Interview with the Vampire (The Vampire Chronicles, #1)

by Anne Rice

[Whitney @ First Impressions Reviews]

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.

Interview with the Vampire had been recommended to me by several friends and picked up at my latest trip to the public library. I immediately became engrossed in this novel and was transported to 18th-century Louisiana. Anne Rice's descriptions on a vampire's day-to-day or night-to night life were fascinating; from the transformation to mortal to immortal, the nightly hunt of human blood or the loneliness that occasionally comes with the territory made Interview with the Vampire hard to put down.

The Vampire Louis, who is giving the interview leaves nothing off limits and makes you feel compassion rather than disgust for his unnaturally long life; and realizes that in hindsight this is not the life he would have chosen.

Lestat who is Louis's maker, who while the reader should feel a dislike for as he has uncaring personality for those around him and can be very selfish as a whole, but there is something about "the bad boy" and I grew to care for him despite his faults.

Claudia, who was taken form a mortal life at the age of five is very resentful of the life she could of had as she is forever in a child's body while her mind grows to that of an adult's and longs for a woman's body to match. While sympathy is felt Claudia also has a rebellious streak who believes that the sucking of blood is one big game and in truth does not care deeply for any soul, including herself.

I thought the ending to be a great close, but again overshadows the beginning of a new story. The story of the boy who interviewed him in the first place! I thought it was ironic, and very foolish for the boy to feel such a blood curling need for immortality after all he had heard. Like Louis says: "This... after all I told you... is what you ask for?"

I feel what Louis felt then; the desperation and the anger that even after all the wrongs of his life he told him, after all the death and all the sadness his existence had brought upon him, that he still wanted it. It is ironic because the boy will search for Lestat, and the story will most likely repeat itself. Obviously not in the same way, but he will somewhat experience what Louis went through.

This is a beautifully written book. Anne Rice is truly a remarkable storyteller.