sagetappe's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Child death, Violence, and Slavery
Minor: Pedophilia
urgenseas's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Stalking, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Incest, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Child death, Colonisation, Pedophilia, Grief, Racism, and Sexual content
morenowagain's review
adventurous
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Minor: Racism, Pedophilia, and Slavery
emtees's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I read this book for the first time about twenty years ago. After that, I read a lot more of the Vampire Chronicles books, until I sort of fell off from the series and the genre around the time Blood Canticle came out. Some of them I’ve read multiple times, but Interview is not one of them, since I had a vague feeling of not liking that one was much. But with the TV show now out, I figured I would revisit it.
I ended up enjoying this reread much more than I expected. I had a vague sense of this book as being a slog compared to the others, but that wasn’t how I experienced it at all this time. Instead I found myself really appreciating Rice’s use of language and setting and tone. It is unquestionably a slow book, and a very internal book, and so it’s not going to appeal if you don’t like philosophical musings on the nature of evil and Catholic guilt and hallucinatory dream sequences that are never really explained and love letters to cities inserted directly into the narrative - in other worlds, if you don’t like Louis, the protagonist. I like him a lot and so I really loved his story this time around. You can see as you’re reading the way this book slots in between the horror-style view of vampires and the modern brooding tragic hero versions. Louis is both a brooding tragic figure who doesn’t want to be a killer and a horror character who enjoys it and that works for me better than either of the other two options.
I also found it much more consistent with the later books than I thought it would be. Rice famously wrote this as a stand-alone and then, when she expanded into a series, retconned some relationships and even whole scenes, with a sort of in-world explanation that Louis was an unreliable narrator. And he definitely is - even within this book, its interesting to see the ways that comes across - but I was surprised that so many of the characters still feel like themselves from the later books. I wasn’t really intending to but I think this is going to make me reread the whole series and I’m not sorry.
The one thing that is keeping me from giving this book a 5 star rating, though, is something that hasn’t… well, “aged well” isn’t really right, because the aging isn’t the problem. The handling of race is bad in this book, no question. It’s not a huge piece of the story, but its prominent in the first half and it’s an issue. Louis is part of the weirdly extensive class of fictional vampires who started out plantation masters, but the problem here goes beyond a kind of “the times were different” handling of the subject. Every mention of Black characters in this book comes across as fetishistic, and the fact that Louis never has any thoughts about the fact that he participated in slavery even centuries later - despite the fact that his entire story is otherwise about interrogating his own morality - is a very noticeable gap.
I ended up enjoying this reread much more than I expected. I had a vague sense of this book as being a slog compared to the others, but that wasn’t how I experienced it at all this time. Instead I found myself really appreciating Rice’s use of language and setting and tone. It is unquestionably a slow book, and a very internal book, and so it’s not going to appeal if you don’t like philosophical musings on the nature of evil and Catholic guilt and hallucinatory dream sequences that are never really explained and love letters to cities inserted directly into the narrative - in other worlds, if you don’t like Louis, the protagonist. I like him a lot and so I really loved his story this time around. You can see as you’re reading the way this book slots in between the horror-style view of vampires and the modern brooding tragic hero versions. Louis is both a brooding tragic figure who doesn’t want to be a killer and a horror character who enjoys it and that works for me better than either of the other two options.
I also found it much more consistent with the later books than I thought it would be. Rice famously wrote this as a stand-alone and then, when she expanded into a series, retconned some relationships and even whole scenes, with a sort of in-world explanation that Louis was an unreliable narrator. And he definitely is - even within this book, its interesting to see the ways that comes across - but I was surprised that so many of the characters still feel like themselves from the later books. I wasn’t really intending to but I think this is going to make me reread the whole series and I’m not sorry.
