3.76 AVERAGE

charlotte79t4's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH

Honestly just lost interest. It started feeling like a chore to put the audiobook on and what’s the point in that.

Between the slow pace and the pedophilia, this books was hard to get through.
dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
dark emotional medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
dark mysterious tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

The central point I pulled out was that apathy is the true evil, far more destructive than all other motivations. This theme is so well communicated through the plot and prose that’s sometimes clumsy but occasionally absolutely beautiful.

 If I’d read this as a teen, I’d have become an absolute goth menace, fully obsessed with Louis. 

Why did the movie change the ending though?? That’s so crazy to me, it was such a good adaptation up to that point and I can’t google it cuz I want to avoid spoilers about the series or the show.

Oh man, this book. Every time I read it, I find something new.

So, first off, I love Louis and his struggles with morality. I read this book before I watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer for the first time, and it really shaped my idea of vampires as metaphor for struggling with the meaning of life. I also love Lestat, because he's such an idiot in this book, and he and Louis just do not get each other but are so clearly dependent on each other for a fulfilling life as vampires, and it's beautiful and weird and angry and sweet. I also have SO MANY THOUGHTS about Claudia. Not sure if Rice intended this, but I got a lot of disability subtext (for lack of a better term, we'll go with that) with her this time around. She's stuck in a body that she'll never be able to use like a "normal" person, fights so hard to be able to live independently, and is looked on as an abomination by the other vampires she and Louis encounter toward the end of the book. Louis also muses about how he's probably treated her like a mindless child more times than he realizes and regrets not acknowledging her agency (he doesn't frame it in those words, because written in the seventies, but it's the general idea).

If you're a fan of pulp fiction and vampires, I can't recommend this book (the first in a series) enough. It's like trashy, campy horror mixed with high art. It's great.
dark emotional reflective sad medium-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

2,5 stars. this was just kind of... meh? nothing too terrible, but also definitely NOT good. like, at all.

to be honest, i only read this as a complement to the series in hopes it would add to my rewatching experience, but i doubt it will. anne rice tries to do SO. MANY. THINGS. which just ends up being sloppy
dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Time period, Louis' past, time at Rue Royale, theater, Madeline, Claudia's death, living with Armand, the interview form & end were all different.

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