The first Vampire Chronicles novel is called 'Interview with the Vampire' and the series is most commonly known by this name. In recent years, the TV show produced by AMC was titled 'Interview with the Vampire' and brought back the most life to this fandom. The first book, in my opinion, is the most different than the rest of the story. It is told in an interview fashion, with two people talking while the main character, Louis de Pointe du Lac, describes how he became a vampire to the interviewER, Daniel Molloy. He begins with his life prior to being a vampire. In the novel, he is a plantation owner...however, this obviously didn't age well, and in the new TV show, Louis owns different brothels and bars. Anne Rice originally set the story 1791, and the story begins with Louis's devout Catholic brother committing suicide, and Louis slowly goes insane over the fact that this death was his fault. He wanted to die himself, and in his sorrow, he seeks out the other main character--Lestat de Lioncourt, who is (OBVIOUSLY AND CANONICALLY) deeply in love with Louis, as well as an ancient vampire from France. In his fit of depression, Louis lets Lestat turn him into a vampire.

The book continues with Louis and Lestat becoming closer....becoming...LOVERS!!!! and eventually, Louis becomes bored. After a fire breaks out in the town, Louis ends up saving a young girl named Claudia, and, distressed, he makes Lestat turn her into a vampire. This goes against some of the many rules of being a vampire, however, which is that you cannot turn a child into a vampire. Claudia is, in the novel, eternally five-years-old. She grows, mentally, but stays young. In a fit of rage, she admits that she abhors Lestat and Louis because they share such a deep love, and yet, she is cursed to do nothing. While Louis spends time trying to console their daughter, Lestat goes off and has an affair with an opera singer--Anton. This makes Louis incredibly depressed, and, after 60 years together, Louis and Claudia hatch a plan to poison and slit the throat of Lestat. Once they kill him, they dump his body in a swamp and leave Louisiana for Europe.

In Europe, Louis and Claudia stumble across a theater--famously known as the 'Theatre de Vampires.' This program is led by another ancient vampire--Armand. Armand is another child vampire, though considerably older than Claudia, and is eternally a seventeen-year-old boy (he is my second favorite character X3). Armand and Louis become involved, and in their involvement, Claudia joins the Theatre de Vampires. In my opinion, I liked the way the AMC show changed this...for one, Claudia is now a fourteen year old girl, and while she is in France, she falls in love with a mortal girl, whom she later has turned into a vampire. In the book, however, this mortal girl is actually a woman Louis turns to help take care of Claudia, as she sorely needs a mother. However, it is soon revealed that Lestat survived their poisioning attempt, and shows up at the Theatre. He demands that Claudia be murdered, and, the coven kidnaps Louis, Claudia, and the young woman: Madeline. The coven drags Claudia into the broad daylight to burn, and, after Lestat demands they leave Louis alone, leave him locked in a coffin to starve. The next day, Armand lets Louis free and he discovers Lestat crying over the remenants of their daughters dress, the rest of her and Madeline a crisp dust.

Armand and Louis travel together for some time after that, but, their relationship becomes strained after Louis realizes it was most likely Armand who was in charge of ordering Claudia's death. Louis's tale ends after he returns to New Orleans and reunites with Lestat, and he finishes his tale with an air of weariness. Daniel, however, wants only the god-like powers vampires possess, and begs Louis to turn him into a vampire. Louis, fueled by anger at such a request, attacks Daniel and leaves. Daniel, in response, publishes the book he wrote on Louis--"Interview with the Vampire." Meta, right??

The second book is narrated by Lestat, and it tells his story from his childhood to after Louis left him. The novel is called 'The Vampire Lestat,' and my favorite part of that book is when he becomes a ROCKSTAR and produces music to try and call other vampires to him. Despite the cringiness of it all, this part was really fun, and I'm excited to see how AMC adapts their TV show to fit this--they already released a trailer with Sam Reid (the actor for Lestat) and he looks AWESOME so i'm really excited!! This book...despite popular opinion...I'm not the biggest fan. I liked the switch between Louis and Lestat's voices, but Lestat is SO annoying sometimes!! All in all, though, the book was pretty okay. It was interesting to read about Lestat's life...but I'm not his biggest fan SORRY so i won't go through the whole plot like I did with IWTV :)

But the third book...OH MAN...the third book is my favorite book. EVER. 'Queen of the Damned' is the BEST TVC book and you can ARGUE WITH THE WALL IF YOU DISAGREE!!! First, we get LOADS of Loustat scenes, which, yeah, they are kind of angsty and sad, but it's still SOMETHING...but the greatest part of the book is the part called 'Devil's Minion.' The Devil's Minion era is absolutely PEAK and idc if you think the ship is toxic!! This section is all about how Daniel, yes, the reporter from IWTV, falls in love with Armand--the boy vampire. Armand gives Daniel a drop of vampire blood every few days, and in exchange, Daniel allows Armand to nearly drain him. I mean, okay, maybe it's a little toxic. Daniel narrates this part and admits that yes, he realized it was an exchange of lovers, but after a few months, he would always get tired of Armand and run away. But, because he was so in love with Daniel, Armand would chase him down and they would continue their affair. Daniel teaches Armand about the modern world, where, in one of my favorite scenes, Armand begins a fascination with blenders and tries to blend everything. And...hey, if you guys like this ship as much as I do, my AO3 account user is 'mrvonnegut,' but I also have a fanfic tab here!
Anyway, the major plot of QOTD is that there is the "mother of vampires," Akasha, who Lestat seeks out and soon becomes her, like, slave. I dunno. I wasn't a fan of this part of the book, mostly because I read Devil's Minion and was SO obsessed with them. They're just the best, guys...

After the first three (or four, if you're an OG fan) books, the series kind of falls off. Anne Rice fired her editors and ended up writing whatever she wanted, so the story goes all over the place. I'm still on the eleventh (there's fourteen) book, and it's CRAZY. Lestat and Louis are crazy, and FREAKING DANIEL JUST DROPS OFF THE FACE OF THE EARTH!!! I hate that she did that but for some reason kept DAVID???!?!?!? ugh sorry, i hate some of the characters. Anyway, just to plug the TV show again, it does change a lot of the story (specifically, Louis is no longer a plantation owner and is now an African-American brothel owner, the storyline is moved up two hundred years and takes place in the 1920s, Claudia is fourteen and a lesbian, and Daniel and Louis are on their second interview) but it's such a wonderful adaptation, and they really make it such a nice piece of art. It's easy enough to follow even if you haven't read all the books, so I highly reccomend it!!