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.
3 STARS
I absolutely loved Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles when I read them in high school. It has been about a decade since I've read these books so I thought it was time for a re-read because I only remember what happened in the movies. So I thought I'd read and watch Interview With the Vampire to complete the BookTube-A-Thon challenge "Read a book and watch the book to movie adaptation". And although I am really glad I picked this book for that challenge, I am shocked at my experience re-reading this story and the fact that I didn't like it as much.
The characters are by far my favorite part of this book. I like their distinct personalities and how each of them plays a different part in telling the story. Our narrator and main character, Louis, is an absolute sweetheart. He struggles with being a vampire and what that entails but also he struggles with not knowing where the powers of being a vampire originate from. I found his angst and inner turmoil understandable but also a bit annoying at times. I understood where he was coming from but it never lets up throughout the entire story. Which spans decades and decades. Lestat is a character I loved to hate. He's selfish and self serving, but also incredibly hilarious and ridiculous. He's over the top and dramatic and I kind of live for it. There is something he does by the end of the story that I cannot forgive him for, but that's a spoiler that I don't want to go too much in detail on; so we will move onto the next character, Claudia. Who was personally my favorite of them all. She's a bit terrifying but also incredibly interesting. I found her situation super thought provoking. When she was turned into a vampire she was around five, and the fact that her mind grows and matures but her body is frozen in time becomes the cause of a lot of her hatred. This storyline in particular made me want to read more stories of Claudia. Not being seen as the woman she's grown to be but instead being seen as a child was something she couldn't handle. It drove her a bit crazy and made her make pretty terrible decisions. Her vicious nature was enhanced which I think made her the most intriguing character.
The plot was a bit slow all the way through with short moments of excitement. This was my biggest issue with this re-read. Maybe it's because I've seen the movie more often than I have read the book, so I remember the more exciting moments that were taken from the book, but there were moments in this story where I was bored out of my mind. A few days ago I saw that Scribd had an abridged audiobook version and I didn't understand why a 330 page book needed an abridged version. I understand now, because of a lot of the duller moments. I understand why they're in the story but this kind of story just isn't suited for a read-a-thon. I think if I read this book at a less accelerated pace I may have enjoyed it a bit more. I don't think my rating would be different, because it's still super slow. But I could at least let myself enjoy it.
Besides the pacing, I think the writing is really atmospheric and well done. I think Rice is amazing at writing characters that are complex and super interesting. I loved her descriptions of the locations they traveled, especially Paris, as the story progresses. I think her atmospheric writing made it easy to really picture the imagery being written about. However, the thing that bothered me the most when it came to the format of the writing was that the vast majority of the story is dialogue and quotations. Instead of the story being written with Louis as the narrator talking above the story it's written as an actual interview. Which I get, the title of the book is Interview With the Vampire, but it drove me nuts. It made it hard to lose myself in the story and I was constantly being pulled out of it. I just felt like the format was off and it drove me up a wall.
I am interested in reading the rest of the Vampire Chronicles but I may allow myself to listen to the abridged audiobooks instead. I think I'd get more enjoyment of the story if it's being not only told to me but also if it's abridged. I do recommend this book for anyone in the mood for this dark vampire story. I think if you know it's a bit of slow story it'll be easier going into it. I honestly think I should have read this book in October when I had the time to enjoy it. I will probably read the next book around that time.
No comments:
Post a Comment