Interview With The Vampire by Anne Rice
We just finished October...and I really dig Halloween...so I read Interview With The Vampire and have been listening to the audiobook of Bram Stoker’s "Dracula". Both are excellent and both are making me VERY excited to re-watch their magnificent movie versions.

IWTV is a wonderful book. It’s slow, descriptive, eloquent, beautiful, exciting, spooky, thought-provoking, and slow. I certainly enjoyed it but I did labor through some of the longer, action-less descriptive sections in the middle. Don’t let that deter you though. The writing really is spectacular--so rich and thick with gorgeous descriptions and deep, tragic, flawed, well-developed characters.

The book was written back in 1976 so it is 40 years old, which helps explain why it is more of a beautifully told, sensory, vampire story...and not the violence-filled, non-stop fight fest it would probably be if written for the current market. I did a quick Amazon search on Miss Rice and as I mostly already knew, she’s quite the prolific writer, having created over 30! extremely well-reviewed books, including several in a vampire series which began with IWTV. Interestingly, she went with Lestat as the main star of the series, and not Louis, who is the main character of this first novel. Lestat is far less likeable throughout this book, so I’m intrigued as to how he develops as the main character of a series.

Anyways, IWTV is one of the most popular novels of all time--in any genre--and is certainly worth reading. I definitely recommend it, though you need to be prepared for the slow pace and deeply descriptive writing. It is a book for older teens and more mature readers due to the content and the complex story, though there isn’t any overly offensive violence or sex in it. So enjoy this classic novel, and let it get your blood running hot for then re-watching Tom, Brad, Kirsten, and Antonio star in the excellent 1994 movie version.

Happy reading...and don’t forget to protect your neck at nighttime!