Why I chose this book.

Being a bit of a strange vampire loving woman. I had always wanted to read these ubiquitous Anne Rice novels. Having enjoyed Rices version of Sleeping Beauty and about to embark on a long journey Interview with the vampire The first volume of the Vampire Chronicles seemed to be a natural choice.

· Don?t judge a book by it?s cover?

This black tome features golden gothic writing and an eerie picture of a pale man with gushing tributes strewn all over the back,
? One of the most wonderful, erotic, sensual books ever written~ Sting

This quote alone almost had me starting to read in the middle of the WH Smith queue. (Warner book, £6.99)

· Are you sitting comfortably?

And so my journey into the darkest recesses of Rices mind and the altogether sunnier realms of London began.

The main character Louis begins narrating his tale to the keen, young journalist and I can almost feel a Dictaphone in my hand.

The story begins many years before in New Orleans with Louis and his sire (a sire is the person who makes somebody a Vampire) Lestat. From the onset we are given a glimmer of the sharp tension between the men , whether this is charged by hatred or homo erotic attraction is never made clear, but this aspect permeates and grows throughout the novel. The plot then continues to place the men in conflict. Racial, financial and personal tensions come to the fore and they soon realize they must leave in order to survive.

This is all delivered in a beautiful way , Rice certainly has a craftsmans eye for language and detail and up to this point in the novel I was absolutely enthralled.

But the introduction of the child vampire Claudia, left me with mixed feelings. Having finished the book I can say , hand on heart that she truly is an enigmatic character. Her seeming contradictions prove both fascinating and yet repulsive at the same time.

I was shocked
that Louis has this perverse relationship with a child, but Rice somehow justifies this by proving that Claudia is much more than her innocent body. Her mind and cunning are everything.

I have to say that I would have loved to delve further into the character of Claudia and perhaps the phenomena of children vampires, but rather we focus upon Louis, who I steadily despised more and more as the novel progressed.

Louis criticizes Lestat, but somehow I cannot help but feel a smile play on my lips at when I think of this lavish evil dandy. Louis is a weak figure in a crisis, a weak man who cannot even live in death.

And although there are moments where Rice transcends gorgeousity, I still sat there in a state of angry interest.

Dont look back in anger

My main problem with this novel is that I could not connect or indeed sympathise with any of the characters.

There are instances where I felt like I was walking into a Hammer horror movie. Maybe the fault lies with my imagination but the clan of Parisian vampires seemed to be roughly delineated and bordering on cliché.

The sensuality spoken of on the cover was brief and fleeting and strangely detached. Louis meets an older vampire in the formidable figure of Armand and Rice paints the idea of a great attraction . But once again rather than feeling chemistry, I simply find myself thinking that Louis is a vile , pathetic creature.

I close the book , enraged with a fictional character and wonder if our paths shall cross in the future.

All in all I found this a fascinating book , but also hugely problematic as I have tried to show in this opinion. Buy it and wrestle with it if you have the patience or simply dabble and go to the library.