[Aptorian]

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I really enjoyed her vampire books. I'm not sure if one should curse her romanticizing vampires but you can't deny her impact on the genre.

Edit: Why does the twitter embed function only work 50% of the time?

[amphibian]

Her view of the world and her books was so thoroughly messy and weird and creative in an "alcoholics grapple with decadence, religion, sex, and societal views" sorta way.

I deeply enjoyed most of her books, although the Lasher incest stuff was too underbaked for me and I stayed far away from the actual Christ books.

She was interesting and people recognized that. I think that's important.

[worry]

I read Memnoch the Devil but that's it. Pretty good/interesting take on the devil iirc. Really nailed both the 'sympathy for the devil' and the ultimate deceiver stuff in one go.

[Abyss]

However one feels about her writing, it's hard to deny her impact.
I have mid-to-low fondness for most of what i read of hers, but QUEEN OF THE DAMNED was a glorious, glorious book.

[QuickTidal]

Super sad. The first adult author I ever read. Always enjoyed her work.

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

QuickTidal, on 13 December 2021 - 02:21 PM, said:

Super sad. The first adult author I ever read. Always enjoyed her work.

Rice was among the first adult authors I read too. I remember liking the first few vampire ones (seem to remember Queen of the Damned being a highlight) and i think i read the first witches one, which got a little too weird for me - but as others have said above, her impact can't be denied whether the books are your cup of tea or not.

RIP.

[Vengeance]

I throughly enjoyed a lot of her books. I never really got into her witches books or her christian books. She was a very impactful and solid author who did a great job of connecting the elements that make New Orleans. The myths and legends.. It is sad when a author who has such creativity leaves the mortal coil. RIP

[QuickTidal]

Vengeance, on 13 December 2021 - 04:27 PM, said:

I never really got into her witches books or her christian books.

I'm always amused by her almost lifelong rejection of religion, especially Christianity, surrounding things like her daughter dying (and how any benevolent god could do that to her child)...only to do a bit of a review of that late in life and spend something like a decade "born again"...only to flatly reject it all again for the last decade or more and dive headfirst back into her Vampire, Witch, and mummy books.

Like the Christian portion was like "Am I missing something?" after a near death experience with intestine issues....only to be like "Nah, I'm not missing anything" and technically went Agnostic.

[Tsundoku]

The Christian books also didn't make much $$$ from what I heard, and there's no God like money.

I enjoyed up to the end of Queen of the Darned, but that ending was just ... urgh.

After that the vampire-related stuff was interesting from a "history" perspective, but the actual writing became way too turgid for me.
Tried reading the Witching Hour and stopped about page 100. Never bothered with the Christian stuff.

Do we have her to thank for the Paranormal Romance genre?

This post has been edited by Tsundoku: 14 December 2021 - 02:07 PM

[QuickTidal]

Tsundoku, on 14 December 2021 - 02:04 PM, said:

Do we have her to thank for the Paranormal Romance genre?

Possibly! Were vampires "romantic monsters" before her?

[Abyss]

QuickTidal, on 14 December 2021 - 02:10 PM, said:

Tsundoku, on 14 December 2021 - 02:04 PM, said:

Do we have her to thank for the Paranormal Romance genre?

Possibly! Were vampires "romantic monsters" before her?

Stoker certainly wrote an element of that in Dracula, but when i think about it i am very ignorant of pre INTERVIEW vampire fiction that isn't directly Dracula related, ie Marvel's TOMB OF DRACULA series, or breakfast cereal.

[amphibian]

QuickTidal, on 14 December 2021 - 02:10 PM, said:

Tsundoku, on 14 December 2021 - 02:04 PM, said:

Do we have her to thank for the Paranormal Romance genre?

Possibly! Were vampires "romantic monsters" before her?

The very first vampire novel - Carmilla, by Sheridan LeFanu in 1872 (26 years before Dracula came out) - had a strong romantic monster core, and a lesbian one at that!

The explosion of English language paranormal romance in the 20th century is still probably mostly due to Ann Rice's books. They were so dang popular and it's really notable that the Twilight acknowledgments of Stephanie Meyer skitter around ever mentioning Rice (due to Rice's famous litigiousness).

[Abyss]

amphibian, on 14 December 2021 - 05:31 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 14 December 2021 - 02:10 PM, said:

Tsundoku, on 14 December 2021 - 02:04 PM, said:

Do we have her to thank for the Paranormal Romance genre?

Possibly! Were vampires "romantic monsters" before her?

The very first vampire novel - Carmilla, by Sheridan LeFanu in 1872 (26 years before Dracula came out) - had a strong romantic monster core, and a lesbian one at that!

The explosion of English language paranormal romance in the 20th century is still probably mostly due to Ann Rice's books. They were so dang popular and it's really notable that the Twilight acknowledgments of Stephanie Meyer skitter around ever mentioning Rice (due to Rice's famous litigiousness).

Rice's vamps found a niche, possibly even a big one, but still angst gothy niche (INTERVIEW was published in 1976)... TWILIGHT took it teen mainstream and dumbed it down in the process.
There were ample other authors doing the urban fantasy romantic angsty vamp i between tho'. By eample LK Hamilton's VAMPIRE EXECUTIONER series (which ended at bk 10 lalalala it ended shutup shut UP).
Pre-INTERVIEW tho... quick google gives me I AM LEGEND... vamp but no romance, the BARNABAS COLLINS series 66-71 (based on a tv show i think?) and a few vague refs.