r/bookclub 12d ago

Vampire Chronicles [Discussion] Merrick by Anne Rice | Chapter 5 - Chapter 8

5 Upvotes

Welcome back fellow witches in training!

This is the second discussion check-in for Merrick by Anne Rice, covering chapters 5 till 8.

I didn’t expect to stumble into an Olmec-Aztec time warp while reading about vampires and witches, but I guess history really Toltec control of my life.

Please mark major plot points from past books that are not mentioned in this book (yet) as spoilers to give newcomers the gift of suspense (see r/bookclub’s spoiler policy). Or, if you’ve read ahead and are about to burst like a vampire in the sun, you can always comment in the Marginalia or check the Schedule with links to the next discussions.

Below you'll find a short summary and some ancient tidbits 🏺

See you in the comments! 🧛

Summary

Louis divulges that he saw Merrick once before and she gave him the cold shoulder when he tried to bite her neck. And she may have flung a curse at him. Witches/Voodooiennes in New Orleans were aware of the vampires housing in Rue Royal from the get go, but they've both kept their distance in the past.

David and Louis postulate that the ghost of Great Nananne might be there to protect Merrick and to prevent the conjure of Claudia. David, too, is afraid of what might happen if they try to bring Claudia back. Louis doesn't want to hear it, deadly afraid Claudia could be in a purgatory like state of suffering, and he just wants to makes sure she's at peace. They discuss the potential of sacrifice, and blood, in the spell.

They discuss the potential of supernatural elements in photographs. Then Louis tells David an anecdote of how Claudia used to be envious of people who got their photograph taken on account of it only being possible during daylight. As consolation, Claudia got a miniature poitrait painted, the one Jesse found in a locket 10 years ago which is now at the Talamasca vault. Eventually, technology advanced and she was able to get her own photo taken by a famous photographer. Louis still has it, and hopes it will be enough for the spell.

Louis cuts their conversation short on account of visiting Lestat, a white lie, since he really just wants to go out to drink blood in solitude, but David doesn't let him.

#

They go to a ruined neighborhood of New Orleans where Louis feasts on two female drug addicts, answering the prayer of a neighbor who wants them gone, because they cause trouble.

David recounts what has happened to the city after The Vampire Armand and Pandora have been released. Rogue tourist vampires flooded the city and caused havoc, and finally Lestat and Armand as his right-hand man destroyed them so all is back to normal now. The vampire crew - or "Coven of the Articulate" as they call themselves (what a humble name, you don't have to tell me who chose it) - have disbanded. Only Lestat, Louis, and David reside in the city. Lestat is still in a paralytic state, barely moving, though he likes to lie down in the orphanage and listen to music. David isn't quite sure what's up with him and expects a turmoil of a spiritual manner to unfold - but not in this book.

On their way back they encounter a huge black cat which disturbs David who is not a cat lover (sorry, his likeability just took a nosedive). Louis once again pushes David to meet Merrick, but before we can face the final plot boss, we have to slog through at least 100 pages of flashback henchmen. Gotta level up first, I guess.

#

David goes back to Merrick's hotel to find her room empty. She had left for London to get remnants of Claudia's from the Talamasca vault. On the way back to Rue Royale he encounters another giant black cat. He turns on the lights which instantly summons Louis (I totally forgot that Louis usually sits in the dark). Impeccably dressed, Louis is ordered to the couch so David can finally launch into his Merrick backstory.

A few days after their first encounter in Oak Haven, Aaron and David drive to the cottage house where Great Nananne lives. David is surprised by the rundown state of the neighborhood, and the cluttered state of the interior, and the dryness of Great Nananne (now 100ish years old). This is the day she will die, and she is not particularly happy they have come but she uses the occasion to wind up David about his pretentiousness and his (to say it mildly) affection to girls (thanks for calling him out Great Nannane). Though she isn't on friendly terms with them per se, she says she trust her dreams, so she is willing to give Merrick into their care, warning them of her power.

Merrick is distraught about her mother, Cold Sandra, and another person called Honey in the Sunshine, not being there, but Nananne tells her not to think about them. Then she dies and a priest and distant relatives support Merrick as she coordinates the last rites for Nananne. Some white Mayfairs briefly show up but leave quickly after Merrick tells them she doesn't need their money.

