Hi Anon,
That’s not a dumb questions at all! I know there’s generally a lot of confusion regarding the right way to read the books. As far as I know, AR said to read them in the order of their publication, but I also know there are some sites online that suggest alternative ways to read them (perhaps @i-want-my-iwtv might offer suggestions here? I’m sure you can find some more info on the blog, which is obviously totally amazing and a great resource for all things VC!)
This is the publication chronology:
- Interview with the Vampire (1976)
- The Vampire Lestat (1985)
- The Queen of the Damned (1988)
- The Tale of the Body Thief (1992)
- Memnoch the Devil (1995)
- Pandora (1998)
- The Vampire Armand (1998)
- Merrick (2000)
- Blood and Gold (2001)
- Blackwood Farm (2002)
- Blood Canticle (2003)
- Prince Lestat (2014)
- Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis (2016)
I read the first three in chronological order, and then I read the rest completely jumbled up. Some of them I’ve only read once, others I’ve ready MANY TIMES… and I’m still working my way through Atlantis atm. The last time I began re-reading I followed the chronology. I’d definitely be willing to try and read them following one of the alternative chronologies, maybe that would offer a different experience? I don’t know.
Hey VC boffins, please feel free to add to this if you have suggestions!
Hope that was at least a little helpful anon ❤
I have been summoned! Thanks for the lovely compliments on my blargh, I’m such a successful drug dealer, always trying to reel in fresh victims to our beloved drug of choice, lovable dysfunctional vampires ♥u♥
I didn’t know that AR said to read them in the order of their publication, but that makes the most sense to me, bc that was the order in which she explored the stories. I read them in publication order, too (but that wasn’t really a choice for me bc after the first 4 of them, I had to wait for her to write them!) Things will be revealed to you in the order in which she considered them, and then things will be “corrected” in the order in which she “corrected” it (you know, the different points of view, our ~unreliable narrators~, which is AR retconning existing canon).
I don’t know of other chronological suggestions, but I know ppl do come into the series from anywhere and latch onto certain characters bc of their gateway drug, so it kind of depends on what you’re most interested in with it. Like, someone who started with TVA might want to read The Vampire Lestat or Queen of the Damned next bc there’s some Armand screentime in those, and go back to Interview w/ the Vampire after that bc he has less screentime in it, IIRC.
I think it also depends on whether you have an issue with problematic things bc some VC books are more problematic than others… we could tell you whether you might want to skip Tale of the Body Thief, for example 😉
(I get this question in different variations every so often, it’s under my #Order of Operations for VC tag, if you want more thoughts on that.)
I-want-my-IWTV 