Dear Santa-Lestat. I’ve been reading your books since I was twelve and they’ve been helping me cope through everything. Well, my father died last month, my best friend died two days ago. I don’t really know what to do anymore. Everything’s been too much. I’ve been trying to read your books still, but stress is a fickle thing. All I know is that some cosmic power has it out for me. What do you think? Love, Ishmael. <3

♛*Lestat leans back in his chair, cracks his knuckles, licks his fangs. Leans forward, a look of concern etched across his face. Begins to write*

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Ishmael, it sounds so egotistical for me to recommend that you go back and read my books, but those are my words of comfort, you can glean from them the messages that speak to you. Sometimes I’m rather explicit in my advice, this is relevant here:

“… I was worn and miserable and I loved crying. I couldn’t do anything else. I gave in to it fully. I felt that profound release of the utterly grief-stricken. I didn’t give a damn who saw or heard. I cried and cried.

Do you know what I think about crying? I think some people have to learn to do it. But once you learn, once you know how to really cry, there’s nothing quite like it. I feel sorry for those who don’t know the trick. It’s like whistling or singing.” me, Memnoch the Devil. [X]

Read The Vampire Lestat and Memnoch the Devil, two of my books that I believe would be helpful to you… and imagine that I am there, with an arm wrapped around you, reading those words aloud. 

Santa Lestat hears you. There is no easy solution.

Sometimes I feel that some cosmic power has it out for me, as well. Are we to cry out that it’s unfair? Yes. But more than that, we have to kill the wolves. Metaphorically speaking.

Find strength where you can, and spread kindness and goodness to your family and friends. This will help fill the void that you feel. 

*embraces tightly*

♛Ishmael, are you aware that your name means God hears? Despite having been to heaven and hell, I’m still not sure if I believe in God, and whether if he hears, does he listen? There is a distinction. With a religious name like that, I would guess that your family did believe, and perhaps, so do you. At least in the existence of God, if not the fact that he is a listener

I’m not calling myself a God, but I hear you. I’m listening. 

So, not a God, although I have had Papal aspirations. Perhaps that’s more to do with my wanting/needing to be given a place, a reason to exist, and Popes have the advantage in that it is their job to do Good, and encourage others to do the same. 

Reading my books means that you’ve heard my words. Twelve! I may have just been enlightened myself at that age, at the monastery. It’s a young age to be reading the kind of grotesquery that is my life story, but the good outweighs the bad, and the overall message I would want my story to convey is for Louis to quit it with the religious guilt that follows any carnal, romantic, or platonic satisfaction!!! *ahem*… that life deals us different hands and it is possible to survive, even thrive, in the face of searing adversity. To hear that my stories have helped you cope with life’s obstacles is proof that I’ve done some good in this world, which was always my mission, even as a child in a monastery. 

I’ve lost many people I’ve loved. I’ve led many people to their deaths. Real or not, it was absolutely terrifying to be confronted with the souls of those I’ve killed. 

How does one deal with such great losses… a parent is someone who brought you into this world. That’s why I had to ask Louis to help my own father, ease his suffering, that was something I could not do myself. I’m still grateful for that.

A best friend is the family you claim for yourself, completely irreplaceable.

Cherish the memories, and know that you have room in your heart for more joy than you can imagine.

idk where that anon lives that they dont believe that 17 year olds arent capable of fucking. i mean, in most countries the legal age is 15, that one, second, teenagers frick frack more often than rabbits, and i wont even say “these days”, because it has always been like this, and apparently is actually less often lately.

Yep, all true. Not sure what that anon was thinking… 

Fanart by garama. I added text to the blank captions *u*

i haven’t read Prince Lestat yet, but did you not like it? i mean, i’ll probably read it as soon as i can, but i wanted yo know your opinion first. Also, are Louis and Armand in it?

I’m about 25% of the way through my slow and painful read of Prince Lestat. I have to say that there are some bits that I DO like, I wouldn’t throw the whole thing in the bin for it’s cracky plot points (which are hella cracky). 

Yes, Louis and Armand are very much in it 😉

I see alot of armand and photos related to wild sex. Isnt armand 17yo, how can he had such a wild sex? and doesnt he looks like a 12yo boy? Who would found hot a boy who looks like hes 12?

17 yos are in fact capable of wild sex… in some cultures, boys as young as 12 have been married, and considered men at that age. 

In ancient Greece, boys as young as 12 were in sexual relationships with adult men.

Also Armand is actually a 500+ yo vampire. He just looks like a young boy. Anne Rice’s definition of “young boy” is open to interpretation.

I started reading the Vampire Chronicles and I’m at The Queen of the Damned but I’m wondering if I should stop there? Or should I read on? I don’t to want get caught up with the ‘crackyness’ later on, you know?

You started with The Queen of the Damned, or with Interview with the Vampire? Definitely read the first 3 books in the series, those are are good. 

The “crackyness” that we make fun of it for sort of happens at book 4, Tale of the Body Thief, which is still a great story (especially compared to the later books)…

I think you should read it all. Especially if there are certain characters you’re beginning to feel more of an attachment to. If you love Armand, for example, you should read The Vampire Armand. If you love Marius, reading Blood & Gold would be of interest to you. 

I think any VC fan should read them all, read lots of fanfic, and decide on their own what they consider to be “the real story.” Your headcanon may vary from mine, but that doesn’t make you a lesser/greater fan. You can ignore the crackyness.

Loving the characters makes you a fan *u* 

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wait wait wait wait wait wait — lestat kissed louis in the new book? or is that just fanfic i’m so confused

i-want-my-iwtv: YES they smooched in the new book.

EDIT: CORRECTION: That quote was from Tale of the Body Thief. But you know those two idiots kissed in Prince Lestat, whether explicitly written or not, bc of reasons.

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Wow, I’m glad I’m not the only one with mixed feelings on Prince Lestat. It was better than Blood Canticle, but I am disappointed that there was so much exposition and that previous characters like Bianca and Eleni got over shadowed in favor of new characters. And we are not even starting on how my favorites died or how mad I am at the lack of Daniel/Armand

I think you’ve hit the nail on the head. NOTHING TO ADD OR CORRECT HERE. 

to be honest most of the time reading PL i thought ‘anne i KNOW that already’. I’m only half way through but the constant talk about who is related to whom and the explaining of things is so tiering. All I wanted is to read a new exciting story about our beloved but instead theres all this boring talk and new-old characters i don’t frigging care about. UGH

Yeah I know that feel, Anon… at the booksigning, AR said that this book is meant to also serve as a stand-alone for ppl who are just starting the series. Hence the constant talk about relationships and the handy glossary and index of characters and so on and so forth but still….

I would NOT recc PL to anyone as the start of the series bc it has such a very warped view of EVERYTHING. For one thing, Lestat actually writes:

“So much of what I thought about us, our minds, our souls, our moral evolution or devolution, was just wrong in the books I wrote.”

NO. He was NOT wrong about ALOT of that stuff. The Lestat of Prince Lestat, so far, is way more wrong about so very much.