Servant of the Bones

I read Servant of the Bones by Anne Rice over the weekend.  Much like Interview with the Vampire, this story is set up with the main character telling his story to another person who is recording/ writing it down.  I really don't like this set-up. 

In theory, having an observer who hears the story and then relays it should give you more information about the main character.  Perhaps the observer is changed by hearing the story or interacting with the main character.  Perhaps they have some insight into the main character that makes the story richer.  Or maybe the observer just makes the story move super slowly.  That was my experience in this case.  The first 150 or so pages are there just to get our observer together with the main character. 

The big question of this novel is whether Azriel (main character) is good or evil.  It seemed that Rice didn't trust her readers to answer this question based on his actions through the novel.  So, she introduced the observer to make the decision for us.  He does, in the last few pages.  He tells us that Azriel is good.  Two problems:  A) I had already figured that out on my own, thank you very much.  B) If the observer told me he was good but I disagreed, I wouldn't change my mind just because the observer told me to.