"This is the story of Louis, as told in his own words, of his journey through mortal and immortal life. Louis recounts how he became a vampire at the hands of the radiant and sinister Lestat and how he became indoctrinated, unwillingly, into the vampire way of life. His story ebbs and flows through the streets of New Orleans, defining crucial moments of self discovery and despair."I was in early highschool/ late primary school when the vampire craze hit. So much of the YA I read was invariably chock full of them. However it is only now that I am getting around to reading this vampire story "classic."
First of all on its own, it's not a fantastic book. However it definitely popularized the trend of Vampire Empathizing. Before this book, vampire where from the realm of horror books. Blood thirsty monsters without remorse or empathy, but here we can relate to them. They act in human ways with human reasonings and human emotional struggles.
This is particularly shown in the main charcater of Louis. A vampire that proceeds to existentially whine through his eternity. He is wealthy, smart, handsome and this 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.
I found the exploration of vampire pschycology incrediably interesting. How the mind changes and adapts or fails to adapt to the idea of immortality. This is a "cerebral treatment" of the vampire genre, an examination of good vs evil, what immortality really means, the first of its kind in "vampire books" and an allegory of the soul itself. It is all of those things, but it's not very fun to read. The pace drags along and, for being a horror novel, it's not horrific, mainly dull.
There is no denying Louis had an interesting life, but the man lacks any form of a backbone. He refuses to leave the people that are toxic and drive him crazy, or to forge a new way of being a vampire that is closer his moral code. The unending emo monologues just got a bit too much for me at times and I found myself skimming.
The sexual aspect of vampire's was interestingly handled. Vampires being the "dark seducer" isn't new and using them to represent repressed sexuality has become stock standard. However this book deals with those two themes in a very different way. The dark seducer, Lestat, and the repressed sexual being, Claudia, both destroy and taunt Louis in vastly different ways and it's a nice change from the human being the one seduced.
At least the movie made the wise decision to tone down the blatant homoeroticism that I really wasn't expecting and is never really mentioned in reviews or blurbs. Seriously, this book is, and I mean this in the most literal way possible, one of the gayest things I've read. It added an element of toxic relationship and more understanding to the dynamic between Louis and Lestat. Louis's relationship with Armaund is also very obviously non-platonic with it literally written in black and white that they love each other. It was actually a good inclusion to the story as it added to the inhuman vibe of the vampire as sexuality seemed to become completely ambigious and meaningless and all relationships became more intense and taut.
However Claudia and Louis's relationship was disturbing and uncomfortable to read. She and Louis do everything except actually have sex with each other. They're always kissing and caressing each other and Louis is calling her his lover and his paramour and it is so fucking creepy.
For me, Claudia was the most interesting character. She was horrifying and monstrous, the way child vampires tend to be in any story. A child vampire is simply more terrifying than any adult vampire can ever be. They are immortally trapped in an age of innocence, while her mind grows and learns and becomes exceedingly adult while her body will never be able to catch up. She is cursed with a life of appearing “cute” no matter how monstrous and dark her soul and nature becomes. Doomed to feel sexual desire and want but never being able to act on it or experiance it. Being eternally depedant. Horrifying shit, that. There is also a selfishness to children which is amplified by bloodlust, which never seems to fully disappear. I enjoyed the way this was portrayed, as I said, but I was too disconnected from her by Louis narration to get my fill of this child-shaped horror show.
Age Rating 14+. Nothing untoward actually happens. The murders are not described in detail and there is no graphic sexual content.
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