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Anne Rice's vampire-fiction is pretty icky. However, give FEAST OF ALL SAINTS a try. It's historical fiction about pre-Civil War New Orleans, and it is absolutely wonderful. Not something I'd hand a teenager because of content; the free black community of that time had two principle elements: one hard-working entrepreneurs and plantation owners, and the other a network of half-black "mistresses" who were kept in relative comfort by wealthy whites. One such mistress with two teenage children tries to use her daughter's beauty to try to get her son to Paris, where he could truly be a gentleman in a world where his color mattered less. There's nothing supernatural in this book, only good research and vivid description. I love it that the major character has to take responsibility for himself after having been raised to expect to be able to do anything he wished. It's much better than anything else of hers, IMHO. (I admit I only read the two Lestat books, and I would not reread them.)