Book Review: The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice

Hi readers,

So I know it's been two weeks since I last posted. I've been ill have a bad cold which seemed more like a chest infection, but it wasn't and I'm way better now. Also, my jobs at the youth center has been keeping me busy and tiring me out!

I'm pleased to say that I'm finally writing this review! Also, I brought Prince Lestat and The Realms of Atlantis last week and finished The Beast by J .R. Ward on the same day. So there's two more books to review. I can't actually believe it's December now. This year has gone so fast and it's been tough for me, but it's ending on a high now.

Anyway, I'd so recommend reading my previous post which was about Interview With The Vampire. It's become one of my topped view posts now and I guess that's due to the new Lestat novel. As for this novel, let me just say this was my second time reading it and I do remember enjoying it. This time I round though I just couldn't get though it. Maybe, it's because I now have years of studying different books and I've read lots more vampire novels, but and I hate admitting this, I did get a bored of Lestat because it drags too much.

It's great that straight after IWTV we get to hear Lestat's story and of course he mocks Louis and says he story is incorrect. Lestat claims he had to be like he was due to his past and as we learn more and more about this infamous vampire we discover why he behaved the way he did in the first novel and how this was possibly misinterpreted by Louis. What we don't get is a re-telling of IWTV. Yes there are some scenes that get told from Lestat's point of view, but they are quickly gotten through.

Oh, I should add that there might be spoils about this novel and the history/stories of certain vampires in the series today. Normally, I try to be good about that, but I feel it'll be too difficult today as I'm getting all the thoughts out of my head. Plus, I don't want to be writing a lot because I so could go on forever about this novel, so I'm going to rein stuff in a bit.

The novel has two different time periods; the present and the past and is told in first person to us by Lestat. (In IWTV, Louis was taking to a journalist) It does follow on from where Louis left Lestat in IWTV though it is a like a few years later. Lestat has been a sleep and he is woken up by a band playing music. He then decides this is interesting enough to investigate further. Thus, Lestat becomes a rock star and what gets woven into this plot line is the story of how he become a vampire.

Lestat gives us a very detailed history of himself, starting off when he was a human and his family life in France. He is a noble man, but being the youngest son and having a lot of brothers means he gets very little money etc. He is well known for his hunting ability and one scene has him fight off a pack of wolves, which other characters bring up at different points in the novel. He wants to run off to Paris with his best friend Nick who is a violin player. This of course does happen. They both become involved in the theater which has been Least dream for a long time.

However, Lestat is then kidnapped by a vampire named Magnus, who then turned Lestat into a vampire. Magnus then kills himself and Lestat is then left to look after himself. Lestat tries hard to life a secret life and doesn't talk to any of his family or friends. He does though use a human to deal with things and send letters and gifts on to people. Lestat learns about his new powers and drinking blood. Then though, his mother becomes ill and he has to go and see her. Lestat makes her a vampire. And she turns out very different from himself, wanting to stay more in the shadows and away from humans. Whilst Lestat loved humans and wants to be close to them.

Of course, Nick also becomes a vampire, but it doesn't end well. That is another great aspect of Rice's vampires; they are all totally different and have their own unique problems to deal with, I also the endings for some vampires are violent. Remember what happened to Claudia? I do feel sorry for Nick because he just becomes so mentally insane that if Armand doesn't kill him then he'd have just exposed vampires and killed so many people too. Saying that Lestat exposes vampire kind through his songs and books!

One of the downsides of The Vampire Lestat and the reason it's so long is that it's not just Lestat's story. You also hear about Armand and Marius, who do have their own novels in which their stories are expend upon. Yes, they do fit in with Lestat and you do need to hear Marius story to then make better sense of Queen Of The Damned, which follows straight on from Lestat's story and carries on telling it in the present.

One of the things I do love and often forget about is that Lestat owns the Theatre Des Vampires and actually when you read the trail of Louis and Claudia from his point of view, that moment in IWTV makes more sense. Also of course we learn that Lestat didn't want Claudia's death but due to his state he couldn't do much to stop the theatre vampires.

