The Queen of the Damned employs a great number of flashbacks, often so intricately that there is sometimes confusion as to what is happening at any given time. Lestat is ostensibly the teller of the tale and he begins with a first-person narration. However, he quickly shifts to the third person so that others' stories can be told. The connection of these stories is revealed only gradually. All the stories illuminate some relevant background either to the plot or to important characters, and all come together in a climactic scene where the still unpersuaded Lestat and Akasha confront the dissident vampires.

The flashback technique allows the plot to span the centuries as well as link the three main narrative threads to the previous Vampire Chronicle novels.

The telling of a complex story over several related volumes is not unique with Rice. Writers such as...