Blackwood Farm
2002 • 580 pages

Ratings19

Average rating3.6

15

The Blackwood Farm is a very atmospheric, the descriptions of New Orleans with swamps and the Manor are beautiful.
The pace of the book is quite disjoined and slow in the first half and picks up after Rebecca's ghost appears. Unfortunately, it feels like her storyline leads nowhere and there is no pay off. Petronia and her companions are intriguing, however there could have been more scenes with and about them. Their pasts are described very briefly.
Quinn is presented as an amazing person who everybody loves for some inexplicable reason (and those who do not, are treated as horrible people with no redeeming qualities). Also, Quinn's powers as a vampire seem cheap, why does he get all the powers of ancient vampires while being just a new fledgling (especially as it took even Lestat centuries and Akasha's blood to get those same powers).
And then there is Mona. She is even worse as a character than in the Mayfair Witches Series. Once again, her character can be described just as annoying and hardly anything more. There was no need to bring her over and even worse what happened with her at the very end of the book. That was definitely not needed.
Merrick feels like such a wasted character.
Lestat is a framing device, just standing there, listening, and inexplicably fawning over Quinn. He is not acting like himself or contributing anything, and it feels like he is there only to lure in readers. This book would have fared better without him.
Any connections with the rest of the Vampire Chronicles are negligible and Blackwood Farm should have been written as a standalone.

March 29, 2024Report this review