Memnoch the Devil by Anne RiceMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
My last reading session was 8 minutes. I finished reading this book for the second time in my life on Monday, February 27, 2023 at 2:19 p.m.
View all my reviews
I got this book online from an online thrift store. It says that it was $4.79 on the back of the book.
By the way, all the words that are highlighted in light red 1 are the parts where Lestat mentions Dora’s menses! Ahhhhjdbldjvdlfkjvdfjhbckjsdhcbsldja!!!!!! Gahhh idk
All these highlighted bits are like a huge build up to that one climactic scene! Hehehehehhehehehehe!!!! 🤫ðŸ¤ðŸ«
God I don't know why I have this small urge to write fanfic of David and Lestat in his mortal body where David said yes to all of Lestat's advances ;)))) and now I wanna write fanfic of Dora and Lestat, but it's already in canon, so it would kind of be redundant…
I can see why some people did not like this book whatsoever. The main reasons were people’s personal relationship with religion and their disgust with a certain scene in here that I quite thoroughly enjoyed! XD hehehehehe
Personally, I only liked the book because of that one scene with Lestat and Dora ;))))))
It was also cool that Lestat went to Hell, but that whole middle section of Memnoch blabbering on and on about Sheoul and the origins of Heaven and all that was really getting boring, so the only good parts of the book were the beginning and end XD
“...Anglo-Saxon male” (1).
Lestat describes himself with this word, and I just wanted to write down the definition. Anglo-Saxon is a term used historically to describe any member of the Germanic peoples who, from the 5th century ce to the time of the Norman Conquest (1066), inhabited and ruled territories that are today part of England and Wales.
* So I was going through my copy of this book and I was smelling the book pages lol *snickers* 🤠I noticed that this books is in very good condition, almost in new condition it’s so well preserved to me. I was flipping through the pages counting how many chapters there are and I noticed only one dog ear bookmark in the entire book on page 25, which is in chapter one. My guess is that the previous owner didn’t like how the book started and decided to sell it or donate it to a thrift store of some kind. I read somewhere that some of Anne Rice’s fans didn’t like this book and she made Lestat make a rebuttal or throw shade to those fans in the next book, “The Vampire Armand.” I personally thoroughly enjoyed myself when I first read this book, so I don’t know what those people were thinking. Maybe they were turned off by the religious aspects to the story? I can’t be definitive. 😉
“‘And so what is this new sort of game?’ he said politely in British” (12).
The part where Lestat says that David said this, “in British” was really funny! XD It’s kind of like a slight diss to David from Lestat. Hehehehehe XD
“He'd never brought her there in all the months I'd been watching him, savoring and licking my lips over his life” (33).
“On the floors above, there were mortals, but they were old, and I caught a vision of a sedentary man, with earphones on his head, swaying to the rhythm of some esoteric German music, Wagner, doomed lovers deploring the ‘hated dawn’ or some heavy, repetitive, and distinctly pagan foolishness. Leitmotiv be damned” (35).
Leitmotiv = term originating from opera, where it referred to a recurring melody that played along with a character or allusion to a theme whenever one or the other appeared on stage. Once more commonly spelled leitmotiv, it derives from the German words for "leading" (leit) and "motive" (Motif).
“He was my favorite shade, caramel” (38).
Hmmm. This explains why Lestat loves Louis in the AMC show <3 ;)
“He drank more of the sweet-smelling Southern Comfort. ‘This was Janis Joplin's drink, you know,’ he said, referring to the dead singer whom I, too, had loved” (59).
“‘Exactly, like Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights, that kind of luscious sensuous paradise!” (72).
“...and I was dreaming of flower children in the Haight Ashbury of California, listening to the songs of Joan Baez” (73).
“Still I said nothing. What was I to say? Despair was so familiar to me; it could be banished by the sight of a beautiful mannikin in the window. It could be dispelled by the spectacle of lights surrounding a tower. It could be lifted by the great ghostly shape of St. Patrick's coming into view. And then despair would come again.
Meaningless, I almost said, aloud, but what came from my lips was completely different” (127).
How true this is, Lestat. Despair can be banished by beautiful things. For me personally despair can be banished by reading books I love and other things too.
Before this quote David quotes from “Ethan Brand” by Nathaniel Hawthorne. I just finished reading it and it is quite dark and despairing like how Lestat explains here. It’s essentially a story of Ethan Brand who finds the Unpardonable Sin and kills himself by fire, which was his occupation as a lime-burner. From what I got from that story I think he killed himself because he realized that he wasn’t part of humanity anymore and so did away with himself. David said that this is how he feels about himself and humanity, though I don’t think David would jump into the fire. I think David’s trying to say that he can still grow his intellect but not his morality. Then Lestat thinks about his own despair when David tells him this.
“The sweet aroma of womb blood came from her. Her menses. Maddeningly, it amplified the succulent scent of the whole child moving towards me” (138).
