Interview with the Vampire blew my middle school mind and threw gasoline on an already-voracious reading habit

The Vampire Chronicles and Mayfair Witches were sumptuous, heartbreaking, romantic, and queer books that kept me company through my awkward teen years

RIP Anne Rice

— mx claws (@alicegoldfuss) December 12, 2021

Interview with the Vampire was the first book aimed at adults that I ever read. I was 6 or 7. I found it and began reading it accidentally. It was on the floorboards in the back of the family car. I picked it up and started reading it out of boredom and was utterly transfixed. I knew after just a few pages that I was never going back to childrens’ books again, and I did not. That was the first adult book I ever read but whatever the last book for kids I read prior to that one was the final one I ever touched.

I’ve not read Interview since then and will probably never revisit it, but it began my more advanced fiction reading career and that’s worth something.