#FBF: The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice

The Vampire Lestat

Vampire Chronicles 2

Anne Rice

Knopf

Literary Fiction | Sci-Fi

September 12, 1985

Goodreads

It's been a while since I did my #FBF: Flash Book Fridays, I did say that this was a sporadic meme so that's my excuse for slacking off. Anyway obviously this edition is inspired by the release of Prince Lestat, the 11th novel of Anne Rice's cult classic series, Vampire Chronicles and I just have to pay homage to the first Lestat novel released almost 30 years ago.

Anne Rice is my gateway drug when it comes to books similar to marijuana and illegal substances. She was the first person who introduced me to the world of erotica before it became what it is now, gave me a taste of paranormal romance way before the genre was coined, popped my M/M, M/F/M, and various human-otherworldly couplings cherry, made me fantasize about walking down Garden District and The French Quarter as some sort of Supe (preferably her kind of vampire or witch), and lastly I owe my love for the supernatural to this literary icon. In short, I have a mild obsession with Anne Rice and her books. Don't judge.

THE VAMPIRE LESTAT, or Lestat de Lioncourt to be exact, was my first concept and encounter with an anti-hero and he became the gold standard and my benchmark moving forward.  For those of the younger set, he is my Niklaus Mikaelson (The Originals), and he was an addiction that took years and years to shake off. He is a meddling, conceited, selfish, self-important mofo that one can't help but love. I never really understood his concept of love and loyalty but he is those things, he does have redeeming qualities but "arrogant prick" is the first thing that comes to mind when I think of Lestat and I mean that in the fondest way. 

A little backstory for those of you who aren't so familiar with his tale and you can forget associating my Lestat with Tom Cruise (another self important prick and I mean that in a disparaging way). Anyway Lestat is an aristocrat who got turned into a vampire sometime in 18th century France. In ARice's myth, your strength as a vampire depends on your maker. Lucky for us Lestat's maker is one of the ancients making him a formidable vampire even if he's just a fledgling. Lestat turned his mother, Gabrielle, into a vampire too to prevent her from dying and became his companion for years. It was after meeting Armand that Lestat got curious about their origins and his constant search finally led him to the race's progenators, Akasha and Enkil (The Queen of the Damned, again forget the movie because Aaliya [RIP] as Akasha was a travesty). Lestat managed to waken the royals from their stupor, managing so semi-seduce Akasha allowing him to feed off of her which made Lestat even more powerful and enabled him to walk during the day without self-combusting. ARice's vampire myth follows more or less the night walker archetype.

What appealed to me most about THE VAMPIRE LESTAT is it's provocativeness and almost androgynous approach to romance. It was more erotic than than sexual with beauty as the focal point. The vamps are obsessed with beauty whether it's physical, talent-based, or one's profoundness and genius or capacity for a certain emotion. They handpick their progeny and their selection process is usually based on the qualities I mentioned. However these vampires are fickle and sometimes quick to anger and because their lives span millenia they have the tendency to harbor grudges and the like.

Lestat is the badboy of their lot, he challenges the unspoken rules like discretion by outing their kind, becoming a rockstar and writing songs about vampires and what's it like to be one. He hid in plain sight which angered a lot of vampires making him a target. But as Lestat is Lestat, he managed to turn it around and convince the ancients not to kill him. And it's Lestat's propensity to annoy and provoke anybody, whether it's the reader or his cast mate, that endeared him to me and he remains and will always be one of my most favorite fictional characters of all time.

And I think it's time I catch up and see what he's been up to, I did hear Prince Lestat is awesome!