Interview with the Vampire

I distinctly remember looking over the reading list on the first day of class and thinking to myself: “Oh jeez. We're reading about vampires.” I don't like vampires, and it's not because of the bad publicity they've gotten recently because of Twilight. I just don't like the idea of them. They're extremely romantic, and that bothers me on some weird level. Even if I'm looking at older vampire stories, such as Nosferatu and Dracula, I can't help but laugh a little. Call me prejudice. Nonetheless, I still tried to read Anne Rice's novel with an open mind. I want to like vampires, very much like I want to like pumpkin pie and Coca-Cola, but I can't make myself change that easily. Despite the blatant clue given off by the title that the entire novel was going to be written like an interview, I was surprised by the format, and not unpleasantly so. I could see almost at once why she became such a big hit in the world of fantasy novels. Although, I can't help but think that she owes some of that success to the amount of sexiness in her books. Right off the bat, I felt the undertones of homoeroticism between Louis and Lestat. That aside, I loved how Rice took the idea of a monster, and turned it into something that can have differences from being to being, like the distinctly different levels of savageness present in Louis and Lestat. It reminded me a lot of Frankenstein, as well as the concept of a monster outside with a soul inside that people simply have a hard time acknowledging. Regardless, I did not finish this novel. I don't have any plans to, either. I went in and gave it my all, but I'm sorry, Anne Rice, I still don't like vampires.