[contains plot summaries and potential minor spoilers]
Are you bored with the endless sea of time stretching out before your eyes? Do you long to plunge into a nighttime realm of dark allure? Maybe you just really love heady, lush descriptions of New Orleans?
Then we have just the vampire book series for you.
Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles span nearly fifty years and over a dozen volumes, and while the books are never less than interesting (well, more on that later), they can be a bit difficult to wrangle, especially after the initial trilogy as the lore expands and the characters keep getting trapped in toxic relationship patterns that play out over hundreds of years.
Rice’s main innovation in vampire fiction is to give us the vampire’s perspective rather than the victim’s, rendering her undead fiends heartbreakingly human without taking away from their monstrousness. They are glamorous and brooding, yes—but they’re also terrifying killers. There are moments of blood-chilling gothic horror and shocking gore in these books, along with adventure, intrigue, philosophy, mystery, and dark romance. To get lost in them is to fall into a swoon—one you might never wake up from.
Whether you’re a fan of the new AMC Interview with the Vampire adaptation who wants to learn more about Rice’s undead heroes, or you’re just curious about one of the greatest gothic book series of all time, this guide will get you started down the Devil’s Road.
Article Contents
Blood Communion BONUS: The New Tales of the Vampires 1. Pandora 2. Vittorio the Vampire
1976
The beautiful, tragic vampire Louis tells his life story to a young reporter in San Francisco over the course of one night. He tells the tale of how, in the grip of an alcoholic death wish, he was made a vampire by the cruel and enigmatic Lestat in New Orleans in the 1790s, and of the child vampire Claudia who bound them together for nearly 70 years. Louis travels to the Old World to find answers, where he meets Armand, the leader of a troupe of vampire actors who kill their victims onstage right in front of a jaded Parisian audience. After suffering a devastating loss, Louis strives to find a reason to keep living.
Awash with lyrical descriptions of banana leaves and Spanish moss, and lots of pure, uncut guilt, Interview is the most “literary” of the Chronicles in style. It introduces the dark themes of isolation, grief, and longing (and, of course, dramatic arson) that will remain close to the surface throughout the series. Soft-spoken Louis is a gentleman and a scholar, but it’s his impetuous maker who will soon become the face of the series.
Rating: Essential, even if Louis can be a bit of a buzzkill.
Get it here.
1985
Eighteenth-century French aristocrat Lestat de Lioncourt awakens from a 50-year slumber in 1984. Enraged by the “lies” about him his old flame Louis published in Interview, he resolves to set the record straight with his own memoir. You see, he’s always wanted to be good—but he’s just so good at being bad.
Lestat tells the story of his early life, when he was a penniless, illiterate country lord who escaped to Paris with his first love Nicolas and found his calling as an actor in a cheap boulevard theater. Kidnapped and made a vampire against his will, forced to kill to survive, Lestat wrestles with his place in what he calls the Savage Garden.
Ensnared in a world of seductive evil and bloody sensuality, Lestat makes others like himself and comes into conflict with Armand, the leader of a satanic vampire cult haunting the catacombs of Paris. Lestat seeks out wisdom from the ancient Roman vampire Marius before his destiny takes him to the French colonial outpost of New Orleans.
In the present, he does what any angsty theater kid would in moments of crisis: he joins a band. Powered by Lestat’s unstoppable charisma, the goth band he takes over and renames after himself with characteristic modesty rockets to the top of the charts. A tender reunion with a lost love on the eve of his first big concert has him feeling optimistic—but someone unexpected has also been listening.
Rating: Essential, probably the best book in the Vampire Chronicles series.
Get it here.
1988
This sprawling gothic novel finds Lestat in the clutches of Akasha, the ancient Egyptian queen of all vampires. He’s inadvertently awakened her with his music videos, and now she wants two things: world domination, and Lestat’s blood. At first, he’s only too happy to play undead boy toy, until she starts massacring humans and vampires alike.
The book’s scope is epic and ambitious, hopping between multiple points of view and introducing a multitude of new characters. It soon becomes clear Akasha is sparing the immortals who are important to Lestat, and the survivors gather in the secluded forest compound of Maharet, Akasha’s ancient enemy and matriarch of the “Great Family,” to plan their next move. Maharet details the story of how vampires came into being 6,000 years ago when she and her twin sister Mekare, powerful witches who practiced cannibalistic rites, were forced to come before the king and queen of Egypt and subjected to unspeakable cruelties. The main takeaway: kill Akasha and all vampires die with her.
