Interview With the Vampire (Vampire Chronicles #1)
by Anne Rice
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Read in January, 2004
recommended to Tom by:
Eric Capron, a college roommate.
I wrote this review for an English course at BYU.
Questioning Humanity
Review by Tom Johnson
Anne Rice redefines the vampire lore in Interview with the Vampire, the first installment of The Vampire Chronicles. In her sensuous, poetic, and disturbing novel Rice explores the value of humanity by juxtaposing it with vampirism. This same blend of vivid imagery and psychological tinkering that attracted mature readers to The Vampire Lestat and The Queen of the Damned, and that inspired a ...more
Questioning Humanity
Review by Tom Johnson
Anne Rice redefines the vampire lore in Interview with the Vampire, the first installment of The Vampire Chronicles. In her sensuous, poetic, and disturbing novel Rice explores the value of humanity by juxtaposing it with vampirism. This same blend of vivid imagery and psychological tinkering that attracted mature readers to The Vampire Lestat and The Queen of the Damned, and that inspired a ...more
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Read in January, 2006
recommends it for:
Anyone who can endure Louis's whining.
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
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Read in February, 2008
recommended to Tori by:
Whoever that reviewer was that compared Twilight to itrecommends it for: Vampire lovers
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Read in May, 2008
The entire book is Louis, a disgruntled immortal, telling his story to a young journalist type. Given the set-up, this means that everything in the book is told from Louis's point-of-view, and it allows Rice to play with memory and assupmtions in a way that would be missing from either a third-person narrative or a present-time first person. Louis begins the story with how he became a vampire on his New Orleans plantation in the 18th century - though he doesn't seem to remember or understand muc...more
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Read in June, 2004
recommends it for:
(Not recommended)
To give credit where it's due, Rice's treatment of vampires in this book (and her succeeding ones) broke new ground in the sub-genre, in that she portrays them as actual characters, free moral agents whose personalities and values are continuous with those they had as living people, rather than ciphers wholly transformed into instinctive killing and feeding machines. (Of course, the TV series Dark Shadows, with the vampire character Barnabas, pioneered the same new ground earlier; but th...more
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I'm not sure whether this book was written to be understood in the way I am about to describe it (and I somehow doubt that it was), but the following is one way in which I look at this book and the two that follow it in the same series. Louis (the protagonist) represents the isolation that we feel as individuals, as separate entities within human society. He despises mortality and curses his opportunity for immortality as well. He is trying to find meaning in an inherently meaningless world...more
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Read in January, 2008
Continuing on my kick of reading books I tried to read as a teenager, I picked up Interview With the Vampire when my friend Tina said she had read it recently too.
I can't believe how quickly I got through the book. I remember struggling with it as a 10th grader, not understanding a lot of the subtleties of Ms. Rice's writing. Originally, back in 1991, I thougth Louis was whiney and annoying and he just kept going and going.
Reading it now, I didn't find him whiney at all and I finally un...more
I can't believe how quickly I got through the book. I remember struggling with it as a 10th grader, not understanding a lot of the subtleties of Ms. Rice's writing. Originally, back in 1991, I thougth Louis was whiney and annoying and he just kept going and going.
Reading it now, I didn't find him whiney at all and I finally un...more
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Read in January, 1994
recommends it for:
anyone
i read this book as a part of an english assignment. way before my dyslexia and alergy that would make me dizzy from reading as i sneeze all over the pages from the book-dust.
it was well written.
my favourite character is Lestat, of course, who else. but my favourite quote from that book is not Lestat ;)
"Evil is a point of view"
can you tell me who said that?
yes, Armand.
that Armand, as depicted in the movie adaptation by no less than Antonio Banderas, in which he ...more
it was well written.
my favourite character is Lestat, of course, who else. but my favourite quote from that book is not Lestat ;)
"Evil is a point of view"
can you tell me who said that?
yes, Armand.
that Armand, as depicted in the movie adaptation by no less than Antonio Banderas, in which he ...more
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recommended to Austin by:
A Girl I Knew Named Roseanne
recommends it for: High School Goths
recommends it for: High School Goths
I seem to recall slogging my way through this book when I was in High School; at the time, everyone was. There is always an elite crew of Vampire-Fiction fans in every school, and as they prep themselves for the future life of a goth, this is required reading for many of those people you will interact with (prior to High School, you can identify these people as V.C. Andrews fans).
I say "slogging my way through" because I vividly remember having to force myself to keep reading, to ...more
I say "slogging my way through" because I vividly remember having to force myself to keep reading, to ...more
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Interview With the Vampire, is the first of the Vampire Chronicles, which span 10 books, not including the two New Tales of the Vampires: Pandora, and Vittorio, which spun off the Chronicles.
Anne Rice's Vampire series is really more aligned to fantasy than horror. What makes her books so unique is that the reader is identifying with the vampire rather than the victim. Horror is derived from the victim's perspecti...more
Anne Rice's Vampire series is really more aligned to fantasy than horror. What makes her books so unique is that the reader is identifying with the vampire rather than the victim. Horror is derived from the victim's perspecti...more
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I had a hard time rating this book. In fact, I had a hard time finishing this book. In fact, I didn't finish this book.
