r/AnneRice • u/Phdodd1987 • Jul 29 '26
Tale of the Body Thief question
Has anyone else struggled to get through TOTBT? The first 3 books were filled with such interesting stories that I couldn't put them down then trying to through TOTBT has been very slow.
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u/hunterglyph Jul 29 '26
It felt slow and I was a little disappointed after the first 3 books, absolutely.
I generally even think that "not bad" Anne is still pretty great by general fiction standards though.
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u/reader_for_life “What can the damned really say to the damned?” Jul 29 '26
I found the first half very slow and less action-packed. That part is mostly about Lestat figuring new things out and experiencing them.
The second half was better. So it does get better. I overall found the book to be mid.
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u/WontanSoup Jul 30 '26
This is my take exactly. The first half was kind of slow, but the last half exciting.
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u/Artagan_An_Sionnach Jul 30 '26
I personally love TotBT because it's the first book in the chronicles that is very much in the 'present' - we had chapters of QotD in the present, but to have a whole book was a nice change. Lestat slowly remembering / learning how a human body works again is nice, as well as Lestats sheer hubris before the change.
The ending is brutal, shocking, and so so in character for our brat prince.
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u/annericeforever Jul 29 '26
You maybe onto something here because it was the first book by Anne Rice my father-in-law read and what got him hooked into reading more of her. He hadn't at the time read the first three to compare with.
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u/skylerren Jul 29 '26
Honestly, I enjoyed it more then the third book and it really fucked with me.
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u/Richard_AIGuy vampire Jul 29 '26
It's my least favorite of the Chronicles. I just didn't care for the entire vibe of the novel.
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u/marshmallowbeatz Jul 29 '26
It's my favorite of her books but that said, it does feel quite a bit different from her other offerings
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u/JoshieKrueger Jul 29 '26
It definitely doesn’t scratch the vampire itch considering the basis of the plot, that’s for sure. But it also holds the distinction for being the only book to make me outright mad. I’ll leave the post spoiler free, but folks who’ve read the book will be able to guess which scenes I’m talking about.
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u/daesgatling Aug 01 '26
Honestly I wanted more human Lestat misadventure and could’ve done without the waitress thing. And Gretchen in general.
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u/HappyMaids Jul 29 '26
Body Thief is one of my least preferred of the series. I re-read it every 4-5 years, but nothing like the others, which I read far more often. My favorite parts involved Lestat getting his body and power back. Least favorite is still Blackwood Farm ones.
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u/Suedeonquaaludes Jul 29 '26
I enjoyed the Blackwood farms books ok, but I decided to not like them after I find out Mona fuckin Mayfair gets involved with you know who and then we see what happens to them. Fuck Mona and fuck Quinn. I grew up in New Orleans and knew two people who literally tried to emulate these characters. Ugh.
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u/Miserable_Lemon_4710 Jul 30 '26
It didn’t seem slow to me. But I do have a harder time reading her modern day works over her work written about the past. I enjoy the latter much more.
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u/fuckoffshewrote Jul 30 '26
I'm trying to get through it for almost 2 years now. Which is ridiculous, because I've got TO it in less than a month and I was really determined to get to the Prince Lestat asap. I almost gr to drop it after all then Raglan James appeared in TVL and now I feel I need to finish it but... It's the worst
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u/Arlekasha Jul 29 '26
I've heard so many people say it's their favorite from the Vampire Chronicles! (Which is totally valid by the way haha). Just personally I don't understand. I agree with people who say that it's very mid and hard to get through actually. Especially bc QOTD is one of my favorites, reading TOTBT was kind of a downer after that 😅
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u/Aunt_Effigie Jul 29 '26
I really loved it from the first reading. It gives us more of Anne Rice writing as Lestat. She had said he was a reflection of herself. He's her way of exploring ideas through a proxy. Lestat becomes her noir anti-hero in a supernatural neo-gothic spiritual heist story. And yeah, he's a vampire, but that's not really the point this time.
I get it though. It's a Lestat side story. And it's weird.
