Maximum Occupancy

The thoughts you are about to stumble through is meant to be more for those who have already read the book or series. There are some spoilers, which I think are needed if this is something you would like to get into.

I fell for Anne Rice and vampires in high school, like all the cool kids do. After I read every book involving Lestat, while listening to the Queen of the Damn soundtrack on repeat on my discman, I needed to move up in my addiction to her other novels. My mother had the second book, and not knowing what it was about or that I was reading out of sequence, I picked it up. I enjoyed it, but this was also the first time that I thought Anne Rice was kind of fucked up.

Nearly two decades later, the beauty that is the AMC show Interview with the Vampire brought me back to the series, just like before. Clearing the mental cobwebs I moved from The Mayfair Witches show to buying the first book in the series. While I believe that the movie, show, and novel for Interview with the Vampire are all beautifully written in their own ways and are amazing adaptations, The Mayfair Witches show does not hit the same way. The book is much better.

With that being said it does not change the following trigger warnings: incest, pro-life, rape, and child sexual abuse.

I am a bit iffy on the racism, it is a white woman writing a time period that a lot of other white people idolize for all the wrong reasons. If you feel it is racist, I can see your point. And if you do not really think about those things… like maybe you should?

The causal racism, leaves me feeling confused. But maybe that it the point. It is honest to what white people were thinking about in that time period in the south, even liberal ones. The racial slurs the white characters use, and their interactions with those of color, belays the attitude that others don’t concern or impact them.

I love Anne Rice but it fucking unsexy. This is not a steamy book and I feel that it was written to be so. Especially knowing now that she also wrote bondage erotica under a different name. I found this out reading a friends copy while she was attending her UT classes, hanging out in her room at one of the UT dorms across the street from the mall. AND YOU BET I JUDGE HER WHEN SHE CAME BACK (even though I was wrong to do so).

I believe she did write it to voice some people’s fantasies. I have to remember the time period. of when she wrote it, the time period for my high school experience, and how I think now. I was a product of a toxic environment and time, I have fetishized paleness or leaned into what plays for the male gaze, over exploring what I really enjoy. No one is born with a healthy sexual appetite and a woke mindset so they can avoid the pitfalls of racism, sexism, and ableism - it all has to be learned. It is just easier for us to learn how to be fucked up, racist, sexist, and ablest.

So now, as a more healthy version of myself (who will hopefully continue to grow and evolve) I say with ally my conviction that one of the main characters and love lead, Michael, ain’t shit. Some of the thoughts she gives him is gross and leads me to side eye Anne Rice for writing him that way. But what Wytch or Vampyre book doesn’t have horrendous sex scenes written by women that makes you go “damn” while you clutch your pearls?

It is also clear how heavy Catholicism plays on her foundation, because the pro-life scenes are rough. As we all know with J.K. Rowling, women can have some really shit and regressive opinions when given a platform to write. That is not fair though, Anne Rice is still a more skilled, intelligent, and innovative writer.

On that thought, like the consumer that I am, I would die for Universal to acquire the Immortals universe and plop the right next to Hogwarts in the park. I can see myself, and other millennials, stumbling out of the castle through the gift shop taking a turn into the French Quarter heading towards the young, attractive, would be actors performing songs from The Queen of the Damned soundtrack in the Admiral’s Arms. Though my body was never made for Aaliyah’s outfit, I and many others would be heading over to pay top dollar for a costumed version to shove ourselves into.

If you like Anne Rice, you will enjoy this book though. It has all the elements that she is known for, descriptive, well researched, and even through the boring or gross bits, you are transported to wherever the characters are.

On page 258, she plays with us in a way that made me appreciate that she was able to write all of this even with her dubious plot choices. We see Anne Rice describe herself and her writing style via a comment on Petyr van Abel’s style. I became more forgiving because of this, with a quick paragraph I was in love again with the technique. It also helps that this is where the real meat of the book starts.

It is a thick book, and I have so many other novels to clear off my to be read list. I will be buying the second novel, to do a re-read, at some point. This is a series that I need to finish as I find it hard to believe that the show will come to completion or be able to swing their storylines back to what as in the original series.