Interview with the Vampire (The Vampire Chronicles, #1) in Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge

Jul 05, 2018 Krissy rated it liked it

Shelves: pgs-300-399, audiobook, tagged-classics, cover-color-yellow-gold, book2film, cover-text-only

I'm disappointed that I didn't love this more ...more

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Jun 28, 2009 Christine rated it really liked it

I had read this book in high school, right around the time the movie was coming out and I remember really liking it then, though remembering very little about what actually happened. Reading it again, I can appreciate the descriptive quality of Rice's writing more. She does a great job evoking the sensations of the vampire senses, and also of New Orleans as a setting. The interview tactic initially had me kind of annoyed--it was really choppy and made the story harder to follow. Rice seems to ha ...more

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Nov 10, 2019 Taryn rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favourites

I can't believe it took me so long to finally pick this up. I'd always been familiar with the general story because of its place in pop culture and the influence it's had on other works, but I had no idea just how groundbreaking some of these concepts were. There was so much about existence and power and humanity and love. It's not perfect, but I enjoyed it thoroughly. ...more

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Jan 12, 2021 Doug rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. For me, it’s impossible to talk about Interview with the Vampire: The Book without comparing it to Interview with the Vampire: The Movie. So, here goes:

I saw Interview with the Vampire in the theater when it came out in 1994. I loved it. Nearly 27 years later, I finally decided to read the book and my opinion about the movie has changed entirely.

Spoilers to come (if you can have spoilers about a 45 year old book and 27 year old movie) but first, let me talk about my overall feelings about the b For me, it’s impossible to talk about Interview with the Vampire: The Book without comparing it to Interview with the Vampire: The Movie. So, here goes:

I saw Interview with the Vampire in the theater when it came out in 1994. I loved it. Nearly 27 years later, I finally decided to read the book and my opinion about the movie has changed entirely.

Spoilers to come (if you can have spoilers about a 45 year old book and 27 year old movie) but first, let me talk about my overall feelings about the book.

I loved it! Ann Rice’s writing flows beautifully and she creates truly memorable characters. Louis’ torturous feelings about his life as a vampire and whether or not he is a creature of evil proved to be very thought provoking to me. This may now be the vampire novel that I compare all other to. (Full disclosure: I’ve never managed to read Dracula...despite numerous attempts.)

So...my thoughts on the movie compared to the book, in bullet form.
* EVERYONE in the movie was miscast. The one exception to this is probably Kirsten Dunst, but I find it hard to compare Movie Claudia to Book Claudia, since they (thankfully) aged her for the film. Book Claudia actually creeped me out so much that I wasn’t the least bit upset when the Paris vampires killed her.
* Probably the worst casting decision for me was Antonio Banderas as Armand. The book mentions multiple times that Armand has auburn hair. So, let’s give Antonio jet black hair! I could probably get over that part, however, if he had felt anything at all like Armand. He didn’t. Main reason is probably because he had zero chemistry with Brad Pitt. Which brings me to....
* All of the homoeroticism from the book is dropped from the movie. Since the movie came out in 1994 and was intended as a mainstream film, this isn’t terribly surprising. But it is disappointing. The love between Louis and Armand, although not long lasting, was one of the favorite parts of the book for me.
* The film focuses on Lestat too much and kind of leaves Louis as a side character. Naturally, this makes sense as Tom Cruise was a much bigger star than Brad Pitt in 1994. Still, the story in the book is Louis’ story. He is the vampire in the title. If Tom Cruise had to be in this movie, why not have him play Louis and tell the tale properly?

TL;DR Summary: I love this book. The movie, not so much ...more

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Mar 13, 2008 Amy rated it really liked it

i read this book when i had a mind to mold. i really enjoyed the novel, it was different from anything i had read at that time. it opened my mind to different themes in writing, from suspense, isolation and sexuality. i should re-read it, seeing as it has been over 10 years since i first picked it up. anne rice is obvisouly a talented, established author, so reading her work is very satisfying.

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Oct 15, 2020 Ketutar Jensen rated it liked it

Shelves: series, halloween-25

It is an interesting story.
But it feels a bit... weak. I don't really get an idea of any of the characters. They are kind of created to be very attractive, but I'm not attracted to any of them.
The interviewing boy... uh.
There are some very nice bits, and it was entertaining read. I wasn't bored.

But Stephenie Meyer most definitely was very much influenced by this. A lot. ...more

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