This is my second time reading Interview with the Vampire. The first time was a long time ago. The book is one of my all time horror reads. The film I've seen multiple times and like the book is one of my all time favourites. The tv series is also very enjoyable.

The story is about a journalist who interviews a vampire. Louis the vampire tells his story from when he became a vampire, his time spent with Lestat and then when Claudia and Armand appear.

The book has no chapters only parts. This means the story is one long tale told by Louis. It's very dense and wordy and although it's my favourite I really had to push myself to continue. The narrative does go on and on as Louis tells his tale. The story does improve when Claudia's character comes into the story.

The film is very much like the book which is a bonus. There is nothing worse than a film based on a book but doesn't stick to the story. Anne Rice herself did have a lot to do with the film so I believe.

As much as I love this book I have struggled with other books by Anne Rice. I've tried The Witching Hour, The Vampire Lestat and The Wolf Gift and have DNF all three.

This vampire tale is for me a classic. Very different to Dracula and so much better than the sparkling vampires in the Twilight books. I love the gothic feel that the book offers.

Maybe I might in the future carry on with the series another go, but in the meantime Interview with the Vampire is enough for me. ( )

I liked the movie and I love supernatural fantasy so I had to get get book.

I loved the book, even more, but I hated a part when they travel to Europe. To much description and moral discussion for my taste. I had a hard time passing that part, but all was forgotten at the end of the book.
Even though the book is self contained, I just wanted to know more about those vampires.

I loved the Claudia from the book. Her woman mind fighting her child body and the fact that Louis always sees her as only a child. ( )

This was supposed to be an interview with a very young reporter who wants to write the biography of a vampire. Louis de Pointe du Lac the Vampire agrees to sit down with the unnamed interviewer and share his life story. I was expecting more of a dialogue; a back and forth of questions and answers. Instead, in more of a monologue, Louis shares the romantic history of his vampire beginnings in New Orleans in 1791. Despondent after the death of his family, Louis meets Lestat who convinces him to chose immortality over suicide. With Vampire Lestat as his cruel creator and mentor, Louis learns to avoid the sun, sleep in coffins and experience the exquisite pleasure of the hunt; learning how to drink blood to stay alive (their immortality is conditional on that detail). Yet Louis can not let go of his humanness, drinking the blood of animals and avoiding humans altogether. He is too kind for his kind. Young, beautiful and extremely clever Claudia is his first human feasting. As a child vampire, she is full of grace, passion and intelligence. Louis becomes infatuated with her. It is she who convinces Louis that together, they must kill Lestat and run away to Europe (Transylvania) to find more vampires like themselves. The "couple" end up in France where they find a troupe of vampires and even more danger than they bargained for. The France section of Interview with the Vampire drags quite a bit. Some vampires finally die and I'll leave it at that, as I will be reading Lestat's biography next.
Confessional: I did not expect Interview with the Vampire to be so sensual. The act of drinking blood was portrayed as borderline erotic. Yet, "Louie" is a goofy name for a vampire who has lived over 200 years. ( )

I was really glad I waited years after the movie release to read this book. I had a few parts of the movie I remembered but very little other than that. I think the book is a very interesting read. It's like a fast paced journey until they get to Paris, and then it seems to drag a little. Before their trip to Paris, you can almost forget that it's an interview, you are just sprinting head-long in the attempted murder and get-away from Lestat.
But, Paris really seemed to drag. It spent far too much time with the pretty descriptive words trying to paint the picture of Louis feelings. I know I rolled my eyes for a solid 10 to 15 pages while he danced with the "I felt the pull of him but just knew I couldn't." Jeez, get over yourself.

But, all in all, the format was kind of a fun way to read it ~ as an interview and someone's narrative. ( )

I really really enjoyed this and can see how much influence it has had over vampire lore after it was written. The voice of Louis is so strong and descriptive, so it doesn’t feel like you are reading an interview (often you forget that is the case). For a book about vampires it really humanizes them, with Louis internal turmoil of his humanity, the meaning of good and evil, and philosophies of life as mortal and immortal.

