Interview with a vampire by Anne Rice

“Every Moment must be known then savored” – Louis

These words ring true for almost the entirety of the book. Throughout much of the story we are introduced to two viewpoints on the. However, during the beginning of the book/interview with the vampire named Louis it is quickly shown that this trope of vampire is one that goes against the common modern/post-modern types of vampires that we as an audience witness today.

Like the title suggests this book is structured as an interview, with a vampire, from a 3^rd person point of view starting with a nameless character who is eager to know the secrets of the vampire. Right from the start before the interviewer is able to set the tone and time of the interview Louis is adamant in answering his questions and says that he will answer them but on his own terms saying that he wants to “tell all of his story form the beginning”

He starts this simply enough by shattering the conventional vampire tropes and stereotypes simply stating things like aversion to the cross and garlic as poison to them as simply “bullshit” from there he begins his story of how he was a normal human immigrant that came to own a plantation. Only ever after meeting his other half, his “antithesis” so to speak that we start getting into the themes and tones on this book.

After Lestat turn Louis into a vampire do we see Louis start to gain a new appreciation for mortal life. Only after he is dead and immortal does he understand the value of human life and how it finally frees him from the guilt of thinking his brother to be a madman. He values human life and abhors the needless slaughter of people. Even going so far as to risk his life to aid another simply because he thought her to be the best human being he ever knew. And then later cursing his inability to describe or know what he truly is or what the nature of a vampire entails.

Lestat on the other hand is his anti-thesis, his opposite that represents everything he hates about humanity. He’s impulsive, abhorrent, enjoys the killing of humans and lives only day by day with no aspirations for the future as well as having no regard what his actions entails for the people around him. Even going so far as to turn Louis into a vampire and cursing him to a life of immortality simply so he can use him for money.

The book itself is mostly about the struggle of Louis fighting his basic urges as a vampire to be a decent “human” being. All the while Lestat indulges in it. The erotic and lustful vampire stereotype is showcased with Lestat here but only when he lures and kills his victims. It is described as an otherworldly experience where everything is silent but their heartbeat. The drinking of the blood becomes a personal sensual experience described in detail in the book and becomes a character point for Louis, why kill humans for blood if its unnecessary. His high morals would later become his downfall as he is tricked by Lestat to drink the blood of a girl, Claudia, he helped orphan only to have Lestat turn her into an ever-youthful vampire. Forever young but unable to move forward. The book in itself breaks and sometime conforms to the vampire seduction trope but takes it from the point of view of 2 outcasts forever traveling, forever escaping, forever at the mercy of their supposed nature.