I think that I am so conditioned by my overall reading choices that I come into books with certain expectations, despite there being nothing in the publisher summary about my expectations. Unfortunately, these preconceived notions ultimately set me up for disappointment as was the case with Interview With The Vampire by Anne Rice.
Interview With The Vampire
Louis de Pointe du Lac allows himself to be interviewed about the past 200 years of his life,him being the vampire interviewed and all. The story moves chronologically from Louis becoming a vampire to present day. There’s an interesting cast of characters from Lestat who turned Louis into a vampire but doesn’t exactly ponder immortality to Claudia, the child vampire. Interview With The Vampire spans the globe,beginning in New Orleans, then hopping from Eastern Europe to Paris, finally ending up in San Francisco in search of answers about existentialist questions.
Maybe Interview With The Vampire would have been a better read had I not been expecting sexytimes. For serious the cover blurbs was all ‘erotic’ and I was like cool, they get it on. Um, no. Apparently ‘erotic’ means biting someone on the neck and sucking their blood. Either way, gross.
And I suppose it makes me look like an idiot being disappointed with how deep and questioning and examining Anne Rice’s writing is. BUT when you go into a book expecting a light romp and you get page after page after page of inner monologuing, it does come across as a disappointment. Further, I thought her prose was an interesting shade of purple. It’s just too much description for me and not enough plot going on. Maybe that makes me shallow, but I know what I like and I am proud of having my own tastes.
I guess I would recommend this book if you are down for existentialism and vampires. Personally, I just want them to suck blood and hook up and maybe kick some ass.
Disclosure: Purchased at a library book sale for a penny.
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I was disappointed in this one too. It was the most morose vampire story ever.
I loved this book so much when I was in high school, lol. I’d probably feel differently about it now, but then I thought it was the best thing ever. 🙂
I haven’t even tried to read this book, so my hat off to you for at least giving it a shot! But the movie – love it. Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt could make any movie good.
I did this one years ago, and was similarly disappointed with the book. This was pre-twilight-vampire-sexy-craziness so I don’t know that I was expecting sexytimes, but I was definitely expecting more action and plot…and not so much melancholy. The movie’s great though 😉 one of the few times I enjoyed a movie more than a book…
This is good to know before reading it…I have never read these Anne Rice vampire books but have considered it over the past couple of years. Just like you, I would have expected a little….more. Thanks for posting this. 🙂
I REALLY appreciate bloggers reading more than just brand new books. Because I don’t always read brand new books. So thanks.
This was the only Vampire Chronicles book I could get through. The rest of them are so overwritten I couldn’t stand it. Rice doesn’t utilize an editor and believes her work is perfect from the get-go. For serious. Do some searching. Yo’d be surprised what you come up with for her. As for sexytimes, you read the wrong Anne Rice books. Try anything by A. N. Roquelaure. That’s her smut before she found Jesus.
I recently watched the movie and I really liked the movie. But, from your description, it seems like its very different. There’s still a lot of whining, but there is more of a sexual element to it.
I was considering reading this series next, but I keep hearing mixed reviews, and I’m just not sure about it yet.
Thanks for your review!
I liked it a lot when I was in high school. Though it did feel like it to ages to read and then the end was such a bummer. I did like her writing style though. I did like The Vampire Lestat a bit better, but again it was lengthy, especially if you don’t like or are unfamiliar with her writing style.
It’s a funny thing about expectations. I read this for my Gothic literature course in my junior year of college and so I was expecting something very Gothic. Which I got. But I also found it very erotic, without being told that’s what I should expect. It’s not erotic in the way one might think when they hear the word now, but it still has that feel for me. I very much enjoyed this book; it was very different from any of the other vampire books I’d read (though at this point, it wasn’t many).
If you want some real vampire sexytimes without it being a romance, read Sunshine by Robin McKinley. Hands down the best vampire book I’ve ever read.
I liked the movie, the book not so much. I was disappointed as well
It’s her other books that I love best. Pandora is a personal favorite of mine.
So maybe I’m like seven months too late to comment on this post, but I LOVED this book when I was younger. I think I read it when I was maybe 10 or 11… It was the best EVER. I sort of wonder what adult me would think of it though… I recently watched the movie version and realized it wasn’t nearly as good as I thought it was back when I first saw it!