Customer Reviews

Interview with the Vampire

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It seems inevitable that with the resurgent popularity of all things VAMPIRE that this book would start popping up again on everybody's "to read" list. But what's popular now in modern vampire mythos is completely anathema to everything this book is, and I can't help but feel a little sad on behalf of both the unwitting reader picking this book up to satisfy what they think is going to be a quick vampire fix, and for the text its self. A quick scroll through the reviews for this and you'll see a lot of reviews starting off with BORING and WHAT A DRAG and I'M NOT STUPID BUT THIS WAS AWFUL. There's something to be said about paring off the right book with the right reader.

It's funny, other than Dracula, the great now and always and forever gothic classic of Victorian times, this is the only vampire book to make it onto that much coveted and discussed 1001 Books to Read Before You Die list. And despite this, I think that this book's major failing is that, despite it's content, because it uses the super natural as a vehicle for its tale, it has a heck of a time making it into the hands of the readers who would most appreciate this. Interview is not a quick, gory, slick or even a sexy read. Heck, for those of you who like vampire sex let me spell it out to you - the vampires in Anne Rice novels are physically incapable of performing the deed. Looses something right there doesn't it? Instead what this book really is, is a relatively modern look at atheism vs spirituality with more than a healthy meditation on the ability/inability of art to become a working substitute for human connections. If you suddenly woke up one day and found that you would never have to face god, or judgement, would you continue to live as a good person? Does doing something evil render you incapable of normal human emotion? What does it truly mean to live forever? These are the questions Rice grapples with in her debut novel to varying degrees of success, and if she doesn't always find the answer she is searching for, there's something to be said about at least making the journey itself.

So no, this isn't like other vampire novels out there. In fact I could say that this is the unvampire novel of the ages, the supernatural book for people burned out on tawdry vampire romances that have no conception of the true passage of time from one age into the next. If you're looking for something a bit more meaningful, if you don't mind that old fashioned Victorian style of writing where it takes three pages to say what could have been said in one line, if you can juggle the eerie feeling of encountering an antiquated set of morals against your own, then give this one a chance.

I have always been a huge fan of Anne Rice's work. This book, the beginning of the story of Lestat is rearkable. It inspired me to write my own vampire story called The Blood Reapers which is also here on Amazon. I would highly reccomend this book.

I bought this hardcover to replace my paperback. It arrived ahead of the promised date and in the condition promised.

I read this, at the request of my goth little sister, in 1995. I nearly put it down after a chapter or two, but her writing gripped me, took me somewhere else, somewhere i wanted to be. I fell in love with Claudia, loved Louis and Lestat, and Armand was my favorite. I saw the movie a year later, and yes it was good, but not as wonderful as the book. The next two in the series match this one in ambiance and flavor, but this is the original.

I found what I liked most about this book is Anne Rice's use of description and setting. She uses both to set the atmosphere and tone of this novel. The dark atmosphere and the ominous tone create a deep, underlying desperation within the characters. I've watched the movie and now read the book. I've enjoyed both.

This book is brand new and looks as if it was just written even though it was written in the 70s. Definitely a must have for the hardback cover!

This was the first book I read by Anne Rice and will always be my favorite. It's well written and simply an excellent read.

Fairly similiar to the movie if you're not into reading, though there are some differences that make the book worthwhile. If you like the book, i recommend the series as it gets better.