The Laughing Listener
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Steve Vance
Length: 15 hours & 25 minutes
Rating: 5 Stars

I can't believe I've lived this long without reading this book. It's been on my to-read list for YEARS and I've always considered it a classic despite never having seen a word of it. On Overdrive I have a million audiobooks saved on my wish list (because of course I do) with Interview with the Vampire among them, though it was never available and the hold list was always too long for me to bother. Imagine my surprise when I checked back randomly a few days ago and saw it was AVAILABLE. Obviously I jumped on that shit. The only word that I can think of to describe the experience of this audiobook—because it's totally an experience—is entrancing. Anne Rice and Simon Vance put me under a spell.



THE GOOD

Man, this was a hard review to write. I was so overwhelmed when this was over, that I had to think on it a few days. For an audiobook, fifteen hours is a pretty average length, but it felt like SO MUCH was packed into that time frame. An entire lifetime, which is the whole point. So many things happen that I couldn't include in the above summary because no one would read this damn post if it was a million miles long. There's never a dull moment and so much edge-of-your-seat excitement that you'll never be bored.

The writing is AMAZING and Anne Rice just shot up to one of my favorite authors with this book alone. It's completely thought-provoking and I found myself thinking about it for days afterward. Framing the story of Louis's past with the interview dialogue happening in the present was genius and let us, as an outsider, relate to "the boy" as we mimicked his reactions. The fantastical ideas thrown at us about vampires are hard to digest at times, and his confused questions to Louis help draw the reader further into this new world. Plus, in retrospect it's hard for me to believe there wasn't an ounce of sex in this book because it was SENSUAL AS HELL. Rice somehow managed to create an undercurrent of sexuality for the whole novel without anyone even kissing. That, my friends, is increadible.

And this Simon Vance guy?? Holy crap he was good. Somehow he managed to manipulate his voice into a distinct, separate personality for each character and the french accent he uses for Louis is perfect. I can see why he's won awards for his work, dude deserves it. Listening to him talk made the whole novel feel more like an old radio drama, and I definitely mean that as a compliment.

THE UGLY

Okay, this isn't necessarily a negative remark, but since I'm lacking in bad things to say about Interview With a Vampire, I'm just sticking it here.

When I fist started listening to this, I poked around on here and was shocked to see barely above average reviews. Like I said, this book was always categorized as a classic in my mind and I was confused about the mediocre-ish response. Now that I've gone through the whole thing, I can understand it a little more.

Anne Rice's style is very heavy on the descriptions. She spends so much time being verbose about specific moments that it's shocking to learn how much time is actually going by in the story. What feels like a few years of Louis's vampire life turns out to be sixty. I can see how this might turn some people off, especially if they're reading the physical book. These detailed descriptions Rice uses work well for audio, contributing to the old radio drama feel I was talking about earlier, but it could definitely be construed as boring to some.

FINAL WORD

This novel is DA BOMB and the audiobook is a masterpiece. I highly recommend this to anyone who rolls their eyes at Twilight like me and wants to stick with the classics.