I love the setting of New Orleans, and that this book kind of straddles the line between traditional Gothic lit and Southern Gothic. An essential reading for all vampire and Gothic fans! ( )

The audio version of this books is horrible. The reader thinks everything needs to be breathy suspense - Louis is a nice guy - he doesn't need to be dramatized (and if he hadn't been, in the audio version - he'd have been a much easier character to listen to.) Then comes Armond - who is a YOUNG man who sounds 150... these are young lovers (despite their age)... if the face doesnt change - neither does the vocal cords... jeez.
I love this book - have read it over and over and over.... but this audio version would have turned me off to AnneRice at the start.
Unfortunate. ( )

I uh. Gave up after louis repeatedly refers to claudia as his bride, lover, etc.
Super disappointimg because it is well written, but its difficult to sympathise with a groomer. I much prefer the show and movie.

The first time I read "Interview with the Vampire" I was around 17 y/o. At the time, I was mad about vampires, werewolves, and all manner of ghosts and ghouls, particularly in literary form. I recall reading a magazine article, around about the time when the movie was being made starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt. I had no idea who Brad Pitt was at the time, but I was a fan of Tom Cruise, so it caught my attention. I remember reading that the movie was based on a book called "Interview with the Vampire" and the title caught my interest enough for me to pop down the local library and grab a copy of the paperback.

Now, more than 20 years later, I've decided to re-read all of the vampire chronicles in order due to the imminent release of the next installment in the series called "Prince Lestat" which is scheduled to come out at the end of October. At present, little is known about the book and the publisher is keeping a tight lid on the plot.

This review will contain spoilers so If you haven't read the book, or seen the movie, stop reading now.

Still with me? Great, let's get going...

"Interview" is about a vampire named Louis (you don't find out his last name until later books) who has asked a young boy reporter to tape record his life story.

Louis's story begins with the tale of him being the master of a Louisiana plantation in 1791.

He lives with his mother, sister and brother, Paul who dedicates himself to their Catholic religion. Louis encourages this, even building an oratory in the garden for his brother to use, until Paul comes to him and tells Louis he's had a vision from God and he needs to give the family's wealth to the church. When Louis says no, Paul throws himself from the top of the stairs, and kills himself.

Louis blames himself and falls into a deep suicidal depression. He longs for death but doesn't have the guts to do it himself. So, he frequents dodgy bars, gets into fights and duels and waits for the moment when someone will finally kill him.

Instead, it's a vampire who finds him and after feeding on him to the point of death, gives him a choice - live forever, or die. At this point Louise has suffered a deathly sickness, and so he has tasted what death means. He's also come to the realisation that he can't bring back Paul, and he has to move on.

The following evening, the vampire returns and makes Louis a vampire.

Louis's hope is that now he's a vampire, Lestat (the vampire who made him) will guide and teach him about their kind (where they've come from and why they exist) He needs to know this to define his new paradigm. He's a now a killer that needs to feed on blood to live - which he struggles with. Unfortunately, Lestat says he doesn't know anything about where they've come from or why they exist (so he says!), and this leaves Louis feeling no different than when he was a mortal - only now, his pain, along with his senses and strengths - are greatly increased, and he now wants to die even more than before. Irony in motion.

He begins to think they (vampires) have been created by the devil, and he refuses to do devilish things, like drink human blood (which is kind of the idea). And so, he begins many years of drinking the blood of animals, all whilst trying to find out about their kind from Lestat who grows crueler and colder towards Louis as the years pass.

In a way, you can see Lestat's perspective. Louis has been given all these wonderful powers (dark gifts), including immortality, and he's turned them into a curse. On the other hand, Lestat - in this book - is incredibly short tempered and prone to say nasty things. Also, his seeming lack of understanding or empathy would probably drive anyone mad. Especially when he's the one that stands between the knowledge that Louis craves.

