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3.76 AVERAGE
3.76 AVERAGE
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
loses a star on a reread because louis’ narration is nowhere near as good or funny as lestat’s. sorry
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is a re-read for me. I watched the new television series and was like nostalgia, so I figured I'd give this series another whirl. The first time I read this, I was bored out of my mind. The second time I was fascinated. My brain was finally ready to process this information, apparently or something, I don't know. Anyway.
Anne Rice has beautiful prose. There were some genuinely stunning passages throughout this book that will stick with me for a while. For example;
Am I damned? Am I from the devil? Is my very nature that of a devil? I was asking myself over and over. And if it is, why then do I revolt against it, tremble when Babette hurls a flaming lantern at me, turn away in disgust when Lestat kills? What have I become in becoming a vampire? Where am I to go? And all the while, as the death wish caused me to neglect my thirst, my thirst grew hotter; my veins were veritable threads of pain in my flesh; my temples throbbed; and finally I could stand it no longer. Torn apart by the wish to take no action—to starve, to wither in thought on the one hand; and driven to kill on the other—I stood in an empty, desolate street and heard the sound of a child crying.
‘Evil is a point of view,’ he whispered now. ‘We are immortal. And what we have before us are the rich feasts that conscience cannot appreciate and mortal men cannot know without regret. God kills, and so shall we; indiscriminately He takes the richest and the poorest, and so shall we; for no creatures under God are as we are, none so like Him as ourselves, dark angels not confined to the stinking limits of hell but wandering His earth and all its kingdoms.
The great adventure of our lives. What does it mean to die when you can live until the end of the world? And what is ‘the end of the world’ except a phrase, because who knows even what is the world itself? I had now lived in two centuries, seen the illusions of one utterly shattered by the other, been eternally young and eternally ancient, possessing no illusions, living moment to moment in a way that made me picture a silver clock ticking in a void: the painted face, the delicately carved hands looked upon by no one, looking out at no one, illuminated by a light which was not a light, like the light by which God made the world before He had made light. Ticking, ticking, ticking, the precision of the clock, in a room as vast as the universe.
--
Interview with the Vampire is exactly what the name suggests. A vampire named Louis du Pointe du Lac tells the story of his life. Louis casually explains that he was a plantation owner, his religious brother recently died, and his life was miserable. Then Lestat steps in to make himself an accountant. Honestly, this is where I was bummed. After watching the show, I was hoping that a romance would magically appear in this book because I loved how it played out in the show. However, Lestat only made Louis because he had no idea how to control his finances and needed someone else to do it. Which honestly makes me laugh. Because, lol, same.
Louis doesn't want to kill anyone, and Lestat tries to convince him. That's the first half of the book. Louis' existential crisis about not wanting to kill people and questioning whether or not he's damned. Ordinarily, this would annoy the living shit out of me to read for nearly 200 pages, but Anne Rice's prose is so good that it makes up for it. She has the kind of prose that makes you want to keep reading, if only for that.
Unfortunately, this book got a three-star from me because of the way the character of Claudia is written about/treated. Again, the change they made in the show fixed almost all of the issues. (they aged her up and made her Louis' child-then-sister instead of Louis' child-then-lover.) Louis stumbles upon a young girl who is described as being 5-years-old crying over the corpse of her mother. Louis feeds on the child and later Lestat turns her into a vampire. From the moment of Claudia's appearance she is given descriptors that do not belong connected to a child. She's constantly said to be sensual but she is literally FIVE. Eventually her mind ages where her body does not and she begins to behave more in an adult manner. Honestly, I wouldn't have minded her having the intelligence of an adult throughout the entire book and just struggle with the fact taht she will never have the body of a woman but Louis is constantly just thinking of her as a lover and then as a doll to play dress up with and it's very icky. Then there's the whole part where Armand gives Louis a young boy to feed on and Louis goes on and on about how he can feel the boy's 'hard sex thrusting against his leg' like...I could've gone my whole life without ever reading that.
I recommend this book because it is very beautifully written and the vampires are very interesting but go in with the knowledge that some of the shit is disturbing. Personally this is probably the worst book in the Vampire Chronicles mainly for the treatment of Claudia.
