Book length: 352 pages

Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire is the detailed account of the life of Louis, a 200-year old vampire who decides to tell his story to a news reporter.  The novel was published in 1976 and adapted for the screen in 1994.  The story was followed by a collection of related books containing many of the same characters but, of course, it was this first novel that started it all.

The basic plot to the story begins on a plantation in New Orleans in the year of 1791. Louis starts his life as a young human owning a plantation along with a crew of slave workers.  Mourning from the death of his brother, Louis encounters a vampire named Lestat and seeks to become a vampire himself in order to cure his misery.  Thus, begins the adventure of Louis and Lestat, the two vampires who destroy the plantation and all the workers in it in order to start a new life somewhere else.  Louis’s personality slowly changes under the influence of his own vampiric tendencies and Lestat’s companionship. 

A six-year old girl, by the name of Claudia, soon becomes involved in the vampiric world of corruption and darkness when Louis drinks the blood of the plague-ridden girl.  In the meantime, Lestat senses Louis’s desire to leave him and to go their separate ways. In the hopes of persuading Louis to stay Lestat turns the young sickly girl into a vampire so that she will become a sort of “daughter” figure to them both. 

The trio embarks on many obstacles. By the end of the story, the news reporter (referred to only as “the boy” in the book) is also influenced by the story of Louis’ long life.

Anne Rice creates a rich story about the loneliness of immortality and lost idealism.  Interview with a Vampire overviews the rare lesson of how even if you may live long, death and sadness can still influence a profound affect on you.  This book received a grade of nine stars.