Anne Rice

In a darkened room a young man sits telling the macabre and eerie story of his life - the story of a vampire, gifted with eternal life, cursed with an exquisite craving for human blood. Anne Rice's compulsively readable novel is arguably the most celebrated work of vampire fiction since Bram Stoker's Dracula was published in 1897. As the Washington Post said on its first publication, it is a 'thrilling, strikingly original work of the imagination . . . sometimes horrible, sometimes beautiful, always unforgettable'.

Interview with the Vampire

This is the story of Louis, as told in his own words, of his journey through mortal and immortal life. Louis recounts how he became a vampire at the hands of the radiant and sinister Lestat and how he became indoctrinated, unwillingly, into the vampire way of life. His story ebbs and flows through the streets of New Orleans, defining crucial moments such as his discovery of the exquisite lost young child Claudia, wanting not to hurt but to comfort her with the last breaths of humanity he has inside. Yet, he makes Claudia a vampire, trapping her womanly passion, will, and intelligence inside the body of a small child. Louis and Claudia form a seemingly unbreakable alliance and even "settle down" for a while in the opulent French Quarter. Louis remembers Claudia's struggle to understand herself and the hatred they both have for Lestat that sends them halfway across the world to seek others of their kind. Louis and Claudia are desperate to find somewhere they belong, to find others who understand, and someone who knows what and why they are.

Louis and Claudia travel Europe, eventually coming to Paris and the ragingly successful Theatre des Vampires--a theatre of vampires pretending to be mortals pretending to be vampires. Here they meet the magnetic and ethereal Armand, who brings them into a whole society of vampires. But Louis and Claudia find that finding others like themselves provides no easy answers and in fact presents dangers they scarcely imagined.

Originally begun as a short story, the book took off as Anne wrote it, spinning the tragic and triumphant life experiences of a soul. As well as the struggles of its characters, Interview captures the political and social changes of two continents. The novel also introduces Lestat, Anne's most enduring character, a heady mixture of attraction and revulsion. The book, full of lush description, centers on the themes of immortality, change, loss, sexuality, and power.

Interview With the Vampire (The Vampire Chronicles)

kari <33

“Like all strong people, she suffered always a measure of loneliness.”

“Do you think that angels are detached?” asked the vampire. 

The boy thought for a moment. “Yes,” he said. 

“But aren’t angels capable of love?” asked the vampire. “Don’t angels gaze upon the face of God with complete love?”

The boy thought for a moment. “Love or adoration,” he said. 

“As long as the monuments stand, it still rises. The feeling, at least here… and there… it remains the same.”

Nica

"I suppose that is the nature of the monument. Be it a small house or a mansion of Corinthian columns and wrought-iron lace. The monument does not say that this or that man walked here. No, that what he felt in one time in one spot continues. The moon that rose over New Orleans then still rises. As long as the monuments stand, it still rises. The feeling, at least here…and there…it remains the same.”

“Killing is no ordinary act,” said the vampire. “One doesn’t simply glut oneself on blood.” He shook his head. “It is the experience of another’s life for certain, and often the experience of the loss of that life through the blood, slowly."

"People who cease to believe in God or goodness altogether still believe in the devil. I don’t know why. No, I do indeed know why. Evil is always possible. And goodness is eternally difficult. But you must understand, possession is really another way of saying someone is mad."

andrea valentina 

As if the night had said to me, ‘You are the night and the night alone understands you and enfolds you in its arms’ One with the shadows. Without nightmare. An inexplicable peace.

bella <3

People who cease to believe in God or goodness altogether still believe in the devil. I don't know why. No, I do indeed know why. Evil is always possible. And goodness is eternally difficult.

who else, knowing us as we know each other, could do anything but destroy us? yet we can love each other. 

High Fidelity

“It’s very…beautiful, actually,” said the boy. “I wonder if…but what happened?”

“You wonder if I was a handsome man when I was alive,” said the vampire. The boy nodded. “I was. Nothing structurally is changed in me. Only I never knew that I was handsome.

I never laugh at death, no matter how often and regularly I am the cause of it.

People who cease to believe in God or goodness altogether still believe in the devil. I don’t know why. No, I do indeed know why. Evil is always possible. And goodness is eternally difficult.

Omar Fernandez

"I don't understand," said the boy. "I thought aesthetic decisions could be completely immoral. What about the cliché of the artist who leaves his wife and children so he can paint? Or Nero playing the harp while Rome burned?"

"Both were moral decisions. Both served a higher good, in the mind of the artist. The conflict lies between the mor- als of the artist and the morals of society, not between aes- thetics and morality. But often this isn't understood; and here comes the waste, the tragedy. An artist, stealing paints from a store, for example, imagines himself to have made an inevitable but immoral decision, and then he sees him- self as fallen from grace; what follows is despair and petty irresponsibility, as if morality were a great glass world which can be utterly shattered by one act.

Interesting thread on how historically accurate this representation could be in 

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/ntu8hx/comment/h2247s2/

But in 1795 these slaves did not have the character which you have seen in film and novels of the South. They were not soft spoken, brown skinned people in drab rags who spoke an English dialect. They were Africans. And, they were Islanders; that is, some of them had come from Santo Domingo. They were very black and totally foreign; they spoke in their African tongues and they spoke the French patois; and when they sang, they sang African songs.

You no longer look "through a glass darkly." But you cannot pass back to the world of human warmth with your new eyes.

You are like an adult who, looking back on his childhood, realizes that he never appreciated it. You cannot, as a man, go back to the nursery and play with your toys, asking for the love and care to be showered on you again simply because now you know their worth.

Alice

I have never belonged anywhere with anyone at any time! It was too painful, too perfectly true.

And now I’ll fight for you. Do you see how ruthless I am in love? Is this what you meant by love?

Everything except the vampire is subject to constant corruption and distortion

But I still did not realize how mad she was, and how accustomed to dreaming; and that she would not cry out for reality, rather would feed reality to her dreams

You are the night and the night alone understands you and enfolds you in its arms. 

The only power that exists is inside ourselves.…

I saw him more kindly than before. Lost like the rest of us. Not the jealous protector of any knowledge he was afraid to share. He knew nothing. There was nothing to know.

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

qila

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?

Bowie 

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

fris🐝

CLARICE LISPECTOR

Este romance começa com um jovem repórter entrevistando Louis de Pointe du Lac, nascido em 1766 e transformado em vampiro por Lestat. Luis conta sua história aos ouvidos atentos do repórter, revelando segredos do mundo dos vampiros.

Entrevista com o vampiro

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.

soir

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. 

Tsu 💙

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. 

baku

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. 

Kiersten

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 

Florence

venus

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

Molly M

not sure what i was expecting but it was not that

envee

In a darkened room a young man sits telling the macabre and eerie story of his life - the story of a vampire, gifted with eternal life, cursed with an exquisite craving for human blood.
--back cover

The First Book in the Vampire Chronicles

Filipa Carvalho

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… <spoiler>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.</spoiler>

I’m also not sure what the conclusion to this book is supposed to be? <spoiler> 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? </spoiler> Anyway... I’m rambling with myself at this point. 

Finally, Armand deserved better!<spoiler> I know he killed Claudia, but we already established my feelings for her.</spoiler> 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.

Cody Degen

** 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)

Geoffrey Froggatt

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.

Mae Erceg

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 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. 

Bri Billaney

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.

Interview With the Vampire

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.

Emiley Jones

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. 

Fran Gutiérrez

Maria Elkoro-Iribe

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

Adrian Victor

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.

Interview with the Vampire

Reviews

Highlights