Anne Rice has beautiful prose. There were some genuinely stunning passages throughout this book that will stick with me for a while. For example;
Am I damned? Am I from the devil? Is my very nature that of a devil? I was asking myself over and over. And if it is, why then do I revolt against it, tremble when Babette hurls a flaming lantern at me, turn away in disgust when Lestat kills? What have I become in becoming a vampire? Where am I to go? And all the while, as the death wish caused me to neglect my thirst, my thirst grew hotter; my veins were veritable threads of pain in my flesh; my temples throbbed; and finally I could stand it no longer. Torn apart by the wish to take no action—to starve, to wither in thought on the one hand; and driven to kill on the other—I stood in an empty, desolate street and heard the sound of a child crying.
‘Evil is a point of view,’ he whispered now. ‘We are immortal. And what we have before us are the rich feasts that conscience cannot appreciate and mortal men cannot know without regret. God kills, and so shall we; indiscriminately He takes the richest and the poorest, and so shall we; for no creatures under God are as we are, none so like Him as ourselves, dark angels not confined to the stinking limits of hell but wandering His earth and all its kingdoms.
The great adventure of our lives. What does it mean to die when you can live until the end of the world? And what is ‘the end of the world’ except a phrase, because who knows even what is the world itself? I had now lived in two centuries, seen the illusions of one utterly shattered by the other, been eternally young and eternally ancient, possessing no illusions, living moment to moment in a way that made me picture a silver clock ticking in a void: the painted face, the delicately carved hands looked upon by no one, looking out at no one, illuminated by a light which was not a light, like the light by which God made the world before He had made light. Ticking, ticking, ticking, the precision of the clock, in a room as vast as the universe.
--
Interview with the Vampire is exactly what the name suggests. A vampire named Louis du Pointe du Lac tells the story of his life. Louis casually explains that he was a plantation owner, his religious brother recently died, and his life was miserable. Then Lestat steps in to make himself an accountant. Honestly, this is where I was bummed. After watching the show, I was hoping that a romance would magically appear in this book because I loved how it played out in the show. However, Lestat only made Louis because he had no idea how to control his finances and needed someone else to do it. Which honestly makes me laugh. Because, lol, same.
Louis doesn't want to kill anyone, and Lestat tries to convince him. That's the first half of the book. Louis' existential crisis about not wanting to kill people and questioning whether or not he's damned. Ordinarily, this would annoy the living shit out of me to read for nearly 200 pages, but Anne Rice's prose is so good that it makes up for it. She has the kind of prose that makes you want to keep reading, if only for that.
Unfortunately, this book got a three-star from me because of the way the character of Claudia is written about/treated. Again, the change they made in the show fixed almost all of the issues. (they aged her up and made her Louis' child-then-sister instead of Louis' child-then-lover.) Louis stumbles upon a young girl who is described as being 5-years-old crying over the corpse of her mother. Louis feeds on the child and later Lestat turns her into a vampire. From the moment of Claudia's appearance she is given descriptors that do not belong connected to a child. She's constantly said to be sensual but she is literally FIVE. Eventually her mind ages where her body does not and she begins to behave more in an adult manner. Honestly, I wouldn't have minded her having the intelligence of an adult throughout the entire book and just struggle with the fact taht she will never have the body of a woman but Louis is constantly just thinking of her as a lover and then as a doll to play dress up with and it's very icky. Then there's the whole part where Armand gives Louis a young boy to feed on and Louis goes on and on about how he can feel the boy's 'hard sex thrusting against his leg' like...I could've gone my whole life without ever reading that.
I recommend this book because it is very beautifully written and the vampires are very interesting but go in with the knowledge that some of the shit is disturbing. Personally this is probably the worst book in the Vampire Chronicles mainly for the treatment of Claudia.
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
this book pmo. i can't get over the fact that claudia has the body of a FIVE YEAR OLD and they're talking about her breasts... SHE PHYSICALLY DOES NOT HAVE THEM.
Sensuous vampire novel predating (so to speak) the sparkly-vampire nonsense of more recent years. It held my interest as I recall.
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Would have been rated higher if not for the pedophilic undertones peppered throughout the book without any sort of critique or subtle indication of the writer that these elements were not okay. I don't expect writers to moralize or preach, but some indication that Rice was aware of these messed up dynamics would have been welcome.
Overall, a slow but engaging read.
Overall, a slow but engaging read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Classism