Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice

54 reviews

rwsmith's review against another edition

reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I went into this book wanting a high-fantasy vampire tale, which wasn't quite the right expectation. The focus was more philosophical than I originally expected, but not necessarily in a bad way. If you are into discussion of life and the human condition, this is a great vampire read for you.
I think due to my mismatched expectations, I found some of the characters less "lovable", but I was no less interested in the characters. They ended up being slightly predictable towards the end, but the plot of the story kept things moving forward anyways.
As far as diversity, there is 1 female main character (who is literally a child, classic) and few, if any, non-white characters. There is at least one queer relationship, and the fact that it is queer does not have an effect on whether that relationship is good, bad, etc. which I appreciated. However, the child female character has a very complicated and vaguely problematic relationship with the main character, which is where all the reviews mentioning pedophilia comes from. The main character acknowledges this complexity, so it isn't an oblivious presentation, but it is still present.
Overall, I love vampires, and so I enjoyed this book, despite the mismatched expectations causing it to be a bit of a slog to finish. If I was reading a hard copy and not an audiobook, this likely would have been a DNF for me, simply for attention span reasons. I recommend it to other vampire people and philosophical peoplw though! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Pedophilia, Religious bigotry, and Child death

eauderat's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Grief, Child death, Gore, Blood, Cannibalism, Child abuse, and Colonisation

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Stalking, Pedophilia, Racism, Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Religious bigotry, and Slavery

Minor: Classism, Death of parent, Dementia, and Sexism

nerdkitten's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Grief, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Kidnapping, Racism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Body horror, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Racial slurs, and Gore

Moderate: Mental illness, Terminal illness, Animal death, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Classism, Stalking, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Cursing, Gun violence, Self harm, Medical content, Sexism, Sexual content, Addiction, Dementia, Animal cruelty, Abandonment, Colonisation, Xenophobia, and Excrement

readerette's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-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

4.5

The retrospective monologue gets a little tiresome after a while, particularly when the interviewer stops asking questions and it just becomes one long reflection, but this story captivated me. I felt immersed in Louis's experiences and the author's take on vampire lore.

I could not remember the ending from prior reading or the movie, so I was able to read it as if it were the first time and find myself pleasantly disturbed by the possibilities of how the story could unfold.

Despite the creativity with what vampirism means in th Anne Rice's world, I would definitely call this book classic horror, with the twist being that these vampires are not mindless monsters. They may be monsters, but the nuance of what makes each of them a monster is what makes them compelling. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Child death, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, and Slavery

gabriella_'s review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gore, Physical abuse, Alcohol, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Misogyny, Animal cruelty, Blood, Grief, Medical content, Abandonment, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Torture, Toxic friendship, Sexism, Adult/minor relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Animal death, Bullying, Body shaming, Child death, Chronic illness, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Emotional abuse, Rape, Stalking, Toxic relationship, and Violence

kalira's review

dark tense 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? Yes

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Murder, Slavery, Abandonment, Blood, Child death, Classism, Death, Colonisation, Fire/Fire injury, and Grief

ginbat's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Moderate: Toxic friendship and Death

Minor: Grief and Fire/Fire injury

zombiezami's review against another edition

dark emotional tense

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Animal cruelty, Blood, Toxic relationship, Grief, Child death, Violence, Kidnapping, Animal death, Murder, Sexism, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Sexual content, Slavery, Death of parent, Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, and Incest

Minor: Colonisation, Fire/Fire injury, and Torture

emmablue's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Child death, and Grief

taleofabibliophile's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Murder, Racism, Slavery, Torture, Toxic friendship, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Blood, Child death, Confinement, and Death

Moderate: Gore, Body horror, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Alcohol, Ableism, Racial slurs, and Suicidal thoughts