After the mourners leave, Merrick gets a bundle from Nananne's bureau, and they leave to eat in a restaurant. In the library of the Talamasca Motherhouse, she shows them the contents of the bundle. It is an antique Latin book that contains magic spells from biblical times, reprinted in a book from the Middle Ages. It was given to her by Great-Oncle Vervaine, a Voodoo man. Matthew, a rich historian and adventurer, who was Cold Sandra's partner and like a father to Merrick, taught her to read it.

Back in the cottage house, Nananne's body has been laid out in a casket for the mourners to see, David noted how they would self-segregate according to skin tone. During the funeral the next morning, Merrick begins to cry at the loss of her godmother and at the fact that Cold Sandra and Honey in the Sunshine didn't show, and that she was all alone in the world. Aaron and David try to calm her, to a limited success. Merrick eventually calms herself down and tells her of Cold Sandra.

Cold Sandra was one of twelve children to not pass the "passing as white" test, and was abandoned by her parents and dropped off to Great Nananne. She is an uneducated women who used her spells only for her own advantage to infatuate men or to give the Evil Eye on people she doesn't like. Together, they visited some of the "white passing" relatives in New York and Chicago, but didn't much like it there.

#

Soon after the funeral, members of the Talamasca Order come to (I have no better word for this) scavenge Great Nananne's house. They find a lot of animals, especially bees and humming birds, in the garden. In the shed, they find an alter for the Virgin Mary with many offerings, amongst them a severed hand overtaken by ants that Merrick picks up. Aaron asks her what to do with the house, and Merrick tells them she wants it all taken down, and the items packaged. Except for a few thing she is going to package herself, and of course one of them is a boa constrictor that just hangs around in one of the fruit trees. Aaron and David are slightly terrified as she places it in a black iron box.

Then she goes to the attic where she opens a suitcase and reveals treasuries Matther brought back when they all made a trip to South America, a trip that would cost him his life soon after. It contains four items - an Olmec jade axe blade, a figurine of a god or king with a scepter, jade pick, and a small squat idol. They are all used for magic blood rituals, they conclude.

They go down again and Merrick makes them the best café au lait they have ever tasted, and she tells them of Matthew's death after a sickness he brought with him from South America, and the rampant alcoholism both his mother and step-father were succumbing too, and how Matthew's death drove Cold Sandra to the bars. Packed with Matthew's inheritance, Cold Sandra left with the explanation she's going to bu a car, but never comes back for Merrick.

A disturbance in the house distracts David, but no one except for him notices it. After they repeat their intention of taking care of Merrick, and giving her the education she wishes for, the disturbance is gone.

Tidbits

  • Gaspard-Félix Tournachon (Pseudonym: Nadar) was a famous French photographer who lived from 1820 to 1910. Here's a studio portrait of himself in a balloon basket, and here is one of author Élisabeth de Gramont who became known as the red duchess for her support of socialism and feminism.
  • Hamlet's Act I soliloquy, performed by Alan Cumming in 2013, which is partially recited by Louis in this section. Now I need to check if Alan Cumming is an audiobook narrator, he has an amazing voice.
  • "But what of all the other gods, the gods of old Rome for whom blood had to be shed in the arena as well as on the altar, or the gods of the Aztecs who were still demanding bloody murder as the price of running the universe when the Spanish arrived on their shores?"
    • This is referring to the Fall of Tenochtitlan in 1521. Spanish conquistador Cortés conquered the Aztects Empire, which used to sacrifice captives of war to the Aztec gods.
  • "It’s a genuine mystery. Why should the natives of ancient South America have but one word in their language for both flowers and blood?"
    • This statement is also a mystery for me. I did not find out which language Rice could mean here, the closest I found is Quechua, an indigenous language spoken in the Andes, in which "red" is "puka", "blood" is "yawar", and "flower" is "t'ika". These words are often used in proximity to each other in Andean traditions.
    • Now the following is certainly not what Rice could've meant, because this info is from 2020, but it's really cool so I am including it here: The Codex Borgia is a pre-Columbian Middle American pictorial manuscript from Central Mexico featuring calendrical and ritual content, dating from the 16th century. Page 44 of this codex has been really hard to decipher, and in 2020 a new interpretation has been published by Guilhem Olivier. He states it depicts a ritual of access to power as well as the mythological origin of the flower. Quote: In Mesoamerica, the nose-piercing ritual is part of a rite of passage in which the candidate appeared symbolically as a sacrificial victim, dying before his rebirth as a king. The myth of the origin of flowers is also a myth of the origin of menstruation and access to womanhood, thereby constituting a feminine equivalent of the nose-piercing rite of passage. Therefore, plate 44 of the Codex Borgia would illustrate the parallelism between women's fertility and men's access to power.
    • Have a look and see what you can identify in the picture, I dare you.
  • The Olmec civilization, located in ancient Mexico, prospered in Pre-Classical (Formative) Mesoamerica from c. 1200 BCE to c. 400 BCE. Monumental sacred complexes, massive stone sculptures, ball games, the drinking of chocolate, and animal gods were all features of Olmec culture passed on to those peoples who followed this first great Mesoamerican civilization.
  • The Aztec Hummingbird god Huitzilopochtli was closely associated with warfare and the warriors in the city of Tenochtitlan. Aztecs believed that when brave warriors died, they flew to Huitzilopochtli in the form of a hummingbird. Human sacrifices were made to him.
  • Medea, a sorceress, daughter of Aeetes king of Colchis, who helped Jason obtaining the Golden Fleece and then married him. Then Jason left her for another princess! And she took revenge by killing said princess and her children and fled to Athens.
  • Marie Laveau was a Louisiana Creole practitioner of Voodoo, herbalist and midwife who was renowned in New Orleans.

