Interview with the Vampire follows the story of Louis de Pointe du Lac, and his journey from mortal to vampire, and everything that came after that.

Anne Rice portrays vampirism as something seductive, intimate, and downright horrifying. For someone to murder, and to find so much pleasure in it, there is no doubt that Louis finds it something despicable and ridiculous, and that the audience struggles to understand the pleasure that only a vampire could draw from it. We talk about love, sex, about overwhelming ecstasy and the beauty of sensuality, but that doesn‘t depart the act of murder from what it is: murder.
It was a fascinating way to paint the entire endeavour, and I loved the concept of it.
That being said, it didn‘t always work. 

Claudia, the child vampire, stuck in the body of a 5/6 year old while her mind ages, is too often described with the same nature as an adult. While there is some nuance to be argued in the fact  that she is mentally well over 70, likely older, no 5 year old should ever be described as „sensual“, especially not when her childlike appearance is so often remarked on by everyone, multiple times. It left me with a weird, almost repulsed feeling, as if I was reading something I really oughtn‘t too. This was common too, not just with Claudia, but with any children that the vampires drank from. I should not be reading how someone is „moaning“ over the near unconscious body of a child before drinking their blood. It‘s a bit weird. And while this was undoubtedly the point, it was still tough to sit through.

 

The concept of „love“ is explored with varying meanings and explorations. It‘s used quite casually, quite often, but never without meaning. Louis loves Claudia, he loves Armand, he loves Lestat. Lestat loves Louis, he loves the thrill of the kill, he loves drinking from young victims. But we never truly understand what love is. Is it desire, is it emotion, is it care, is it fear? Love became such a complex, deep emotion in this book, and it was amazing, it shone a whole new light on the world, on how the vampires viewed their own kind and what they were doing.

The theme of an unreliable narrator was also explored in this book to a really high level. Reading something, never knowing how true it was, knowing that Louis was leaving something out - it takes time and effort to effectively do that, and Anne Rice takes the cake for it. 
Louis is perfectly vulnerable, scared, and completely misunderstanding of the whole situation. He is young and naive, in a way, and paints the story with a brush that was not meant for him, with paints he doesn‘t know how to use. The finished portrait is… almost there. But you can tell there is something wrong, hidden behind what we don‘t see and don‘t know yet.
Reading the second book, you really begin to understand just how much Louis didn‘t.

This was a great book, and while odd at times, I‘d read it again in a heartbeat.