Interview With the Vampire introduces you to Louis, who is being interviewed by a journalist about his existence as a vampire. As you follow his life story you then become acquainted with Lestat, who made Louis, and the child vampire, Claudia, that they later made together.

I last read this book sometime in the late nineties and thought it was time to revisit it. I enjoyed it, but felt after 10+ years I was seeing it with a different perspective. I still love Anne Rice’s writing. The pacing suffered slightly from a little too much inner dialog and the frequent movement between the present and past, but I find her characters, descriptions and writing style beautiful, expressive, and darkly sensual.

My memories that had remained were of strong characters, a well developed and intricate world, and the struggle between humanity and vampire depravation without conscience. However, this time through I saw it less as a book about vampires, and more as a book about how the questions raised and answered apply to everyone. We all feel loss, we all long for something more, and we all constantly fight to balance our desires and compulsions against who we would like to be. We all have complicated relationships. We all choose the people in our lives, then start, continue and end relationships with them for complicated reasons. Sometimes we know our motivations, and sometimes we struggle to find our own explanations. Placing all these questions and emotions in the context of eternal life with interesting and tragically tortured vampires just makes the journey more fun. (Except when you realize Louis has lived over 200 years and is still struggling. I guess time doesn’t heal all wounds, ha ha.)

I remember enjoying the second book in the series more and will probably get to it soon. I also can’t get enough of her decadent description of New Orleans, they are a real treat. I wouldn’t call this book scary, but there are darker themes, hinted sexuality, and depictions of violence and killing.