Book Review: Memnoch the Devil (The Vampire Chronicles Book 5) by Anne Rice

 
 
Lestat is busy stalking his latest victim, but he's also being stalked himself. The devil himself comes to Lestat and tells him the story of his life and all of creation and asks him to make a choice that could change his life forever.

Book Review: Memnoch the Devil (The Vampire Chronicles Book 5) by Anne Rice | reading, books, book reviews
Title: Memnoch the Devil
Author:
Book Number: Book 5
Pages: 448
My Rating: 2 Stars
More Info: Goodreads, Amazon, Publisher
 

Review:

This wasn’t my favorite in the series, so I’ll keep this brief.

Things I Liked:

– I admittedly do not know much about the details of the history and mythology of Christianity, so I don’t know how much this book actually aligns with that, but Anne Rice’s take on things here with Heaven, Hell, Creationism, evolution, angels, and Satan was interesting in its own way. And I liked how this book combined Christianity and evolution.

– This quote. Seriously, it just cracks me up.

“Armand envies you and spies on you far more than you might think.”

“I hear Armand and I see him and I ignore him,” [Lestat] said.

Things I Disliked:

– I read these books because I like the vampires. Those are the characters I’ve come to know and love and be invested in. But this wasn’t about them. I mean, maybe something from this book will come up in a future book or something, but this was about Memnoch and the creation of the earth and the evolution of Man. You could take the vampires out, replace Lestat with any random person, and this would be the same. The vampires were hardly in it

– On a similar note, there was hardly a plot because the entire book was Lestat’s victim telling his life story and then Memnoch telling his life story. And honestly, this whole life story thing is getting tiring. Almost every book in this series is full of characters literally explaining their life stories, but who actually does that???

– Dora was weird in an unrealistic sort of way. Like, when Lestat came back and randomly decided to rip off her underwear and drink her period blood, without asking her permission, in front of both Armand and David, she just let him, like it was a totally normal thing. And I’m not even sure that was the weirdest thing about her.

– The book was just a slog. I had to force myself to keep reading.

My review is sub-par, but this one that I came across describes my thoughts perfectly and is also entertaining, so check it out if you want more thoughts. Overall, I was just disappointed in this one because the vampire characters I’ve come to know and love (or at least be intrigued by) were hardly in it.

*I’ve read this book multiple times. This review was written after my 2nd read.*

Reread Ratings:
No Rating (1st Read – mid/late 2000s)
2 Stars (2nd Read – 2018)

 

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    1. Kristen Burns

      I haven’t read any of her books that didn’t involve the vampires, but I remember a few of those just went off the rails the way this one did and weren’t really about the vampires, which is frustrating.

  1. Cee Arr

    I actually kinda loved this one. I get that it’s v. different in tone in some ways but… they all kinda are? Lol.

    I feel like the period blood thing was included to get people to stop asking her that question! (Cos let’s face it, people would have asked her that question. A lot.)

    I may be confusing it with one of the others, but I seem to remember scenes in this one being especially sexy? But then, all of these books have some scenes like that! Lol.

    1. Kristen Burns

      I didn’t even mind him drinking period blood. Please, if I could find me a vampire so that I didn’t have to deal with the cramps and whatnot every month… lol. I just thought it was super weird how he ripped off her clothes and started doing it without her permission, in front of two other vampires, and she was just like, “Yeah, cool, this is totally fine and normal.”

      I read this last year so I’ve already forgotten everything lol. I know the Tale of the Body Thief had actual sex scenes, maybe you’re thinking of that one?

  2. Olivia Roach

    Oh no! I do want to read her Interview with a Vampire book (I think this is the right author?) But I definitely won’t be reading this series or further in that was the start of this series. Because the life story element to it does sound exhausting, boring and unrealistic to me. And it must mean there are so many irrelevant elements told when it comes to reciting their stories!!

    1. Kristen Burns

      Yes, same author, same series lol. I’d say read the first three (if you want to). Those three are good and give you more insight into things and kind of work as a trilogy. After that is when they start to go off the rails a bit.