Interview with the Vampire is a classic and I know a lot of people loved it. Let me start by saying that I didn’t. This review is my opinion and it’s pretty negative. I normally try to be constructive in my criticism, but this one hit a nerve. That being said this, again, is just my opinion. If you love this book, I’m glad that you did. Your opinion is not wrong. I wish I loved it. But books are subjective, and this one wasn’t for me. So, let’s get to it.
Synopsis
Here are the confessions of a vampire. Hypnotic, shocking, and chillingly sensual, this is a novel of mesmerizing beauty and astonishing force–a story of danger and flight, of love and loss, of suspense and resolution, and of the extraordinary power of the senses.
My Thoughts on Interview with the Vampire
This book frustrated me almost to the point of anger. It has good bones. I’ll give it that. I mean it’s a large part of pop culture and it changed the way modern vampires are perceived, but it just didn’t do much for me. In the beginning the setting was great. It was very gothic and atmospheric. I love a book set in New Orleans. So, I settled in expecting a great Southern Gothic read, but then along came Claudia.
Claudia’s plot line is where this book went south for me. The sexualization of a five-year-old will never set right with me. The words “father” and “lover” should never be in the same sentence. I will argue this fact until I’m blue in the face. And I’ve read the “vampire morality is different argument”, but it doesn’t change the fact that she was and remained in a five-year old’s body. Plus, there’s also the fact that I just didn’t like her character when she did get older. I don’t think she was a necessary addition to the story.
I had high hopes that this would turn around when they escaped to Europe. It never did. The plot felt lacking, and the main character was quite dull. It boiled down to Louis spending most of his life hating/loving Lestat and this book is essentially three hundred pages of him whining about it.
I hope this review doesn’t sound too harsh, but this book broke my heart. I really wanted to love it. And I didn’t and now I’m mad. I just expected more.
My Rating: 1/5
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I’ve never read this and I’m fairly certain that I won’t be after reading your review. Totally agree with you about the child storyline. That just sounds wrong
It just didn’t sit right with me.
I haven’t read this one since high school, so my memories of it are very faded. I do want to eventually reread and hopefully I’ll see the same flaws you mentioned. Sorry this one didn’t work out for ya!
I absolutely loved this book when I first read it… but that was many, many years ago. I listened to the audiobook more recently and did not enjoy it, but a large part of that was the terrible narration. I still feel like I might want to try it once again and see how it goes — but I do remember that Louis’s broodiness is hard to take after a while. I loved the 2nd book, but again, that might be because I read it so long ago. Not sure how well any of these books would stand up to a new reading!
I think if I had read this several years ago, I would have probably enjoyed it. But my reading taste has changed so much recently.