Task: Sentiment Analysis
Input (English): Not Anne Rice at her best... . I may be repeating what others have said in previous reviews, but I just had to vent over this book. After reading Interview with the Vampire, and the other Vampire Chronicles before Merrick, I was highly disappointed over this book. The action and references to Voodun were vague and boring. The book revolves around a plot concocted by David Talbot and Louis the Vampire to use Merrick in order to contact the ghost of Claudia. Then, the book moves into this tedious tangent over the life of Merrick Mayfair, a character Anne Rice fails to develop as a complex individual. The action in this book is cheesy, typical, and EXTREMELY predictable. The book introduces characters that are related to Merrick, and it is not difficult to guess the fate of these characters as a reader. The vampires are barely portrayed as the mysterious, yet dangerous, and bloodlusting characters they once were in the previous novels. The vampires in Merrick, especially Louis, are portrayed as weak and gutless. Yes, Louis is a tortured soul, but his portrayal is severely watered down in this novel, and his weak nature is irritating to read about. Compare the vampires in Merrick to the same vampires portrayed in Queen of the Damned, like the characters of Akasha and Kayman, who enjoyed "devouring the marrow from their victims' bones". The vampires in Anne Rice's previous books captured the reader's attention with their viciousness, and vengeaful, yet human qualities. Anne Rice did not seem to balance these qualities in the novel Merrick as she did in her others. The action in this novel is painfully slow and without direction. The book is also full of references to David's annoying, perverse tendencies that were written merely to try to increase book sales. Skip this novel, and move on to one of her other vampire chronicles, preferrably her early novels. This just does not cut it
Output (English): NEG