Prince Lestat by Anne Rice

I think one of my first posts on this blog was an Anne Rice book and funnily enough, reading through the Anne Rice's series was what made me want to start a book review blog in the first place. Anne Rice's style of writing has changed over the years, which is natural, but Anne Rice's quality of work has definitely been up and down over the years as well. The first three books of the Vampire Chronicles are most notably the top of the line, and then we have Memnoch the Devil and the Vampire Armand, which both were the biggest waste of time and space.

It's interesting when I read her books in quick succession, and how her real life, and her pursuit of God and spirituality, impacted her writing and her viewpoints. Vittorio the Vampire is all about spirituality and religion, and the existence of Angels, God and how it factors into humanity and the meaning of humanity.  She draws a very clear line from her fantasy series novel (in which she also tackles humanity, but in the context of the supernatural) to when she really starts to delve into Catholicism.

Anne Rice announced in early 2000s that she was done writing Vampire Chronicles novels and that she had no more stories to tell with either the Mayfair Witches or the vampires of the Vampire Chronicles. She wanted to focus on writing Christian literature and Rice did, producing 4 books centering around Catholic and Christian stories and figures. When I read her books in quick succession, it was very apparent her interests towards Christian Literature and Spirituality.

Of course, her fans called it when those books didn't sell very well, and she was back at it, writing fantasy about Werewolves. I haven't read those books yet, but you all know I'm going to try and find them at the Book fair next weekend. One reviewer titled it, "Vintage Rice" which leads me to the review of the Prince Lestat, a book I found at the library.

I glanced at some of the reviews on Goodreads, and man, a lot of people either hated the book or loved the book. I was under the impression that she had a good editor (I'll get to that in a moment), but many have said that her first draft is her only draft, and that her fans will buy and read the book regardless.

I don't know if that's true. One issue that many critics had was that she had a timeline, and a glossary at the beginning of the book to inform new readers the backstory of the Vampire Chronicles. From what I remember, she never did that before, and many of the "glossary" terms she used were never used before in any of her other books. Having different names for certain things wasn't always Anne's style, which makes me believe that she worked with someone to produce something like that.

Many critics also stated how nothing happens in the book, that everything was resolved really neatly, and that the vampires behaved like a bunch of old people. I can definitely see all of that. However, I think there are way worst books in the series than this one.

I rank my top Anne Rice Books (I'm not going to include the Mayfair Witches, just the crossovers) as follows:

1. Queen of the Damned
2. Interview with the Vampire
3. Vampire Lestat 
4. The Body Thief
5. Blood Canticle 
6. Prince Lestat

So, it's in the middle in terms of books to read. I wouldn't even waste my time reading Memnoch the Devil, The Vampire Armand, or Blood and Gold. Other than thinking that Rice lost the chance of exploring another family branch of the Mayfairs by killing Merrick off, I don't really remember much about the Merrick novel to have an opinion on it one way or another. 

Do I feel like Lestat is a Gary Stu? Absolutely. Did it take me a bit to get through? Well, yes. I found myself falling asleep while reading this novel, but since I read before going to bed anyway, I didn't find this as a bad thing. 

However, Rice introduced some new characters, offered some perspective on her vampire mythology that she hadn't explored before, and overall, I thought it was an interesting plot and path to take. Now that Lestat is the most powerful being in the world by the end of the book (which, in any other book series, I would call a spoiler, but the reader guessed what's going to happen as soon as The Voice appears), what will his next move be? What will her next book look like? 

The book didn't offend me, but I'm glad that I read it, instead of listening to the audio. When books don't have a quick paced sequence of events where something is happening, or someone is not talking in plain speech, it can get brutal, and I think I would have hated the book if I checked out the audiobook. 

So, if you spot it at the library, need a book to read before going to bed, and you liked early Anne Rice, then give Prince Lestat a shot. 

Nice Girls Don't Date Dead Men by Molly Harper

Nice Girls Don't Date Dead Men by Molly Harper is the second installment of the book series. I'm relieved that I was able to see past the stupid book titles and give the series a try, because I have been rage quitting a lot of books lately. The combination of a voice actor and book can either really make or break a book. At least when you read, you have the ability to skim past certain lengthy paragraphs or just mindlessly read past certain parts of the book. With an audiobook, you are trapped! You have to listen to every agonizing word!

With this series, I love the combination of the southern twang of the voice actor and the fluffiness of the series. I really liked the first book of the series, Nice Girls Don't Have Fangs, and was looking to get more into it.

