I absolutely loved almost everything about this, except for the ending. Of course, the ending is not really an ending, this is only the first part of a trilogy after all, but I found it deeply unsatisfying anyway, and it is keeping me a bit from continuing in number two. That, and number two not starting out very well with a disgusting young brad seducing the honorable male lead.
The parts that I loved were exquisite world-building (sounds funny, given that this takes place in an existing world, so maybe the building part is not really accurate, but in any case, the descriptions are done really well), very nice characters and a highly immersive storyline. I can imagine a lot of people would have problems with the copious amounts of incest and other types of sex, but for some reason, this didn't really bother me. There was one thing that bugged me: the main character at some point refers to rough sex as rape, even though it was completely consensual. She doesn't say this to anyone else, it was either in her own thoughts, or mentioned to him during the sex, but even so, I thought this was ridiculous. By definition, I'd say you cannot ask someone to rape you. ( )

So I finally finished this book... I needed breaks every hundred pages or so, not my favorite Anne Rice but I didn't hate it.

And just for the record- Lasher has nothing over Lestat, I mean come on the guy can fly, I think that trumps flowers any day... ( )

Great until the ending :) ( )

Wat ik geweldig vind is de opbouw van de hele stamboom van de mayfairs en ook de voelbare warmte van de familie, gecombineerd met wat ijzige types. Wat ik èn geweldig èn frustrerend tegelijk vind, is het einde. Nu heb ik nog niet het gevoel of ik echt weet wat er gebeurd is en of dat echt erg is of niet.

Ik werd ongeduldig op bepaalde stukken. Vooral op de stukken die meer beschrijvend waren. Niet dat die niet interessant waren, maar soms wilde ik dan gewoon meer informatie hebben over die personen en andere keren wilde ik gewoon weten hoe het verder ging in het nu en niet meer geschiedenislessen lezen.
( )

My favorite Anne Rice book. ( )