Here comes the mensessssss! XDXFDSDhgfvhmdb,sdj *blushes*
I don’t know how to feel about this! I kind of enjoy this side of Lestat hvbdfhvbdkjhvblfd
“Her heart was beating more slowly, but the scent of her had been made even stronger by her emotions.
Her menses. It was being neatly collected by a pad of white cotton between her legs. I let myself think of it now because the menses was heavy and the smell was overpoweringly delicious to me. It began to torture me, the thought of licking this blood. This isn't pure blood, you understand, but blood is its vehicle and I felt the normal temptation that vampires do in such circumstances, to lick the blood from her nethermouth between her legs, a way of feeding on her that wouldn't harm her.
Except under the circumstances it was a perfectly outrageous and impossible thought” (145).
“Beauty and the Beast. And as Beasts go, I mean, really, I'm quite a stunner” (146).
Lol *eye rolls* XD
“Only now did the full goodness of Dora take a contained shape in my mind, that is, only now did I get a full impression of her, untangled from the blood smell between her legs and her owl-like face peering at me. Mortals tumble through life, from cradle to grave. Once in a century or two perhaps, one crosses the path of a being like Dora. An elegant intelligence and concept of goodness, precisely, and the other thing Roger had struggled to describe, the magnetism which had not burst free as yet from the tangle of faith and scripture” (153).
“I felt a sudden sagging, a complete exhaustion, and a despair.
Typical.
I rolled over on my face and tucked my arm under my head and started crying like a child. I was perishing from exhaustion. I was worn and miserable and I loved crying. I couldn't do anything else. I gave in to it fully. I felt that profound release of the utterly grief-stricken. I didn't give a damn who saw or heard. I cried and cried.
Do you know what I think about crying? I think some people have to learn to do it. But once you learn, once you know how to really cry, there's nothing quite like it. I feel sorry for those who don't know the trick. It's like whistling or singing.
Whatever the case, I was too miserable to take much consolation just from feeling good for a moment in a welter of shudders and salted, bloodstained tears” (157-158).
This made me LOL XD This also made me picture Samstat crying awww 🥹
Also, I never thought of comparing the act of crying to whistling or singing. Hmmm.
“A faint perfume of Dora rose from my clothes, my chest against which she'd lain, blood sweetness. Dora” (158).
The way Simon Vance said that last Dora had me dshdkjfbrjkhdbkjdah SO romantic eeeee
It might be hard for Lestat to not fall in love with Dora! OMG casdjcbsdkjhcbdskjcbd
“She had buried her face in my coat, as though too afraid to try to look around her, but this was really more a practical matter in the cold than anything else. At one point, I opened my coat, and covered her with one side of it, and we went on” (179).
I thought this part was sweet on Lestat’s part because he was thinking of her comfort, you know given their certain circumstances that Lestat made happen. But when he mentioned that flying would be faster than a jet plane that made sense to me because Dora was in New Orleans and Lestat was going to take her to Manhattan by wind.
“‘Dora, Dora, Dora,’ I whispered. ‘How he loved you, and how much he wanted everything to be right for you, Dora.’
Her scent was strong, but so was I” (181).
“Of course there were mediating circumstances! I'd kidnapped her and brought her over hundreds of miles! I needed her. Hell, I loved her” (186).
♥️
“The apartment was now flooded with her mingling aromas, including that of her menses, that special, perfumed blood collecting neatly between her legs. The place breathed with her.
I ignored the predictable raging desire to feast on her till she dropped” (186).
“I watched her throat as she did this. I didn't let myself think about her in any way except lovingly, but the scent of her was enough to drive me out of the place” (187).
“‘Oh, forgive me, do sit down, please. You can't eat, can you? You can't take this kind of nourishment.’
‘No,’ I said. ‘But I can sit down.’
I sat next to her, trying not to watch her or breathe her scent any more than I had to” (187).
This part made me laugh because Lestat is all like, “I can’t eat, but I can sit down.” XD It’s just the juxtaposition of the words XD heheheheheheehhe
“I had to draw her away from the chores, and bring her back into the room. This gave me a chance both to hold her warm, fragile hands and to be very close to her” (187).
;)
“‘I'm not people, Dora. I'm what I am. I don't mean to draw any parallels with God in my repetitive epithets. I only mean I'm evil. Very evil. I know I am. I have been since I started to feed on humans. I'm Cain, the slayer of his brothers’” (188).
Of course this line reminds me of that awesome song called, “Am I Evil.” It has the perfect lyrics.
“I smelled her blood again, her secret, fragrant, female blood.
I looked away from her” (190).
“‘How is that possible? I don't like myself, you know. I love my-self, of course, I'm committed to myself till my dying day. But I don't like myself’” (191).
* I'm kinda like Memnoch you're kinda boring, bruv XDDDDD
“Dora.
I saw her, smelled her, smelled the blood from between her legs again…” (392).
“‘Darling, darling,’ Dora cried, ‘I am here!’ Her small warm arms went round my aching shoulders, oblivious to the snow falling from my hair, from my clothes. I went down on my knees, my face buried in her skirts, near to the blood between her legs, the blood of the living womb, the blood of Earth, the blood of Dora that the body could give, and then I fell backwards onto the floor” (393).
