Her breasts though small were beautifully shaped beneath her blouse, and her hips though narrow gave her long, dusty skirt a sharp, sensual angularity. As she moved back from the vampire, I saw the tears standing in her eyes like glass in the flicker of the lights, and I felt my spirit contract in fear for her, and in longing. Her beauty was heartbreaking.
page 220, Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice
I chose this quote purely for the use of the phrase “sensual angularity”. Great phrase.
Table of Contents
Preamble
I didn’t plan on reading two books in a row that had movie adaptations, but here we are. While How to Blow Up a Pipeline had a movie, Interview with the Vampire has a movie from 1994 and a TV show that started airing in 2022 and has two seasons. I read the book and watched the movie but unfortunately didn’t get around to watching the TV show in time for the publication of this review.
Let’s get into it.
The Book
Going into Interview with the Vampire I had heard that this is a beautifully written book and sure enough it is. However, I also found the book overwritten. It is a very vibes based book – a lot of descriptions of scenes and environment which make for some wonderful phrases like the quote I put at beginning of this review.
The downside to this is that the book is also very slow paced with its plot and it made me wish that the writing was just a tad more efficient at what it was doing. There is a lot of agonizing philosophizing discussions or internal monologues that I felt myself wading through to get to the plot.
I’ll give the book this though – it very much achieves the goal of having a dark, gloomy gothic atmosphere. Mission accomplished that’s for sure. I also enjoyed the way book painted the cities these characters were in as characters namely Paris and New Orleans. I felt I could visualize the environments these characters were in very very well.
Speaking of characters, I didn’t feel strong emotion about most of the characters in this book – the only one I felt somewhat sympathetic to was Claudia but both Lestat and Louis. I don’t think there are any particularly likeable characters but I don’t think they are supposed to be likeable. However, personally I have a hard time enjoying a book if I don’t like any of the characters even a little bit.
Interview with the Vampire grapples with a few large themes – the nature of evil, the curse of immortality and also a bit of philosophizing about religion. Of these I found the exploration of the curse of immortality to be the most interesting aspect of the book. It reminded me of my most favourite V.E Schwab book – The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue – which also was a exploration of the curse of immortality.
The Movie
While I was reading Interview with the Vampire I thought a lot of the scene setting descriptions in the book would make the book one that in some ways would work better as a movie. Unfortunately for me, the movie misses the mark.
While the acting performances from the star studded cast (Antonio Banderas as Armand was an inspired choice) were fantastic, the movie was missing significant chunks from the book that both set the mood and were part of the character development for main characters. Namely – the whole section with the French lady in New Orleans early in the book is missing, so is Louis and Claudia’s trip to Eastern Europe. Both of these were I think crucial to the plot and to the characters and its a shame they were cut out.
The book also doesn’t give enough time for any of the environment to resonate. I didn’t really get a sense of character from the New Orleans or the Paris portrayed in this movie because they were barely in it. The movie felt like a series of jump cuts from important plot beat to important plot beat without a good flow to it. It felt stilted.
I think my assumption that the book would work better as a movie was incorrect. A TV show over a few seasons would be better at doing this book justice which makes me curious about the 2022 TV show.
Conclusions
While I did not enjoy Anne Rice’s particular writing style in this book I think the book, its setting, characters and plot beats were interesting enough for me to finish the book. I can see why people enjoy this book and the series so much. I think this book is interesting but it is not a style of book I want to read more of. So I won’t be continuing with the series.
This is more of a case where a book is not for me rather than a case of a book being really bad. Ultimately, I am glad I read this book because it is a historically significant one in the genre of vampire fiction and it got me to watch another movie which is also a good thing.
That’s all from me. Until next time comrades!
Thank you for reading this blog post. Please consider supporting my writing work directly through Stripe or Patreon. Additionally, please share this post on your socials and/or with your friends. It really helps! If you have any thoughts/feedback/thoughtful criticism to share, feel free to use the handy contact me page to send that to me.