Title: Interview with the Vampire: Claudia's StoryAuthor: Anne Rice, Ashley Marie Witter
Series: The Vampire Chronicles #
First Published: November 20, 2012
Publisher: Yen Press
Pages: 219
Genre: Horror, Paranormal
Format: Ebook
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Rating:
Synopsis:
A richly-illustrated graphic novel adaptation of Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire, told through the eyes of the vampire Claudia, who was just a little girl when she was turned by the vampire Lestat. Though she spends many years of happiness with her two vampire fathers, she gradually grows discontent with their insistence upon treating her like a little girl, even though she has lived as long as any mortal man...and her lust to kill is certainly no less than theirs...
Review
Interview with the Vampire is one of the stories that made me fall in love with reading when I was a young teenager. The Vampire Chronicles was one of my first real “fandoms” and I devoured most of the books in the series during my adolescence. The first book in the series is a story that I always remember the most fondly, thanks in no small part to the brilliant 90’s film adaptation. It had been decades since I had last picked up a vampire chronicles book, so this little graphic novel was a wonderful little adventure down memory lane for me.
Claudia’s Story retells the events of the original novel from her perspective. Claudia is one of the most unforgettable characters in vampire literature, vicious and clever, but trapped in the body of a child, dooming her to a life of existential crisis. She was a wonderful foil to sentimental Louis, the narrator from the novel, another character tortured with his own existential crisis. It was refreshing getting to see Louis examined from her perspective. The graphic novel retelling is a more faithful adaptation of the original work, including scenes that were left out of the later screen adaptations. Much of what is new comes from Claudia’s inner dialogue. This additional narration helps to flesh out certain scenes, particularly the ending, which transforms Claudia from a petulant child monster to a knowing adult, the protector instead of the one being protected. This little bit of additional narration gives her more agency as a character which was a nice touch.
Unfortunately, a large part of the graphic novel does just tread old ground and there are many scenes that didn’t include any additional narration, making the graphic novel feel a little repetitive as a reader already familiar with the source material. For someone new to Anne Rice’s vampires it is a great introduction with a lower barrier of entry given the format. The illustrations are lovely and it was wonderful seeing scenes come alive. The color palette worked well, washed with sepia tones only broken up by flashes of deep blood red to perfectly capture the gothic tone of the original story.
Quote
“Could I not forgive this final betrayal in the light of my own duplicity?”
Content Warnings
View Spoiler »About the Authors
About Anne Rice
Anne Rice was an American author of gothic fiction, erotic literature, and Christian literature. She was best known for her series of novels The Vampire Chronicles. Books from The Vampire Chronicles were the subject of two film adaptations—Interview with the Vampire (1994) and Queen of the Damned (2002).
Born in New Orleans, Rice spent much of her early life in the city before moving to Texas, and later to San Francisco. She was raised in an observant Catholic family but became an agnostic as a young adult. She began her professional writing career with the publication of Interview with the Vampire (1976), while living in California, and began writing sequels to the novel in the 1980s. In the mid-2000s, following a publicized return to Catholicism, Rice published the novels Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt and Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana, fictionalized accounts of certain incidents in the life of Jesus. Several years later she distanced herself from organized Christianity, citing disagreement with the Catholic Church’s stances on social issues but pledging that faith in God remained “central to (her) life.” However, she later considered herself a secular humanist.
Rice’s books have sold over 100 million copies, making her one of the best-selling authors of modern times. While reaction to her early works was initially mixed, she gained a better reception with critics in the 1980s. Her writing style and the literary content of her works have been analyzed by literary commentators. She was married to poet and painter Stan Rice for 41 years, from 1961 until his death from brain cancer in 2002 at age 60. She and Stan had two children, Michele, who died of leukemia at age five, and Christopher, who is also an author.
In addition to her vampire novels, Rice authored books such as The Feast of All Saints (adapted for television in 2001) and Servant of the Bones, which formed the basis of a 2011 comic book miniseries. Several books from The Vampire Chronicles have been adapted as comics and manga by various publishers. Rice also authored erotic fiction under the pen names Anne Rampling and A. N. Roquelaure, including Exit to Eden, which was later adapted into a 1994 film.
About Ashley Marie Witter
Ashley Witter is an independent illustrator living in the northwest suburbs of Chicagoland. She graduated from Madison Area Technical College with a degree in animation (aka videogame design). Currently, she works on her personal comic series Squarriors, and Scorch.
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