I was all like, “OH MY GOD HERE IT COMESSSSS” xshdbsdjhvbcdjg,jhz
“‘Darling, darling.’ She kissed me.
I rolled her over gently, careful not to press her with my weight, and I pulled up her skirt, and I lay my face against her hot naked thighs. The smell of the blood flooded my brain.
‘Forgive me, forgive me,’ I whispered, and my tongue broke through the thin cotton of her panties, tearing the cloth back from the soft down of pubic hair, pushing aside the bloodstained pad she wore, and I lapped at the blood just inside her young pink vaginal lips, just coming from the mouth of her womb, not pure blood, but blood from her, blood from her strong, young body, blood all over the tight hot cells of her vaginal flesh, blood that brought no pain, no sacrifice, only her gentle forbearance with me, with my unspeakable act, my tongue going deep into her, drawing out the blood that was yet to come, gently, gently, lapping the blood from the soft hair on her pubic lips, sucking each tiny droplet of it.
Unclean, unclean. They cried on the road to Golgotha, when Veronica had said: ‘Lord, I touched the hem of your garment and my hemorrhage was healed.’ Unclean, unclean.
‘Unclean, thank God, unclean,’ I whispered, my tongue licking at the secret bloodstained place, taste and smell of blood, her sweet blood, a place where blood flows free and no wound is made or ever needs to be made, the entrance to her blood open to me in her forgiveness.
Snow beat against the glass. I could hear it, smell it, the blinding white snow of a terrible blizzard for New York, a deep white winter, freezing all beneath its mantle.
‘My darling, my angel,’ she whispered.
I lay panting against her. The blood was all gone inside me now. I had drawn all of it from her womb that was meant to come. I had licked away even what had collected on the pad that had lain against her skin.
She sat up, modestly covering me with her crossed arms, bending forward as if to shield me from their eyes—David's, Armand's—never once having pushed at me, or cried out, or recoiled, and she held my head now as I cried” (393-394).
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https://youtu.be/bCDm0qAYv0Y?t=46
0:45
Me when I was reading that last scene 🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵
I was making SO many fangirl noises XDDDDDDD
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THAT ONE SCENE ;))))) ⤵️
https://i-want-my-iwtv.tumblr.com/post/85683520212/vc-memnoch-shenanigans-by-eeba-ism-oh-the
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!!NSFW WARNING!!
https://archiveofourown.org/works/30654377
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https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FpKKetPXsAAwldr?format=jpg&name=small
https://twitter.com/lestats_a_wh0re/status/1626514679815192576?s=20
I was abouta write the caption for this pic, "Lestat walking back from Dora's place" XD hehehehehhe ðŸ¤ðŸ¤ðŸ¤ðŸ¤ðŸ¤ðŸ¤
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https://youtu.be/-_zf_c9-eX4?t=42
This song is dedicated to this scene! XD
“I could still smell the soft delicious blood I had from her. It laid on my lips, her blood” (396).
“‘If you let me,’ said Armand, his fingers slipping up to my collar, ‘if you let me drink, then I'll know….’
‘No, all you'll know is that I believe what I saw, that's all’ I said.
‘No,’ he said, shaking his head. ‘I'll know the blood of Christ if I taste it.’
I shook my head. ‘Back away from me’ (407).
OMG this part got me so mad because Armand wanted to drink Lestat’s blood when Armand wouldn’t let Lestat drink his blood when he needed it the most! Now Armand has the nerve to ask for his blood just because he wants to know the blood of Christ?! What about when Lestat needed Armand’s blood to heal from his injuries in Interview with the Vampire?! Hmmmm???? You big bish!!! >:( OMG! Ughhhhhh
“The crowd here was all singing in concert that old solemn, militant hymn:
Holy God, we praise thy Name
Lord of All, we bow before thee!” (413).
“I came to an empty store that had once sold expensive automobiles. For fifty years, they’d sold those fancy cars in this place, and now it was a big, hollow room with glass walls. I could see my reflection perfectly in the glass. My preternatural vision was mine again, flawless, with both blue eyes.
And I saw myself.
I want you to see me now. I want you to look at me, as I present myself, and as I swear to this tale, as I swear on every word of it, from my heart.
I am the Vampire Lestat. This is what I saw. This is what I heard. This is what I know! This is all I know.
Believe in me, in my words, in what I have said and what has been written down.
I am here, still, the hero of my own dreams, and let me please keep my place in yours.
I am the Vampire Lestat.
Let me pass now from fiction into legend.
THE END
9:43 February 28, 1994
Adieu, mon amour” (433-434).
Adieu, mon amour=Goodbye, my love. OMG! Did Lestat just call me, a reader and The Vampire Chronicles fan, his love?! YAAAS! ❤⚰
I would say that Lestat is legendary indeed!
https://youtu.be/AfO2ohhEROw?t=896
This video tells of an interesting story connected with this book.
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