Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice

Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice
Ballantine Books, ISBN 0 345 33766 6
Price paid: 0,50$

The following review come from a series of books I have already read, eons ago. Seeing them for cheap, I have decided to give them a second glance and review them.

Ah, such a book. Interview with the Vampire is the one novel that has changed the way people see vampires in pop-culture today. Far from the days of Bram Stoker's Dracula, Anne Rice depicts vampires as childish immortals, fixating on the mundane and self-imposed drama. This book, which became a series later on, shows for the first time the character which would become the archetype of the vampire antihero, Lestat.

The book reads like a memoir from a vampire, Louis de Pointe du Lac. Louis, giving up on life, is approached by the vampire Lestat, a careless arrogant undead. Turning him, they plan to travel the world and witness the passing years, enjoying the fruits of the Earth. However, Louis is never successfully turned and retaining his human nature, seeks to understand the beginning of his condition and the possibility of others like him. This leads him away from the path of his malevolent master and into more troubles than he has bargained for.


Is it worth a dollar?

Unlike the other books from the Vampire Chronicles, which I did not find were terribly appealing, Interview with the Vampire has that appeal one gets from reading time pieces; books set in another era, with all corresponding mysteries. Louis is the right protagonist to lead us through the centuries and the story would have lost a lot of its quality, had it been seen through Lestat's eyes (which happens starting from the second book). for this I recommend this book.