‘The normalisation of BDSM relationships’ might be casually thrown about in descriptions of some stories, but The Vampire Armand is to the modern gothic is what Secretary is to the modern chick-flick, for that reason. Except it’s gay.
Continuing from the previous book in the Vampire Chronicles series, Memnoch the Devil; the reader takes a retrospective look of the life of Armand – one of the key vampires in the series. If you have read the previous books, or lied and said you did but really just rented the Interview With a Vampire / Queen of the Damned films, you’ll know that Armand is integral to the vampire coven, as he is one of the eldest vampires yet has the countenance of a teenager. Oh and he likes to kill things and drink their blood, but that was a given.
The story is simplistic, so what makes it so significant? The relationship between Armand and Marius starts off as something quite simple – a man saving a boy from vicious sex-traders; but then moves into a sadomasochistic relationship that involves the boy forcing the man to make him a vampire. It might not sound sweet and lovely, but the secret is in the writing and all becomes clear when you read it.
One thing that sets this book apart is that it contains one of the first proper descriptions of a homosexual relationship in a popular gothic novel; gay relationships and individuals are seldom mentioned outright, usually being alluded to instead. The best examples of this include the titular characters in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and Dracula by Bram Stoker – both the Doctor and the Count are sexualised individuals who are rather obsessed with a single, individual, male.
So the book makes a solid contribution to horror and the modern gothic movement, but why should you read it? We’ve seen Robert Pattinson prancing about with glittery skin, David Boreanaz being all hot and smouldering, and Christopher Lee as something creepy and monochromatic, but the presumptions behind all of them change with every generation of vampire fiction. We have missed something here. You don’t just go from Dracula to Edward without learning about the jumps, and as much as Joss Whedon is a wonder, Buffy just doesn’t help. This is where Anne Rice steps in. The creator of the Vampire Chronicles allows vampire mythology to be seen in a different light – evil, demonic, blood-sucking as a given, but with personalities which allow for goodness and relationships to become apparent. And it is these humanistic qualities that makes her literature stick out, highlighting the best and worst parts of our natures. That and the sex scenes are really graphic. Seriously.
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