There's one particular scene, played out in the movie to precision, where Lestat baits Louis into a confrontation where Lestat is tormenting two prostitutes. His goal is to get Louis to take his aesthetic tastes to purer things if necessary, but to understand that he's a killer and his new life, whether he likes it or not, is what he is stuck with for all eternity, so he'd better get used to it.

Louis, shocked and disgusted by the mocking and torment of the prostitutes whom he considers innocents leads him out on a nighttime walk where he discovers a five year old girl beside her dead mother pleading for her to wake up. Louis, finally accepting his place in the world feeds on the girl only to be discovered by Lestat who proceeds to mock him! Louis, it seems just can't win with Lestat. Thus, he decides to leave Lestat and find the answers himself.

Before he can, however, in an attempt to make amends, Lestat takes Louis to a hospital where the little girl is, and pretending to be the father of the child takes her away. Louis barely says anything. He stands by, watching. Doing nothing. Passive. This is Louis greatest fault, and the mistake he will continue to make as the novel and his life progresses.

Lestat, offers to make the girl (Claudia) a vampire so they can stay together as a family. Again, without much objection, Lestat makes the five year old eternal.

For years life is good; they live as any family would, but time passes differently for vampires (quicker, perhaps) and before they know it, 60 years have passed, and the five year old child now has the mind and soul of an adult - with the resentment to match.

This comes to a head when Claudia asks Lestat who made them, where did they come from. This is a question Louis has asked many times, and this time the answer from Lestat is no different. He doesn't know. As a result, Claudia sees no need for Lestat, and tells Louis she wants to leave with Louis. Louis says that Lestat won't let them go, which leads Claudia to poisoning Lestat - with dead human blood, which Vampires are unable to tolerate. When Lestat is weakened, Claudia slits his throat and stabs him multiple times. Again, we see Louis, passive, not doing anything to help his maker.

They bury Lestat in the swamp, but a week later he returns to exact his vengeance. This, however, doesn't go according to plan, and he is burned by a torch that Louis throws at him. This it seems is the only time he is not passive.

Claudia and Louis, believing Lestat to be dead, travel to Eastern Europe to search for others of their kind, but all they come across are zombie like vampires with no ability to communicate. From there, they travel to Paris, where finally they meet others of their kind.

In Paris, a vampire cove, led by a 400 year old vampire by the name of Armand, invite Louis and Claudia to the "Theatre of the Vampires" where the undead put on macabre plays and shows to scare the Parisians - who are totally unaware their white-faced monsters on stage are actually immortal vampires.

Louis receives no more answers from Armand than he received from the "late" Lestat, however he has a connection to Armand that he hasn't had before - even with his "daughter" Claudia.

Claudia senses this and knowing that Louis will soon leave her, she asks Louis to make a woman named Madeleine a vampire so Claudia will not be lonely or helpless (after all she's only a five year old girl at least physically). Louis agrees, at great expense to his "soul". He feels his humanity is now truly gone as he'd always promised to himself that he would never make a mortal into a vampire.

A short while later, the coven of vampires takes Louis, Claudia and Madeleine hostage and bring them before Armand, and Lestat, who is grossly scarred from Claudia's and Louis attack on him in New Orleans. Armand stands doing and saying nothing as judgement is pronounced on Louis, Claudia and Madeleine, for the attack and attempted murder of Lestat.

Louis is sentenced to being locked in a steel box beneath the Theatre of the Vampires for a number of years, and they throw the newly created Madeleine and Claudia into the bottom of an open well. When the sun rises the following morning, both Claudia and Madeleine are burned to ashes.

