Interview With The Vampire

Interview With The Vampire is often considered one of the primary sources of the popularization of the modern “romantic” Vampire story. Beforehand, while there was the occasional vampire-based sexual metaphor story, Vampires were treated more as gruesome, unpleasant monsters, reminiscent of the original Dracula and Count Orlak of Nosferatu. Anne Rice's Vampires are presented as bloodthirsty and powerful, but also seductive and hedonistic, depending on the individual. Vampirism becomes less mystical and more physical, cutting ties to religious imagery and traditional weaknesses, and it's treated both as a blessing and a curse by several different characters, some of them blinded by the sheer power and pleasure it brings and others distressed by the backsides to unaging immortality, bloodlust, and weakness to sunlight. Surprising me, the protagonist ends up being fairly overshadowed by Lestat, the villain of the book, despite his not even appearing for a large portion of the novel. He's controlling, petty, and egotistical, and his subtext with Louis becomes ridiculously clear early on, including Lestat forcibly “adopting” a young girl into vampirism to keep Louis from leaving. And in the process, he certainly does leave an impression. The book does feature a framing device in the titular interview, but it doesn't really have too much importance as anything BUT a framing device until the very end, where the unnamed interviewer wishes to become a vampire despite the warnings of Louis' story and leaves to find Lestat.

Personally, I've never been one for vampire stories in general, so this one took me quite some time to finally get through. It also didn't really leave much of an impact on me, and I found myself have to reread to recall much of the plot. I can definitely see why the books, and the genre as a whole, are so popular, but they simply don't mesh with me.