Meanwhile, elsewhere, we catch up with Daniel Molloy, the reporter Louis spilled his guts to 12 years before, and he’s…not doing great. He’s become ensnared in a vampire romance of his own as the world of the undead unravels. Lestat’s loved ones and enemies alike come together in an uneasy peace, but harmony among blood drinkers is always short-lived.
Rating: Very good, often great, but sometimes the sprawling scope of the narrative gets a little unwieldy. Propulsive and full of ambitious worldbuilding, this book offers fascinating glimpses into new facets of Anne Rice's sumptuous world.
Get it here.
1992
After the world-endangering stakes of Queen, this book is a breath of fresh air. Relatively breezy and adventuresome, it still manages to tackle heavy themes of depression, theology, and bodily autonomy. What it lacks in tonal cohesion, it makes up for with poop jokes. (Also, Lestat gets a cute dog.)
Depressed and horrified by the “monstrous” changes to his immortal body after drinking so much of Akasha’s powerful blood, Lestat attempts to put an end to his long existence. He goes to the Gobi Desert to greet the sunrise—only to emerge with a deep tan that helps him pass more effectively as a mortal.
In his dejected state, a strange mortal man makes him an offer he can’t refuse: they will switch bodies for a set amount of time. The man, Raglan James, is an experienced body thief who now resides in an impressive young body. Lestat, being the reckless idiot we know and love, agrees to this despite MANY red flags. Unsurprisingly, James runs off with Lestat’s immensely powerful vampire body, leaving him to the undignified human business of eating food and almost dying of pneumonia from spending too much time outside in the winter gazing at the sunlight.
Desperate, Lestat goes to Louis and begs him to make him a vampire, which Louis refuses on moral grounds. He then seeks out his mortal friend David Talbot, an elderly Englishman and powerful psychic who heads the Talamasca, an order of scholars of the paranormal.
Things take a disturbing turn when [spoilers, I guess?] they get the Damnedest Creature his body back, leaving the ongoing question of Lestat’s morality even more troubled than before.
Rating: Enjoyable, with caveats. Lestat is an engaging presence as always, but the tone is wildly uneven, and man, he does not come out of this looking great for a number of reasons.
Get it here.
1995
This is…a strange one. Lestat often functions as something of a self-insert character for Rice, so when she became increasingly preoccupied with her Catholic faith in the mid-‘90s, the Brat Prince also found himself at a spiritual crossroads.
Lestat becomes infatuated with a mortal woman named Dora, a televangelist and scholar of theology whose father has ties to organized crime. His descent into the underworld becomes more literal when he meets a spirit who calls himself Memnoch and claims to be the literal Christian devil. Memnoch takes him on a visionary journey through hell and heaven that culminates in what he perceives to be proof of the divine in the form of the ultimate bloody communion.
The whole experience leaves him deeply shaken and triggers a deadly crisis of faith in Armand.
Rating: Vividly rendered, an interesting curiosity, especially for those with an interest in Christian theology, but ultimately it has little impact on the overall plot of the series. You could skip the Memnoch parts without really missing much if you just want to see what happens to Lestat and company.
Get it here.
1998
Still reeling from his brush with divinity, Lestat has gone into stasis on a chapel floor. All the important people in his life have gathered, including his eternal frenemy, the 500-year-old teenager Armand. Malevolent and seductive, Armand has haunted the margins of the books since Lestat first encountered him as a dangerous coven master in 18th-century Paris. Now, he reluctantly sits down with David Talbot to tell his tragic story.
Kidnapped by Tatars from his home in present day Ukraine as a boy, Armand—then Andrei—was sold into slavery and ended up in Venice at the height of the Italian Renaissance. He was rescued by the powerful vampire Marius, an ancient Roman living as a painter in the flourishing art world of the city. Rice clearly has a lot of affection for the Renaissance setting, and it is lushly rendered with deep historical knowledge.
