As I was reading this I SWORE I had read it before... it all seemed so familiar. Silly me HAD read it before, two years ago when I had to do book club at work. I speed read through it. Meh. 'Tis a silly book.

A fun comic, quick read for this first volume. Reminds me of "Check Please" and Yuri on Ice with a touch of Gakuen Heaven (or some other otome game, ya know, all the guy tropes are on this fencing team).

You know, for a Vampire Chronicles novel that wasn't so bad. I was not a fan of the last one, "Realms of Atlantis". No, this one came back to good ol' vampires doing vampire-y things and hanging out, loving each other, weeping, and setting each other on fire. Ya' know, vampire things. It was short and brief, nothing got too long and dithering (for Anne Rice, at least). It almost seemed like a wrap up/ report on how things are going. Who is where, who's alive, who's happy, who's staying at the Château, how's the progress on the rebuilding going or the great Vampire Census. We get introduced to a new vampire who isn't as prominent as we are lead to believe, an oldie comes back and wreaks havoc, Lestat is in love with everything and everyone. That's pretty much my summary of this book!

How many times the word "weep" was used: 14 times.

Okay, so two stars because I didn't even get into the book until the last few chapters. I broke my usual rule of "give it 100 pages before giving up" because it's yet another installment of Vampire Chronicles! I've been reading Rice's rambling theology since 7th grade when I had no job and I had the TIME to read her banter. Now I have a job among books that ironically takes precious time away from reading them, but I still want to catch up with my buddies Louis and Lestat (mainly Lestat). Yet, since Blackwood Farm, either my life has gotten busier or her writing has gotten more rambling, I've found that nothing really happens until the last few chapters. Same with this one. And I think Anne Rice has taken yet another weird turn in the supernatural world our beloved vampires live in. Witches? Fine. Body swapping? Sure, whatevs. Ghosts and spirits? Turns out they're very prevalent.

Alien birds that hate mammals and feed off their despair and suffering, so they send in artificially created beings to stir the pot on Earth and these beings end up not following orders and can live forever and can clone themselves from severed limbs? Uh, whut??? Oh, and vampires are slowly turning into a biological, glass-like substance created by Amel who is the spirit that created all vampires and is actually a modified human abducted by the bird aliens? Anne Rice, what the FUCK have you been smoking?!

Also, someone is weeping almost every other page. Seriously. I'm waiting for my digital library copy of the Kindle book so I can do a word count.

Update: Word count on "weep": 42 times. "Wept": 10 times.

I can't do it! To be fair, I'm super excited for a Teen Reading Challenge so my mind keeps wandering to books that are more faster-paced. I loved this series in grade school, and Lestat is definitely my favorite character, but I had way much more time to read then. Nowadays, I don't have as much time to read, so Rice's usual banter about Good and Evil and God and Humanity and Right and Wrong and, and, and.... I wasn't able to get through it this time. I'll pick this book up again, for sure, when I'm in the right mindset, but for now, Lestat will have to put his plodding philosophies on hold.

Edit: Word count "Weep": 38 times. "Wept": 9 times.

Okay, for a person who doesn't normally read sci-fi or would pick out a book with someone who looks like a character from Halo on the cover, this was a pretty decent read. The first person writing style was... laid back and I had to suppress my grammar pickiness at times. Just think of it as being written the way a 20-something dude would talk. Complete with sentences starting with "So" and excessive usage of parenthesis. Once I got over that, it turned out to be a fun little story with suspense and mystery and intrigue and a fun cast of characters!

Looking for a book about the Donner party that includes a supernatural element? Pick this one!

I didn't LOL as much as I used to. If there's anyone who can make me laugh loudly when reading a book it's Dave. Am I becoming older and jaded and tired and crotchety? Is he? Are we both? Sigh. Still a fun book, even if I AM from Ohio.

As always, it was totes adorable and funny! I really do love Stevenson's style. :)

Wow! This book was nothing like I thought it would be, but it was very original. Southern, Georgia setting, soldier from WWI with PTSD, and I applauded this book for the twist when you learn about "those across the river". I did not see that coming! The writing does get a bit slow in parts, but all in all it was a great book that really set the scene and well written atmosphere!