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A review by armandnolastname
Blood Canticle by Anne Rice
1.0
Do you know how much I suffer when I give one Vampire Chronicles book a bad rating when I genuinely love this series so much, for some reason I don't even understand myself? Well, you should know.
Surprisingly enough, I thought the plot was interesting to an extent. It made me curious enough to want to give the Mayfair Witches books a chance, even if I don't like the characters from that series that have made an appearance in The Vampire Chronicles so far.
The first half of the book does drag and feels too slow when the characters are, basically, doing nothing. From there, you get an enormous summary of the Mayfair Witches trilogy, which is extremely confusing and tedious to someone who has not read it, like me. And after that, what at first looked like a challenge for the main characters and what appeared to be one of the main plotlines of the book is solved by another vampire emaling Lestat the direction of the super secret place they needed to find. I'm serious.
Again, my main complaint about Blood Canticle is the same I had with Blackwood Farm: the crossover between series doesn't work at all. Maybe it would have with a different approach, but it did not happen here and certainly, it didn't happen in the last book.
Unfortunately, Lestat has gone from unreliable narrator to know-it-all, the unquestionable authority in TVC. Mona Mayfair grew on me even if I was somewhat disappointed in the end, but at certain moments she was a nice opponent for Lestat when she challenged and questioned him, calling him out when he deserved it. But Anne Rice puts so much of herself into Lestat that it has made her unable to let a character oppose him for too long before they comply and apologise, realising that Lestat was right the entire time even when he is terribly wrong. What made Mona bold and stand out in the book lasted for 3 paragraphs.
Quinn Blackwood, the main character of the previous book, completely blended into the background in this one. He was barely there, barely speaking and participating in the action when he originally was much more compelling. Alas, Rice forgetting about a character happens more often than not in TVC due to the large cast it has.
Rowan Mayfair is a whole other thing. It's been a while since I have seen a character so bland and uninteresting, she gave absolutely nothing but for some reason that nothing obsesses Lestat and that's why we have to suffer her for 300 pages even when she is not in the scene. I should have gotten used to the instalove after 10 books, but it still bothers me and I find it nonsensical and badly written.
Lestat's narrative voice felt off for this entire book. The dramatic, flowery, theatrical prose that characterises Anne Rice and her vampires in this book is a watered-down version of it mixed with slang, which does allow some funny moments and quotes but, in the end, it feels sloppy and too casual. There is an abysmal difference between the writing in Interview with the Vampire and Blood Canticle. Nevertheless I'm still hopeful and looking forward to the final trilogy, hoping we get the original essence back.
It does make me feel bad to know that Rice was not in a good place while she was writing this book, her mind was on other things, but I can't get over the fact that at one point and for years, this was considered the last Vampire Chronicles book. This was supposed to be the great conclusion of this series of up-and-downs, and that would have been so tragic. This book does not do TVC justice, and I believe it is the worst one so far.
Surprisingly enough, I thought the plot was interesting to an extent. It made me curious enough to want to give the Mayfair Witches books a chance, even if I don't like the characters from that series that have made an appearance in The Vampire Chronicles so far.
The first half of the book does drag and feels too slow when the characters are, basically, doing nothing. From there, you get an enormous summary of the Mayfair Witches trilogy, which is extremely confusing and tedious to someone who has not read it, like me. And after that, what at first looked like a challenge for the main characters and what appeared to be one of the main plotlines of the book is solved by another vampire emaling Lestat the direction of the super secret place they needed to find. I'm serious.
Again, my main complaint about Blood Canticle is the same I had with Blackwood Farm: the crossover between series doesn't work at all. Maybe it would have with a different approach, but it did not happen here and certainly, it didn't happen in the last book.
Unfortunately, Lestat has gone from unreliable narrator to know-it-all, the unquestionable authority in TVC. Mona Mayfair grew on me even if I was somewhat disappointed in the end, but at certain moments she was a nice opponent for Lestat when she challenged and questioned him, calling him out when he deserved it. But Anne Rice puts so much of herself into Lestat that it has made her unable to let a character oppose him for too long before they comply and apologise, realising that Lestat was right the entire time even when he is terribly wrong. What made Mona bold and stand out in the book lasted for 3 paragraphs.
Quinn Blackwood, the main character of the previous book, completely blended into the background in this one. He was barely there, barely speaking and participating in the action when he originally was much more compelling. Alas, Rice forgetting about a character happens more often than not in TVC due to the large cast it has.
Rowan Mayfair is a whole other thing. It's been a while since I have seen a character so bland and uninteresting, she gave absolutely nothing but for some reason that nothing obsesses Lestat and that's why we have to suffer her for 300 pages even when she is not in the scene. I should have gotten used to the instalove after 10 books, but it still bothers me and I find it nonsensical and badly written.
Lestat's narrative voice felt off for this entire book. The dramatic, flowery, theatrical prose that characterises Anne Rice and her vampires in this book is a watered-down version of it mixed with slang, which does allow some funny moments and quotes but, in the end, it feels sloppy and too casual. There is an abysmal difference between the writing in Interview with the Vampire and Blood Canticle. Nevertheless I'm still hopeful and looking forward to the final trilogy, hoping we get the original essence back.
It does make me feel bad to know that Rice was not in a good place while she was writing this book, her mind was on other things, but I can't get over the fact that at one point and for years, this was considered the last Vampire Chronicles book. This was supposed to be the great conclusion of this series of up-and-downs, and that would have been so tragic. This book does not do TVC justice, and I believe it is the worst one so far.