~ TALE OF THE BODY THIEF ~
Book 4 of The Vampire Chronicles
Anne Rice

Review by: I. Indigo

For the most part, Tale of the Body Thief took me much longer than the three books previous to it. Part of this was due to reading another novel at the same time. The other was the somewhat slower pace it seemed to take.

Now, as always, Lestat is someone quite fun to read about as is his often morose companion Louis. Lestat has gone off on his own again, gotten himself into a bit of trouble, and is now trying to figure out what to do about it. Reading about Lestat without the others is sometimes a little slow...a lot of his color comes from the interactions between himself and the other vampires, and even the mortal David Talbot who has become something of a recurrence since The Queen of the Damned. So through half of the book I was very much anxious for him to return to Louis or David. Unfortunately, I couldn't wish for the other two of my favorites, Marius and Armand, since it was told from the outset of the book that neither of them would be present in this novel.

Once he did return to David, after being more or less outcast by everyone else he asked for help, things went much faster and a got a lot more interesting. I have to say that I was a little surprised by the very end. Granted, it turns out that Lestat did the right thing, but I don't understand why he seeks to make himself miserable with things that "seem good at the time." Just the nature of the character I suppose.

Rice's style has definitely improved since, let us say, her Beauty Trilogy. Her descriptions are rich if sometimes long. Not necessarily sparkling paragraphs, but I do often find entries in each book that I find striking enough to take note of and write down. But as I said before, what I find the best in all her stories are the dialogues and interactions between characters. All of the vampires seem to love one another, crave each other's company, and yet they can't bare to be in close proximity for an extended period of time. If they do, they get testy, brooding - yet they thrive on each other, keep each other from going off somewhere to "die," or rather bury themselves in the earth for years upon years until they're ready to try life again. In the case of each character, none of them really asked to be vampires...they didn't really want it, either at the time or after they realized what they were. Most have gotten used to it, but each one of them, at some point or another, longs to be mortal again. But as Lestat is found out in the Tale of the Body Thief, they can't go back to what they were. It simply isn't the same because they've seen everything with new eyes and new senses. So unless they really do want to kill themselves, they'd better just get on with it and stop moping about.

ISBN: 034538475X
Edition: Trade Paperback