I usually don’t read pure horror stories but I’ve always enjoyed vampire romance books and vampire movies of any genre. The Vampire Chronicles Vol. 1 has sat on the shelf for years at home and I finally decided to read it. The volume contains the first three books in the series: Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat and Queen of the Damned (I’ll review the latter two in other posts). I grew up with the movie, Interview with the Vampire, with Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise, and I think that’s where my fascination with vampires began. Later, when the movie, Queen of the Damned, came out, my craziness for hot goth guys and wild musicians grew. This second movie, I believe, takes elements from the second and third books so I’m anxious to read those books to see how they differ from the movie.
Anyway, on to this book…
I was a little disappointed to realize the character of the interviewer was simply referred to as ‘the boy’ throughout the whole book and, although the book is titled ‘Interview,’ I’d hoped the author showed the story instead of telling it to us. Unfortunately, we are told everything that happens from Louis’s POV. After a while, I grew comfortable with this format and just focused on the story.
Though I’m not surprised that thousands of humans died—this is a vampire novel after all, and no love or happiness is needed or required—the cruelty and lack of conscience was difficult to read at times. Louis and Claudia’s relationship bothered me. She was his daughter, his best friend, his lover of sorts, his pain, his abuser, and his reason for staying trapped with Lestat and with her for so many decades. She’s a grown woman trapped in a five-year-old child’s body. I didn’t like her to say the least. The way Louis and Claudia treated each other, as though they were married and in romantic love, not parental-and-child love, disgusted me. The sexual innuendoes to child molestation was surprising, though I don’t think every reader will pick up on that or agree with me.
I hate to say this but I thought of Louis as rather a weak character. He knew what he did was wrong, what others did was wrong, but he just didn’t care. He states in the latter half of the novel that true evil is passiveness, that doing nothing to prevent something bad from happening is just as bad as doing it yourself. He’s full of pain and regret; he lacks courage and a backbone to stand up to those who control him (Lestat and Claudia). He wants love, kindness, light and answers, but he lives in blood, deceit and darkness. He never receives his true desire and I feel sorry for him, but I felt he brought this bad existence on himself.
Lestat is cruel, manipulative, ignorant, and plain vicious but, unlike Louis, he doesn’t hide his true nature or deny it which almost makes him more likable than Louis. Claudia is just like Lestat but she physically appears innocent and plays with Louis’s guilt better than Lestat ever could. The hero of this book, if you can even call Louis that, is trapped under their spell for close to a century and he finally escapes with the help of another vampire, Armand. Louis has so many questions but doesn’t ask them when he finally has the opportunity. It’s frustrating. Even with his new friend he’s not truly free because he loses himself to blandness and misery that can’t be vanquished. Louis changes so much throughout the course of the book, from a gentle, naïve man to a man full of shame who still wants to be human, to a monster who ignores his shame and regret, to a monster with questions and who tries to be human again, to a monster who finally accepts the evilness inside him, to a shell of a man who lives his life in a bubble of nothingness. It’s a sad legacy to leave behind but his story is very compelling from cover to cover.
Overall, I enjoyed this book but from now on I’ll probably just stick with the movie. Though quite a bit is lost during the translation from page to screen, I think the movie is easier to understand and it doesn’t drag in description as the book does. Hardcore Anne Rice fans may not agree with that assessment, but it’s just my humble opinion.
3 Stars

Disclaimer – I received this book as a gift from my grandmother-in-law. I am not paid or compensated in any way, shape or form for this honest review. I will not change or alter this review for any reason unless at my discretion.
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Did this book blow me out of the water? No. Did I enjoy hearing the dramatic narration of it in audiobook form as I cleaned my apartment (on several different occasions, oh my god this took me too long to get through)? Kind of, I guess. If you're looking for a dark ambiance with historical references that is a little bit saucy, you'll be happy. But wow, there are a lot of really close brushes with pedophilia. Honestly, I'll probably even listen to the next one when I run out of other books I would rather audiobook than buy physically. 4/5 stars, for the ambiance but not for the urge to consume the lifeforces of children. ( )

Interview with the Vampire strikes a fascinating balance in its main character. At times sympathetic and at others monstrous, I both dreaded his next atrocity and hoped for his redemption. I liked him enough to continue reading, while also disliking him enough to experience the horror of the deaths he caused. I wanted him to die. I wanted him to live. Truly, I found there was no simple way to feel about him, just as there seemed to be no simple answers to the questions he explored throughout.

