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A review by will_cherico
Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice
adventurous
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
1st Read: There's a very unique horror that this book presents regarding vampires. While Dracula is scary because it represents an invading force and 'Salem's Lot is scary because it presents the creatures as entirely unstoppable, Interview with the Vampire's horror comes from two veins (no pun intended). The first is the almost cosmic dread that comes with the notion of immortality and the need to kill others to survive. What is initially presented as romantic and sensual quickly gives way to waking misery, a sort of addiction and eternal grief that resembles Anne Rice's own experiences with the death of a child, alcoholism, and OCD while writing the novel. This is the second aspect of the novel's horror. For as beautiful as the world seems to Louis when he's turned into a vampire, he can't seem to shake these similar vices that affect everyday humans - the idea that even supernatural venues can't escape such common concepts to the point where they loom over the vampire's head like death does to a human is a terrifying one.
I initially didn't care for the episodic nature of the book or for Louis as a character, but as it went on both of these things began to grow on me. By framing it as an interview it makes sense for Louis to jump from one kind of vignette to another, culminating in the final tragedy that left him in the state he's in at the start of the novel. His character was annoying to me at first with how passive he was, but I realize now that, in his own words, his passivity isn't a mere flaw on Anne Rice's part - it's the root of nearly all the evil in the novel. Rice tells such a poetic and real story of abuse, obsession, and fear that sometimes the vampires feel more human than the humans.
2nd Read: It's kind of crazy how totally doomed everything in this book feels. Rereading this for a Vampire Literature class, I focused heavily on the word choice of each scene, and it feels so carefully crafted to be such a miserable and horrific tale. It's a tragic fall from grace with no rise to power to precede it. For all of his immortality, Louis is trapped in the same recurring cycles - abuse, isolation, and that damned Lestat. I noticed as well this time around just how interested Rice is in aesthetics, specifically the shallow consumption of them. We're kind of compared to the vampires as we read, challenged to ask ourselves why we're reading the book in the first place. Are we truly getting something out of Louis' story, or are we going to end up like the boy he tells it to? Seeing it as nothing but an erotic tale of adventure and romance? Thematically, this book is so much more dense than you could ever expect it to be. Narratively I still feel like it's lacking *something* that I can't quite put my finger on. Certain threads like the search for the origin of vampires are dropped without much reflection from the characters after a few pages, and other times it feels like we're being asked to listen in on extremely circular conversations. What else can I expect, I suppose, from the ultimate vampire melodrama?
I initially didn't care for the episodic nature of the book or for Louis as a character, but as it went on both of these things began to grow on me. By framing it as an interview it makes sense for Louis to jump from one kind of vignette to another, culminating in the final tragedy that left him in the state he's in at the start of the novel. His character was annoying to me at first with how passive he was, but I realize now that, in his own words, his passivity isn't a mere flaw on Anne Rice's part - it's the root of nearly all the evil in the novel. Rice tells such a poetic and real story of abuse, obsession, and fear that sometimes the vampires feel more human than the humans.
2nd Read: It's kind of crazy how totally doomed everything in this book feels. Rereading this for a Vampire Literature class, I focused heavily on the word choice of each scene, and it feels so carefully crafted to be such a miserable and horrific tale. It's a tragic fall from grace with no rise to power to precede it. For all of his immortality, Louis is trapped in the same recurring cycles - abuse, isolation, and that damned Lestat. I noticed as well this time around just how interested Rice is in aesthetics, specifically the shallow consumption of them. We're kind of compared to the vampires as we read, challenged to ask ourselves why we're reading the book in the first place.