Interview with a Vampire

Anna Rice's Interview with a Vampire may not be the first "vampire novel", but I think it was the book that really sparked popular culture's obsession with wanting to be a vampire instead of killing them. Which inevitably lead to books like Twilight. While that is unfortunate, this book sort of breathed new life into the genre by make what was really seen as an almost ethereal monster into flawed a human. For example this is seen through Louis's inner conflict with drinking blood or Louis and Lestat's need to dress Claudia up like a doll and keep her innocent. Also introducing some complex romances between Louis and Lestat as well as Louis and Claudia. The emotions of these characters are filtered through these vampiric tendencies that show why they did such terrible things at points, especially Claudia.
Overall I liked the book as a whole, but the aspect that really caught my attention was the character Claudia. Theres something very unsettling to me about being trapped in a child's body while mentally developing into an adult, which in turn creates an interesting arc for her character as a whole. Never truly developing physically mixed with a weird father-daughter/ lover conflict between Louis and her that after many years kind of drives her crazy. This anger manifesting in her murder sprees, especially focusing on a mother and daughter. Fear later leads her to forcing Louis to turn someone so that she may never be alone in case Louis leaves her.
Overall I found the book to be an interesting read

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