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3.76 AVERAGE
3.76 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Anne Rice's "Interview with the Vampire" isn't just a vampire story; it's a raw, aching question: What do you do with forever?
Louis, our narrator, bleeds his soul onto the page, grappling with immortality's weight. It's not about fangs and blood, though there's plenty of that. It's about the relentless aloneness of a life that never ends, the constant wrestling with right and wrong when those lines blur into darkness.
Lestat is a masterclass in how to wield your pain as a weapon. He's a reminder that unchecked power, untethered from empathy, devours everything in its path. He's the villain we secretly understand, the one who whispers, 'What if I just... took everything I wanted?' He's the shadow side we're all afraid to admit we recognize.
Rice delivers a tale about the messy, beautiful, brutal search for meaning, even when you think you have all the time in the world. She reminds us that even monsters are just trying to figure it out.
Louis, our narrator, bleeds his soul onto the page, grappling with immortality's weight. It's not about fangs and blood, though there's plenty of that. It's about the relentless aloneness of a life that never ends, the constant wrestling with right and wrong when those lines blur into darkness.
Lestat is a masterclass in how to wield your pain as a weapon. He's a reminder that unchecked power, untethered from empathy, devours everything in its path. He's the villain we secretly understand, the one who whispers, 'What if I just... took everything I wanted?' He's the shadow side we're all afraid to admit we recognize.
Rice delivers a tale about the messy, beautiful, brutal search for meaning, even when you think you have all the time in the world. She reminds us that even monsters are just trying to figure it out.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Murder
I first read this in 1994. I loved it then, I love it now. Little did I know that book 2 would be even better. So looking forward to enjoying that one again. Beautiful, mysterious, heartbreaking (oh, Claudia!!), fantastic.
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
one thing about me is i’m about to analyze this in my head like it’s great literature. i loved iwtv so so much and i’m not even sure why? the whole thing is written in a way that is so emotionally charged that it was very hard to put down. i need a copy of the vampire lestat right now oh my god
read count: 2
read count: 2
I really wanted to like this book. And I did in the beginning; I found the frame intriguing, and the handling of vampires unique and dark. I loved Lestat for how awful he was, and I was interested in the dynamics between him, Louis, and Claudia. Then Lestat "died" and it all went down hill. As others have said, Louis is extremely boring, and without Lestat to carry the novel it really does fall flat. Of course he comes back later, but by that point I've totally lost interest and am basically skimming to the end. It dragged, and dragged, and dragged. Part of this is the narrative style, which is necessarily somewhat distant, but it wasn't helped by Louis just being uninteresting as a character. Plus, the weirdness with him and Claudia--no thanks. I would like to see more of Lestat but I don't think I'll be up for reading the rest of the books.
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Update 2024: I found this overall more enjoyable the second time around. I think a lot of this has to do with having seen AMC’s Tv show (EXCELLENT show btw) which allowed me to imagine everything more vividly. I do find Anne Rice’s descriptions of the overall setting and events to be a bit lacking in vivid detail, it’s like a surface retelling that skips a lot. I do prefer the show and its new takes over the originals but of course that wouldn’t exist without this original source material. I am looking forward to the next two books in the series which will be new to me!
Original Review 2018:
The first half of this was absolutely stunning! Unfortunately, the second half was a bit of a drop. Overall, I did quite like this book. Here are some choice quotes that I really love:
"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 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 made light. Ticking, ticking, ticking, the precision of the clock, in a room as vast as the universe."
"A shimmering, precious creature soon to grow old, soon to die, soon to lose these moments that in their intangibility promised us, wrongly... wrongly, an immortality. As if it were our very birthright, which we could not come to grasp the meaning of until this time of middle life when we looked on only as many years ahead as already lay behind us. When every moment, every moment must be first known and then savored."
Original Review 2018:
The first half of this was absolutely stunning! Unfortunately, the second half was a bit of a drop. Overall, I did quite like this book. Here are some choice quotes that I really love:
"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 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 made light. Ticking, ticking, ticking, the precision of the clock, in a room as vast as the universe."
"A shimmering, precious creature soon to grow old, soon to die, soon to lose these moments that in their intangibility promised us, wrongly... wrongly, an immortality. As if it were our very birthright, which we could not come to grasp the meaning of until this time of middle life when we looked on only as many years ahead as already lay behind us. When every moment, every moment must be first known and then savored."
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-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