This was a good third book, a nice way to wrap up the main series and to bring the storyline together. But it was just good. It wasn't great, it didn't grip me like the other two did.

I loved the chapters from before - the ones with Daniel and Armand, with Khayman, with Pandora, with Jesse and Maharet. All of the new characters and old characters, all getting their own time to shine, their own moments to sort of unfold their story. I loved learning more about them and being introduced to vampires outside of the little bubble that we'd been in for the last two books. It helped to expand on Rice's world and show that vampires are widespread, with wildly different power levels and different approaches to their 'condition'.

The main conflict felt... bland. Akasha wasn't a particularly interesting villain, and Lestat didn't seem to have many thoughts about what was going on. There was much more emphasis on the love he felt for her rather than his fear, or his hatred, or literally any other negative emotion. He didn't seem to care about what Akasha might do to Louis, or what Akasha might do to the world. He didn't even seem that fussed with the power she was giving him (at least not until the very end). It took away from the stakes of the world and from Lestat's character, because it felt so boring, and kind of like you were left wanting more. We completely lost that reckless, passionate man we learned about in the second book, replaced with a shell of himself. It was still interesting, but I didn't feel like he lent anything to the story that he was supposed to be a main character in. And I was definitely disappointed with how little Louis mattered to the story, and how little we saw him.
Additionally, there was something quite cheap to me about the way they deal with Maharet, the twins, that whole storyline. To think that the main action in this book happened within a story, told to a bunch of vampires around a table really detracted from the stakes. Not to mention that at least twice people would tell Maharet that Akasha would be there soon, to hurry up, and she would just keep talking for pages upon pages of detail. And then, finally, to end the conflict with Akasha by... talking to her? Until Maharet's evil vampire twin shows up and kills her. It takes 200 or so pages just for us to catch up with the end of Vapire Lestat, and another 100 or so pages before Akasha even starts doing anything. Where is the gripping sense of time?

The concept was super interesting, and I loved the story of Maharet and her twin, but there was a time and place, and it felt like that just wasn't the spot. It didn't fit in to the stakes and to the panic we were supposed to be feeling. 

All that being said, I did really enjoy the book. I think that Anne Rice is a fantastic author, and I zipped through this one just as fast as the other two. But I also won't lie and say that this was the best book of the series - it just wasn't. Still worth some time, and definitely worth a read if you liked the other two, but I was unfortunately not as happy as I wished I would have been. I still plan to keep reading and exploring her other books and series, and I'm super glad that I read this, if only to just learn a little bit more about the other characters and what they got up to.