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The news broke recently that Anne Rice has sold the rights to two of her book series, The Vampire Chronicles and Lives of the Mayfair Witches, to AMC so that they can bring them to the small screen.  Together, these two series comprise 18 novels in total.  As any avid reader will tell you, the book is always better than any movie or TV adaptation and should always be read before any viewing of visual representation.  Luckily, since it will likely be some time before these two series are brought to the screen, now is the perfect time to delve into these two sumptuous worlds!

The Vampire Chronicles series begins with the book Interview With the Vampire.  This book tells the story of Louis and how he was “born to darkness” as a vampire in Louisiana in the late 1700s.   Louis’ despair over the death of his brother and his own role in it were the driving force behind bringing him to the attention of a lonely vampire, Lestat, and his decision to give Louis “The Dark Gift.”  It is a story that spans two centuries of his life, detailing how he came to despise his Maker, Lestat, and how he broke away from him after much struggle.  Rice tells Louis’ story beautifully, evoking the time periods of which she writes with rich language that conjures pictures of life at the time quite readily.  This book is well worth reading even if you’ve seen the movie version starring Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise, as the book does a more comprehensive job than the movie of putting the reader inside the heads of the characters and showing how they retain their humanity.

The first book in the Lives of the Mayfair Witches series is The Witching Hour.  It tells the story of the Mayfair family of Louisiana, a family of witches who, over the centuries, have been haunted by a spirit named Asher.  Asher has been both a boon and a bane to the family, as he imbues one witch in each generation with power, but it always comes with a price.  The main character, Rowan, is the latest witch in the family to come to his notice despite having been given up for adoption when she was born, in the hopes that Asher’s power over the family will come to an end without a powerful witch for him to manipulate.  Unbeknownst to the family, Asher has been manipulating their bloodline to fulfill an end of his own, irrespective of the damage he does to the Mayfairs.  It is a sweeping tale that spans many centuries and locales, and several generations of Mayfairs.  It is an extraordinary family.

Rice’s writing is, in a word, sumptuous.  The worlds that she creates with her settings and her characters are seductive and alluring.  Both of these series have characters who grapple with questions of the nature of good and evil, and what it means to be human.  I think Rice hits upon the reason why we love our monsters so well—they are us and we are them.  It is by pondering our natures, and theirs, that we can discover for ourselves what we think it means to be human and can come to understand what our ideals of good and evil are.  As good as I think the TV series that are going to be based on these books will be, they will likely be primarily focused on action and plot.  It is only in reading the written word that we can fully come to understand these characters and their motivations, which is why the book is always better.  These books in particular are spectacular fiction that you definitely will want to read before the shows are developed, and are worth reading again and again because you always come across something different to ponder with every reading.

Written by Casey, a member of our Patron Services department. She loves mysteries, especially Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot, and historical fiction.  She also loves horror and fantasy novels.