03-12-2022, 02:07 AM
Late to the party, but her death really hit me. So...
Anne is the sole reason I started reading for pleasure and she helped me come to terms with my sexuality. I discovered her when I was in junior high. I was grappling with my sexuality and the bullying that comes along with it (I also grew up in an Irish-Catholic neighborhood on the south side of Chicago, so the bullying was that much more intense for me.) Like many gay youths, I hated and loathed the thought I might not be like everyone else.
Then came Anne Rice with Lestat and Louis and Armande and Claudia and so many other memorable characters. Her stories were so unapologetically queer - what other author makes almost every single character queer? (All of her vampires are and you cannot convince me otherwise. That is not to mention the Mayfair family of witches...) I read Interview when I was 13 years old and the desperate plights of her protagonists sang to my soul. Over the course of the next year, I delved further into her world and I found myself embracing the side of me that others around me hated.
After The Queen of the Damned, my attention wandered for a few years. During my sophomore year of High School, I found Lestat again and completed the rest of the Vampire Chronicles. That same blood magic took hold, strengthening me in a world where - at the time - 'gay marriage' was illegal, and shows like 'Will and Grace' and 'Queer as Folk' were beginning to take hold of the western consciousness. If Lestat could weather the ages, why could I not survive high school?
Since then, I've circled back regularly to consume more of her novels. Every time, the prose seems to align with my life. The newest Vampire novels (Prince Lestat, etc) were a godsend when I started going through my divorce. Lestat and I had grown together by that point. When I opened those last few books, the Vampire Court was facing an existential threat - and I felt the same way. My world was about to end, and they were dealing with the fact that theirs might end as well.
(Spoilers)
Everything worked out for the best in both cases, thank the Light.
(End spoilers)
Everything she has written has been nothing short of a masterpiece in my eyes. Vampires, witches, and werewolves have been my companions in life thanks to her. Rice and her characters have shown me that the most courageous thing one can do in this life is to live unapologetically. For that, I will forever be grateful. I cannot imagine the trajectory my life might have taken if I had never discovered this brilliant woman and the personas that lurked inside of her mind.
I've since named a few of my characters after some of hers, in a sort of humble honor to the difference she made in my life. (Rowan Finnegan = Rowan Mayfair being the most prominent.)
Thank you, Anne.
We never met, but you changed my world for the better and I will always be grateful for that.
Anne is the sole reason I started reading for pleasure and she helped me come to terms with my sexuality. I discovered her when I was in junior high. I was grappling with my sexuality and the bullying that comes along with it (I also grew up in an Irish-Catholic neighborhood on the south side of Chicago, so the bullying was that much more intense for me.) Like many gay youths, I hated and loathed the thought I might not be like everyone else.
Then came Anne Rice with Lestat and Louis and Armande and Claudia and so many other memorable characters. Her stories were so unapologetically queer - what other author makes almost every single character queer? (All of her vampires are and you cannot convince me otherwise. That is not to mention the Mayfair family of witches...) I read Interview when I was 13 years old and the desperate plights of her protagonists sang to my soul. Over the course of the next year, I delved further into her world and I found myself embracing the side of me that others around me hated.
After The Queen of the Damned, my attention wandered for a few years. During my sophomore year of High School, I found Lestat again and completed the rest of the Vampire Chronicles. That same blood magic took hold, strengthening me in a world where - at the time - 'gay marriage' was illegal, and shows like 'Will and Grace' and 'Queer as Folk' were beginning to take hold of the western consciousness. If Lestat could weather the ages, why could I not survive high school?
Since then, I've circled back regularly to consume more of her novels. Every time, the prose seems to align with my life. The newest Vampire novels (Prince Lestat, etc) were a godsend when I started going through my divorce. Lestat and I had grown together by that point. When I opened those last few books, the Vampire Court was facing an existential threat - and I felt the same way. My world was about to end, and they were dealing with the fact that theirs might end as well.
(Spoilers)
Everything worked out for the best in both cases, thank the Light.
(End spoilers)
Everything she has written has been nothing short of a masterpiece in my eyes. Vampires, witches, and werewolves have been my companions in life thanks to her. Rice and her characters have shown me that the most courageous thing one can do in this life is to live unapologetically. For that, I will forever be grateful. I cannot imagine the trajectory my life might have taken if I had never discovered this brilliant woman and the personas that lurked inside of her mind.
I've since named a few of my characters after some of hers, in a sort of humble honor to the difference she made in my life. (Rowan Finnegan = Rowan Mayfair being the most prominent.)
Thank you, Anne.
We never met, but you changed my world for the better and I will always be grateful for that.