Interview With the Vampire (The Vampire Chronicles)

it has its moments, and damn, parts 1-3 were tough to read.

also, could've been gayer.

Ok I was promised sad gay vampires and I got that but I got way more weird underage plot than I bargained for?

I liked this, i think a lot of the concepts around vampirism it brings up are very compelling and i can see its fingerprints in almost every other modern vampire story. no spoilers but the idea that the world is not overpopulated with vampires because they kill themselves after a while of not being able to keep up with changing times is so real

This book is really a door opening. I was already interested in the topic of vampirism and its metaphors for other subjects in life, and Interview with the Vampire fullfilled all those thought wandering through my mind.

The characters have such depht that not only the fact the story is told through an interview roots the whole plot in something close to reality. These people feel real at the same time that they reach the post of iconic. There's not one character more likely to represent goth, rich, vampires than Lestat.

The relationship between him and Louis carries such weight throughout every minimal action later on the book that you feel how immortality carries on on the perspective of the character of the happenings of their non-life.

Everything is so dramatic and memorable even though there are jumps in time, the way Louis carry on the story doesn't leave the reader left out, even when there are topics you wish were more detailed, or told from another perspective (hence the necessity for the other books, which I will be going after).

It is an awesome read and it definitely spurred on my excitement about halloween in this time of the year.

Started off in physical form and had to change to audio bc of time. But this book? I get why they say it has a Gothic Vampire sense to it. I loved this book and I think I will be reading the rest of the series bc I need answers.

Also known as the gayest Gothic Vampire book without being the gayest Gothic Vampire book you'll read.

could be gayer

A contemplative read. Certainly a philosophical look at life (including the end of life, of course) and what it means to be alive. Rice does a wonderful job of describing despair and that cold seizure that anxiety has over the body. Grief is hard to deal with, I understand why she wrote and wrote and wrote.

An Odyssey of Grief that explores life and its beauty through the lens of death. Rice’s prose easily suck you into Louis’ mind and feel his immense emotions

** spoiler alert ** gay vampire baby traps his lover… YOU WONT BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENS NEXT!!

not sure what i was expecting but it was not that

(3rd re-read) THIS

Writing down a review for this book in hopes it’ll help me figure out my feelings for it.  Like many others that read Interview with the Vampire, I saw the movie first and definitely got into vampire stories because of Twilight (don’t worry I didn’t go into it thinking it was a ya romance).  I really appreciated the discussions and topics in the book, like religion, morality, death, love, the passing of time and the inevitable change of the world and humans. There were some beautiful quotes there. But the book did drag for me in a lot of places. I usually love in depth descriptions and hearing the inner musings of the characters, but Louis got too in his head for his own good!  The fact that Claudia exists as a character creeps me the hell out. Not, you know, the demonic child itself. But the sexualization of a literal 5-year-old. I don’t know about that… I think Louis could have questioned his morality and evil without having to kiss Claudia. He would have had the same struggles and the story could have perfectly continued if she remained as his child. Why did it have to be this weird mixture of them being parent and child but also lovers? Especially when latter we’re introduced to Armand and we’re specifically told that their love was not like that, because vampires have no need for that. I’m also not sure what the conclusion to this book is supposed to be? Sure, not all books need to have this profound meaning, but for all the discussions it had, to end with Louis being such an apathetic character reads almost ‘we live, we suffer, we die’. For most of the book I thought it could be something like ‘we need a reason to live, be it the people we love or the art we see’, but by the end Louis has nothing but he still caries on? Sure, you could argue he's not really living anymore. Is the message one as to feel their emotions in order to live? Anyway... I’m rambling with myself at this point.  Finally, Armand deserved better! I know he killed Claudia, but we already established my feelings for her. He was the character I wanted to know the most about, and I’m aware there’s an entire book about him, but I don’t think I liked this book enough to want to continue with the series.

** spoiler alert ** Mostly okay. The passage between Armand and Louis regarding the world passing by to be really thoughtful and probably what I’ll take away from the book, but the rest was just fine

Kind of predicted the very end? I said to myself "No, that would be too obvious" but then again maybe it had to happen. This was better than I thought it was going to be - I always know when a book is having an effect on me when I read it before bed, and then get up two hours later and start doing stuff dimly aware and half asleep. I have a vague impression of trying to close all the windows in the house so vampires didn't get in early this morning/last night. (War Of The Worlds did the same thing. I got up and started to try and have a really intense conversation with my husband, only to later find out everything I was saying was gibberish)

The prose was hard to keep up with initially as the story is alternating between being told to a character and through flashbacks. I almost found the story to be boring until the introduction of Claudia, which shook up the dynamic between Louis and Lestat. The exploration of a vampire child was interesting. There were still long portions of the book that felt too bloated; I feel this book could have worked more for me had it been shorter. I loved the ending of this book, and the message it was trying to send about immortality and vampirism.

