IT’S OVER, I’M FINISHED. and what an finale it was - after a period of disappointments with the last few books, this was a lovely, delightful bow to tie up the long-spanning vampire chronicles.

i think blood communion only works if you can get past how out-of-character lestat (among others) has become over time and simply appreciate it for the quick jaunt it is. there are some riveting arguments and revelations to be found here, which are always some of my favorite moments in a rice novel. rhoshamandes has long overstayed his welcome as the central villain - and he isn’t even a good villain - which dampened my enjoyment significantly, even as a secondary antagonist was added. but still, i felt that the action and heartfelt character-driven scenes more than made up for him being a frustrating prick. lestat wistfully reminiscing about nicki with louis in the final scene had me all kinds of emotional.

it feels fitting that my saga with these books has at last come to a close on what would have been anne rice’s 85th birthday. i initially intended to only read the first book, which then became the acclaimed original trilogy, which then became “fuck it, i’ll just finish the whole thing.” even at the lower points in the series, i was always entranced by rice’s romantic prose, and loved her verbose, dramatic hotties for vampires (to paraphrase an amazing description i once read). it’s been a truly special experience; i can’t say i would ever read another series this long again, or ever reread this one in full, but some of these books have absolutely left a permanent mark on my life that i can never forget. long live the vampire court!

my final ranking: 1 - blood and gold 2 - interview with the vampire 3 - the vampire armand 4 - the vampire lestat 5 - the tale of the body thief 6 - blood communion 7 - memnoch the devil 8 - merrick 9 - the queen of the damned 10 - prince lestat and the realms of atlantis 11 - prince lestat 12 - blackwood farm 13 - blood canticle