Reviews with content warning for Toxic friendship - Interview with the Vampire

There's only so much casual pedophilia I can take. I tried to finish just to finish. I can briefly tolerate that Louie is an unreliable narrator and begrudgingly read through it even though he doesn't seem to show any character growth in the hundreds of years since he was a bored, unthinking plantation owner who cared more about capitalism than the humanity of the people who worked his land. I just couldnt do it for nearly 300 pages.

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gabriella_'s review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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? Yes

4.0

I felt a lot of things reading this book - parts of it are deeply problematic (re: Claudia), but if you go in the with a grain of salt and self care ready, I think this is a solid read

The yearning is so strong in this book. There are moments where Louis’ sorrow is so tangible it has a physicality. It drapes over the narrative of prose of the book like a curtain.

“I didn’t know I thought these things. I spoke them now as my thoughts. And they were my most profound feelings taking a shape they could never have taken had I not spoken them, had I not thought them out this way in conversation with another. I thought myself then possessed of a passive mind, in a sense. I mean that my mind could only pull itself together, formulate thought out of the muddle of longing and pain, when it was touched by another mind; fertilized by it; deeply excited by that other mind and driven to form conclusions. I felt now the rarest, most acute alleviation of loneliness. I could easily visualize and suffer the moment years before in another country, [. . .] and then that passionate and doomed affection for Claudia which made loneliness retreat behind the soft indulgence of the senses, the same senses that longed for the kill. [. . .] And it was as if the great feminine longing of my mind were being awakened again to be satisfied. And this I felt despite my own words: ‘But it’s that dark, that empty. And it is without consolation.’”

The entire time I felt like I was seeing through Louis’ eyes and was keenly aware of

Lestat’s watchful gaze

“But Louis, this is the very spirit of your age. Don’t you see that? Everyone else feels as you feel. Your fall from grace and faith has been the fall of a century.”

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greenrequiem's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.25

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jasminawithab's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

5.0

read this a few months ago and have not stopped thinking about it since. i regularly go back to reread certain passages and pages.

claudia my beloved

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ginbat's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

This should be a book they analyze in high school or college classrooms. There's just so many reflective themes. If someone had told me a synopsis of this book, I'm not sure I would have been interested. But I can see now why it was so successful, it's not about the start and end or even about the journey. It's about something else entirely.

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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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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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