Book Review of #1 Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice
Author: Anne Rice
ISBN: 0-345-33766-2
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Part of a Series: Vampire chronicles
Type of book: vampires, supernatural, philosophy, 1791-1970s? interview, child vampire, brooding, death, "horror", Louisiana, France, homosexuality, France, Europe
Year it was published: 1976
Summary:
Here are the confessions of a vampire. Hypnotic, shocking, and chillingly erotic, this is a novel of mesmerizing beauty and astonishing force- a story of danger and flight, of love and loss, of suspense and resolution, and of the extraordinary power of the senses. It is a novel only Anne Rice could write.
Characters:
Besides Armand and Lestat, who are fascinating men due to their possible histories as well as actions, the rest of the characters had no personality or life in them. Louis is the horror and somewhat better version of Edward Cullen from Twilight; Claudia, despite the fascinating aspect of her as a child vampire, was also as boring as Louis and wasn't interesting. The secondary characters such as Babette or her elder brother and whatnot, I couldn't care about them.
Theme:
I have no idea what I should have learned from this novel; being a vampire sucks?
Plot:
This takes place in first person narrative, with occasional interruptions by the boy who asks Louis to either expand on the point or perhaps to get him to discuss things in more detail. A lot of it flew right over my head. There's way too many unnecessary details that detract from enjoyment and although I've read this book for the second time, it's still confusing and unclear, as well as boring. I also do wonder how they kept everybody else from discovering their secret. If you're living next to somebody who never ages, wouldn't you notice as years pass?
Author Information:
(From goodreads.com)
born
October 04, 1941 in New Orleans, Louisiana, The United States
gender
female
website
http://www.annerice.com/
twitter username
AnneRiceAuthor
genre
Horror, Historical Fiction
About this author
Anne Rice is a best-selling American author of gothic, supernatural, historical, erotica, and later religious themed books. Best known for her Vampire Chronicles, her prevailing thematical focus is on love, death, immortality, existentialism, and the human condition. She was married to poet Stan Rice for 41 years until his death in 2002. Her books have sold nearly 100 million copies, making her one of the most widely read authors in modern history.
She uses the pseudonym Anne Rampling for adult-themed fiction (i.e., erotica) and A.N. Roquelaure for fiction featuring sexually explicit sado-masochism.
Opinion:
Too much detail, too much discussion and boredom. As someone so beautifully said on goodreads.com review of Interview with the Vampire, Louis has got to be the most boring vampire. Louis is not the exciting and heart palpitating as Lestat, but still, he has no charm and I have a hard time understanding why so many vampires fall in love with him. I first read this book in middle school, and even back then I didn't like it, although that rating would probably have been a 2 or 3 stars. But years and books later, my rating has changed to borderline between 0 and 1. Anne Rice never allows for the reader to use the imagination but instead builds an exact structure of how the reader should see and feel of what is going on with Lois. With too much pointless details, its easy to skip sections and still understand what's going on.
1 out of 5
(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)
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