A review by franklloydweft
Interview with the Vampire: Claudia's Story by Ashley Marie Witter

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

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

3.5

I enjoyed this as a graphic novel adaptation, yes, but as a further explanation of Claudia not as much. When going into this I expected Witter to read between the lines a little more into Claudia’s psyche, where what I got was what I felt quite a surface level interpretation.

For example, it is told to us in the book that Louis, Claudia, and Madeline have a bit of time together as vampires before the Theatre comes to capture them. I was excited to see how Witter interpreted that. It made sense to brush over it in Louis’s story, as that life with Madeline wasn’t exactly his idea. But to Claudia, that time was probably a bit of calm before the storm that would be her execution. She got to have a bit of that happiness she craved before the end.

An adaptation like this gives the adapter the opportunity to do that sort of thing. There were some additions I did enjoy that made me wonder what Witter would have done with more creative liberty. I loved Claudia’s moment asking for a lady doll from Madeline.

I enjoyed hearing a bit of her thought process in her plan to kill Lestat, as from what I remember she didn’t tell Louis anything at all before doing it.

The little bits of her internal monologue felt like they just needed some more development, and maybe some more Claudia exclusive content we didn’t see from Louis. This is an adaptation, you can add your own creative license and still maintain the spirit (see AMC+). As a graphic novel though? This is gorgeous. The way the characters are drawn and the bright contrast of blood red against sepia tones and black feels perfect for this narrative. Witter’s art style fits perfectly into Anne Rice’s gothic world, and I think she does a fantastic job bringing the literary descriptions of characters and scenery to life. The last few pages of this book?

With the yellow dress?

DIABOLICAL in the best way! My main complaint here boils down to the lack of canon divergence. As much as I love this story (why else would I buy a spin off comic for it) I already read it once and have watched adaptations of it countless times. Give me something new! I want to see it!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Incest, Pedophilia

I put incest and pedophilia as moderate and not graphic because there is plausible deniability here with how it’s adapted. Claudia does refer to Louis as both “father” and “lover” but there is never any sexual interaction or discussion between them that could not be interpreted away as conversations between a guardian and child. There is only one on the mouth kiss, and it is altogether drawn very chaste. However, knowing how the book described their relationship I thought I would still include the warning. This could still be triggering to some.