Marius named him Amadeo and took him on as his apprentice and mortal lover, vowing to make him a vampire once he reached adulthood. Unfortunately, Marius was forced to change him to save his life, trapping Amadeo in his 17-year-old body forever. After a brief period of happiness, tragedy struck, tearing Amadeo from his master and throwing him into the darkness he would languish in for centuries as the ruthless Armand.
The story falters somewhat in the third act when we return to the present to find Armand sharing in Lestat’s crisis of faith, reminded of his youth spent painting religious ikons in a Kyiv monastery. Armand eventually ends up with a pair of fresh-faced mortals to look after and a redemption arc that feels a bit too neat and tidy.
Rating: The first half of this book features some of the most gorgeously ornate prose and chilling gothic horror Rice ever wrote, and her rendering of the troubled Armand’s voice is masterful. Whether or not you totally buy how Armand goes from complicated villain to cuddly antihero, there’s no denying the book’s dark delights.
Get it here.
7. Merrick
2000
Paranormal scholar-turned-vampire David Talbot lays out his adventurous, swashbuckling life story, which is intertwined with that of Merrick Mayfair, a powerful Voodoo practitioner descended from the infamous New Orleans Mayfair family. She is David’s friend and former mentee/colleague from the Talamasca.
He asks her to summon the spirit of someone long dead to speak with Louis, who has fallen into a deep depression with Lestat still lying on the floor unresponsive. Merrick agrees to traffic with the undead—but she has designs of her own.
Rating: Much of this book is an absolute Southern gothic delight, full of creepy atmosphere. It’s necessary to read (or at least skim) for important plot stuff, even if, like us, you’re HIGHLY ambivalent about David Talbot. Merrick herself is great, though.
Get it here.
2001
How does a blood drinker as old as Marius keep the flame alive? After 2,000 years, he finds himself struggling to find the will to carry on. He has always conceived of himself as an observer of history, an “eternal awareness,” but the horrors of the 20th century and the recent loss of his ancient responsibilities have left him feeling empty.
Enter Thorne, an affable Viking vampire who has just awoken in the modern world. Marius offers Thorne a place to stay in his cozy Nordic retreat, where he looks after a certain unhinged young vampire. There, over the course of a snowy night, he unburdens himself of his long, long life story.
Marius evokes the Roman empire of his mortal lifetime and the tumultuous centuries he spent in Antioch with his first fledgling, the fiery Pandora, until he left her abruptly after an argument. He threw himself into caring for the motionless Akasha and her spouse Enkil, keeping the Divine Parents safe throughout the centuries, painting sunlit gardens on the walls of their chamber while crushing loneliness ate away at him.
With the fall of his beloved Rome, Marius went to sleep in the earth for nearly a century, eventually fleeing to Constantinople. The splendor of the ancient world comes alive in the text as the rise of Christianity brings Marius a sense of foreboding. He remained fascinated by these changes, but even the eminently pragmatic Marius had to find a new reason to live eventually.
He discovered it in the thrilling artwork of Botticelli, a gifted mortal he was sorely tempted to bring into the blood. Instead, he found Amadeo, whose face was right out of Botticelli’s heavenly frescoes. Marius fell in love with him, and what follows is a retelling of the events of The Vampire Armand from his perspective. With Amadeo ripped away from him, horribly defeated, he left Venice with the Parents and a new companion, still hoping against hope to be reunited with his lost love Pandora, whom he had not seen in over a thousand years. To find her, he finally turned to the Talamasca for help.
Back in the present, Thorne takes revenge on Marius’s behalf for an old injury, but vengeance can’t heal a rift five centuries in the making. Marius is probably the most “well-adjusted” of the main vampires, but his pride and stubborn need to be a mentor always drive his loved ones away in the end.
Rating: A fascinating character study, worth reading for how it contextualizes events—not to mention that jaw-dropping ending. If you aren’t a Marius fan, you can skip it and get the relevant plot points from a synopsis.
Get it here.
2002
Lestat befriends Quinn Blackwood, a gentlemanly young New Orleans blood drinker with ties to the Mayfair Witches, and listens to the strange tale of his early life. (In case you hadn't noticed, people narrate their life stories a lot in these books.) It's a ghost story murder mystery, essentially. Lestat agrees to grant Quinn a valuable favor with an assist from Merrick.
Rating: A pure spooky Southern gothic book, heady and rich. Like the other Mayfair Witches crossovers, it is largely inessential to the canon. It’s kind of boring and overlong in places, but an effective mood piece.
