Review: Interview With The Vampire, by Anne Rice

I love this cover. Strong Nosferatu vibes.

Rating:

➿➿➿➿➿

First Response:

This book is deliciously gothic.

One Sentence Summary:

Immortal vampire Louis tells a curious 'boy' the story of his travels with Claudia-- the five year old girl he accidentally turned into a vampire.

Tell Me More:

This book surprised me.

Interview with the Vampire is a surprisingly deep book. I was expecting a pulpy vampire adventure novel, but this book might be more adequately described as a meditation on evil, humanity, compassion, and even hope. Louis, the titular vampire, had his immortality forced upon him; and spends the majority of the novel reckoning with his new "nature." Forced to kill, forced to feed, forced to live forever with the weight of killing on his soul. At times, it almost seemed as though it wasn't Louis wrestling with his evil, but Rice wrestling with her faith.

Anne Rice had an interesting relationship with her religion. From a cursory internet search, it seems that she was raised Catholic, but fell away in her early adulthood--then returned to the faith later in life. The conversations Louis has with several of his companions in the novel, though specifically his conversations with Armand towards the end, testify to her wrestling with the nature-- and impact-- of sin on both the world and the people who inhabit it.

Rice is a master of gothic imagery in this novel. Her descriptions of late 18th century New Orleans and 19th Century Paris were moving, but where she really shines is in her descriptions of people-- and vampires. It's almost easy to see with your mind's eye the mourning women draped in black veils, the vampires prowling through moonlit alleys, and the crumbling plantations, churches, and theatres they inhabit. I listened to the audiobook for this read, and it was almost mesmerizing to hear 'Louis' describe the morbid decay that overlays every setting in the novel.

The primary plot of the novel revolves around Louis's relationship with Claudia, the 5-year-old girl who becomes an immortal vampire, trapped as an eternal toddler. Her mind ages, even as her body doesn't, and while Louis struggles with his new killer nature, Claudia has no such qualms. I'm sure you can imagine the horrifying designs a little girl might use to lure, trap, and toy with her victims.

I definitely need to re-read this book (probably in print) to catch all of the nuances of Louis's character arc, but overall it was a good listen. I don't often read 'fall' arcs, where a character descends from their ideals into the darker recesses of human nature, but this was a good one. Louis's journey from fragile humanity to immortal inhumanity, watching him struggle with the value of life, was a profoundly moving experience, and it's the main reason that Interview with the Vampire is getting 5 ➿ (which apparently represent reel-to-reel tape recorders, an appropriate emoji considering the titular interview is recorded on tape) out of 5.

I wasn't expecting to be moved so deeply; but in hindsight, I wouldn't be surprised if this story lived with me forever.