Armand appears as the sun sets, and pulls Louis from the coffin. Lestat is gone. The vampires snigger and laugh as he walks by them to the open well where he sees his daughter turned to ashes. He then decides to get his revenge on the coven of vampires by returning when the sun is up and burning them all whilst they sleep in their coffins. Armand's coffin has been moved however, and it's not until the following evening that Armand appears to Louis, sorry for what has happened, but expressing how he was unable to help.

Louis sees the irony, however. The similarity that they both share, is their passivity. All the bad that has happened to Louis as a mortal man and a vampire can be traced back to his passivity. Standing by, doing nothing. Letting it happen. This weakness is what caused his brother's death, Lestat turning a child into an eternal creature of the night, Lestat's "death" (twice!), and Claudia's ultimate demise. And Armand, in his passivity, has allowed the one thing that truly made Louis human (his love for Claudia) to die with her.

By the end, you hope that Louis understands that he needs to get off his ass; embrace life! Embrace Living! Embrace the act of killing as a means to survive. Enjoy the gift. Don't be passive. Act always.

I don't know if that's something that's changed within Louis, though he does recognise his passiveness as a character flaw, and ultimately this is the reason why he chooses to leave Armand and live alone back home in New Orleans.

There, he comes across a ruined home, where he meets Lestat again who is slowly dying, begging for Louis to forgive him and take him back. Louis tells him no, and we are left to wonder whether Lestat survives or dies.

The following book answers that question, however.

I strongly recommend reading Interview with the Vampire; it's better than the movie. The gothic universe that Anne Rice creates is second to none.

( )

Ik had veel te hoge verwachtingen van dit boek. Het wordt geacht een van de grote fantasy-klassiekers te zijn, en toonaangevend voor de manier waarop vampiers worden beschreven in boeken, kortom: een boek dat ik, na het lezen van Bram Stoker's Dracula, hoog op mijn prioriteitenlijstje had staan.

Boy, was I wrong.

Het verhaal begint met een slepende traagheid die kenmerkend is voor het hele boek; er worden karakters voorgesteld die er totaal niet toedoen. Het boek is trouwens ook, wat de titel al zegt, een INTERVIEW. Dat betekent dat het hele verhaal verteld wordt in de 'ik-vorm' (dus worden alle lezers tot Blijde Deelgenoot van al Louis verwarde gevoelens; Hoera!), en dat de lezer ook nog eens constant onderbroken wordt door een fictieve luisteraar, die van de schrijver ook een zeldzaam talent heeft meegekegen voor het maken van domme opmerkingen en het stellen van nutteloze vragen.

Een ander iets dat me bijzonder heeft gestoord tijdens het lezen van dit boek, is dat alle characters in principe zo plat als een dubbeltje zijn. Anne Rice wekt de indruk dat ze allemaal, en dan met name Louis, de hoofdpersoon, verteerd worden door Diepe Gedachten en Levensveranderende Trauma's en al die andere tropes die in de loop der jaren (en dan vooral in het fantasygenre) zo heerlijk cliche zijn geworden, maar de bittere waarheid is dat er slechts gezeurd wordt. Van het kleinste figurantje tot de Zielige, Onbegrepen Hoofdpersoon (denk even na: waarom is dit boek zo populair geweest onder de goth-populatie) aan toe: ze zijn allemaal aan het miemelen. Louis gebruikt uiteraard wat bloemrijkere bewoordingen dan eigenlijk nodig zou zijn, maar ook daar weet Anne Rice weer een pluspunt te scoren bij de goths.

Voor degenen die de film hebben gezien: Ik dacht eerst dat de film (zoals de meeste boekverfilmingen) prut was en zich voor geen meter aan het boek hield. Ook daar zat ik fout. De film geeft precies weer wat het boek eigenlijk probeert te verbergen: de karakters zijn overdreven karikaturen en het verhaal (dat in boekvorm ongeveer 300 pagina's telt) past precies in een lowbudget pulpfilm (met de verplichte incidentele spannende momenten). ( )

This was such a sad story. Poor Louie. Was he the exception? If only for a minute?
What happens when you give the human condition powers and immortality…. Chaos and suffering. ( )

Interview With the Vampire by Anne Rice is a story about a vampire who’s searching of a meaning of his immortality and the life he has in eternality, romanticizing the ideas that being an immortal is powerful, a gift from God, and the immortals are the children of God, while the sad truth behind it is that being an immortal is a lonely journey and full of despair and nothing could release the immortal from the desperate despair unless killing the mortal one.

