Interview with the Vampire

“Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice is an appealing life story through a interesting character, a vampire. Though I usually shy away at stories involving a vampire that gets into a relationship with a another male vampire, this story had some interesting twist and turns that can keep a reader’s attention.

The setting of the narrative has been used in many and many books, and Rice didn’t add anything to the old formula. However, Rice does use this formula well in giving the vampires story a different perspective by using the boy as a device to show a humans opinion on this story.

What kept me interested throughout the story was the idea of a vampire’s difference in feeling towards the senses. This was an intriguing angle to take considering many vampire novels just talk about a vampire’s hunt. Though many of the novels I have read for the class have taken the role of the monster (Frankenstein, Monster Island) Rice did a great job in describing through words the heightened senses of the vampire. It got to the point where it was very easy to picture myself in the shoes Louis and almost experience myself what it was like to be a vampire.

Another attention-grabbing part of this novel is the relationships Louise goes through throughout the course of this novel. His first relationship with Lestat was a less common narrative found in vampire novels and it was fun to read a story of two conflicting ideals of what a vampire is. Louise gave into the heightened senses of a vampire, while clinging onto his human form, whilst Lestat reveled in his vampire instincts. It was then when he met (or created) Claudia, where his relationship dynamic changed. He started caring for Claudia, and treats her as if she was his own child. But, it was interesting to see how the relationship developed, as Claudia matured in mind but not in body. Louise throughout the novel could not accept that Claudia was growing up and was almost horrified to see her change. Lastly, it was somewhat horrifying to find what a person’s perception of reality is after living for so long. Rice did a great job in imagining a psyche that has changed over centuries of existence.