch after book four. It feels a lot like a pantsed novel—no shade, I myself am a Pantser. The plot feels weak to me and then peters out.

Also, I quite liked Marius in The Vampire Lestat and The Vampire Armand, but this guy is prone to melodramatic snitfits. I didn’t like him as much in this one; I feel like he never gets over being a Roman Patrician who wants everyone to obey him. Also, after several novels where I felt Marius was the adult supervision of the vampire world, I felt let down by his childish arguments with the women in his life. In previous novels I had him pegged as a dom, but this guy? No way he should engage in SSC/RACK. In short, he didn’t feel consistent with the guy we saw in previous novels.

But somehow I still enjoyed this book.