to think Interview with a Vampire is a piece of crap and the reviews lied to me.

[knittynoodle]

Ok, perhaps I jumped on this band wagon 20 years too late but I've just finished reading this slow, drawn out novel after everyone I know (except one friend) said it was the definitive vampire novel. Even the reviews from Amazon were great.

I just found it all so childish and although everyone says its not like the porn filled stereotypical vampire yarn, I found that it was exactly that! The repressed homosexuality was glaring, and the 'sensual' child vampire just freaked me out.
I couldn't follow Anne Rice's writing because she spends too long describing what everyone is thinking, you don't get any real description of the beauty of Paris, and it felt very much like she wanted to write erotica but bottled it, so made it about vampires instead.

Dracula is the definitive vampire novel. Also, I hate the bitch for spawning Stephanie Meyer (who is also sexually repressed if you ask me!)

AIBU? My DP loved it [hmmm]

I though Interview was just OK
The Vampire Lestat was great
The Queen of the Dammed was great

After that it all got a bit too weird even for me (Mennoch the Devil anyone?). I think I was more and more disappointed as the series went on.

I quite liked the film, but wouldn't rave about it. If you've read the books there is no way that wee Tommy is Lestat, and Antonio is about 30 years too old for Armand. I think the film is better as a standalone.

I'd rather stick with Buffy for my brooding vampires (Mmmm Angelus )

Like a few people here, I read IwtV when I was about 12 (which was in the days when the other books hadn't been written). I thought it was great then and I still think it's a good book. The next two sequels, as LtallHallows mentions above, are even better and are the best in the Chronicles. I can cope with Tale of the Body Thief, Memnoch the Paperweight and (just about) with Armand's tale, but all else is rubbish. That goes for Merrick, Blood and Gold, Blackwood wotsit, Violin, the bad 70's erotica, The Mummy, Cry to Heaven, the voodoo book, and especially the Mayfair Witches series.

My kids know vampire fiction and films, and rate the early Anne Rice chronicles as the best version of vampires they know. The films, too, aren't that bad: Interview lacked a 17yr old auburn youth for Armand but pretty much nailed the atmosphere and story. Even Queen of the Damned has its virtues (though making the other vampires so physically unattractive and omitting Louis from the storyline was a blow).

Fanfic is still out there but since the C&D letters went out, it's been well-hidden. The days of ABAR and Rotoli and its spin-off forums have gone but archives are still out there, with some of the rubbish fanfics but some of the good stuff too. eg just now I spotted an old fandom name promoting a good discussion for those who read The Vampire Lestat years ago who are now re-reading it and enjoying it all over again.

I read it a few years ago.

Boring.

YANBU.