The Tale of the Body Thief Book 4 of The Vampire Chronicles

*4.25

Installment four of the vampire chronicles. This is very much all centered around Lestat again, and it's a fun plot with great twists to really get Lestat pondering and musing on what being human is like, love, relationships. Lestat remains an ever proud character, always a bit erratic and choosing to do things just because he wants. Makes for an interesting twist of events.

If you like Anne Rice's other vampire novels you'll enjoy this one. Just as in books 1-3 of the vampire chronicles there's plenty of discourses on emotions, the meaning of life, the belief in a higher power, and just philosophizing on what it means to be, or not be, human.

To me, this novel has a vastly different feel to it in the narrative style of the point of view of Lestat. Everything having a very deep visual quality to it.
Lestat says he is going to go to the sun. I think the reason he told David is he wanted someone to tell that he knew wouldn't try and stop him.  Though David wants him to postpone such an act. Lestat himself doesn't even know if the sun can kill him anymore.
Lestat seems to be more upset by his mortal friend passing then he does for even his own immortal life.
The two have a discussion on essentially what is the meaning of life. Is there a purpose to it all? And if so, if they can figure it out.
They get into quite the theological and religious discussion.
We figure out the theme for this book early on. Body switching. This young mystery man is sending Lestat peices of messages that have the common theme of body switching. Lestat makes sure to have fail-safes put in place should things go wrong. At least he was smart enough to take that into consideration.
It worked and Lestat is quickly having to re-learn a few things as a mortal once again as well as truly being mortal and how different it is from his vampire body and senses that he is used to.
So of course the thief does exactly what any reader would expect and he basically stole Lestat's body. Leaving Lestat in a body that has turned very sickly, very fast.
Lestat, throughout the novel is sort of haunted by Claudia. She comes to him in moments and especially when he was sick and a bit delirious.
Raglan James had tricked Lestat again, and almost succeeded in getting Lestat to turn him.
Lestat sort of comes to realize that despite the many various vampires he knows,including Louis whom he is still close to, he is still utterly alone.
Overall this one was fun. I think everyone reading it knew how things were going to go with Lestat and Raglan. It made for a good read and I enjoyed it quite a bit, especially as we got to live through Lestat as he was once again mortal.

** spoiler alert ** This is the first Anne Rice book I've read and I am in love!! Her writing style is marvelous, as well as the wonderful characters she has created. Not to mention the question of mortality and religion and love ... This is most likely one of my favorite books of all time! (Spoilers ahead) What really pulled me into this novel were all the parallels to Crime and Punishment (seriously, if you liked Crime and Punishment, you’ll love this!) and especially how the novel truly subverted the entire story while giving a very clear example of the “super human” who kills without feelings of guilt (a.k.a. a vampire). And, exactly like Raskolnikov can never reach the elevated status of being a merciless killer, the vampire Lestat cannot find it in himself to become an ordinary human, he can’t abide his vampire instincts or feel guilty for them. In his journey, he realizes he can’t change, and, truly, why should he have to? He loves his powers, loves his immortality, so his only regret in the end is that he even tried out living as a human at all. It was just so interesting reading from the perspective of a truly morally gray character, and the conversations about immortality and morals he has with the supporting characters — firstly, with the nun Gretchen (who was such a perfect parallel to Sonya from Crime and Punishment! God, I really could write a whole essays relating these two novels! There is just so many dots to connect!!), who gives him an opportunity to reflect on his life and his crimes and to start living a truly good, human life. It was so interesting seeing him reject her in the end, I actually expected him to agree with her and return to her, but I was so pleasantly surprised when he decided to do the opposite! Then, of course, we also have his main love interest (at least, that’s how I interpreted their relationship) in the novel, David. God. Their conversations just kept blowing my mind over and over again (I annotated the shit out of them hahah and I go back to reread them all the time!). David is definitely my favourite character in all of this, and I am pretty sure I fell in love with him through Lestat’s own rose-coloured glasses (because, fuck, get me a man who will admire me and everything I have to say the way Lestat admires David, you know? Absolute goals). The way he fights off all the offers of immortality while still admiring Lestat and vampires in general, and his own philosophical insights on morality and life are just so incredible! I’m not sure how much I liked Lestat turning him against his will in the end (not because I wanted him to get turned at all, but because I wish he came to this decision by himself rather than it being forced upon him), but the fact that he forgives him in the end in such a beautiful way — “I knew I loved you. I knew I forgave you. And I knew with every breath I took and with every new color or shape I saw before me that I wanted what you’d given me — the new vision and life, which none of can really describe! Oh, I couldn’t admit it. I had to curse you, fight you for a little while. But that’s all it was in the end — a little while.” — really set the final tone of the story for me. Anyway. I have to stop now, because I could literally ramble about this book for a week straight 😅 in conclusion, this book really is almost 700 pages of one of the most amazing vampire stories I have ever read, with a truly unique concept executed to sheer perfection. ❤️

Hace años empecé este libro y no pude con él, más allá de un par de capítulos, supongo que no era el momento. Esta vez me ha durado una semana. Tiene reflexiones muy buenas y es muy interesante lo que plantea. Además, he conocido más el personaje de David Talbot y me encanta. Lestat es muy dramas y me saca de quicio, pero no lo puede evitar. En fin, me han quedado muchas ganas de continuar la saga de la señora Rice.

i've loved lestat since the very first book , yet in this novel not only have i loved him , but also felt sympathy, excitement, fury, despair, and hope with him . whats interesting about this book is it's view of humanity, the experiance of life in the eyes of both mortal and immortal beings . the theories of god and the devil are interesting, lestat represented our minds perfectly , the loss between believing and denial . exquisite book , full of informations . will sure be reading the next one soon .