Book Review by Chance Norton

**** stars

This book by Anne Rice, Interview with the Vampire: a novel, is an engaging read that makes the reader truly care for what happens to the main characters. Yet because it is a book about vampires whose lives so transcend that of the everyday man, there are few real characters in this book, few that survive for more than a chapter.

The four characters that Anna Rice focuses on throughout this novel are Louis from colonial New Orleans, Lestat whose origins are undefined, Armand the wise and ancient leader, and Claudia the child vampire. The story weaves the tale of their lives through several hundred years of betrayals, infighting, death, and above all, a unique perspective on human life as only someone detached from it can see. The story gives an eerie look at what a vampire must do to survive as the world around him grows different from the colonial time that they knew to the time of automobiles and electricity. The most interesting thing to me though was the examination of what a vampire would have to do to simply go unnoticed in the world. Things we do everyday and never think about, things like traveling or eating. This book answers how a vampire would travel by boat from the Americas to the European continent and how they would make people think that they do normal things such as drink and eat in human company.

Overall this book is a great read especially when accompanied by the movie with Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Antonio Banderas and Kirsten Dunst.