DECEMBER 13TH, 2021
BY LANA CARBON
As I was creating a post on Twitter for our 12 Movies for the 12 Days of Christmas annual moviethon, I came across the sad and surprising news of the passing of legendary author, Anne Rice. Reading the announcement of her death, I was in complete disbelief. It honestly felt like an old friend had passed; someone I had known quite well, had maybe lost touch with over the years, but the realization of them being gone was still devastating.
Immediately after reading the news, flooding my mind were thoughts of her work. Anne Rice inspired not only my decades-long obsession with vampires and the gothic world from which they come, but her descriptive style also fuelled my love of writing
Photo by Michael Lionstar,
taken from Penguin Random House website
I didn’t follow along with Rice’s Sleeping Beauty erotic fiction but her vampire tales were a different story entirely. I first came across Interview with a Vampire two or three years prior to entering high school; I became infatuated with the charming vampire Lestat and his sway over everyone he encountered. The character was so intricately detailed, that I could picture his every movement and hear his every word echoing in my mind. I longed to visit New Orleans and see the places so vividly recalled by the wonderfully descriptive words, to be a part of that world in a real, physical way. That was the power of Anne Rice’s writing.
The influence of Anne Rice was so strong that by the time the movie Interview with a Vampire was released, the character of Lestat was such an icon that even people who had not read the book, understood that Tom Cruise was not the right fit for the role. It caused a huge uproar and while Cruise did a passable job, in my opinion the casting could have been much, much better. C’est la vie.
(left) Screenshot of Tom Cruise as Lestat uploaded to Wikipedia by TAnthony
(right) Art by LilithMF, taken from DeviantArt website
I followed along with the Vampire Chronicles, book after book, as the clan of the night grew in number and power. I was just as enthralled in this gothic realm as one of Armand’s victims was in the mysterious elder vampire. Louis, Claudia, Marius… they all had a special place in the lore as well as in my heart, as I came to care for each character in different but equally meaningful ways. I loved the books so much that while travelling on a 14-hour bus trip, I read Memnoch the Devil, the story of Lestat’s meeting with the devil himself. I started and finished it long before the trip was over because I simply could not put it down.
Although best known for Lestat and his fellow denizens of the night, vampires were not the only subject of Anne Rice’s writings. While I didn’t become nearly as enamored with the Mayfair witches, I did read all of their tales and enjoyed them immensely, especially the stories where the family of witches and collective of vampires crossed over.
Then, what seemed like a change out of left field (to me, at least), the next stories to come out were based on Jesus. Not being overly religious myself, I had no interest in these books, even if it was Anne Rice. So, with the next few years being dedicated to this new line of stories and with my life becoming more hectic, I missed out on the latest novels in which I would have been interested. I haven’t read any new Anne Rice books since 2003’s Blood Canticle. Having found out about Anne Rice’s tragic passing however, I now feel like I need to catch up on all that I have missed.
As John said when I first told her the sad news, “I don’t know if it’s because of what she wrote about but it just felt like Anne Rice would live forever.” That is how I feel – it’s difficult to imagine my literary world without her. I do know that, with such great talent, her characters will live forever through her passionate words.
You will be missed Mrs. Rice, by family, friends, and fans alike.