Finished the book. Proceeded to give loud unarticulated opinions to my husband about it for 10 minutes. Trew the book across the room. I don't know.

Wow, I never pictured myself loving this book as much as the movie but I really did love it more. I saw the movie in high school and I didn’t appreciate it until I was older but now that I’ve read the book, I could care less about the movie. The characters are so brilliantly complex and well thought through, the storyline is so detailed without being stuffy, and the ending was just perfection. I will definitely be reading this series. It’s too good to miss. If I could give this 10 stars out of 5 I would. A high recommendation is not enough. READ IT.

I recall reading an Anne Rice vampire novel during my goth phase in high school. It was Blackwood Farm, which I now realize it's much later in the Vampire Chronicles. I remember the feeling of mystery and excitement reading it, particularly as a young gay teenager.

From Wikipedia: Rice's novels are well regarded by many members of the LGBT+ community, some of whom have perceived her vampire characters as allegorical symbols of isolation and social alienation. Similarly, a reviewer writing for The Boston Globe, observed that the vampires of her novels represent "the walking alienated, those of us who, by choice or not, dwell on the fringe."

In an interview Anne Rice said: “I think I have a gay sensibility and I feel like I’m gay, because I’ve always transcended gender, and I’ve always seen love as transcending gender,” she said in the 2017 interview, regarding the pervasiveness of queer characters in her writing. “In my books, I’ve always created bonds of love that have transcended gender.”

Somehow, I didn't get my hands on another of Anne Rice's novels for a while, and by the time I came across them again I thought maybe they'd be juvenile. I associated vampire novels with my hot topic phase in high school.

Well, I got Interview with the Vampire a year ago as a guilty pleasure but didn't start reading it until a week ago, I couldn't stop reading it. Yes, it has those gothic vibes. It's quite philosophical. It's weirdly erotic. Oddly pretty gay. There are very uncomfortable relationships. It's edgy and makes you uncomfortable. I enjoyed it.

I was very much influenced to read this series by the new show that came out in 2022. I loved the movie more than I love the books or the show, not going to lie here. It was great, but the movie just hit differently. The show is much more true to the books than the movie, but somehow the movie just... did it better.

Without much context (haven’t seen the movie or new series), I went into this with what I thought were realistic expectations.

I found myself disappointed and bored, though 🥲 Mild curiosity and hype kept me from dropping it.

Content warning for pedophilia.

2.5 stars,,,closer to 2,,, Gonna be honest I skim read the last 40% of this in maybe 20 minutes cos this book exhausted me. I started this in May and now it’s almost Christmas I just can not anymore omg. Listen I like the characters and the story as a whole a lot but MY GOD THIS BOOK KNOWS HOW TO BORE YOU! GOING OVER EVERY SINGLE DETAIL EVERY FEELING...ITS BORING! The plot points and what happened were really interesting but man it’s the delivery...I could not sit through another page of it I just could not so I skim read the last 40%...it’s so dull and mundane yet somehow still an entertaining story? Wild honestly. I think I just hate Louis

I really enjoyed the character complexity and depth, the discussions on mortality and morality, and the gossip like quality of the lore, plot twists and relationships. I think it was just too slow for me. I would love to talk and have discussions about this book more than I enjoyed reading it, that's what I believe.

I was promised gay vampires not pedophilia 🙅🏼‍♀️ not enough lestat !!

I bought this book from a few years back, on a trip to New Orleans, but I didn’t get around to reading it until recently. I’m glad I waited until I could give it proper attention. Rice wrote with sumptuous historical detail, and her locations stand out as their own characters. The book carries you throughout the world AND throughout history, and it does both beautifully. I found the beginning of this book very strong, and the ending even more so. I won’t spoil it if you’re like me and are just now digging into the Vampire Chronicles, but the last few lines may be my favorite part of the book. I did feel that the middle dragged a bit. I enjoy Louis, but he lacks the sheer force of will demonstrated by the supporting cast, and it occasionally feels like a big ask for the audience to stick with his narrative voice for the whole story. And while the “interview” framing device is obviously important, the asides start to feel clunky in areas where the reporter has little else to do. At first this book was a solid 3.5 for me. But thinking of the things that it did well makes me inclined to rate it higher. Certainly, it’s an influential work, and its fingerprints can be seen on most modern vampire media. For those reasons, I’m bumping my rating up to a 4.