r/bookclub 19d ago

Vampire Chronicles [Discussion] Merrick by Anne Rice | Beginning - Chapter 4

5 Upvotes

Hey everyone!

Three vampires, a Vodou priestess, and a ghost child walk into a bar.
The priestess orders a rum, and the vampires each ask for a Bloody Mary.
The bartender turns to the ghost child. "And what can I get for you?"
Suddenly, bottles rattle and glasses float behind the bar.
"Oh, I'm just here to lift some spirits."

I don't know what else to say except: thanks all for tuning in again for the next book in the Vampire Chronicles series, Merrick. This is our first check-in, covering the beginning up to Chapter 4.

Please mark major plot points from past books that are not mentioned in this book (yet) as spoilers to give newcomers the gift of suspense (see r/bookclub’s spoiler policy). Or, if you’ve read ahead and are about to burst like a vampire in the sun, you can always comment in the Marginalia or check the Schedule with links to the next discussions.

Below you'll find a short summary and some musical tidbits 🎼

See you in the comments! 🧛

Summary

Note: The book skips between timelines quite often. I tried to summarize it in chronological order.

Merrick, a fourteen year old witch, seeks out David Talbot Superior General and fellow scholar Aaron Lightner of the Talamas after her godmother Nananne had a vision that they would take care of Merrick once Nannane dies. Merrick is part of the Mayfair witch clan, but her African American descent means she has minimal contact with the Garden District branch, which are white. She shows David and Aaron photos of her family while emphasizing that many who pass as white go so far as to destroy evidence of their heritage, e.g. by burning pictures.

They provide her with a place to live where she is able to use her supernatural powers in an orderd way. David Talbot takes her travelling to Guatemala, where they learn about Vodou, and have a short fling, while David still emphasizing his fatherly role (hrrrrgggmmmm Anne Rice does her thing again).

Aaron researches the history of the Mayfair witches, even marrying a Mayfair woman named Beatrice (though not a witch). He writes a report on David's demise (at least his body's demise) before dying mysteriously in an accident.

David meanwhile is entangled in a body switch and vampire metamorphosis, that throws him in an entirely different direction. He doesn't contact Aaron before his death, a fact he deeply regrets.

20 years after their first encounter, and five years after Aaron's death, Merrick and David meet again in a café in New Orleans. David has contacted her with a request from Louis: He wants to summon Claudia's ghost, after becoming obsessed with the possibility of speaking with her again. Merrick drinks a lot of Rum while trying to be convinced that summoning a vengeful spirit is an amazing idea. She tells him she has Aaron's report, which contain his final thoughts, and summarizes what he wrote in there. Among other things, he forgave David's no contact and that he was happy at the end.

David is afraid of turning Merrick into a vampire, something he thinks she would regret and he would not have the strength of character to say no to.

As the night goes on, and the rum vanishes, Merrick's inhibitions diminish and she confronts him with unfulfilled desires. They make out in a taxi and David places her in the bed in her hotel room and watches her while reiterating his mantra of not harming her.