I do also like the back story of the first two vampires, Akasha and Enkil which is then further looked at in the other novels. That's also the other reason why Marius's story ends up being told because we need the information he has to make better sense of vampire history. Lestat also needs this information to tie in with his story and interactions with other vampires.

I do love the detailed descriptions of places, people, clothes and furniture, it helps to make the image clearer in your mind. However, Rice does get a bit bogged down with this. I don't mind though and it's one of the reasons why I started reading her novels. And of course Lestat, he's just such an interesting character.

Even though this novel ended on a cliffhanger, I've decided not to read Queen Of The Damned. I've read it before, though I've not reviewed it here. I really wanted to read The Beast and now I'm currently reading Lestat and Atlantis. Which I shall be reviewing next week even though I won't have finished it. It's too long and detailed for me to read big chunks of. My brain needs more time to sort it out. But hopefully, I'll have read enough of it to review.

Overall, The Vampire Lestat is a good novel and it's great to hear Lestat's side of things. It's possible to read this without reading IWTV. Though, not reading that does seem pointless to me. I'd always say out of all of Anne Rice's books to read that one. It's just the start of everything really. I'm also hoping to read her werewolf series at some point and I do own the witch ones, but I've not read them. I've got far to many other books I want to read.

Thanks for reading this and I'll be back next Monday with my thoughts on Rice's latest novel.          

October Life Update Part 2: Happy Halloween!

Hi readers and happy Halloween to everyone! 

So, it's fallen on a Monday this year, which is pretty cool cause I get to share Halloween on the actual night! Also, though it does mean that I've had to get ahead writing this because I've plans and I'm just so busy right now. Which is good, but also not so good. Anyway, in to this post. So the Jack O'Lantern above is my tester one. I wanted something real simple and quick, which this tree was, but I know it's a bit messing because I had to hurry making it. 

I made this on Thursday because my brother who's just moved out wanted pumpkin pie, which he would have missed out on as he moved on Friday. I'm super going to miss him as we get on great and he's moving far away. Well, about 5-6 hours drive away to Southampton which is past London and we live in Manchester. So, he wanted pumpkin pie and then it seemed a waste to let the outside go to waste, so I used it for practice.

Also, I've been having a go at taking some better photos. So hopefully that'll be useful. So this year I've three pumpkins, which I think is like the max I've every had. I've not carved all three though. I've only every done two. The third one was craved by the new man in my life. We've still just dating at the moment, but things are progressing. This was the first time he's carved a pumpkin! It was actually great fun doing it together. 

Here's the pumpkins before carving.       

This one's mine and I decided to go with a Count Dracula face, but I didn't get it right. So it kind of looks like a weird face. 

This one is my date's. He went with a really scary face. We also switched out a candle for this light up balloon which made his even more creepy.

I think it all went well and they turned out pretty good. I just love shopping in October and all the Halloween stuff really attracts me. I've tried hard not to spend as much money as I normally do, but I think I've not been able to stick to that! The first thing I brought for Halloween was actually this baby werewolf plush soft toy. He's from Build-A-Bear and I just fell in love with him so much! He's so fluffy and I find holding him real calming. Which has been great for my anxiety problem. I could have brought this little ripped up blue denim jacket for him, but then he'd also need pants. I do kind of like him the way he is, but maybe I might make him clothes at some point - be a lot cheaper! 

I treated myself to another bear from Spiral.com this year too. Last year, I got the vampire Vlad and this year I got the grim reaper teddy. They also have a cat with bat wings which I might get next year. These two look so cute together though! Also, they match what my date and I dressed up as, which was a little strange! 

  

I always love all the different cups, mugs, goblets, jars etc that the shops sell and you can get. I don't actually have many myself as I don't use them, surprisingly! However, that changed when I got the purple plastic bat sippy cup! I totally love it and I don't think there's a day gone by since I got it about three weeks ago now that I've not used it! The bats have googly eyes on and it's actually a really big almost a pint I'd say in size. Now, the mason jars. They are huge in America and seem to be growing in popularity here in the UK. I got the white one which has like Witch's drink on it first and then brought the orange for my date to have. So we'd be kinda matching, which I thought was cute. The fourth glass was actually the first I brought and I was thinking of using it more of a tea light holder or maybe a little vase. 

