Interview With the Vampire

Interview With the Vampire was published in 1976. Rice wrote the story, in part, to deal with the loss of her daughter Michele, who died of leukemia at age five. Rice based the character of Claudia on Michele. Interview With the Vampire received mixed reviews but sold well. Rice then took years off before expanding the series into the Vampire Chronicles, which currently comprises 13 novels set in the same universe as Interview.

Rice’s books have sold over 100 million copies. The 1994 movie adaptation starring Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise was a success that generated a new wave of popularity in the novels. In 2005, Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series ushered in a massive influx of readers interested in vampire stories. In 2008, HBOs hyper-sexualized vampire series True Blood debuted. Vampires were now enjoying a moment in popular culture like the glut of zombie films and books that would follow the success of the TV adaptation of The Walking Dead. Then, in 2022, AMC released the television series Interview With the Vampire which was an instant hit and was quickly renewed for a second season. The TV show cast Louis and Lestat as a gay couple and focused heavily on the physical passion between them, a decision that was perfectly timed with the increasing support for LGBTQ+ themed books and movies. It also cast Louis as an African American man, which expanded the diversity of the characters.

The success of The Vampire Chronicles is related in part to Rice’s ability to invert the traditional vampire story in ways that keep it fresh. Claudia, for instance, was a unique character in vampire lore. Rice’s talents as a writer also allowed her to focus on the sensuality and lust of the vampires, which titillated readers in ways that would make them look forward to the next installment. Her Sleeping Beauty series, written under the name of A. N. Roquelaure, was straightforward erotica, and the sensuality in The Vampires Chronicles has a similar feel, though they are not as explicit.

However, it is the character of Lestat that has given Rice the most traction for her popularity. Lestat is the main character in several of the books in The Vampire Chronicles. The continuation of the series also allows Lestat to tell his story in his own words.

He is a perfect composite of everything that makes vampires appealing and repulsive. Lestat is handsome, roguish, unapologetically sexual and violent, lives for a good party, and has a flair for artistic pomp. In the novels that follow Interview, Lestat becomes the head of a rock group bearing his name and an author. He attempts to unite the entire vampire family as their ruler in 2014’s The Prince Lestat. In 2016, he even gets a chance to confront aliens and explore the mythology of Atlantis in Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis. Lestat has strong characteristics that allow Rice to build a series around. He finds boredom intolerable, he loves mischief, and he retains enough “savagery” to shock readers with his outbursts of violence.

At the time of this writing, the AMC showrunner Rolin Jones has announced plans to adapt each book of The Vampire Chronicles for television. The popularity of Rice has already endured for more than four decades and will continue with this new adaptation.