Interview With The Vampire - Anne Rice

Synopsis                                   

Here are the confessions of a vampire. Hypnotic, shocking, and chillingly erotic, this is a novel of mesmerizing beauty and astonishing force–a story of danger and flight, of love and loss, of suspense and resolution, and of the extraordinary power of the senses. It is a novel only Anne Rice could write.

(Not really many plot synopses on this out there - but if you somehow DON'T know what it's about, wikipedia has a very detailed synopsis - lots of spoilers though)

Thoughts

I just found this...disturbing.  And boring.  I had a flight where all I had with me was this and The Virgin Suicides - needless to say it was a very, very long flight.  I can count the number of books I haven't finished on one hand - this is one of them.  The other is The Silmarillion (which I WILL finish someday! I refuse to let it beat me!).  So take this review with a grain of salt - perhaps things spiced up after I gave up on the book.  The story is very slow paced.  I usually appreciate detailed descriptions, but man, listening to Louis narrate is like listening to an angsty teenage boy...for 400. Whole. Pages.  I had a hard time reading some of the more graphic violent scenes - something that surprised me as I wholeheartedly approve of scary vampires, but I suppose I don't like vampires enough to stomach it.  Most disturbing to me was the really weird relationship between Claudia, Lestat, and especially Louis.  I get that she became a woman trapped in a child's body but...it was a little too...sketch for me.  Between the long winded prose, an unlikeable character, an icky child-woman/man relationship, and a general disinterest in vampires (I know, I know I was reading a book that is almost 400 pages about vampires), there was nothing to interest me, and I'd already been through the torture of The Virgin Suicides.  Needless to say, clearly this book wasn't for me.  This is not to say it isn't for everyone - I did appreciate that Rice didn't flinch from a more gothic view of vampires, and the history is interesting.  And if you like vampires, you should really read the book that inspired the more modern view of vampires.

Recommended

I mean, if you totally dig vampires, this series is a classic.  Again, this is another book to read to see what all the hype was about.  Read it if you've seen the movie and want to know about the book...but if you are interested in seeing what Anne Rice is like, I really don't think this novel displays her strongest writing style.