Book It – The Vampire Lestat

This week’s featured book:

The Vampire Lestat
Author: Anne Rice

Overview:

Lestat. The vampire hero of Anne Rice's enthralling novel is a creature of the darkest and richest imagination. Once an aristocrat in the heady days of pre-revolutionary France, he’s a rock star in the demonic, shimmering 1980s. He rushes through the centuries in search of others like him, seeking answers to the mystery of his eternal, terrifying existence. His story, the second volume in Anne Rice’s best-selling Vampire Chronicles, is mesmerizing, passionate, complex and thrilling.

My Comments:

I picked up this book at the insistence of a friend over 10 years ago. We were at the mall having a quick bite at the food court, and before I drove him home, we stopped in at the bookstore, so I could pick up something new to read. As I snooped around, he highly recommended that I pick up this book. I was resistant at first; I’d never read a book with vampires featured in it, and I was absolutely certain I wouldn’t like it.

“Not my style”, I said.

“Just try it. Trust me, you’ll like it,” He insisted. “In fact, I think you should buy the next book in this series while you’re here, because you won’t be able to put down ‘The Vampire Lestat’, and you’ll be eager to get started on the next one before you’re done with this one.”

“I don’t know. Vampire stories don’t interest me.”

He was so confident about my liking this book that he then said, “I guarantee it. If you don’t like this book as much as I know you will, we’ll come back here together and I’ll buy you another one.”

“Okay.” I answered. “I’ll give it a try, and see what happens.”

He was right – I loved it! I was back at the bookstore in record time to pick up the next three books in this series.

If you haven’t read ‘The Vampire Lestat’, please give it a try. You will simply adore this youthful and quirky character who, after a half century of being underground, wakes up in the 1980s to the cacophony of electronic sounds and images that characterizes the MTV generation. He is entranced by the modern world and is eager to become a part of it.

The novel moves effortlessly between the late 18th century to the late 1980s as it follows the 200-year-long life of Lestat de Lioncourt, and his rise from humble beginnings as an impoverished aristocrat in the countryside of France to the city of Paris where he becomes a vampire.

This is a beautifully written tale by a master storyteller.

(Incidentally, you do not need to read ‘Interview with the Vampire’, the first book in this series, to pick up this one. You can start with this story.)