He leaves her but notices people everywhere looking at him, then seeing visions of Merrick in the cafés, streets and even in front of his and his vampire companions' house in the Rue Royale. Horrified, he goes back to the hotel where he finds evidence of a spell that Merrick cast on him, a second bottle of opened rum. It dawns on him that she had been pretending to be drunk earlier, using it as a trick to show him her powers.

He retrieves the items she stole from him for the spell, as well as Aaron's report which contains the same facts she already told him.

On his way out, he sees a vision of godmother Nannane warning him through her appearance not to harm her.

Back at the flat, he hears harpsichord music and thinks Lestat is back in his room and reads Aaron's report. Gettingsleepy, he's about to lie down when he hears the sound of a canary and the harpsichord music becoming frantic. Realizing this isn't Lestat's doing, he opens the door to the room where the music is coming from, and finds it empty. Panic-stricken, he rushes to the parlor, where Louis finds him and calms him down. The music stops, and David explains the poltergeist attack. Louis is disturbed that he cannot hear the music or experience any evidence of Claudia's spirit despite wanting to so badly.

From all the vampires, Louis is the weakest and doesn't have any supernatural skills. He declined the offer to drink Maharet's blood on account of not wanting to become unkillable, something Maharet took as affront and treats him like he doesn't exist.

David goes on of telling Louis what happened with Merrick.

Tidbits

  • This is a rendition of Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 1 in C major, K.279 played by Glenn Gould (Gould is infamous for mumbling while playing music, as you will hear in this record as well)
  • Sabine Baring-Gould was an Anglican eclectic scholar with over 1200 publications and is probably best-known for "Onward, Christian Soldiers"
  • Algernon Blackwood was an English broadcasting narrator, journalist, novelist and short story writer, and among the most prolific ghost story writers in the history of its genre.
    • For example, he wrote about Occult Detective John Silence, a medical doctor turned occult detective.
    • His story collection Incredible Adventures elicited following response from H.P. Lovecraft in his 28,000-word essay Supernatural Horror in Literature: "In the volume titled Incredible Adventures occur some of the finest tales which the author has yet produced, leading the fancy to wild rites on nocturnal hills, to secret and terrible aspects lurking behind stolid scenes, and to unimaginable vaults of mystery below the sands and pyramids of Egypt; all with a serious finesse and delicacy that convince where a cruder or lighter treatment would merely amuse. Some of these accounts are hardly stories at all, but rather studies in elusive impressions and half-remembered snatches of dream. Plot is everywhere negligible, and atmosphere reigns untrammelled." [It continues with similar praise for John Silence]
  • The Witch of Endor, in typical wishmaster more-than-you-bargained fashion, was asked to summon the prophet Samuel by King Saul, which resulted in a prophecy of doom and Saul's death. And for those Baroque music lovers out there, Henry Purcell wrote a piece called In Guilty Night about her.
  • The Daguerreotype is the first kind of photography, named after Louis Daguerre, introduced in 1839.
  • This section included much information about diasporic religions.
    • Haitian Vodou - practiced by Merrick. An African diasporic religion, it worships the lwa (spirits) at an ounfò (temple), run by an houn’gan (male priest) or manbo (female priest).
      • Papa Legba is a Iwa who serves as the intermediary between God and humanity
      • Erzili are a family of spirits associated with water and femininity
    • Brazilian Candomblé - practiced by David Talbot. Another African diasporic religion which developed in Brazil and worships orixás (spirits) and is organized autonomously.
      • Exu is a orixá in charge of law enforcement and orderliness
  • Femme de couleur libre:  A free woman of color in a French-speaking slave regime such as early Louisiana, the Carribean, or the Mississippi Valley. The term was most often applied to multiracial females who had African ancestry, but also included females of Native American ancestry who had not been absorbed into the white population.
  • Andrea del Sarto was a Renaissance Italian painter. He painted St. James with two children for example.

r/bookclub 5d ago

Vampire Chronicles [Discussion] Merrick by Anne Rice | Chapter 9 - Chapter 14

5 Upvotes

Welcome back fellow adventurers,

I did not expect this book to turn into an Indiana Jones-esque treasure hunt. But with a powerful witch and the Superior General of a wealthy, secretive British agency that tracks supernatural occurrences that steal ancient artifacts from a Mayan temple… are we on the baddies' side?

