Interview with the Vampire
"As if the night said to me, 'You are the night and the night alone understands you and enfolds you in its arms' One with the shadows. Without nightmare. An inexplicable peace."
-Anne Rice, Interview with the Vampire
The supernatural has always been one of my most visited genres of fiction. From Harry Potter to The Vampire Diaries and everything in between. I can't count how many times I've read Bram Stoker's Dracula. But yet I never once picked up an Anne Rice book. I knew she was a great writer and I'd always intended to.... it just never happened. I always stuck her on the back burner. Boy do I regret that now!
I wanted to read something based in New Orleans for my trip to the Big Easy and what better than one that is based in NOLA and written by someone who lived there? Unfortunately, I was way too busy exploring to read much of it while I was there but I finally finished it!
One thing I know for sure is Anne Rice is not about the dialogue. There can be full pages, full chapters, of internal thoughts and very little dialogue. That's talent. I usually hate books like that because it seems to take so much longer to get through but for her to keep me interested with nothing but the internal reflection of a depressed vampire, that's impressive.
This book brought back so much nostalgia for the classic vampire stories where they weren't hot teenagers but pale, terrifying monsters. Inhuman and unnatural. The rustic feel of the Louisiana swamps added to the thrilling horror of the story. The historic feel of it made it haunting and gave me chills.
One of my favourite things about this book was the character development. I started off loving Louis and feeling sorry for the turn his "life" had taken. To me, Lestat was the worst kind of monster. He manipulated Louis for his money, and then acted like a belligerent child anytime Louis didn't fall into line and be his perfect toy. But as the story went on I lost more and more respect for Louis character and his shotty excuses for his actions and felt more and more sorry for Lestat who obviously just doesn't know how to properly treat those that he loves and because of that, always ends up alone and unloved and bitter. I did not expect to end up liking Lestat. I know there's probably a lot more to his character once you read more into the series so I could be wrong but for now, that's my opinion.
There were quite a few problematic points in this book for me as well. But the main one I'll discuss is Claudia. How horrible of a plot device was she? Not only is it so disturbing to read that Louis, the character you feel sympathy for, attacks and nearly kills an innocent little girl, but that they turn her into a monster like them and use her to manipulate victims. The worst part of all was Louis' relationship with her. He always discussed her "sensuality" and that did not sit well with me. A five-year-old, no matter their "mental age", IS NOT SENSUAL IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM. I get what Rice was trying to portray when writing these passages. That she was a grown woman trapped in a child's body but that wasn't the way it needed to be done. I hated reading those passages on Louis' thoughts. I think one of the reasons I ended up hating his character was because of his long passages lamenting on his love for her. It creeped me out.
Creepy children and pedo vampires aside, I would probably continue the Vampire Chronicles someday and finish Lestat's story (right now I need a bit of a break from vampires) but please anyone if there's more creepy woman/child characters please give a girl a heads up.
Of course, after reading the book I had to watch the movie and let me tell you, Tom Cruise killed it. Young Tom Cruise and Young Brad Pitt with creepy young Kirsten Dunst = recipe for success. I usually don't feel that way about book to movie adaptations so another round of applause for Anne Rice's writing skills.
I'll give it 3 stars because I loved the writing but I as I stated there were some problematic themes that I wasn't a big fan of.
-Taylor-Paige