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Lives of the Mayfair Witches #1
The Witching Hour
Alternate cover edition located here.
On the veranda of a great New Orleans house, now faded, a mute and fragile woman sits rocking. And the witching hour begins ...
Demonstrating once again her gift for spellbinding storytelling and the creation of legend, Anne Rice makes real for us a great dynasty of witches --- a family given to poetry and incest, to murder and philosophy, a family that over the ages is itself haunted by a powerful, dangerous, and seductive being. A hypnotic novel of witchcraft and the occult across four centuries. The Witching Hour could only have been written by the spellbinding bestselling author of The Vampire Chronicles.
On the veranda of a great New Orleans house, now faded, a mute and fragile woman sits rocking. And the witching hour begins ...
Demonstrating once again her gift for spellbinding storytelling and the creation of legend, Anne Rice makes real for us a great dynasty of witches --- a family given to poetry and incest, to murder and philosophy, a family that over the ages is itself haunted by a powerful, dangerous, and seductive being. A hypnotic novel of witchcraft and the occult across four centuries. The Witching Hour could only have been written by the spellbinding bestselling author of The Vampire Chronicles.
1038 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published October 1, 1990
About the author
Anne Rice
342 books26.4k followersAnne Rice (born Howard Allen Frances O'Brien) was a best-selling American author of gothic, supernatural, historical, erotica, and later religious themed books. Best known for The Vampire Chronicles, her prevailing thematic focus is on love, death, immortality, existentialism, and the human condition. She was married to poet Stan Rice for 41 years until his death in 2002. Her books have sold nearly 100 million copies, making her one of the most widely read authors in modern history.
Anne Rice passed on December 11, 2021 due to complications from a stroke. She was eighty years old at the time of her death.
She uses the pseudonym Anne Rampling for adult-themed fiction (i.e., erotica) and A.N. Roquelaure for fiction featuring sexually explicit sado-masochism.
Anne Rice passed on December 11, 2021 due to complications from a stroke. She was eighty years old at the time of her death.
She uses the pseudonym Anne Rampling for adult-themed fiction (i.e., erotica) and A.N. Roquelaure for fiction featuring sexually explicit sado-masochism.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 5,301 reviews
February 10, 2008
I actually quite enjoyed this book up until the very end, when I felt like the main female character just had some sort of weird personality seizure and did something that the character as you've come to know her just wouldn't have done. It just made it seem poorly written to me, like Ms. Rice decided in the last 10 pages or so that it was going to have a sequel after all when she had been intending from the beginning for it to be a one-book story.
March 3, 2017
Warning: SPOILERS. And gifs. Lots of both, actually.
I don't even know how to summarize what I've just finished. It's like trying to tell someone what happens in a George RR Martin novel. You might try to list item by item, but everything is woven with everything else & there's no way to distinguish in the grand scheme. "Oh, y'know. Stuff happens. People threaten each other. People fight. People die. People have sex. More stuff happens. More people fight. More people die. The end."
(Sorry, Robb.)
Anyway.
Before I get to what cheesed me off, let me say that the middle third of this book was great. I absolutely loved the family history portion of this novel -- the compendium of sources & snippets relating to the Mayfair family through several hundred years. I would've happily read a complete novel about those people & their fucked-up family dynamic.
Unfortunately, the long-running cycle of Mayfair Witches seemed almost secondary to the primary plot -- a strange thing to say, yes, given that the series is called "The Mayfair Chronicles." But there it is. Rather than spend more time with Charlotte, Deborah, Carlotta, Stella, Julien, & everyone else, it's painfully apparent that their lives & misadventures are leading to Rowan Mayfair & her boyfriend, Michael Curry, as their lives are woven into the Evul Plans of a very determined demon...spirit...thing named Lasher.
Before I get to Rowan & Michael, let's talk about Lasher. What IS Lasher? After 1000 pages, he's still not clearly defined. He's an immortal being with intelligence that was called into Earthly existence by a simpleton witch & over the centuries he's learned to manipulate mortals & breed them together in his ultimate quest -- that is, he wants to give himself a body. One would think that makes him mortal, but apparently not. (Just one of several logic gaps. Ignore them as needed.) At any rate, Lasher has been interbreeding one family because he looks into the future & sees one specific witch (Rowan) as his door into the world of sensational experience. As powerful as other witches have been -- especially Charlotte, Julien, & Mary Beth -- they lack Rowan's conceptions of modernity & medicine, which are what make her so strong.
Or something. It's a really long-term Cunning Plan(tm).
Yeah, that's right. The demon...spirit...thing has a Cunning Plan(tm), & it's worthy of Gray Eagle himself.
As for how Lasher's final transformation is to be accomplished...well, it was somewhat nonsensical. It involves Lasher fusing himself with the fetus in Rowan's body, which then emerges in a bloody scene of horrific birthing (though still vague in detail). This mutant spawn is born with a giant head & limbs that grow into full man-size within minutes, & Rowan has to lay her hands on his body & make sure his organs develop properly so he can actually live & breathe & have sex & walk around. The whole thing is beyond serious recount. Clearly the author was going for some kind of Frankenstein tribute, but it didn't work. By this point -- somewhere around page 1015 -- I just didn't give a fuck. And who's to blame for my not caring? Rowan & Michael.
