Anne Rice Reinvents the Vampire with her Interview with the Vampire

I cannot give higher praise to Interview with the Vampire than to say that I wish I had never read this book so that I could have the pleasure of reading it for the first time once more. I try to return to this story every couple of years because it is one of the best pieces of horror fiction ever created. Dracula may be the vampire novel that set the precedent but Interview challenged the accepted rules and made the genre its own. 

The book opens with the main character, Louis, breaking rule number one - telling the world what he is to Daniel, a reporter who intends to publish his tale. There is the safety of fiction behind which to hide but the message to the reader is already clear...this is not a retelling of Dracula. Louis is not a monstrous "Other" to be feared, although he has the same drives as Count Dracula. Louis kills but experiences remorse and devotes long periods of time to questioning the justice in his actions. Lestat, his creator, is the foil to his vampire virtue. Lestat has embraced his role as monster and attempts to "artistically" be more and more monstrous. However, he manages to commit his foul acts with such charm that he isn't the terrifying figure one expects of a vampire.

Louis escapes from Lestat to seek out other vampires abroad and discovers that there is a community of vampires living an affluent life in the shadows of every major city in the world and have since almost the beginning of time. Meeting more of his kind provides him with a greater understanding and acceptance of his vampire life but the vampires extract a heavy price from him in the process.

Interview with the Vampire is the first book of the Vampire Chronicles and is arguably the best. I cannot recommend it enough.