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3.76 AVERAGE
3.76 AVERAGE
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
dark
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
It is a bit dated but it’s still a good entertaining story.
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
Yes
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I read it. It was weird.
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
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:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
“Let the flesh instruct the mind.”
Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice tells of the trials and tribulations of the vampire, Louis, as he searches for meaning in his damned and immortal life. He communicates his story to an unnamed journalist as he reflects upon his life prior to becoming a vampire, turning at the hand’s of the sadistic and manipulative Lestat, and his evolving and complicated relationship with a child vampire, Claudia. This story is dense with themes of loss, expansion, power dynamics, lust, revenge, and transitions.
Interview with the Vampire started at structurally sound and impactful, and I was very into the beginning half of my reading experience. However, I am rather confused with how Anne Rice continued to go forward. It started with flashes back to the present with Louis communicating his life story to the journalist, and then somewhere along the way we fell completely into the past and the storytelling was almost entirely eradicated. The text was also a little overly grandiose, and somewhat redundant. I know this probably was a stylistic choice, but If I had to read the word preternatural one more time I was going to lose it. Also, the whole time I just wished it was Lestat telling his side of things because Louis is kind of exhausting.
I really hate to say this...but I think I enjoyed the movie more. Yes, the one with the intolerable Tom Cruise. There are so many fascinating and spellbinding images that Anne Rice presents us with, but to me, overall I found this read to be somewhat overindulgent. I think I am just really picky when it comes to tales of vampires.
I will give this one a 3 out of 5 stars.
My favorite quote was, “Like all strong people, she suffered always a measure of loneliness; she was a marginal outsider, a secret infidel of a certain sort.”
Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice tells of the trials and tribulations of the vampire, Louis, as he searches for meaning in his damned and immortal life. He communicates his story to an unnamed journalist as he reflects upon his life prior to becoming a vampire, turning at the hand’s of the sadistic and manipulative Lestat, and his evolving and complicated relationship with a child vampire, Claudia. This story is dense with themes of loss, expansion, power dynamics, lust, revenge, and transitions.
Interview with the Vampire started at structurally sound and impactful, and I was very into the beginning half of my reading experience. However, I am rather confused with how Anne Rice continued to go forward. It started with flashes back to the present with Louis communicating his life story to the journalist, and then somewhere along the way we fell completely into the past and the storytelling was almost entirely eradicated. The text was also a little overly grandiose, and somewhat redundant. I know this probably was a stylistic choice, but If I had to read the word preternatural one more time I was going to lose it. Also, the whole time I just wished it was Lestat telling his side of things because Louis is kind of exhausting.
I really hate to say this...but I think I enjoyed the movie more. Yes, the one with the intolerable Tom Cruise. There are so many fascinating and spellbinding images that Anne Rice presents us with, but to me, overall I found this read to be somewhat overindulgent. I think I am just really picky when it comes to tales of vampires.
I will give this one a 3 out of 5 stars.
My favorite quote was, “Like all strong people, she suffered always a measure of loneliness; she was a marginal outsider, a secret infidel of a certain sort.”