The strength of the book is in this rich complexity, and also in its beautiful use of language. Take, for example, this first description of Louis, which appears shortly after the opening sentences I quoted above:

"The vampire was utterly white and smooth, as if he were sculpted from bleached bone, and his face was as seemingly inanimate as a statue, except for two brilliant green eyes that looked down at the boy intently like flames in a skull. But then the vampire smiled almost wistfully, and the smooth white substance of his face moved with the infinitely flexible but minimal lines of a cartoon."

There are whole passages I savored every bit of, sentences that carried emotion so powerfully that I was left in awe. Truly, this is great writing.

For a book originally published in the seventies, it also does a great job with its female characters and deals respectfully with minor characters of color. Louis, who grew up in antebellum Louisiana, does not quite admit to the full horrors of slavery, but the discerning reader chalks this up as yet another aspect of his villainy. For the purpose of the narrative, Louis does depict them as fully human and doesn't shy away from describing their intelligence and heroism when it comes into play. In the later part of the book, there are also characters who appear to be gay. It's a bit unclear whether they were intended to be seen as "good", but it's easy for a modern reader to judge them only according to their involvement with the whole vampire thing. There's never anything explicitly held against them as a result of their orientation.

Content warnings, however, should be observed for a small amount of sexual content and what could be considered incredibly disturbing death scenes. The author definitely wants the reader to be disturbed and horrified by these events, and it's best to be prepared.

All in all, I found this book to be emotional and thought-provoking. I wouldn't say it's for the faint of heart, but if you want to dive into the mind of a supernatural killer and explore the implications of immortality, you'll definitely find something to love here. I'm incredibly impressed by its quality from beginning to end. If this is the type of book for you, I can't recommend it more highly. ( )

I get why this is considered a classic and I can recognize the genius in the writing.
The way the author manages to get the reader to empathize with the MC despite all the depravity is truly amazing.
But it seems that the author never really knew where to go after this incredible first part.
But by part 3 things just got bogged down horribly in repetition, mundanity, and a general lack of progress. Maybe I am just too impatient. But if that is the problem, so be it. Imo 9 hours of a book shouldn't be easily summarizable in a hand full of sentences.
It kind of feels like the first part was in a sense just brilliant by accident.

"Evil is always possible. And goodness is eternally difficult."

Louis, is a southern land owner living outside of New Orleans back when New Orleans still belonged to France. When in 1791 his brother dies Louis has a very hard time dealing with the loss. He wishes to die but is too cowardly to do it himself.

On night Louis meets Lestat, a beautiful man who claims he is a vampire and that he can make Louis one too, all he asks for in return is for Louis to provide a place where Lestat’s aging, blind mortal father can live out the rest of his life in safety. In Louis’s fragile mental state Lestat easily manages to manipulate Louis and turns him into a vampire.

Louis quickly realizes that not only did he not like Lestat but he actively disliked, even despised him but he stays with Lestat for years because he believes that Lestat holds the knowledge about vampirism that he needs. But all good and devilish things eventually come to an end and the relationship sours with both going there separate ways.

Louis meets a boy in a bar who wants to interview him. They go back to a room armed with a tape recorder and there Louis recounts the story of his long and not illustrious life.

Finally, a couple of centuries later, Louis returns to New Orleans where he finds Lestat living in a run-down house, a decrepit old man in vampire form. Lestat has been unable to adapt to the modern world. When he meets, Daniel, a reporter who wants to interview him in a bar shortly afterwards, Louis takes him back to a room where armed with a tape recorder he recounts the story of his long and not so illustrious life.

My favourite character was Claudia who was only 4 or 5 when she was turned into a vampire. She had no real memories of being a human and no real connections to humans to nurture her compassion. All she ever knew humans as food. She never asked to become a vampire and consequently was trapped for the rest of her life by a decision that someone else made for her. Whilst her mind grew and expanded her body was incapable of change meaning that the rest of the world would forever see her as a child. But she never gives up and fights to try to take back control of her life.

On the whole I found this an enjoyable read from a genre that I don't often read, it sucked me in from the outset and I quickly became engrossed with it. However, as the story progressed I gradually came to dislike both the two main male characters, Louis and Lestat. Lestat, I found a selfish jerk whom I didn't really like whilst I found Louis a more interesting character whom I initially felt sorry for, but gradually began to find him a whiner who refuses to take responsibility for his own unhappiness. I also came to realize that they had an abusive relationship with Lestat as the abuser. This perhaps rather coloured my eventual opinion of it. Maybe I would have enjoyed it more if I was simply younger but now I'm unsure as to whether or not it was meant to be a horror tale or a parable that features vampires. ( )