I had an idea of doing a guest post during the month of October so I asked a few of my friends from COYER what their favorite Monster is (some are not so scary) and what book they read that they loved that associated with the Monster they picked. The answers are great and the recommendation are even better! Enjoy!
The Monster and The Book
Anne Rice’s Vampires*
I’ve had an obsession with vampires since I was 14 and saw the movie adaptation of Interview with the Vampire. Prior to that, the only vampire movie I had seen was “The Lost Boys”, and while I love that movie (and the soundtrack!) it didn’t put vampires at the top of my favorite monsters list. Interview with the Vampire sure did, though. Why? It wasn’t Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise (two Hollywood stars I have never swooned over). Rather, it was Anne Rice’s vampires (and perhaps Antonio Banderas). While her vampires are still undead bloodsucking predators, she also humanized them. They still feel and they still want all the same things humans want. Except for sex, which is replaced with the need for blood. It’s that combination of deadliness and existentialism that does it for me to the point that I would gladly take the offer of being turned into a vampire without a moment’s hesitation. I imagine myself as Marguerite Moreau’s Jesse Reeves in the movie adaptation of Queen of the Damned (which is very different from the book). Though I enjoy most vampires from other books and movies, they’re either too Sci-Fi (Blade) or overly romanticized (Twilight). I still read them and every vampire in between (the “Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter” series is phenom), though, and they have Anne Rice to thank.
Review: Interview with the Vampire
Somehow, I didn’t finally get around to reading the book until I was in my early twenties. It is by far my all-time favorite vampire story. It’s the first book in Anne Rice’s “Vampire Chronicles”, which is one of my top favorite series as well. I recently started re-reading the series, along with the “Mayfair Witches trilogy”, for the Perpetual Anne Rice Reading Challenge. However, I’ve only just finished Interview with the Vampire. I’ll be posting my reviews of the rest of the series on my blog.
I think I put off re-reading the book for so long because I was afraid I wouldn’t love it as much as when I was full of man
y of the same philosophical questions Louis de Pointe du Lac agonizes over. Instead of falling out of love with my favorite angst-ridden vampire, I appreciated what he goes through even more because I now have some distance. I can look at him much more objectively than I could during my initial reading, and also put my focus on other elements and characters of the story. I looked on Claudia and Armand and Lestat with new eyes. Oh, Lestat, you glorious bastard**. And the settings! When I first read the book I had to leave
the descriptions of New Orleans to my imagination. However, I’ve since seen the French Quarter for myself and I can say with certainty that Anne Rice does it justice.
Though there are many scenes from the book that will always remain in my memory thanks to the movie, there is one in particular that stays with me because of an association with another piece of literature. The scene involves Louis and a group of spiteful vampires in a crypt below the Théâtre des Vampires. I won’t describe it just in case there is a chance that someone reading this hasn’t read the book or seen the movie. However, I will say that the scene always brings to mind “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allen Poe. If you love vampires or gothic literature, and you’ve somehow not read Interview with the Vampire, add it to your TBR. You won’t regret it!
About the Guest
Rachelle is a blogger at the Reading Wench
Book Critic, Blogger, and Associate Member of the American Copy Editors Society. thereadingwench@outlook.com
http://thereadingwench.com
https://twitter.com/TheReadingWench
https://www.facebook.com/thereadingwench
Check out Rachelle’s Blog, she reads and reviews a bunch of different genres and some other fun posts. Be sure to stop and an say hello.
Thanks for stopping by to check out A Monster and A Book!
Have a fantastic day!
I love vampires and it was The Lost Boys that started it for me. Then came my favorite TV vampires Angel and Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. For books I love Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse series and Kresley Cole’s The Immortals After Dark series. The vampires in these series are sexy and funny instead of the stereotypical killers. I haven’t read any books yet from Rice or Hamilton but they are on my TBR.
I enjoy a good vampire book now and then, there is soemthing so fascinating about them. I do agree that it can be hard to find a good vampire book, although I don’t mind the romanticed version, it’s more fun if they are a bit dangerous. I read Guilty Pleasures but it wasn’t a series for me. I managed to finish the book, but didn’t enjoy it. One of the better vampire books I read recently was Damned if I Do by Erin Hayes, the vampires are creepy, but also human in some aspects.
Great post! I’m generally not a vampire fan, but totally fell in love with Matthew Claremont from Deborah Harkness’s All Souls trilogy. Wow.
I think Interview with the Vampire was my first vampire book as well, Rachelle! Another favorite – because the vampires were so bad – was Dracula by Bram Stoker. Like you, though, I love reading about vampires and continue to do so 🙂
I read a ton of vampire books too. I started reading Anne Rice when I was in high school. I remember having to finish Interview with a Vampire so I could see the movie in theaters. I couldn’t list all my favorite vampire books. There are just too many.
Not ever read any of those books mentioned but I do love a good vamp book. 🙂 I also prefer my vampires don’t sparkle and are vicious…lol. Okay so I like horror. 🙂 Though I don’t mind reading about the tame ones…lol.
I read Interview with a Vampire so many years ago that I don’t even remember when. It may have been after I saw the movie. So many books over the years, they just kinda run together now. *sigh*
Now, Anita Blake…I absolutely love the first 9 books in that series. The plots were great, the characters even better and the writing was wonderful. After Obsidian Butterfly though the quality did a slow decline. By the time Kiss the Dead rolled around I had a hard time believing that LKH was still writing them. That’s how bad I thought they had gotten with no plot or lost plots, pages and pages of filler and dialogue that was painful to read. I was disheartened. I still haven’t read the last 3 books (Affliction, Jason and Dead Ice) but I know I will. I just can’t seem to give up Anita and her gang. 🙂