Interview with the Vampire: Review and Spoilers

The edition I own

Vampires have always fascinated me. I mean, who doesn’t like a good vampire novel or film; their mysterious treading through darkness and mist? A few days back I finished reading Dracula by Bram Stoker and the book left me starving for more vampire books. That’s when I picked up Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice, the first book in her Vampire Chronicles series. She was my first choice because she is termed as the perfect descendent of Stoker and after I finished reading her book, I knew why, and I was not disappointed.

Rice has all of Stoker’s quality in describing the atmosphere and to churn out the perfect and mysterious setting for her story. But she also has her unique voice at presenting her story which distinguishes her style from Stoker’s at a far different level. Rice is excellent and perfect in her own way. Today I will focus more on her writing style and will try to control myself from comparing her with Stoker. But before going on with that, I must say if Stoker’s Dracula leaves you empty from inside, you can definitely look forward to Rice’s Interview with the Vampire, even though you will notice a considerable amount of differences between the two prolific authors right from the first page.

Plot 

The story is about a young man called Louise de Pointe du Lac, who claims to be a vampire to a young male reporter known only as “the boy” throughout this book. He confesses his story of how he became a vampire and what happened after that to this young reporter who interviews him.

In 1791 Spanish Louisiana, at age 24, our main protagonist Louise was transformed into a vampire by the notorious vampire Lestat de Lioncourt. The story is then narrated by Louise as he watches himself transform into a vampire, his ethical thoughts, his views and perception of good and evil and his considerate but passive nature through the adventures he encounters with Lestat and their so-called vampire daughter, Claudia.

Review and Spoilers

Even though I was skeptical at first, this book did not disappoint me. Rather, I was pleased to read it as the book was very atmospherical in nature and depicted logically how it feels to be a vampire. We see Louise, the main protagonist, constantly fighting and choosing between his human nurture and his newly gained vampire nature. 

In simple words, he does not like to kill people merely to quench his thirst for blood. It goes against what he has learnt from his early childhood as a human being; it goes against what his God has taught him. But he also wants to live. And in order to sustain his life, he must feed on the warm flowing blood of his innocent victims. We see him guilt-ridden at his own actions but also feel this sympathy towards him as we imagine ourselves in his place. Throughout the book, he is described as the scales between good and evil and conscience.

Then we see Lestat, the one ruthless vampire who turns our protagonist into someone like himself. Lestat is very straight-forward about his nature. He let his new animal instincts rule over his lost human nature. He feeds on human unabashedly like it is as easy as changing clothes. We don’t see him mourning or grieving at the loss of human lives caused by him. He is that vampire who spends extravagantly and kills and drinks a new person every other night to not only survive but to enjoy as well. It is safe to assume that killing a human was just like a favorite pastime to him.

We also see Claudia, a vampire trapped inside the body of a five-year old child. I think, Claudia was the most complex character in the book. With time, she grew up psychologically but her adult mind was trapped within the confines of the body of a five-year old child. We see her frustrations turn her into the monster she really is. She becomes a vampire psychopath and her mind constantly dwindles between her soft womanly nature and her predatory vampire attitude.

To say I devoured this book would be an overstatement. It took me a long while to finish this book. There were some parts which left me confused, like some descriptions. Also, there were some parts which were dragged. For example, the descriptions Louise gives about watching Claudia grow into a vampire or his constant fight with his conscience and perception of good and evil seemed boring to me, to be honest. But the other parts Rice writes make up for all the dragging in a tasteful way. 

I have found a lot of memorable parts in the book. A few mentionable parts are when Louise describes about his brother, Paul and his unnatural behavior in his oratory; the duel of Frenniere; Babette; death of Lestat; his travel to Europe’s small village with Claudia and the events occurring there and so on. Even though the book was slow-paced, it has an eerie and magical touch to it.

I may not pick this book for a re-read but I definitely am looking forward to picking up the second book in the series known as Vampire Lestat. The descriptions of some of the events alone deserve a couple of stars. And I will like to give another star for the wonderful feeling it brings to the heart. This book will make you nostalgic. So, even though I am giving this book a three out of five stars, I still recommend Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice. 

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