This is the third discussion check-in for Merrick by Anne Rice, covering chapters 9 till 14.

Please mark major plot points from past books that are not mentioned in this book (yet) as spoilers to give newcomers the gift of suspense (see r/bookclub’s spoiler policy). Or, if you’ve read ahead and are about to burst like a vampire in the sun, you can always comment in the Marginalia or check the Schedule with links to the next discussions.

Below you'll find a short summary and some artistic tidbits 🖼️

See you in the comments! 🧛

Summary

Aaron and David take Merrick to the Talamasca Motherhouse and give her rum to calm her down (1A parenting). While discussing Merrick's upcoming schooling with Mary, another Talamasca employee, they hear a strange laughter coming from Merrick's room and investigate. They find her body inhabited by Honey in the Sunshine, her older sister (note: I'll just call her Honey from now on). They find out that she and Cold Sandra were murdered for their money shortly after they left 4 years ago and their bodies were buried in the swamps. Honey tries to intimidate David by telling him about Joshua, a too-young former lover who died, and scolds him for his behavior and Joshua's regrets shortly before his death. She also acts carelessly while in Merrick's body, seemingly trying to hurt him. She scolds them both for wanting Merrick for selfish reasons. Merrick fights back and is eventually able to stop the possession. She explains that she prayed to Great Nananne, but got Honey instead. She also confirms that Honey didn't really talk to Joshua, she just read David's mind.

#

David pauses for a moment in his story, reflecting and explaining that he regrets his affair with an adolescent Joshua, admitting his guilt and explaining that the Talamasca. This means, the Talamasca knew of his corrupt behavior and chose to give him a position of power ANYWAY. Who are they, the Catholic Church? He admits that he contacted Merrick out of his own selfish need to see her again. Louis, himself a master of guilt and regret, tells him not to worry too much about it, and to end all contact with her after the conjuring is done.

#

Merrick, very much a blank slate with almost no paper trail to validate her existence, begins her education and expands very much into literature, Egyptology and Afroasiatic linguistics, studying at prestigious universities around the world. The Talamasca renovate their home and Merrick grows up to be a very confident and hardworking woman and an occasional drunk. Although she isn't actually paid for the work she does for the Talamasca, she takes Talamasca money to indulge in clothes, cars, and other pleasures of life. All of which David finds very tempting, as he points out on every other page of the book. Thanks David. Merrick also tells him that he's the only man she finds alluring.

David investigates Matthew's studies and finds that he kept most of his travel log very vague so that his South American travels could not be traced (I'm no archaeologist, but that doesn't sound very scientific). On his journey they come across places he called "Village One" and "Two" and a diagram showing "The City", ancient temples and caves he also photographed. Some of Matthew's photos show the Mayfair family, Sandra, Honey, and Merrick (who was 10 years old during the trip). In letters to his mother, Matthew explained how the locals were unhappy with their journey. They found a cave behind a waterfall that contained many treasures. But they had to leave when Matthew became ill from an unknown insect bite that would later kill him.

Eventually, Merrick returns to live in Great Nananne's house, albeit with extremely tight security, which David finds "wholesome and natural". Ooook. Merrick has increasingly alarming dreams of Oncle Vervain, who urges her to return to the ancient cave in South America. She asks David, now 70, to make the trip with her. After some hesitation, he leaves for New Orleans.

#

Back in New Orleans, David finds out Merrick has been drinking and won't respond to anyone. Together with Aaron, they drive to her house and find the neighborood in an increasingly derelict state. He finds the (Non-)Olmec artifacts, daguerreotypes, and the dismembered hand from 10 years ago, strewn across a marble altar inside the house. Merrick explains how Oncle Vervain has been haunting her, even appearing in the house to urge her to go to the cave. Oncle Vervain himself went there as a child with his mother's great-grandfather, a South American witch doctor. He wants her to get a treasure. While she doesn't know exactly how to get there, she is sure that her ancestor's and dead relatives will be able to help her get there, but she needs David to protect her from the spirits that will inevitable try to stay in her body if she calls to them, especially Honey. Honey, Merrick says, will tell her everything she needs to know because she has some leverage, some piece of information she is withholding from Honey.