I felt sad after reading this but mostly tired because this is not a story of only one or two years but it's like an era. Such an enchanting and enthralling experience to read Anne Rice's work. ( )

My first vampire book and it was compelling. I wonder if this genre is generally as romantic as this (obviously in a less Lolita / Nabakov way), but hopefully it is just as suicidal. Rice's writing is strong, poetic prose and every page is a pleasure. The story is good, adventurous, though the final part of the ending does "suck".
As for the larger implications of between character narrative stories, I think they are entirely worthless. It does not detract from this story, but does not seem capable of ending well or conclusively.
Will definitely move on to the sequel... ( )

Maybe I just don't get it, but this novel didn't do anything for me. The story line was fairly interesting, but not superb. The characters were well-developed: overdeveloped, even, in that Rice repeated their flaws. Reading, I felt as if I was being continuously bludgeoned with heavy-handed grandiose drippings of love and eternity and loneliness. This context was set tens of times throughout the novel, rather than - as I would have found preferential - set once, with the plot/story line to develop off of it. ( )

To me, this was only ok. Maybe it was because I already knew the story from the movie, but I didn't think this was as immersive as The witching hour or The wolf gift. Also, I thought Louis, the main character, was a bit of a drag. He is moaning all over the place and constantly suffering. It becomes annoying after a while, particularly because he's not very pro-active. He's a classical victim, and it started to wear on me. Grow up already and take charge of your life for crying out loud! ( )

I usually don’t read pure horror stories but I’ve always enjoyed vampire romance books and vampire movies of any genre. The Vampire Chronicles Vol. 1 has sat on the shelf for years at home and I finally decided to read it. The volume contains the first three books in the series: Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat and Queen of the Damned (I’ll review the latter two in other posts). I grew up with the movie, Interview with the Vampire, with Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise, and I think that’s where my fascination with vampires began. Later, when the movie, Queen of the Damned, came out, my craziness for hot goth guys and wild musicians grew. This second movie, I believe, takes elements from the second and third books so I’m anxious to read those books to see how they differ from the movie.
Anyway, on to this book…
I was a little disappointed to realize the character of the interviewer was simply referred to as ‘the boy’ throughout the whole book and, although the book is titled ‘Interview,’ I’d hoped the author showed the story instead of telling it to us. Unfortunately, we are told everything that happens from Louis’s POV. After a while, I grew comfortable with this format and just focused on the story.
Though I’m not surprised that thousands of humans died—this is a vampire novel after all, and no love or happiness is needed or required—the cruelty and lack of conscience was difficult to read at times. Louis and Claudia’s relationship bothered me. She was his daughter, his best friend, his lover of sorts, his pain, his abuser, and his reason for staying trapped with Lestat and with her for so many decades. She’s a grown woman trapped in a five-year-old child’s body. I didn’t like her to say the least. The way Louis and Claudia treated each other, as though they were married and in romantic love, not parental-and-child love, disgusted me. The sexual innuendoes to child molestation was surprising, though I don’t think every reader will pick up on that or agree with me.
I hate to say this but I thought of Louis as rather a weak character. He knew what he did was wrong, what others did was wrong, but he just didn’t care. He states in the latter half of the novel that true evil is passiveness, that doing nothing to prevent something bad from happening is just as bad as doing it yourself. He’s full of pain and regret; he lacks courage and a backbone to stand up to those who control him (Lestat and Claudia). He wants love, kindness, light and answers, but he lives in blood, deceit and darkness. He never receives his true desire and I feel sorry for him, but I felt he brought this bad existence on himself.
Lestat is cruel, manipulative, ignorant, and plain vicious but, unlike Louis, he doesn’t hide his true nature or deny it which almost makes him more likable than Louis. Claudia is just like Lestat but she physically appears innocent and plays with Louis’s guilt better than Lestat ever could. The hero of this book, if you can even call Louis that, is trapped under their spell for close to a century and he finally escapes with the help of another vampire, Armand. Louis has so many questions but doesn’t ask them when he finally has the opportunity. It’s frustrating. Even with his new friend he’s not truly free because he loses himself to blandness and misery that can’t be vanquished. Louis changes so much throughout the course of the book, from a gentle, naïve man to a man full of shame who still wants to be human, to a monster who ignores his shame and regret, to a monster with questions and who tries to be human again, to a monster who finally accepts the evilness inside him, to a shell of a man who lives his life in a bubble of nothingness. It’s a sad legacy to leave behind but his story is very compelling from cover to cover.
Overall, I enjoyed this book but from now on I’ll probably just stick with the movie. Though quite a bit is lost during the translation from page to screen, I think the movie is easier to understand and it doesn’t drag in description as the book does. Hardcore Anne Rice fans may not agree with that assessment, but it’s just my humble opinion.
3 Stars

