ANNE RICE
I could go on and on about how good Anne Rice is....and maybe I will someday. But for now, here is a list of her works, my personal rating, and synopsis of each.
Novels by Anne Rice
Exit to Eden
Belinda
The Beauty Series (erotica):
The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty
Beauty's Punishment
Beauty's Release
Servant of the Bones
Violin
The Mummy or Rames the Damned
Interview With the Vampire
The Vampire Lestat
The Queen of the Damned
The Tale of the Body Thief
Memnoch the Devil
The Witching Hour
Lasher
Taltos
The Feast of All Saints
Cry to Heaven
SELECTED ANNE RICE WORKS REVIEWD
I've read all of Anne Rices Novels and have loved everyone. However, if you are a virgin, here's the ones I would recommend reading first:
INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE
My mom got me these books for my thirteenth birthday. I read Interview with a Vampire immediately and loved it. The whole novel is done in interview format in which a vampire tells the story of how he became a vampire and about his master Lestat. The story, like all of Anne Rice's work, is very graphic and the characters are very multidimensional. Very unlike Bram Stoker's Dracula in which the count is viewed as little more than a monster, Anne Rice's Vampires are highly romantic and tragical characters while never losing that monster persona. I ead it again my freshman year in college and it certainly gains something with each reading. This is my favorite Anne Rice book of all time. Highly recommended.
THE VAMPIRE LESTAT
This is supposed to be the sequel of Interview, but this book certainly stands on its own. Though recommended, I don't think it is particularly necessary to read Interview before reading this novel as everything is explained very very well. This book follows the story of Lestat. I felt that this was necessary because Lestat was probably the least multidimensional character in Interview With A Vampire. He was the closest to the "monster-stereotype" we see in Dracula, and it didn't fit with Anne Rice's intention for him. In this novel he is seen as a tragic character as well. As far as content, it beat Interview by 20-fold, but I found the middle a little long and tedious to get through. Still an excellent book with many characters from the first reappearing. Very consistent with the first.
CRY TO HEAVEN
A wonderful book about the male castrati singers (those men that were castrated so they could sing high). Again, very graphic. (You men may want to skip the pages dealing with the castration, or at least cross your legs). However, the story was excellent. Again, with Anne...everything deals with tragedy...and these castratis were not viewed in this book as powerhouse singers that were the envy of the entertainment industry. (Apparewntly it was thought to be an honor to have your one-holed flute lopped off for your voice. Thanks, but I'll just sing off key and pass on the cliterectomey.) Instead these singers through Anne Rice's eyes were viewed as tragic figures who will never find romantic hapiness due to their "handicap". Some gentlemen may think that this book was sexist toward men because it gave the undertone that for a man's Johnson is sole means for hapiness. While Anne Rice's blatent feminist side is obvious in many of her books, I have to defend her on this one. While yes, most of the book focused on the main characters lack of sex drive and his unhapiness, I'd have to say that if someone plugged up MY hole permanently...I wouldn't be too happy either. Basically what I mean is that it isn't intended to be a bash at the male gender, but at people's natural preoccupation with sex. Excellent, excellent story.
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