The Queen of the Damned

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Recommended: Terror and horror as elements within gothic literature

The Queen of the Damned

As we draw towards others and follow them and their way we lose our own way and part of ourselves in the process. The Queen of the Damned is Anne Rice’s third book in The Vampire Chronicles series. In the beginning it’s all about a group of present-day immortal vampires struggles to save the mortal humans from the first vampire Akasha. She devilishly plans to enslave mankind and destroy all men on earth in order to stop wars and promote peace. She decides to save one male Lestat and his friends and that’s when the nightmare really begins. Horror is a state of mind caused by the confrontation of living or dying. In Queen of the Damned horror is demonstrated in Akasha killings and vampire resurrections.
Anne Rice is the author of The Queen of the Damned. She was born Howard Allen Frances O'Brien in New Orleans, Louisiana on October 4, 1941. Rice was the second of four daughters of Irish Catholic parents Howard O’Brien and Katherine Allen O’Brien. Her husband Stan Rice is deceased, but they had two beautiful children Michele and Christopher Rice. Anne spent most of her childhood in the poverty streets of New Orleans with a father never around because of his duty to the U.S. army and a mother struggling with her alcohol obsession. Rice’s name Howard came from her father because he was strong and her mother wanted her strong like him. Anne’s weakest point came when she was fifteen and her mother died of alcohol addiction and her father not knowing what else to do split the kids up in foster care. Nevertheless, it made Anne stronger; it showed her that if she was to survive it would be by her own doing. “I’ve always been my own teacher, and I must confess I’ve also been my favorite pupil as well” (www.biograph...

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...ociety through beliefs and religion. One way is the use of the cross to get rid of vampires and holy water to kill them. Modern America had not lost its connection with religion, spiritually, and belief in God; Anne Rice’s book proves that.
The Queen of the Damned is far from just black and white or a battle of good versus evil. One of the themes are cannibalism and bloodshed, but they are not the main parts of the book. The book symbolizes everything from gender battles, warfare, poverty, loyalty, and peace to the world apocalypse. It also compares today’s life to that of history and religion. This book is not for those without imagination. It has vast amounts of unforeseen conflict and violence which would take a true genius to decipher. Overall it was a good read with lots of unanswered questions for the readers to come up with their own conclusions and beliefs.

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