Audiobook Review: Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice
Genre: Gothic Horror
Age: Adult
Format: Audiobook
There’s not much I can say on this that hasn’t been said already, and chances are if you haven’t read the book yet, you’ve likely seen the TV series. But in case you haven’t and have absolutely no clue what Interview with the Vampire is about, this is the first book in The Vampire Chronicles, and focuses on Louis, telling the story of his life, including meeting the vampire Lestat, being turned, and drawing Claudia into their lives. It’s beautifully gothic and rich, switching between Louis actually telling his story and the interview that serves partly as a framing device, but with a stronger undercurrent than you get with traditional framing.
If you have seen the series, there are a lot of differences in the source material – the TV series makes an excellent decision in turning Louis from a white plantation owner to a Black businessman. It keeps the New Orleans setting but updates it, ages up Claudia so she’s more towards teenager than child, and takes the homoerotic subtext in the novel and the vampire relationships and makes it explicit.
I really enjoyed revisiting this after the first two seasons of the show. I tend to reread this roughly every 10 years, usually with the intent of getting through the rest of the series, but this was the book that made me fall in love with vampire fiction, and I’ve been a sucker for vampires (pun – as always – intended) ever since.
As mentioned above, the prose itself is beautifully gothic, as we get the world completely and utterly through Louis’ eyes. There are moments where we can maybe see a touch more than Louis, but mostly the narrative consists only of what Louis wants us – represented by the interviewer – to know. And Simon Vance’s narration added a layer to the character I really enjoyed; it was a great way to revisit the book and return to these characters.
I admit, there was a lot I’d forgotten about the book, and it was really fun to get those ‘gaps’ filled in, and to listen to this in the wake of the series. It’s clear the show is made with a lot of love for the original text, but in a way that updates a lot of it too. It was a great experience and I look forward to hopefully continuing through the series – maybe I’ll actually eventually finish it, one of these days!
Review by Elle Turpitt
Twitter: @elleturpitt
Bluesky: @elleturpitt.bsky.social
I purchased this audiobook.
