Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - Interview with the Vampire

Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice

37 reviews

dannilmp's review

emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I picked this book up for the interest of seeing one of the iconic pieces of vampire literature. I was not amazed by what I read and if we don't count the distubing sections and themes of this novel then it was not exactly memorable for me. I'm glad I chose to read this in audiobook format because I doubt I would have finished it if I were reading the physical copy.

Good points. There were not many good points to this novel. I think the best written part for me was Claudia's struggle to come to terms with her life and the constraints that come with it. I genuinly felt for her character at the times where I wasn't slighly repulsed by her actions or behaviuors. I felt the main cast, Louis, Lestat and Claudia were fleshed out and they did have some development over the course of the story but other characters really fell flat in comparison.

On the other hand, I wanted to see more about the mysticism and myths about vampire creation and culture and there didn't seem to be much of this at all. There were also times where certain comments or behaviours made by various characters, mainly Louis, Claudia and Lestat made me feel uncomfortable and almost made me want to quit reading the book then! Whether I will attempt to read any more books in this series is a good question that I currently don't have an answer to.

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taleofabibliophile's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

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danaslitlist's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

This book is way too long and drawn out. Louis is the most annoying character and I honestly need both Lestat and Louis to stay away from children. Louis is too self righteous and thinks highly of his own intelligence when he’s actually quite dumb; I don’t understand the whole full circle idea of him now understanding Lestat either when Lestat was an abusive prick that by the end we’re supposed to sympathize and understand.

Other than that I found the majority of this book interesting and it had good ideas and moments. I know this is a series that jumps from character to character so I might pick up one or two more.

But I am baffled by the weird groomer/romance/“this is my vampire child but I wanna sleep with her” relationship between Louis and Claudia. I can’t imagine why it needed to be in the book at all and I was so f*cking uncomfortable the entire time they are together. And there are scenes with Lestat and a young boy too that I was going “hey Anne Rice, what the hell?”.

There were just so many ideas that could’ve taken over those weird moments and would’ve made the story better. Focus on Louis, Claudia and the other vampire woman as a family to make the rest of the book even more impactful. Lean into Louis relationship with mysterious theater Vampire, compare and contrast him more to Lestat for full effect! Just so many things that were glossed over to instead spend way too much time romanticizing a relationship between a child and her father figure.

Would I recommend this book? No.
Did I hate it? No.
Am I confused by a lot of it? Yup!

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nightfell's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book has the most developed characters of any vampire novel I've read so far. It took a while, but the main characters really grew on me and the ending really left an impression that I wasn't expecting.

It was slow to read at times, especially the beginning, but once I got into it, I was engaged in the story, and by the end, each character arc ended in satisfying and bittersweet ways that further endeared me to them.

I would recommend this book to anyone who loves vampires, and would advise them to try to stick with it to the end.

I know Louis and Claudia have a father-daughter relationship...however why did Anne Rice feel the need to have them call each other their lover etc? Like... I know it's not like that but I felt icky sometimes idk if that was just me.

I loved Louis and Arnard, I interpreted their relationship as queer (idk how u wouldn't), and it was funny how Louis would keep internally justify their love as platonic, metor-mentee kind of bond but PLEASE they were spewing the most romantic lines. I was crushed by the ending, they were so close to happiness together.

In the end, I felt so bad for Lestat, and I liked how full circle Louis arc was as he finally understood Lestat, and in a way became like him by the end.

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stooby's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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thesawyerbean's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

A dark, eerie and dramatic memoir of the life and experiences of a vampire named Louis, told in the context of an interview with a terrified but intrigued boy.
The story unfurls before us, laced with treachery, eroticism, death, love and a lot of blood; paced with twists, turns and climaxes; and underpinned with a nuanced discussion on existence and the concept of good and evil.

What made me not enjoy it as much as I could’ve was the lack of connection with the protagonist. I know fundamentally he is supposed to be evil as a murderous vampire, but I think in reading vampire fiction we suspend the vilification of this inhumanity as one both expected and understood. However, the seeming obsession in contemporary vampire fiction of making important characters have involvement in the slave trade/confederacy is so off-putting and honestly needless. In addition, his relationship with Claudia (although a grey area considering her actual temporal age), was very strange and gave off similar vibes to that in Lolita. Overall my empathy with Louis was extremely stunted from the get-go which made the rest of the story quite the slog.

That was a shame indeed, as the writing is incredible - vivid, atmospheric and poetic. If my gripes with the characterisation were non existent I’d be tempted to give it 5 stars just for that. As an important part of the vampire canon I’d say this was worth the read, especially for spooky month.

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