Disclaimer – I received this book as a gift from my grandmother-in-law. I am not paid or compensated in any way, shape or form for this honest review. I will not change or alter this review for any reason unless at my discretion.
( )

Did this book blow me out of the water? No. Did I enjoy hearing the dramatic narration of it in audiobook form as I cleaned my apartment (on several different occasions, oh my god this took me too long to get through)? Kind of, I guess. If you're looking for a dark ambiance with historical references that is a little bit saucy, you'll be happy. But wow, there are a lot of really close brushes with pedophilia. Honestly, I'll probably even listen to the next one when I run out of other books I would rather audiobook than buy physically. 4/5 stars, for the ambiance but not for the urge to consume the lifeforces of children. ( )

I get why this is considered a classic and I can recognize the genius in the writing.
The way the author manages to get the reader to empathize with the MC despite all the depravity is truly amazing.
But it seems that the author never really knew where to go after this incredible first part.
But by part 3 things just got bogged down horribly in repetition, mundanity, and a general lack of progress. Maybe I am just too impatient. But if that is the problem, so be it. Imo 9 hours of a book shouldn't be easily summarizable in a hand full of sentences.
It kind of feels like the first part was in a sense just brilliant by accident.

"Evil is always possible. And goodness is eternally difficult."

Louis, is a southern land owner living outside of New Orleans back when New Orleans still belonged to France. When in 1791 his brother dies Louis has a very hard time dealing with the loss. He wishes to die but is too cowardly to do it himself.

On night Louis meets Lestat, a beautiful man who claims he is a vampire and that he can make Louis one too, all he asks for in return is for Louis to provide a place where Lestat’s aging, blind mortal father can live out the rest of his life in safety. In Louis’s fragile mental state Lestat easily manages to manipulate Louis and turns him into a vampire.

Louis quickly realizes that not only did he not like Lestat but he actively disliked, even despised him but he stays with Lestat for years because he believes that Lestat holds the knowledge about vampirism that he needs. But all good and devilish things eventually come to an end and the relationship sours with both going there separate ways.

Louis meets a boy in a bar who wants to interview him. They go back to a room armed with a tape recorder and there Louis recounts the story of his long and not illustrious life.

Finally, a couple of centuries later, Louis returns to New Orleans where he finds Lestat living in a run-down house, a decrepit old man in vampire form. Lestat has been unable to adapt to the modern world. When he meets, Daniel, a reporter who wants to interview him in a bar shortly afterwards, Louis takes him back to a room where armed with a tape recorder he recounts the story of his long and not so illustrious life.