So the verdict? It was good, but it wasn't quite as good as the first book. There is some of the outrageous humor, sexiness and circumstances that made the first book so great,  but the "mystery" of the book is super silly and easy to figure out, and some of the Mama Ginger mother-in-law interactions were so over the top that, if one could read it without rolling their eyes, it was hardly believable.

Yeah, yeah... believable for a vampire book series. I wish there was more to the story than the protagonist's best friend's mother dealing with control issues by hiring a witch to stop the wedding and instead of marrying the woman that loves him, marry the protagonist. In the first book, Misty at least wanted her property and they had a gruesome vampire fight at the climax of the book.

The author tried and failed to deliver the humor on terrible weddings. Even though Jane is called out on it quite a few times in the book, it got old after a while to repeatedly describe the awful, trashy wedding that Jolene planned with her hick family.

However, I still identify, laugh and love all the crazy family stuff that Jane has to go through. A lot of times stories deal with the importance of family, and how family will always be there for you... but it's refreshing to see the flipped coin of that, and look at the idea of, 'well, your family is nuts and takes advantage of you at every turn, manipulates you and makes you feel like crap all the time. Are you still obligated to be there for your family when you don't necessary like them and your friends do way more for you than they ever did?'

There are two more books in the series that I can't wait to read, and there are other spin off series of the Nice Girls. I like the cheeky fluffiness that comes with the title, and they are an easy listen at work.

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

Well, with the movie and the TV show, it was bound to happen. It seems I always am behind the trends of YA, but I do end up reading some of them.

But man, Cassandra Clare is infamous. Like, Anne Rice infamous. Though, instead of declaring the Lestat series are finished and she would write exclusively Christian themed novels, Clare is rumored to be a plagiarist during her time as a fan fiction writer, as well as parts of her books to be taken from other works.

Now that I've read her books... I don't think she really hides the fact that she definitely uses folk tales, myths, legends and other public fantasy ideas in her works. I mean, come on, "All the stories are true..." is a running theme throughout the books, and she doesn't make it a secret that she uses everything from vampires, to Norse mythology, to fairy tales, even Star Wars (finding out they were siblings?! Come on.), so I don't think any authors who accuse her of stealing her work really has a leg to stand on, because even though she basically uses everything under the sun in her books, it seems it's a work completely her own.Clare creates an imaginative world where she packs everything she can, all the folklore and urban fantasy into almost an unlimited book series.

Man, again, I have to put Clare in with "people whose careers I wish I stole" because she doesn't pretend to think up all of this stuff on her own. She takes it all and her theme is, "all the stores are true." Brilliant. I would take the haters any day of the week.

I do give her mad props for her extensive world building, which led her to numerous books. How many books does she have out now with different series stemming from The Mortal Instruments? 20? She definitely put time and effort using all she can and she's made a career out of it.

The real question is... is it any good? I'm not sure if I'm qualified yet to answer that question, because I feel like I stumbled into a real Hannibal situation, where I am so saturated with the TV show and the movies, that when it came to reading the books, there was nothing new. The books were almost like the movies, and the TV show added much more to the books. The first book, the City of Bones, definitely follows the movie of finding the Mortal cup, though I'm still confused about the big round blue portal in the movie.

However, her downfall are the characters in the books. She creates a very extensive world with alternative realities and universes, and the "rules" of the universe are practically nonexistent, that she leaves barely any room to introduce any real characters. I was deeply confused when it was revealed that Valentine was also Jace's father. Just to move plot along and create conflict between Clary and Jace, Jace, who was deemed a quick thinker, smart and almost wise beyond his years, absolutely took Valentine, who was deemed a psychopath, at his word, and was immediately obedient to him.

What also didn't work for the book was the snappy dialogue between the characters. It had a very Joss Whedon flair to it, which is admirable, but... since I didn't feel a connection to any of the characters, I thought the dialogue fell flat. I also don't buy that 15 year olds talk like that at all. I taught 15 year olds... they are way dumber. Apparently her writing improves greatly, which I'm looking forward too.

Was it riveting? No. Now that I've seen the terrible movie, and I am watching the TV show on free form which leaves me feeling more confused (I still don't know what's happening and I've read the book now) everytime I watch it. Overall, it took me a bit to get through. I found it boring and I also realized that not much happened (which is an awful realization when you are holding a monster of a book). However, I'm reserving my judgement about this book series with the second book because I definitely watched the TV show and the movie before the book.