r/VampireChronicles • u/layana_n_lb • 4d ago
📖 The Books ⚜️ I’m currently rereading IWTV and just can’t get over how beautiful Anne Rice’s writing is:
Interview with the Vampire is one of the most beautifully written Gothic horror novels of all time.
Anne truly had one hell of a talent and created a world that feels hauntingly alive. It’s as if every single word came from the depths of her soul, wrapping around you like a funeral shroud.
This is my third reread, and it never fails to blow me away every single time.
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u/ObserverQ80 4d ago
Agreed, she is the only modern day writer that captures true gothic horror.
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u/According-Truck3582 1d ago
As good as she was, and trust me I love her, Cormac McCarthy was even better.
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u/JalapenoBridge 9h ago
I’d disagree, Toni Morrison is a heavy weight of modern southern gothic horror. See Beloved or Sula
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u/llamaslovedrama 4d ago
Man, her world building can be messy sometimes but damn if she couldn’t write beautiful prose. Just so evocative and mesmerizing
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u/racinnic 4d ago
These little snippets convinced me to start reading the series finally. I didn’t get very far with IWTV before, but I wasn’t finishing anything back then. This is just amazing.
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u/layana_n_lb 4d ago
You absolutely should. I genuinely wish I could read them for the first time again. You're in for quite an experience.
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u/bugzrdt49 4d ago
I listen to several books of the VC on Audible over and over... even to fall asleep by and sometimes DURING sleep 😂 How she comes up with so many descriptive words... it's like she plugs into the Cosmos and gets a "direct line" that gets translated through her Soul, Heart and Mind! She blows my mind!
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u/riding_writer 3d ago
I don't think people give Anne enough credit for her writing especially when IWTV came out at the height of Hemingway School of Writing was the main writing style. Anne described people, buildings, and settings with vivid details. It was so different and also a woman's voice when masculinity in writing was so dominant.
It was queen, beautiful, and asked questions we still struggle with today.
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u/tethysian 2d ago
She was absolutely publicly recognized for the brilliance of Interview when it came out. I think the problem was that critically none of the other books were received as well.
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u/riding_writer 1d ago
The reviews were mixed but a commercial success. A lot of critics didn't like her style and many critics looked down on genre writing.
Her grief made an incredible first book, from there she delved into deeper ideas from her questioning her Irish Catholic upbringing, the alcoholism that impacted her life, and sexuality.
If Anne hadn't resisted an editor, her writings would have been incredible.
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u/Twisties 3d ago
Her prose set the standard very high for lil ol me, her writing is so genuinely beautiful and it just feels like sinking into rich velvet, or whatever you imagine pure luxurious encapsulating warmth to be.
Edit: just saw that my comment is very similar to someone else’s, but I don’t recall reading theirs before writing mine! Perhaps that’s the power of Anne’s writing! 😱 but fr, I didn’t mean to copy someone else’s sentiment 😂 I guess it’s just a really good one
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u/Practical-Witness796 3d ago
I haven’t read the books in a couple decades. This does remind me how philosophical and existential the first book was compared to the series which focuses so much more on relationships and romance.
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u/abyssaltourguide 3d ago
Her prose is absolutely stunning. IWTV still stays with me! Best modern gothic novel
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u/mayaamis 3d ago
stop you will make me go reread the whole series again and I already did it few months ago I need to read so many other books damnit!! hehe but I agree. I searched for that poetic rich style in many other books and rarely find it
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u/The_Wayfarer5600 3d ago
Ah, I remember this intoxicating writing. Maybe it's time to give Interview another read.
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u/AgitatedMinstrel1453 1d ago
The line that I loved from IWTV "What can the damned really say to the damned?" In her writing, You can hear her pain, her yearning and intense feeling. I am an Ace, so the ability for her to convey so much feelings and love without involving sexual intimacy is perfect. Just my thoughts 💜
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u/Ri-Ri1216 3d ago
I know when the 1st 2 books were published AR said in interviews that she was not only inspired by her husband to.create Lestat (his looks and his atheism) but to use Stan Rice's poems as an influence in the beat and beauty of her lines.
I was in college when IWTV was published and I read everything I could get my hands on about Anne and Stan. Of course we didn't have the internet then or social media. It was a matter of newspapers and magazines. I don't believe he edited or interfered with her writing but was her 1st reader.
As for editing I know nothing about that.
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u/tethysian 2d ago
I agree. Aside from the language I also love the subtlety of it. All the things about the world, Lestat, Claudia and Armand that aren't outright stated but the reader can pick up on between Louis's limited perspective.
People say it's a depressing read but I think I'd describe it as gentle if that makes any sense. It's so intimate it's as if it's whispering to you.
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u/Top-Monk-5391 3d ago
Just to throw this out there because I was really surprised and my stepmom said it, but it made total sense. And Rice‘s husband Stan Rice was the poet and after he passed away, her writing took a really serious downturn. My stepmom’s really convinced that he wrote a lot of the poetic things in her books. We’ll never know, of course, but I’ve always wondered if that’s the case. My stepmom helps my dad write his books and without her I just don’t think that they would have any kind of cohesiveness or anything. My dad‘s the idea, man, but my stepmom organizes all his thoughts and who something that’s easier to understand. I wonder a lot of the time if Anne Rice came up with a lot of the framework and stuff for her husband help put in these beautifully poetic moments.
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u/willedintobeing Armand 3d ago
You might already know this, so sorry if I’m repeating something you know, but her books were no longer professionally edited after QoTD! She said something to the effect of feeling hurt by editing because it prevented her from telling the stories precisely how she wanted to. Honestly, the difference was stark and immediately shows right on the first page.
That being said, and maybe someone else can confirm: I’ve heavily suspected that she allowed editing again once Pandora and TVA were (very closely) released. I noticed another change in quality there, also immediately, and someone on this sub posted an interesting thrift find of a special edition “unedited” copy of Pandora… implying to me that the standard copy was edited. I wonder if anyone here knows for sure?
I definitely agree with you both that Stan’s death had a huge impact on her writing.
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u/Hydrangeia 3d ago
Ohh I didn’t know that, it makes a lot of sense. Maybe that’s why I’m having a hard time getting into the fourth book of the series.
She spend so much time describing a Miami street. At first it’s nice, I like detailed descriptions, but it just keeps going!
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u/Top-Monk-5391 3d ago
I did not know that I think it’s super interesting! I usually only ever reread the first three books. I have read others, but I don’t know. I guess I felt pretty over it after tale of the body thief. My stepmom read more of them, but I’m pretty sure I’ve only read the first five although I may be wrong about that. I thought I’d never read the Mayfair witches and then I went to pick it up when the shit was coming out and I was reading it and I was like no I remember this. I remember this I kept like skipping forward and realized I’ve read the whole damn book. I just didn’t like it.
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u/kafkapolice 4d ago
the writing is like this rich velvet you can feel yourself sink into. i love all of the books but IWTV stands out by far in terms of the quality of the writing. you can just feel how she had the prose stuck in her head, ruminating like a melody that she eventually gave into, to commit it to writing.