My favourite character was Claudia who was only 4 or 5 when she was turned into a vampire. She had no real memories of being a human and no real connections to humans to nurture her compassion. All she ever knew humans as food. She never asked to become a vampire and consequently was trapped for the rest of her life by a decision that someone else made for her. Whilst her mind grew and expanded her body was incapable of change meaning that the rest of the world would forever see her as a child. But she never gives up and fights to try to take back control of her life.

On the whole I found this an enjoyable read from a genre that I don't often read, it sucked me in from the outset and I quickly became engrossed with it. However, as the story progressed I gradually came to dislike both the two main male characters, Louis and Lestat. Lestat, I found a selfish jerk whom I didn't really like whilst I found Louis a more interesting character whom I initially felt sorry for, but gradually began to find him a whiner who refuses to take responsibility for his own unhappiness. I also came to realize that they had an abusive relationship with Lestat as the abuser. This perhaps rather coloured my eventual opinion of it. Maybe I would have enjoyed it more if I was simply younger but now I'm unsure as to whether or not it was meant to be a horror tale or a parable that features vampires. ( )

Anne Rice and readers like me were into Vampires when Vampires weren't cool. ( )

I read this book as a school assignment. I remember it mostly as gloomy and sad.

cannot believe people have been shipping louis and lestat for decades based on THIS material???? ( )

"When [I became a vampire], I thought it was going to be fun and exciting, like that movie Spaceballs; but instead it was sad and depressing, like that movie Police Academy." - Homer Simpson


Initially, Interview's narrative feels at once engaging and directionless. There doesn't appear to be much of a story beyond a vampire's search for identity, but this alone makes for an interesting read and is held together by good characters. I enjoyed the search, the struggle, the frustration, the lack of means for these creatures to learn what they are; yet trapped in a state of uncertain immortality, lust and self-loathing... and ultimately, despite its episodic nature, many strands come back around to tie everything up in a way that is mostly satisfying.

I did enjoy this, but it felt lacking. The biggest drawback is the prose, which to me feels very empty. Although at times bordering on poetic, any attempt at flair just feels "put on", or lacking substance. I was drawn in by characters and situations, but nothing in the writing touched me. I was left cold.

Despite this, the book was often engrossing and is helped immensely by some excellent character development. I almost felt able to look past its drawbacks and slap a high 3 (or 4) on this fella, but I just found the ending too clunky. The central premise, a vampire being interviewed, is also superfluous, which I found dissapointing. It gives no context for its relevance, and is wrapped up fairly predictably.

3.5 ( )

First Anne Rice book. Did not disappoint!

Such a tragic case study in the mind of a vampire. My fiancé read this one before I did, and she said there was a lack of “excitement” in the book. I couldn’t disagree more.

The excitement in this book doesn’t stem from physical altercations (though there are some nice ‘hunting’ scenes); it stems from our narrators struggle with humanity.

That is the book, teaching is how depraved and ‘evil’ vampires can be not through flashy murders, but through a long and meandering prose from a Vampire who wishes so deeply that there is more to his life than these ‘evil’ things.

I love the unreliable narrator we hear the story through, because all of these events are given a sense of questioning despite being presented as the truth. Without spoiling too much, I also loved the conclusion of Louis character arc, and look forward to reading more Anne Rice! ( )

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced
Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
CAWPILE score: 5.14 (36/70), Good
FRTC ( )

I really wanted to like this book more than I ended up liking it. I don't know what it was about it. Maybe it just got too philosophical in parts, or too descriptive. Maybe it's because I was expecting something more from it in terms of Louis's relationships and not just him talking vaguely about them.

Things I liked about it include the fact that Rice goes through effort to actually explain the process of becoming a vampire, like the mechanics behind it, and I respect that.

Other than that...this was boring, I'm afraid. ( )