The Tale of the Body Thief (Vampire Chronicles) Mass Market Paperback – September 1, 1993

Oh how I love this book! It's the third time I've read it and probably won't be the last. Over the years I've enjoyed reading your books again and again. The Vampire Series and the Mayfair Witches Series are my favorites. The characters and story lines of these books rate right up there with Les Miserable by Victor Hugo. I love the characters and feel like they are family and great friends. Ms. Anne Rice you are my favorite author! If you wrote it, I have it. Thank you for the years of pleasurable and exciting reading!

This book became a well received gift. I appreciate the care given to the protective shipping, as described condition and timely arrival.

I read some reviews before I downloaded this, and they are mixed... I'm glad I read some of the bad reviews, however, because I really didn't expect to enjoy this as much as I did. I'm also glad to have read reviews that didn't spoil anything for me plotwise. In fact, something one of the negative reviews said had me thinking the plot was about Lestat stealing bodies. So here I am, thinking Lestat is going to murder victims and pile them up in a basement like some serial killer. Glad that is not the case. The current top negative review gives away the major idea for the plot in the first few lines, and I really think it was better for me not to know where the book was headed until I got there.No spoilers here, though. It makes it hard to say why I liked the book so well, but what I can say, is it is told from Lestat's viewpoint. And, if you are considering this book you've likely read the first three Vampire Chronicles. So at this point, you are familiar with Lestat, and if you like him, I think you'll really enjoy this part of his story. The experiences he has in this book are unlike any that he or any of the other vampires have experienced at this point, and some of it is quite moving.More than one reviewer said Anne Rice's writing in this book is not as good as previous books. I thought there were plenty of moving passages. In one section a character repeated something he'd said earlier and it felt like a mistake, but it may have been intentional. It didn't detract from the story. So I can't say I agree with it being badly written.In summary, I'd recommend this to anyone wanting to continue with Vampire Chronicles and Lestat fans because it is an interesting and unique story. Once it hooked me, I did not want to put the book down until I knew what was going to happen.It explores many of the themes I love about the vampire genre. What they've lost, what they've gained, how they relate to humans, what is left of their humanity... and while the idea that drives this plot may have been done elsewhere, for me it's a first. Overall, I say it's a good read.

This copy actually was better that advertised.

Though Tale of the Body Thief did not live up to its three predecessors it was still a novel I would place among my favorites. It is hard to deny Anne Rice's exquisite writing talent and her ability to weave the net of her tale so tightly that the reader finds themselves trapped within it, unable to set the book down. In my opinion this was that last good novel in the Vampire Chronicles series. As I'm sure most fans know Anne Rice, regrettably, made the choice to rejoin the Catholic Church which for me spoiled her later writings. I was intrigued by Lestat's return to a human body though I was also endlessly annoyed by the fact that some lunatic was cavorting around in his beautiful immortal body! I also found in the novel that I rather liked David, I was glad that he became Lestat's friend and confidant even more than he had been previously. Tale of the Body Thief displays all of the virtues of the previous three novels and I love it but it somehow falls short in a way that I cannot quite explain. However, I highly recommend it to Anne Rice fans!

If you love good books... read Anne Rice!Has been my favorite author since Jr High, and I have always been quite the bibliophile (now in my 30s). I have my 7th grade daughter reading these books now. They are transforming, rich, educational, and complex. I have more respect for Anne Rice then any other fiction writer rivaled only by Daniel Quinn, possibly. Her characters and dialogues are so well written that I would easily believe that she listened to these conversations as they happened. Vampires that were "created" 6,000 years ago to today from locations all over the world provides readers with tantalizing glimpses into histories and cultures that must have cost Rice quite a bit of research to deliver. Romantic and dark, her books find the spark of poetry in the most Stoic of souls--- as poetic as that may sound, I am known for being fairly Stoic.

The master of deception and king of the night ponders on his existence and through an unfortunate turn of events somehow ends up in a human body. He has forgotten how weak humans are and gets to experience all the fun stuff we go through like pain, using the bathroom, eating, in his attempt to reclaim his real body

Though in the end this ended up being a decent book, there was an entire section that frustrated me to such a point that I skipped about 50 pages. :/Though I also must say that the end was very satisfying.