Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan

Title: Boy Meets Boy
Author: David Levithan
Publication Date: September 9, 2003
Length: 6 hours (audiobook)

Boy Meets Boy is a sweet teen romance story that takes place in a town that has more than the average amount of acceptance for LGBT+ people. Gay students are totally accepted by their peers, and a trans girl named Infinite Darlene is both the homecoming queen and the quarterback. The story is told by Paul, who meets the new boy, Noah, and falls head over heels. Of course, complications ensue, including an ex-boyfriend who suddenly needs Paul's help, and a best friend (Joni) who starts dating a total jerk.

I enjoyed the setting of this novel. While it's often described as utopian, David Levithan has said that he intended it to be basically the real world as it is currently becoming. Basically it's one town in which progress has been made to the point where LGBT+ people are just accepted for who they are. (It's not the whole world; just one town over is Paul's friend Tony, whose religious parents are more familiar to people living in the real world.) It was refreshing to read a story about gay characters whose biggest problems are misunderstandings with new boyfriends.

Tony was one of my favourite characters, showing the most growth over the course of the story. He goes from hiding his whole life from his parents to finally standing up to them and forcing them to see him as he really is.

One warning: I'm assuming it's because this book is over a decade old, but the treatment of Infinite Darlene is not the greatest. Throughout the story she seems to be pretty clearly portrayed as a trans girl, but then near the end they suddenly call her a drag queen. So, that was weird. In my mind she will remain definitely a girl, no matter how much football she plays.

On the audiobook: I listened to the Full Cast Audio production of this book, and it was excellent. I've read reviews of this book saying that the narrative was flat, but I think it's impossible to see it that way when hearing it read by Nicholas Robideau, who portrayed Paul in this edition. Good acting, music, and other sounds combined to make this better than the average audiobook I've listed to.

4 stars.

The Woman in Black by Susan Hill

Title: The Woman in Black: A Ghost Story
Author: Susan Hill
Publication Date: 1983 (audiobook: 2011)
Length: approx. 4.5 hours
Read by: Ralph Cosham

I made the mistake of reading this book after watching the movie, and actually quite soon after. So when there were differences, I got confused, whereas when watching a movie after a book it's easy to just roll with it. So, I'm having trouble separating the book and movie in my head, in some ways. I'll start by saying, both were really good! So this will sort of be a review of both.

The Woman in Black tells the story of Arthur Kipps, a young lawyer from London, sent to a distant small town called Crythin Gifford to settle the affairs of a recently deceased widow named Alice Drablow. Mrs. Drablow lived in the delightfully creepy Eel Marsh House, which becomes completely cut off from the mainland at high tide.


This is a great, gothic-style horror story. The atmosphere is amazing, and was captured well both by the excellent reader in the audiobook, and by the movie. The creepy house, surrounded by marsh, with mists in which you could easily lose your way and suddenly sink, the sound of a pony and trap sinking in the marshes, and a child screaming for help... it's perfect!

I can't say much more without spoiling it. The ending was not what I expected. The ending is also quite a bit different between the book and the movie. I think I like the book's ending better. I do recommend both!

4 stars.

The Tale of the Body Thief by Anne Rice

Title: The Tale of the Body Thief
Author: Anne Rice
Publication Date: 1992 (audiobook: 1994)
Length: 19:15 (audiobook)

The Tale of the Body Thief is the fourth book in the Vampire Chronicles, and the third one "written" by Lestat. He tells the story of his experience with a man named Raglan James, a body thief, who offers Lestat a chance to temporarily switch bodies, allowing him to regain his lost humanity, see the sun, etc. You're probably thinking that this was a stupid idea for Lestat to buy into, as there are no shortage of things that could go wrong. You're right, of course, but Lestat's not all that bright when his mind is clouded by temptation.

This was the first time in my foray into audiobooks (which have all been the Vampire Chronicles) that I've actually enjoyed the audiobook more than the original book. Maybe it's just because Frank Muller is wonderful (as I've described in my reviews of the previous books), and my appreciation for him seems to grow with each book I listen to. Or maybe it's because I never liked this book as much as the previous ones in the first place. Certainly I still found myself getting a headache from rolling my eyes so much as Lestat makes stupid mistake after stupid mistake, but I still can't help but love the brat prince, and Frank Muller has really given him a whole new dimension for me that makes me love him even more.

4 stars.

This book counts for the 2012 Anne Rice Challenge.

The Queen of the Damned by Anne Rice

Title: The Queen of the Damned
Author: Anne Rice
Narrator: Frank Muller
Publication Date: 1988 (audiobook: 1994)
Length: approx. 23 hours and 45 minutes (audiobook)

I've read this book once before, but this was my first time listening to the audiobook. Something to note about that is that I don't seem to have overall very positive feelings about this whole audiobook thing. Sometimes I like it but often I really don't, and it makes me take forever to get through a book, as you may have noticed. So I fear that that might be impacting my reviews of these books, since I've been rating them lower this time than when I originally read the books.