The first half I enjoyed rather largely. The characters, for me, were compelling. Lestat, the vampire who seemed to be nothing but a foolish predator, but from time to time showed a predilection towards something more, and Louis, who struggled with his vampirism and seemed to want to retain the best of his humanity while being an immortal murderer. There were some times in ...more
The first half I enjoyed rather largely. The characters, for me, were compelling. Lestat, the vampire who seemed to be nothing but a foolish predator, but from time to time showed a predilection towards something more, and Louis, who struggled with his vampirism and seemed to want to retain the best of his humanity while being an immortal murderer. There were some times in ...more
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Read in October, 2007
This books leads us through a adventure of a immortal vampire, Louis, he was transformed by Lestat who he learned to hate. He wasn't a normal vampire who kills just to feed, he had feelings, he thought that everything he did was evil and he tried not to feed off humans and hunt rats instead. He fed off a little orphan but she didn't die and Lestat turned her to one of them too. They decided to kill Lestat and ran but Lestat didn't die and came after them. They went on a search for other vampires...more
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Read in April, 2008
I also read A Cry to Heaven also by Anne Rice. It was about the castrati of the 17th and 18th centuries. Boys were castrated at age 12 in order to maintain their contra tenor singing voices. I liked the depth to which she went into this culture and she has the knack of not pulling to camera away during the gory or excruciating parts. So, I decided to read one of her better known books and see, if Ms. Rice is worthy of being included in the canon. Plus, some of the novel is set in New Orlean...more
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Okay, I confess, I've actually read the first three of the novels in this fantastical series; but that they declined in quality so rapidly and profoundly that I just couldn't continue after that. Still, though, this first book of the series continues to be surprisingly strong, even if it single-handedly brought about an entire "goth industry" that threatens to turn all of Rice's original material into parodies of itself. A sprawling epic that is as much a vivid fictional history of the...more
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Read in January, 2005
recommends it for:
Those unafraid to take a critical look at religion and its questions.
This novel is the reason why I hate the term "junk fiction." It should not exist, as proved by all of the novels within the "Vampire Chronicles" series by Anne Rice. I can say only that this work is pure magic, and pure beauty, and purely something to muse about for hours on end. The story of Louis and his journey to the dark world of the undead beside the captivating Lestat has become a cult classic. However, its place in the Horror section of your local bookstore should nev...more
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Read in July, 2007
I'd always considered the movie brilliant and the story one of my favourites of all time. The book was just as dazzling as the film, if not moreso, it didn't disappoint. The characters make it, and they are so well-defined and come to life so completely (no pun intended). It's fascinating to read about their relationships and how they cope differently or don't cope at all. Whether it's Louis losing all hope, Armand wandering the earth searching for a meaning and reason to live, Lestat deteriorat...more
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Read in January, 2000
Dracula was one of the first who triggered all vampire madness, however Anne Rice started the cult of those fangy creatures. I grabbed the book before I saw the movie and I was surprised how chilling and also erotic it was. Luis, the story teller, was presented as femme fatale of the novel while the male hero was dashing young frenchman, who was on special diet. Lestat found out the weak spot and bit it with all his passion. Lestat, the model male, was paired with "the female" in very ...more
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I won't even mention the movie and it's inadequecies other than to say I wish I could have pictured Lestat as someone other than Tom Cruise...so not right for that part! I read these Vampire Chronicles later than most people who were in to them, but I really enjoyed Rice's writing style. I love the depth of detail her characters posess. In this particular book, Louis is a vampire miserable in his current situation--involuntary immortality...he is telling his story to a journalist and Lestat i...more
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Read in July, 2008
Well written, good character development, interesting look at vampirism, but man, I could not get into the angst. It was just not where I was right now. I should maybe stick to my Buddhism books.
I understand why this is a classic, and why people loved this book. I think I would probably even recommend it. Very full of existential questions about the nature of good and evil, questions of love and passion, God and the devil. The book asks and does not answer the question of whether it is prefe...more
I understand why this is a classic, and why people loved this book. I think I would probably even recommend it. Very full of existential questions about the nature of good and evil, questions of love and passion, God and the devil. The book asks and does not answer the question of whether it is prefe...more
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One of the rare few books I couldn't finish. I could not empathize with the lead character at all - once he turned into a vampire I would be regularly bombarded with paragraphs describing how goddamn beautiful everything was now that he could see them with this vampire eyes. The forest was beautiful, the night sky was beautiful, the homeless people were beautiful...not normally, mind you, only when seen through vampire eyes.
These special vampire eyes might be the reason why Louis (narrator...more
These special vampire eyes might be the reason why Louis (narrator...more
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book data (includes all editions)
avg rating (all editions): 3.82 (12703 ratings) avg rating (this edition): 3.84 (10180 ratings) number of reviews: 716<