The one thing that is keeping me from giving this book a 5 star rating, though, is something that hasn’t… well, “aged well” isn’t really right, because the aging isn’t the problem. The handling of race is bad in this book, no question. It’s not a huge piece of the story, but its prominent in the first half and it’s an issue. Louis is part of the weirdly extensive class of fictional vampires who started out plantation masters, but the problem here goes beyond a kind of “the times were different” handling of the subject. Every mention of Black characters in this book comes across as fetishistic, and the fact that Louis never has any thoughts about the fact that he participated in slavery even centuries later - despite the fact that his entire story is otherwise about interrogating his own morality - is a very noticeable gap.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism, Child death, Toxic relationship, Pedophilia, and Slavery
A main character is a slave-owner, with no criticism of that in the book, and there is some racist language used. Basically every relationship, romantic or otherwise, is toxic. Child death/pedophilia warning:Spoiler
One of the main characters is an adult vampire trapped in the body of a very young girl. A major part of the story is around her awareness of her state, including being sexually mature but not having a body to match. She has romantic feelings for an adult character and he expresses similar feelings, including attraction, to her, though he is also her father figure. There is no sexual content but there is sensual/erotic language used. All of this happens after she is emotionally and mentally an adult but the language does focus on her physicality as a child. She is eventually killed gruesomely.taleofabibliophile's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Murder, Racism, Slavery, Torture, Toxic friendship, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Blood, Child death, Confinement, and Death
Moderate: Gore, Body horror, and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Alcohol, Ableism, Racial slurs, and Suicidal thoughts
stooby's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child death, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Colonisation, Kidnapping, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Murder, Physical abuse, and Racism
thesawyerbean's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
A dark, eerie and dramatic memoir of the life and experiences of a vampire named Louis, told in the context of an interview with a terrified but intrigued boy.
The story unfurls before us, laced with treachery, eroticism, death, love and a lot of blood; paced with twists, turns and climaxes; and underpinned with a nuanced discussion on existence and the concept of good and evil.
What made me not enjoy it as much as I could’ve was the lack of connection with the protagonist. I know fundamentally he is supposed to be evil as a murderous vampire, but I think in reading vampire fiction we suspend the vilification of this inhumanity as one both expected and understood. However, the seeming obsession in contemporary vampire fiction of making important characters have involvement in the slave trade/confederacy is so off-putting and honestly needless. In addition, his relationship with Claudia (although a grey area considering her actual temporal age), was very strange and gave off similar vibes to that in Lolita. Overall my empathy with Louis was extremely stunted from the get-go which made the rest of the story quite the slog.
That was a shame indeed, as the writing is incredible - vivid, atmospheric and poetic. If my gripes with the characterisation were non existent I’d be tempted to give it 5 stars just for that. As an important part of the vampire canon I’d say this was worth the read, especially for spooky month.
The story unfurls before us, laced with treachery, eroticism, death, love and a lot of blood; paced with twists, turns and climaxes; and underpinned with a nuanced discussion on existence and the concept of good and evil.
What made me not enjoy it as much as I could’ve was the lack of connection with the protagonist. I know fundamentally he is supposed to be evil as a murderous vampire, but I think in reading vampire fiction we suspend the vilification of this inhumanity as one both expected and understood. However, the seeming obsession in contemporary vampire fiction of making important characters have involvement in the slave trade/confederacy is so off-putting and honestly needless. In addition, his relationship with Claudia (although a grey area considering her actual temporal age), was very strange and gave off similar vibes to that in Lolita. Overall my empathy with Louis was extremely stunted from the get-go which made the rest of the story quite the slog.
That was a shame indeed, as the writing is incredible - vivid, atmospheric and poetic. If my gripes with the characterisation were non existent I’d be tempted to give it 5 stars just for that. As an important part of the vampire canon I’d say this was worth the read, especially for spooky month.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Injury/injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Slavery, Stalking, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Violence
caterina's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
For 7 days, I read this book in the dark of night, when sleep is challenging due to chronic pain, and I miss it now that it's over. I didn't expect to enjoy this so much, but the lush imagery and the wrestling with grief that reflects Anne Rice's own (loss of a daughter Claudia's age) drew me in. I'm glad I read this for a reading challenge.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Blood, Murder, Death, Body horror, and Grief
Moderate: Slavery, Racism, Animal death, and Suicide
usually_sleep_deprived's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Suicide attempt, Sexual content, Murder, Racism, Blood, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Torture, Toxic relationship, Cursing, Gore, Slavery, Animal death, Toxic friendship, and Violence
theheartisanarrow's review against another edition
about a couple hundred pages in
as much as i tried to enjoy this, and as much as the beginning caught me, the craftsmanship of some of the writing didn’t make up for what is in my eyes a lack of plot (or just the slowest pace i have ever encountered) and way too many infuriating bits. i adore a lot of vampire literature, some of this could be down to me only having a german version of this available, and knowing this one’s background and impact, i‘ll probably revisit it (or the film at least) someday, but for now it’s not for me.
as much as i tried to enjoy this, and as much as the beginning caught me, the craftsmanship of some of the writing didn’t make up for what is in my eyes a lack of plot (or just the slowest pace i have ever encountered) and way too many infuriating bits. i adore a lot of vampire literature, some of this could be down to me only having a german version of this available, and knowing this one’s background and impact, i‘ll probably revisit it (or the film at least) someday, but for now it’s not for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism
Moderate: Pedophilia