Not Rice's Best

Blood Canticle

By: Anne Rice

Knopf 2003

Anne Rice continues her Vampire Chronicles once again narrated by her long suffering vampire Lestat.  Along with Quinn Blackwood, Mona and Rowan Mayfair, and Rowan’s husband Michael Curry, Lestat sets out to uncover the mystery of the Taltos. I thought this book was somewhat a departure of what I love about Anne Rice’s novels.  The story is a little scattered and, in my opinion, not nearly as interesting or engaging as her previous books in the Vampire Chronicles. One thing in particular struck me as I was reading. In recent books Lestat has been searching for redemption and purification from being a vampire. Now Rice’s books have always had a religious undertone, her characters have always sought justification and understanding for what they are.  In earlier novels they have almost scoffed at religion, firmly believing that there is no God and that’s it. This definitely mirrors Rice’s own search for religious belief.  Lestat is one of Rice’s alter egos. And like Rice in recent years, Lestat in Blood Canticle has come around, had a reawakening to religion. I found that this made Lestat soft, no longer is he as evil and menacing as we like him.


           Story                 *
          Characters         **
          Readability         ***
          Overall Rating    **


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