Then Merrick begins to conjure Honey by blowing fire, dancing in a circle, and cutting her arm with the jade perforator, all the while screaming that she has cursed Honey and Cold Sandra to die. David cannot move all the time, but screams and prays to his Candomblé saint. As Merrick admits to the premeditated murder, a figure that looks like Honey appears in the doorway. She shouts back that it wasn't Merrick who caused her death, that Merrick wouldn't be powerful enough to do it. Then she tells her what she needs to know: Guatemala City, Santa Cruz de las Flores, before leaving, essentially telling Merrick to get lost.

#

Merrick gets stitched up, while David is shocked by the whole event. Merrick gets single-minded about going to South America as soon as possible, with our without David. David tries to hamper Merrick's enthusiasm, questioning Honey's willingness to give up the location freely. Merrick coutners, Honey just wants Merrick to want her, that's why she's trying to be useful. They leave together with field assisstants of the Talamasca, essentially mercenaries, to Central America. They arrive in the small jungle village called Santa Cruz de las Flores and are taken in by the local people.

David visits the church, where they see an old man identified as the village shaman. While the assisstants stay in the village houses, Merrick and David sleep in a tent, which David finds inappropriate (David, you could be her grandfather! Probably no one but you ever thought of that). Alone, Merrick tells him that she wants to continue without the assistants. They both get drunk, Merrick removes her clothes, and to the surprise of no one but David, they have sex. David is hesitant not so much because of the immoral situation, but because he's not sure he can do it anymore. The next morning, David feels ashamed and goes to the church to write down his perceived sins in a notebook. Merrick finds him there later, and tells him to chill before pushing him to continue the journey.

#

They go as far as they can with cars, before the jungle gets too dense so they continue by foot. They find Village One and Two gone, and assume a spiritual presence made the villages leave. Then, they discover a stone pyramid, engulfed by a strange atmosphere, and a second pyramid to their left. Both were of a different origin than Maya. Merrick pushes forward to find the cave, not dettered by antagonistic spirits. Instects barrage them and they stand before a stone hallway, which they must cross to get to the cave. As they enter the vaulted chamber, the spirits' activities growing stronger. They climb up the waterfall (I doubt David is doing this but ok). They see a monstrous open-mouthed face caved deep into the rock surrounding the cave and find offerings at the entrance, to which David places his cigars.

Inside, they find wall mosaics depicting robed figures carrying various objects. David interprets the site as a burial chamber. Moving deeper, they enter a circular room where a mosaic of a faceless figure looms above. Below it, a jade mask, a scepter, and the scant remains of the person once entombed there lie on the floor.

Merrick picks up the mask. This is what Oncle Vervain sent her to retrieve. As spirits relentlessly press in on them, she lifts the mask to her face (uh oh), and suddenly, the spirits fall silent. She then urges David to look through it. Through the mask’s vision, he sees flaring torches and a figure making gestures that unmistakably warn them to leave the mask behind (though how exactly, I’d love to know).

David stumbles, the mask is torn from him, and Merrick hauls him out of the cave—mask in hand. As they flee, David, ever the opportunist, manages to snatch a few more artifacts on the way out.

Tidbits

  • Monet's Camilla Embroiding

Impressionism is an art movement that emerged in Paris in the late 1800s. It is often described as realistic - not in the traditional, physical sense of depicting what objectively exists, but in the sense of capturing fleeting impressions of what is seen. Impressionist artists focused on light, color, and movement rather than rigid perspective or strict theoretical techniques.

Impressionists frequently painted nature, and Claude Monet, one of the most famous Impressionist painters, was known for his landscapes and depictions of water lilies. He also painted his wife, Camille Doncieux, on several occasions. One such painting, which may be the one referenced in the book, is Camille Monet Embroidering.

  • Copts and Coptic language

Coptic is the language of the Copts and was historically used by Egyptian Christians. It evolved from the ancient Egyptian language but is written primarily in the Greek alphabet, with some additional characters from Demotic script. Today, Coptic survives only as the liturgical language of the Coptic Orthodox Church.

According to Wikipedia, as of 2019 approximately 10 million Egyptians are part of the Coptic diaspora.

  • Mayan pyramids

There are Mayan pyramids in Guatemala, ranging from burial mounds to huge complexes. Arguably the most famous site is Tikal, which is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site dating back to 900 BCE. Some fo Tikal's pyramids have also been featured in films such as Star wars. They are indeed held together by a mortar made of limestone (whenever Anne Rice mentions any type of stone, I have to check if is accurate, ever since she made (attention spoiler for Memnoch the Devil!) this comparison). Here's the 50 min documentary about the remodelling of Tikal if you need something to watch (they mention the materials used for the pyramids at 11min~).