I am a massive fan of candles as most of you know. But we don't get many autumn/pumpkin scented candles here. So when I see one I always end up getting it. I found this abandoned on a side shelf of Halloween masks and though I tried to find some more, I couldn't. I smells great though. I also got the new Yankee Candles scent which was called Forbidden Apple. Which smells awesome, but I do feel let down by it because apple is one of my favorite smells and I have a big Granny Smith scented Yankee candle which smells almost the same to me. I've got a caramel/candied apple too.

Okay, so this year for the trick or treaters I just got a big bag of 'monster' sweets/candy. I made goodie bags last year and ran out, so this year I'm just going with this. I've a sweet tooth but Halloween sweets just appeal to me even more. My favorites are the Chewits fangs, but I can only get them from one shop for some reason! But they are so good. 

My mum actually brought me the Twinkies - we don't have them in the UK and only certain shops - American themed sweet shops have them. But we found these in the world food aisle in a supermarket and I just knew I had to give them a try! They are brought out for the new ghost buster movie, but I guess the supermarket was like they are Halloween-y. They are key lime flavor which is like one of my favourite things, but you can't actually buy a key lime pie or anything else that flavor here. No idea why, I'd love that to change! 

Then there's a packet of witch's fingers which are peanut butter and strawberry jam centered- so tasty. And a big box of fancy chocolates. These are so good and just I could eat them all. My mum originally thought I'd give them out to the kids, but they are too good for that and too cute! 

Halloween fancy chocolates.

I've actually brought a lot of table clothes this year. I got three. Though one I'm actually using as a veil for my costume though! That was the first and it's actually the cloth I used for the table to take this photos with. The second cloth is the colorful plastic one. Even though I'm not having a party and don't need to cover a food table, I thought this would be great for actually going on the table/s outside were the pumpkins are to be displayed. The second cloth is the sliver bat one and that actually has a runner with it too. It was expensive but I love the fabric! Then I got so spider cobwebs as I really need some more that were not white or black.   

 Today, has been really crazy. Had to carve the pumpkins and decorate the house. Luckily, I'd got a few things out of the attic for that, but I think the big box of stuff is under my bed somewhere and I didn't have time to get that. Anyway, the front of the house looks pretty good. It's kinda the same how I had it last year I think. I wanted to get like some gravestones and them dotted around the front lawn bit, but I didn't have the money. I also saw some more skeleton creatures - rats, ravens, spiders, but I couldn't find any when I went back for them. It looks the part anyway.

We put up the decorations up first thing and then we carved the pumpkins. This is how the display looked this year. 

Then finally there's us in our costumes. I went as a vampire bride and he was a grim reaper.

And I just have to show you my dad's costume! This was the one he made last year, but it's still so awesome. My mum and I helped him make it.

We decided to go to a local ghost walk tonight and though we didn't see any ghosts it was fun, and I learnt a little about the town I live in. We walked though the graveyard too and I took some creepy photos.

On Saturday evening, My date and I went into Manchester for a meal to celebrate my new job! I'm now a causal receptionist at the youth center. I've been volunteering on reception for the last 8 months and then this job came up and I totally aced the interview. So we went out to celebrate that. Also, Manchester was dressed for Halloween and there were a few different events on, but I think we must have missed them. Still though, I love the paper pumpkin lanterns in the trees and the gate was pretty cool. The town hall was lit up green, but you couldn't get there because they are busy putting up Christmas stuff and yes that is a big inflated Santa in the background!

Lastly, and I know it's not really got anything to do with Halloween, but I wanted to share this awesome wool I found. It was really cheap and I'm going to knit a nice woolly scarf with it!

Thanks for reading and I hope everyone has had a fun night! See you all next week!