The Queen of the Damned more or less picks up where The Vampire Lestat left off, with a little overlap, but like the first two books a good chunk of it is stories being told about the past. The overarching story is that people all over the world, both mortals and vampires, are having mysterious dreams about a pair of red-haired twins, who eat a heart and a brain and then are viciously attacked, one having her tongue cut out, and the other having her eyes plucked out. Meanwhile, Lestat has his rock concert, waking up the ancient vampire Akasha, who goes on a murderous rampage trying to "save" the world. These two threads intertwine to bring together a group of vampires, ranging from the oldest vampires in existence to ones only just made immortal.

I definitely preferred The Queen of the Damned over The Vampire Lestat. There were still lots of philosophical discussions, but they were of the "Men are nothing but trouble so why don't we just kill them all? Well, that's a good point, but it's still wrong." type rather than the "I'm so evil! But what IS evil?" type that made me want to punch Lestat during his autobiography. This book also has more of a variety of stories in it. You get a bit of background from a whole bunch of characters. I LOVE all the parts about the twins. I think their story is just so interesting, and of course I love the whole Great Family thing (I am a genealogist, after all).

This is slightly off-topic, but I actually love the Queen of the Damned movie. I know, it's blasphemous! It does not even remotely follow the book. Rereading the book, I realised I'd forgotten just how much it does not follow the book. But it's an entertaining movie, Aaliyah is amazing as Akasha, and the soundtrack rocks. Just don't watch it expecting to see Anne Rice's vision. :)

The audiobook was narrated by Frank Muller, just like the last two, so see my review of Interview With the Vampire for more about how awesome he is.

4 stars.

This book counts for the 2012 A-Z Book Challenge and the 2012 Anne Rice Challenge.

The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice

Title: The Vampire Lestat
Author: Anne Rice
Narrator: Frank Muller
Publication Date: 1985
Length: approx. 23 hours (audiobook)

I've read this book twice before, but this was my first time listening to the audiobook. I must say, I did not remember so much of this book being one very long series of philosophical discussions. Repetitive philosophical discussions. Lestat's all "but what's up with this good and evil stuff?"... and that's pretty much what's happening for like half the book.

That being said, this book still has a great story. And the philosophy never bothered me before, so maybe it's the audio format again? Maybe I did some skimming when I read the book. Anywho, once you've read Interview With the Vampire, it's important that you read The Vampire Lestat, so you don't spend the rest of your life seeing Lestat from Louis' point of view. In this book, you finally get to know Lestat's backstory. Also, Gabrielle is in it, which is reason enough to read it. Also Marius. I could read a whole series just about those two.

As for the audiobook format, it was the same narrator as for Interview With the Vampire, so see my review of that for more details. Basically, he has a great voice, and I have only the same minor quibbles as before (primarily Louis being pronounced incorrectly).

This one gets 3 stars (even though when I read this book a couple years ago I gave it 5 stars...) because of the repetitive philosophical discussions. Still required reading for a Vampire Chronicles fan, though!

This book counts for the 2012 A-Z Book Challenge and the 2012 Anne Rice Challenge.

Interview With the Vampire by Anne Rice

Title: Interview With the Vampire
Author: Anne Rice
Narrator: Frank Muller
Publication Date: 1976
Length: 14:28 (audiobook)

I've read this book twice before, but this was my first time listening to the audiobook. I'll start with a review of the book itself, and then review the audiobook in terms of the narrator, the atmosphere, etc.

In case you're not familiar with the book or the movie (which is pretty true to the book), here's a quick summary. A boy who regularly interviews people about their life stories interviews a vampire named Louis. This is the frame for the story, which Louis tells the boy, starting with his life before becoming a vampire in the late 18th century, going on to describe his time with Lestat, the vampire who made him, and Claudia, the child vampire that joins them later. It's a very angsty story indeed.

A lot of people don't like Louis in this book, saying that he's whiny, but I've always considered him a great protagonist. He's wonderfully tragic. In fact, I've often found myself not caring for Lestat in this book, even though I love him in the books that he narrates. I guess I really tend to buy into Louis' perhaps unreliable narration. This time, though, I liked everyone (except, of course, for Santiago, whom I will hate forever).

Overall, it's just a great story, and one that must be read by anyone who likes vampire fiction, as Anne Rice is truly the master of this sub-genre. I love her vampire mythology (though, really, I love all vampire mythologies; Anne Rice, Joss Whedon, Stephenie Meyer... they all have different mythologies, and I adore them all). One thing I like about this mythology is that there are specific ways a vampire can die, but if a vampire gets strong enough, these ways might not work. That's something you don't see quite so much in Buffy or Twilight, and I think it adds a certain something.

As for the audiobook qualities: In general I really liked the narrator. Frank Muller has a great voice, and I loved the way he changed his voice in a subtle way for each character, managing to make it clear that he's voicing a little girl without doing a stupid falsetto. This is something I really respect in a narrator and I can't stress it enough! The main complaint I have is that the narrator was American, and therefore made the pronunciation error that Americans tend to make: he pronounced Louis like Lewis. Ok, I know that's not a huge deal, and I did get used to it pretty quickly, but it just irked me. [Aside to Americans: You have Lewis already. Why do you take Louis and turn it into Lewis too?!] Anyway. Also, Armand's voice was too deep for a pubescent boy. But other than that! The narration was excellent. I'm just very picky.

5 stars to both the book and the audio format!

This book counts for the 2012 A-Z Book Challenge and the 2012 Anne Rice Challenge.