Finished part 1

[xans]

"Which one of you did it? Which one of you made me what I am?" -still one of the best lines.

I feel so bad for Claudia. I mean, she never got a choice in being made, and then here she has these two fathers (with a side of creepy father-lover in Louis) that continue to treat her like the child she appears to be for decades. Buying her dolls and dressing her up. Even as they educate her and take her hunting and all that, just... No wonder she gets to be so fucked up, she has no recollection of her humanity, she's stuck in a child body, with a messed up family dynamic.

And then there's Lestat's eventual obsession with the boy musician. Partly I think he knew things were changing or going to change at some point. Louis doesn't know, but don't we find out in later books that it's sort of inevitable that a vampire's children leave their maker because too long together they get sick of each other's idiosyncrasies? That the telepathic block works against them? And the boy being a musician, I can't help feeling Lestat is repeating Nicki all over again, and trying to distract himself from the break-up...

I do understand s bit, in their first four years together, why Lestat may have held info about his human life and his vampire origins close, but, by the time Claudia's questioning things, he really couldn't open up and share that with them? I know, Louis is still a dramatic emo, and Claudia is a weird child-monster, but damn, Lestat, no wonder your kids want to kill you when you still won't open up to them. (I really miss how much we're not really seeing/getting the Brat Prince Lestat in this story. How much is it Louis being an unreliable narrator and how much is it Lestat screwing things up?)

I'd totally forgotten how intense the attempted murder of Lestat was. Like I was reading but sitting on the edge of my seat nearly biting my nails, even though I knew how the scenes would go! And once again Louis transitions from one life to the next by burning down his house.

Did anyone else find themselves reading about his life he built with Lestat and Claudia and going, "but what happened to Babette? You said you saved her physical life, but didn't expand on her tragedy. What was it?!" And finally he gets back to mentioning what happened, but it took a while.

Comments

[suttonstrother]

Poor Claudia, indeed! :( It's interesting that the infantilization of Claudia goes on for as long as it does, too, and what's more, that Claudia takes so long to question it. Though I guess if you're being raised by vampires AS a vampire, probably you're not going to have the same conception of growing up as you would in a human body and as an actual participant in human society. These crazy vampire dads are really all you know. No wonder the girl snaps, right? :P

[delectable_detriment]

I have sooooooo many thoughts regarding Claudia, but I’m on my phone right now so I’ll just stick to the first one that came to mind in relation to this post, and hopefully I’ll be able to post the rest later today:
Claudia tells Louis: “I have no human nature.” I think that this, more than any other line, really encapsulates her character. At five years old, what do we know of being human, really? Children are egomaniacs; it’s only as they grow that they learn empathy, morality, right from wrong. And they do so with the guidance of their human parents. Claudia is plucked from humanity as a child, and as such, never learns any of these things. Her brain does not grow and develop, so even though she learns and becomes more intelligent, she never develops as a human being, on the physiological level, as well as the metaphorical, philosophical one.

[cinelitchick]

Claudia's relationship with Louis and Lestat are fascinating. With Louis she has this tender father-daughter dynamic meshed with a really weird longtime lover vibe. With Lestat, it's like hanging out with your cool older brother till you grow up and realize he wasn't as cool as you thought he was and you're evolved beyond him. Which, of course, pisses off Lestat to no end (see: Louis). You feel for Claudia and root for her to succeed, even if it does result in attempted patricide.

As for Babette, Louis really did take his sweet time getting to the end of her story, didn't he? That said, it was so tragic that I'm kinda glad I was in the dark for so long.

[crystal]

Did the sensual/erotic diction used in conjunction with Claudia really creep anyone else out? There’s so much stuff that I didn’t notice at all when originally reading this that I pick up on now and am sort of squicked by XD

[xans]

It's definitely been creeping me out. I'd say when I was a teenager it just didn't register because I was so wrapped up in the romanticism of vampires. Now, her entire story is horrific and yeah, the dynamic with Louis is just... Anne. Wtf Anne. Wtf.

[suttonstrother]

Oh yeah, I definitely have an instant cringe reaction to it. I guess it's tempered by the fact that she's actually MANY decades old by the time most of that language comes into play, but still I'm picturing someone who looks like an adult saying this stuff to/about someone who looks like a 5-year-old and...yeah.

Is it more or less fucked up that Claudia is based on Anne Rice's dead daughter?