sue me, but i’ve always found marius to be one of the most compelling vampire chronicles characters - and his role in this book enraptured me so completely that it elevated him to my all time favorite narrative voice in the series. i don’t think i have the proper words to express how much i adored his tale in blood and gold, but i’ll try nonetheless.

in this book more than any other is the cruel passage of time truly felt, with the added treat of an unreliable, emotionally stonewalled narrator. more than anything i found myself resonating with the trauma of his life over the years, and how he is more often than not the unwitting architect of his own destruction. so desperate to play the stoic teacher with all of his young protegés, so unable to allow himself to truly feel, his arrogance and futile desire to forcibly reshape the people in his life inevitably result in disaster. unreliable narrators are a tried-and-true staple of this series, but i especially loved reading between the lines for marius’s many tales of woe. his brand of slimy douchebaggery hidden underneath the mask of a refined roman gentleman was delicious for me.

anne rice is always at her best when taking her readers through a sweeping adventure through the past; her thoughtful historical fiction blended with the dark, isolated, supernatural beauty of her vampire world is really unlike anything else. to read about the fall of rome is one thing, but it is something else entirely to experience it through the voice of an immortal who cannot openly express his grief as the world he once knew continues on, unfeelingly, around his forever unchanging self. while his hypocrisy can make him hard to love for some fans of the series (well, among many other things), i found it impossible to not feel for him, even as he drove away everyone he ever loved across the ages.

a true delight of a novel, and one that i frequently found hard to put down. i don’t remember the last time i was this sad to have finished a book. thank you marius for being my problematic fave.