Summary Rice

Things we liked about the book:

• Psychological dimension interesting; existential crisis of Louis, mortality
• Philosophical dimension interesting
• Louis unwillingly funny, not always serious and creepy
• Hella gay
• Practical language
• Only having one person to rely on / trust; Louis / Lestat difference nice
• Louis heavily dislikes him but mourns him
• Setting, clichee Gothic-ness of it all
• Vibes are great, atmosphere, darkness
• Transformation of stereotypes, debunking garlic, but still sleep in coffins
• “the whole on drugs feeling of it” is enjoyable
• Things escalate quickly, guilty pleasure watching it
• Claudia angelic ethereal creature (innocence, doll) vs. her mean spirit
• Transformation throughout the novel
• Claudia a very tragic character (inspired by Anne Rice’s real daughter)
• Extremes of morality portrayed: nihilism vs. hedonism, existentialism, moral conflicts galore
• Louis fun emo vampire
• Framing device really cool, interviewer too scared, Louis can’t stop talking
• Louis’ dady issues are hilarious
• Power and control fascinating
• Red flags everybody!!!!
• Part 1 great, part 2 meh
• Language nice, poetic, creates a vivid sense of place and atmosphere
• Beautiful language, monologues: “that’s the drama I want from a vampire”
• We want blood!
• Genre-defining book
• Time fascinating
• Lack of morality fascinating
• Le Fanu as a blueprint: also super toxic
• Your own conscience worse than anything else

Things we discussed:

• Infuriating ending: “make me a vampire” after hours of drama and trauma
• Excessively long descriptions or dialogues, could’ve been cut
• Europe part too short, Eastern Europe artifical, nothing felt authentic, nothing added up
• Racism / slavery depiction terrible, great deconstruction in the new series
• Very (terribly) white
• Lestat’s obsession with Louis weird; turned him because of his money; toxic
• Lestat’s father story weird
• Lestat lonely, too proud to be honest, no healthy relationship in this entire book
• Relationship with Claudia is really icky
• Claudia seems much more mature, calls her “lover”, sooo problematic, pedophilia much????
• Claudia terribly sexualized, disgusting

How would you rate the book?

• 3/5 teeth because of morality
• 3/5 some parts enjoyable/funny
• 3/5 bit boring at times, language nice, no good characters, “I just like the villains”
• 3.5/5 childsize coffins
• 3.5/5 bites
• 2.5/5 “this one’s too much for me”
• 3.5/5 philosophical depression, also for a book from 1976 despite all the problematic bits quite nice and gay
• 3/5 easy to read, not hard to read
• 4/5 world shattering
• 3/5 “I wish it was not from Louis’ perspective”