Becky's Reviews > Interview with the Vampire

Oy... Can a book be disappointing if I expected not to like it? Or, rather, can I be disappointed in it?

Yep.

This was seriously boring. And repetitive. And boringly repetitive. And unexciting and also it rehashed the same things over and over. And over. Did I mention it was boring? Because it was. Even more than I expected. At about 100 pages in, I was like "OK, this isn't terrible, that's good." And then... It just stayed right there. At "Not Terrible" level. Nothing interesting happened, nothing exciting, nothing to make me want to find out what happens. I finished this simply because I was knitting stuff and running errands, and I might as well listen to something while I did that, but mostly I just zoned out, especially towards the end. Impressive endorsement, eh?

So, OK, here's the book, Cliffs Notes version:
There is a vampire giving an interview to a mortal "boy", telling his life story. (By the way, aside from the novelty of finding out that there ARE actually vampires, I have no idea why this boy sat all night listening to this vampire. He seemed interested... but by what?) Anyway, so, this vampire tells his life (or undead) story: A vampire met him, coveted his property, turned him, moved in, manipulated him and was a general, all around jerkface. Our narrator vamp, Louis, whines a lot. Gets all existential-y a lot. Whines some more about existential stuff. Questions everything: Where do I come from? What is my purpose? Why do we need to kill to feed? Who made vampires? God? Satan? Bob the Builder? Are there more of us? Why is killing PEOPLE so much awesomer than killing animals? Why is killing some people (read: pretty ones) awesomer still than killing some other (read: not pretty ones) people? Why do I ask so many questions?

OK, I threw that last one in there. He should have asked it, though. I mean holy crap on a stick, he's got The Life™: he's rich, and smart about investing so will likely remain that way, handsome, and immortal, which all amounts to him being able to do whatever the hell he wants to for as long as he wants to. Yet all he does is WHINE and ponder the meaning of life... or undeath. Because, you know, humans have it all figured out. /snark.

Anyway, plot summary continued:
Lestat continues being a jerk, and adds a 3rd to their happy family, a child. Who will remain a child forever and ever and ever... except in her mind. (Oh the bitterness and anger and existentialism and questions... They never end!!) The two turnees don't like Lestat (because he's a jerkface, remember?) and so they plot their method of getting him out of the way and going on their merry way to find their own answers. They travel around and find zombie vampires, ask some more questions about them... travel more, and then they find more vampires! Wooo! Finally, something like progress! Only... these vampires are also boring fucking paper wastes. They are all existential-y too, only their subject of choice is technically death rather than existence. So, again, a rehash of What It All Means™... You get the point by now, right? I mean MY point, because I still don't think the book has one.

Frank Muller reading the audio helped me to get through this. Anne Rice has diarrhea of the pen when it comes to detail, and her pen only writes in one color: Purple.

Her purple pen has put me off of quite a few of her other books, and would have put me off this one too, had I not been able to find something shiny and zone out for a good 20 minutes at a time while she described a door, or moon reflection on the water, or the texture of the smell of velvet or some such. Shiny thing, you saved my sanity. Thank you.

Anyway... I don't know why I continue to attempt Anne Rice. I think it's because so many people love her books, and there are so many of them, that I rationalize that the next one will probably be better. Except... no. It's not. Or maybe it's just ME, and I just don't like her. Six of one, half a dozen of the other. I think this will be my last attempt though. At some point, one just has to admit defeat and move on.

I've finished two of Rice's books, ever, out of a combined 7 or 8 or so attempts, if I remember correctly, and I didn't like either of them. Fail.

Halloween October 2011: #9