Occult

Once I picked up this novel by Ms. Rice I found myself unable to put it down! All I could think about was what had happened to Tarquin. What was his story? Read this book and find out what I mean.

Once again, Anne Rice has found her power to weave a seductive and entrancing narrative about a boy growing into a man, luxuriantly living his life in the back swamps of Louisiana. Steeped in all the riches that a royally wealthy life could provide, Tarquin travels from the depths of the unknown swamps of Louisiana to the ancient ruins of Europe, only to return to a world much changed on his cherished Blackwood Farm.

Like she did in The Witching Hour, Anne Rice takes the reader on a long, thought out journey of Tarquin's life and how he came to be the vampiric creature that he was. He begs the help of the infamous Lestat and with the help of Merrick Mayfair they bond together to rid Blackwood Farm of the pestering spirit that had been inhabiting its century old walls for the duration of Tarquin's mortal life and beyond.

The Vampire Chronicles and The Mayfair Witches storylines find themselves deftly blended together in this tale. It's a readers dream to see these two "families" come together with the promise that there would be even more to come with their adjoining. Though the ending feels short and unexplained it only leaves the reading anxiously waiting for the follow-up ... Blood Canticle.

I am often at odds with other Anne Rice fans with reguards to which stories I like.

I loved Pandora, but I still thought Blood And Gold was great, I don't feel it merely re-treaded old ground, covered in Pandora and The Vampire Armand. I actually added it up and more than half of Blood And Gold details events outside of those books. And the parts that do retell scenes from Pandora or Armand are different, because they are seen from Marius' point of view. I've always loved his character and it's nice to get to know him a little better.

But this isn't about Blood And Gold, this is about Blackwood Farm.

If you hated Blood And Gold you might not like Blackwood Farm, not for any strong similarities, but if you are one of the people who feel that Rice's writing has gone downhill, I don't sense any major difference between this and her other recent output.

I loved Blackwood Farm. I loved the intimate nature of experiencing the family's history without the tedious charts and family tree of Mayfair Witches. After a while I felt at home in Quinn's house.

I like the character Quinn, and I loved reading about his past, his teachers, and especially Mona.

I didn't like the vampire that sired him very much, but that's more personal taste than anything.

I should also note that I started reading Mayfair Witches *after* I read Blackwood Farm.

But if you are like me, and you didn't mind Memnoch The Devil, loved Pandora, had to fight through The Vampire Armand (all the boring descriptions of Vennis and it takes so long for him to become a vampire), and liked Blood And Gold, for instance, then I think there is a good chance you'll enjoy Blackwood Farm.

A long-time fan of Rice's Vampire Chronicles, I was rather excited with the return of Lestat at the end of "Merrick" and had high hopes for "Blackwood Farm" and its following chronicle "Blood Canticle". I just finished reading "Blackwood Farm" and found it dull, slow and a mere shadow of Rice's usual engaging and sensuous prose that can be found in the earlier VampChrons such as "Interview with the Vampire" (my personal favorite) and even as late as "The Vampire Armand".

The entirety of the book is narrated by Quinn Blackwood, a very hard-to-like character despite his many similarities to Louis, the other "sensitive"-type vampire prominent in the Chronicles. Quinn's relationship with Goblin, his doppelganger and spirit companion, could have proved fascinating plot fodder, but the very character of Quinn is so off-putting it's difficult to enjoy. His story is filled over the top with angst ("Oh, it's so difficult to be a ridiculously wealthy 18-year-old Southern Catholic genius who sees ghosts...") and a rather nauseating relationship with fellow 15-year-old chronically ill promiscuous rich genius Mona Mayfair. If this is starting to sound a little absurd, you're about right. Mona is a detestable character: pretentious, self-pitying at turns and ridiculously self-assured at others, and fancies herself the drowning Ophelia of Shakespeare fame (stereotypically Gothic angst, anyone?). Finally, the story is tedious and Quinn's narration plods and falls very flat, very often.

Truly, the only thing saving this particular installment of the VampChrons is the mere PRESENCE of Lestat. I say "presence" because as any Lestat fan will tell you, since his awakening in "Merrick" he just hasn't been the same character he once was, and the rather unpleasant change becomes even more apparent in "Blackwood Farm". I really can't hate Anne Rice's earlier work; I loved every Chronicle, including "Memnoch" which many did not, and "Blood and Gold" which for some reason suffers horrible Amazon reviews (in all honesty, I really liked that one!). But everything from "Merrick" onward, I simply prefer to pretend they're an entirely different narrative that's not even part of the VampChrons we all know and love. I haven't yet read "Blood Canticle", but rest assured it will not be a love for the new characters or high hopes for the writing that drive me to read it; rather, a sense of completion and sheer fangirlish Lestat-love, which was incidentally what brought me back to these after finishing "Blood and Gold" and vowing to be through with the Vampire Chronicles forever. If only Rice hadn't been driven by the same kind of whim, we might not have to deal with such disappointing books as "Blackwood Farm".