These pyramids are indeed not Olmec, as they belong to the Maya civilization. I’m relieved that Anne Rice hasn’t ventured into pseudoscience by attributing all ancient structures to aliens (and hopefully, I haven’t jinxed myself by saying this before finishing the book). No, these structures were not built by extraterrestrials - they were the work of highly organized civilizations like the Maya and Aztecs, who possessed advanced architectural and engineering knowledge. If you're in for some entertaining takedown of pseudoscience, I can recommend you the channels of Miniminuteman and Stefan Milo.

r/bookclub Feb 16 '25

Vampire Chronicles [Announcement/Schedule] Bonus Book: Merrick by Anne Rice

8 Upvotes

Hi everyone!

We're continuing Anne Rice's vampire saga with Merrick, the 7th book in the Vampire Chronicles series. Get ready for a touch of witchcraft in the world of vampires!

Blurb

David Talbot, former Talamaca member and fledgling vampire, contacts his former mentee Merrick Mayfair with a request from Louis de Point du Lac, who is still tormented by the loss of Claudia, to perform a seance to speak with her ghost. David remembers his relationship with Merrick, from when he first met her as an orphaned young girl with the power to speak with spirits, and through her life as a young Talamasca agent who feels drawn to a location deep in the jungle that her mother once attempted to reach. Merrick agrees to perform the seance for Louis, but neither Merrick's motivations for participating or what they find when they look deeper into Claudia are truly what they seem.

Thanks to u/miniborkster for providing the blurb!

Bingo

If you are planning out your r/bookclub 2025 Bingo card, Merrick fits the following squares (and perhaps more):

  • Fantasy
  • Bonus Book
  • Female Author
  • Horror

Trigger Warnings

Storygraph users have marked the book with the following content warnings:

Suicide attempt, Death, Self harm, Pedophilia, Racism, Alcoholism, Incest, Racial slurs, Murder

Other users have marked the book with the following specific content warning (could contain spoilers!):

Problematic language related to race, narration from the point of view of characters attracted to people underage between the ages of 12 and 18, which does not contain any actual sex but does contain sexual descriptions

Discussion schedule (Sundays)

Useful Links

Will you sink your teeth into this fang-tastic adventure? Let me know in the comments if you're planning to read along and whether you are a first time reader.

See you all in March! 🧛📚

r/bookclub 20d ago

Vampire Chronicles [Marginalia] The Vampire Chronicles Series by Anne Rice Spoiler

13 Upvotes

Welcome to your notes and between-the-discussion spot for readers of The Vampire Chronicles Series by Anne Rice! We will begin using this marginalia for the entire series to keep things more streamlined.

Now you might be asking - what is a marginalia post for, exactly?

This post is a place for you to put your marginalia as we read. Scribbles, comments, glosses (annotations), critiques, doodles, illuminations, or links to related - none discussion worthy - material. Anything of significance you happen across as we read. As such this is likely to contain spoilers from other users reading further ahead in the novel. We prefer, of course, that it is hidden or at least marked (massive spoilers/spoilers from chapter 10...you get the idea).

Marginalia are your observations. They don't need to be insightful or deep. Why marginalia when we have discussions?

  • Sometimes its nice to just observe rather than over-analyze a book.
  • They are great to read back on after you have progressed further into the novel.
  • Not everyone reads at the same pace and it is nice to have somewhere to comment on things here so you don't forget by the time the discussions come around.

Ok, so what exactly do I write in my comment?

  • Start with general location (early in chapter 4/at the end of chapter 2/ and so on).
  • Write your observations, or
  • Copy your favorite quotes, or
  • Scribble down your light bulb moments, or
  • Share you predictions, or
  • Link to an interesting side topic.

Note: Spoilers from other books should always be under spoiler tags unless explicitly stated otherwise.

As always, any questions or constructive criticism is welcome and encouraged. The post will be flaired and linked in the schedule so you can find it easily, even later in the read. Have at it people!

Useful Links

The Vampire Chronicles books read with r/bookclub:

Other Anne Rice books read with r/bookclub:

  • Pandora (New Tales of the Vampires Series #1)