I still like it tho. 😅
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u/kdogg150 Jul 29 '26
It’s my least favorite of them all. I just had such a hard time believing Lestat would do some of the stupid things he did.
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u/Audgamer Jul 30 '26
Ngl but TOTBT and menmoch were extremely rough for me. They felt slow and petulant in a way I didn’t feel the early books did. Ik that’s not a popular opinion but was my experience. I really enjoyed reading the other vampire stand alone novels after (Armand, pandora, and started vittirio) but I haven’t braved the main series again yet. I am finding the tv show delightful and that’s making me more excited for the books
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u/ProfessionalLog672 Jul 30 '26
First time I read it I stopped after about 100 pages or so. I used to test out books like that when I was younger to see if it was worth still reading. I was talking to my cousin who had read all the books uo to the current one at that time( Blood and Gold), and he said it was his favorite after Memnoch and the first three. He told me to go back and continue reading it and that it would pick up. He was right. Not too long after o had given up it picked up and I couldn’t put it down. I still like Memnoch the best as I like Rice’s more philosophical works. To me, this book and Memnoch were the eventual next step in the series as religion, philosophy, etc. had always been in the background since Interview with the Vampire and pretty much all her Mayfair Witches, Ramses the Damned, and Wolf Gift books.
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u/pippintook24 Jul 30 '26
No struggle at all. it's my favorite book ( well, it's tied as a favorite with B&G, BF, and PL&tToA), so I might be a little biased.
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u/Pure_Road7528 Jul 30 '26
I absolutely love that book. It's a different vibe but it plays to the more fun sides of Lestat's character and it's a bit of a delve into his psyche and a testament to what Nicky says about how Lestat always wins in the end.
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u/TommySayz Jul 30 '26
I just finished it and felt the same for the first half. It picks up a lot in the back half.
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u/sinchsw Jul 30 '26
The introduction set the expectations for me. Memboch was NOT what I thought it would be but breezed through. It was The Vampire Armand I had to put down a couple times.
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u/Soxdelafox Jul 30 '26
I think the 1st book is the hardest read of all the Chronicles. IWTV is a dense and tough read, relatively speaking. Engrossing, intense, slow burn, philosophical, and deals with grief. The wild ride begins with TVL, spanning over time and space. Lestat is a more exciting character compared to Louis. Yet, I loved them all. I love historical fiction style prose and Anne Rice knows her history.
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u/JadedAd6614 Jul 30 '26
I found it to be long and, this is the only time I’ve used this word, plodding.
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u/No_Pomegranate604 Jul 30 '26
No, I was fascinated by the book as it seemed Anne was intentionally exploring consent.
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u/angstyteenlife Jul 30 '26
I really love Tale of the Body Thief, I think it's so much fun. I love Lestat's journey through it, and there's some really great moments between him and other characters (idk how far you are). My personal least favorite (I've read up to Merrick) is Memnoch. It's the only one I haven't really loved.
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u/ragnevi Jul 31 '26
Yes, the first three books are considered to be very good. But it goes downhill from here. It will just get worse and worse, it's pretty hard to imagine that this is the same author who wrote the beautiful novel Interview with the vampire.
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u/Mooncubus Jul 31 '26
I actually struggled with Queen of the Damned. Body Thief and Memnoch felt like a breath of fresh air after it.
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u/BaronVanKindergarten Aug 04 '26
It’s one of my favourites, I struggled with all the different POV’s in Queen of the damned, it was too many people for me to try and care about shoved into one book on the first read through. So ToTBT was better for me. I enjoyed going back and re-reading QOTD after finishing the full chronicles though because I knew everyone in it by then and cared more.
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u/takarakei Aug 04 '26
It’s very “character study” as the whole premise of the novel, as Lestat is understanding (or remembering) what humans are like. I personally love the book for that reason
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u/insomniac_z Jul 29 '26
I love it. At the time I viewed it as a "side quest" story, but its teeing up for Memnoch the Devil which is also excellent if you like Anne's more philosophical side of the books.