Get it here.
10. Blood Canticle
2003
Lestat becomes enamored with Rowan Mayfair, the brilliant neurosurgeon and heroine of The Witching Hour. The two get caught up in a bizarre mystery involving Mayfair family secrets and a supernatural creature known as the Taltos. This book is as delirious as it is utterly baffling.
Rating: WOOF
Get it here.
11. Prince Lestat
2014
The Brat Prince is back, baby—and he’s about to earn his title.
A telepathic entity known as the Voice is driving vampires across the world to kill one another. With panic descending among the undead in this second Great Burning, a young blood drinker named Benji Mahmoud starts a podcast (only audible to vampire ears, naturally) to spread credible information and call for unity. Concerned for Louis’ welfare, Lestat seeks him out and finds him living with Armand at his lavish New York residence Trinity Gate.
In the midst of the chaos, the ancient Rhoshamandes and his fledgling Benedict commit a shocking murder that leaves the vampire world in turmoil. The consensus is growing: the undead need a leader. But can a lifelong maverick really stomach being on the throne?
Rating: The “Prince Lestat” books are considerably pulpier than the earlier entries in the series, for better or worse. The first book is a spiritual successor to Queen of the Damned, featuring multiple perspectives and a huge cast of characters. The dark philosophical musings and lyrical prose have largely been abandoned in favor of big action sequences. There are still character moments that make it all worthwhile, but overall, things have gotten a lot shallower.
Get it here.
2016
If you’re one of the 12 people who still had questions about the origins of vampirism after the exhaustive explanation in Queen of the Damned, you’re in luck. If your money was on aliens (?) and the lost city of Atlantis (??), go join the Talamasca, because you must be psychic.
We learn the otherworldly origins of Amel, the blood-drinking spirit who animates all vampires. This insane book operates more on vibes than anything so pedestrian as a “plot.” At least Louis finally consents to join Lestat at the Vampire Court as his royal consort, ensuring that the ongoing toxic vortex that is their relationship can continue well into the 21st century.
Rating: ???
Get it here.
13. Blood Communion
2018
Lestat is called upon to resolve a dispute involving two of Pandora’s fledglings. An old enemy vows revenge on Lestat and kidnaps those most precious to him, forcing him to call on all his considerable power in a globe-spanning race against time. Also everyone’s outfit gets described at length.
Rating: Oddly paced and sometimes repetitive. Rice’s disdain for editors is on full display, although there are glimmers of the gothic grandeur of the series at its best. A bittersweet farewell.
Get it here.
BONUS: The New Tales of the Vampires
This was a spinoff series to the main Chronicles.
1998
In a fit of immortal ennui, the venerable Pandora agrees to write down her story for David Talbot, whisking us off to ancient Rome. She tells of her mortal life steeped in political intrigue, when she was forced to flee to Antioch after assassins killed most of her noble family. There, she took comfort in the cult of Isis and encountered a man she never thought she would see again: the eccentric scholar Marius, who had asked for her hand and been refused by her father when she was young.
Marius shared the ancient secret of Those Who Must Be Kept with her and brought her into the blood. Their tumultuous love affair lasted two centuries, until the vicious argument that would split them up for over a millennium. Pandora traveled the world and made fledglings of her own, but she never stopped searching for her first love.
Pandora is vivacious and charming–even when she’s ripping people’s hearts out and sucking them dry. However, even she struggles to find meaning as the centuries stretch on.
Rating: Even though this book is pretty inessential to the main canon, Pandora is a great character, and it’s nice to get some context for the big “eternally divorced” energy between her and Marius.
Get it here.
1999
We have yet to meet anyone who has ever actually read Vittorio the Vampire. Given that it’s apparently cobbled together from bits of research that didn’t make it into The Vampire Armand, there’s probably a reason for that.
Rating: Zero relevance to the main Vampire Chronicles canon, but if you’re a completist, go for it!
Get it here.
The Vampire Chronicles are brimming with sensual delights and grotesque moments of horror. This series helped spawn the paranormal romance genre, and its dark romanticism is matched only by its gory excesses. In these indelible horror novels, no monster is beyond redemption, and love is even more intoxicating than blood.
Give the books a try, and see why generations of readers have fallen under their gothic spell.