i enjoyed this a lot less than the previews books in the series. in general, the entire premise and storyline of the book felt so much less high-stakes and relevant. i really don't like it when the premise of a book is that the main character does something stupid while knowing that it's stupid and the consequences will be bad and then the book is just about the main character dealing with the very predictable and avoidable consequences. exploring what it would be like for a vampire, especially lestat, to be human again is somewhat intriguing, but i don't know if it needed to be told in this many words. 

the beginning of the book was just dragging on. then the middle, i actually really disliked. i didn't care much for all of the religious talk. i really dislike feeling secondhand embarrassment on behalf of the characters in a book. at around 50% it became actually interesting and exciting again, so i really feel like it could've been condensed. i know that the previous books were also long and somewhat slow, but the history of the vampires and all that was happening felt high-stakes and important and i liked reading about it from multiple povs etc., but that just wasn't the case for this book. 

also, i really disliked some of the things lestat did in this book. of course, the genre is horror, lestat is not supposed to be a "good" person and will do horrible things. the vampires drink blood and murder people constantly.

but the rape by lestat really bothered me. unlike the rape by khayman in ancient times, i didn't feel like this was something that needed to happen for the plot. i didn't like the rape by khayman either, obviously, but it was only recounted as an event that had happened and led to a child being born, which was basically the beginning of the big family and important to the entire plot, and it was something that was forced by the circumstances and the time. and the entire chapter where lestat first becomes human again was just terrible to read. i know that it was probably intentional, that this chapter was supposed to show the reader that lestat is not "bad" because he is a vampire and it is his nature to drink blood and kill people, but that even as a human he is still easily capable of horrible acts. doesn't change that i still really disliked it.

nevertheless, i finished it, and i'm glad i did because i still plan on reading the rest of the series.