Michael is a classically-styled nice guy, but that's ALL he is. His niceness is boring as hell. He's built like a firefighter & uber-sensitive -- as in, he cries at the beauty of Christmas & finds poetry in restoring old houses & weeps inside at the ecstasy of making love with Rowan. (Yes, really.) But despite my personal feelings toward this sort of hero, Michael's woobie behavior might have been tolerable had the heroine made up for it.
Nope. Didn't happen.
Rowan has mysterious healing powers, but she can also kill people with her mind. That sounds great in theory -- except she's a moo of the first order. She judges constantly, looks down on people for having Feelz, & drives like a maniac because she's just that awesome. But she's so very, very lonely & deprived of emotional companionship & of course her powers scare her, but she's determined to use them for good & healing & compassion toward the little people of the universe who are human enough to need medical care, and...
Excuse me for disparaging her self-righteous spews of whinge. *chortle* At the end of the book, after vowing repeatedly & at great length to destroy Lasher at her first opportunity, what does she do? She falls into the first mental trap Lasher sets, abandons the great love of her life that she's been banging on about for the entire novel, lets a demonic spirit seduce her, falls in love with said demonic spirit, heals his freaky fetus body because she can't bear to destroy life, & runs away with him to hide in Europe & do medical research on his cellular tissues. Seriously?
So what happened to the Mayfair Witches storyline -- the one about a family of occultists that do witchy things to each other & have a ghost haunting their family? Looking back, I can only say the book's true focus wasn't on witchcraft. I wanted to read a 1000-page book about an inbred line of witches...but that's not what I got. Instead I found a 400-page family history & a 600-page metaphysical sci-fi adaptation of the The Omen. The result was a book that felt like two different concepts forced into one unwieldy whole -- not to mention the book was 300 pages too long. o_O
3.5 stars. The family compendium was quite interesting, but the rest was a borderline snooze.
To conclude, here's a picture of Robb holding an armload of puppies.
...I feel better already.
I don't even know how to summarize what I've just finished. It's like trying to tell someone what happens in a George RR Martin novel. You might try to list item by item, but everything is woven with everything else & there's no way to distinguish in the grand scheme. "Oh, y'know. Stuff happens. People threaten each other. People fight. People die. People have sex. More stuff happens. More people fight. More people die. The end."
(Sorry, Robb.)
Anyway.
Before I get to what cheesed me off, let me say that the middle third of this book was great. I absolutely loved the family history portion of this novel -- the compendium of sources & snippets relating to the Mayfair family through several hundred years. I would've happily read a complete novel about those people & their fucked-up family dynamic.
Unfortunately, the long-running cycle of Mayfair Witches seemed almost secondary to the primary plot -- a strange thing to say, yes, given that the series is called "The Mayfair Chronicles." But there it is. Rather than spend more time with Charlotte, Deborah, Carlotta, Stella, Julien, & everyone else, it's painfully apparent that their lives & misadventures are leading to Rowan Mayfair & her boyfriend, Michael Curry, as their lives are woven into the Evul Plans of a very determined demon...spirit...thing named Lasher.
Before I get to Rowan & Michael, let's talk about Lasher. What IS Lasher? After 1000 pages, he's still not clearly defined. He's an immortal being with intelligence that was called into Earthly existence by a simpleton witch & over the centuries he's learned to manipulate mortals & breed them together in his ultimate quest -- that is, he wants to give himself a body. One would think that makes him mortal, but apparently not. (Just one of several logic gaps. Ignore them as needed.) At any rate, Lasher has been interbreeding one family because he looks into the future & sees one specific witch (Rowan) as his door into the world of sensational experience. As powerful as other witches have been -- especially Charlotte, Julien, & Mary Beth -- they lack Rowan's conceptions of modernity & medicine, which are what make her so strong.
Or something. It's a really long-term Cunning Plan(tm).
Yeah, that's right. The demon...spirit...thing has a Cunning Plan(tm), & it's worthy of Gray Eagle himself.
As for how Lasher's final transformation is to be accomplished...well, it was somewhat nonsensical. It involves Lasher fusing himself with the fetus in Rowan's body, which then emerges in a bloody scene of horrific birthing (though still vague in detail). This mutant spawn is born with a giant head & limbs that grow into full man-size within minutes, & Rowan has to lay her hands on his body & make sure his organs develop properly so he can actually live & breathe & have sex & walk around. The whole thing is beyond serious recount. Clearly the author was going for some kind of Frankenstein tribute, but it didn't work. By this point -- somewhere around page 1015 -- I just didn't give a fuck. And who's to blame for my not caring? Rowan & Michael.
Michael is a classically-styled nice guy, but that's ALL he is. His niceness is boring as hell. He's built like a firefighter & uber-sensitive -- as in, he cries at the beauty of Christmas & finds poetry in restoring old houses & weeps inside at the ecstasy of making love with Rowan. (Yes, really.) But despite my personal feelings toward this sort of hero, Michael's woobie behavior might have been tolerable had the heroine made up for it.
Nope. Didn't happen.
Rowan has mysterious healing powers, but she can also kill people with her mind. That sounds great in theory -- except she's a moo of the first order. She judges constantly, looks down on people for having Feelz, & drives like a maniac because she's just that awesome. But she's so very, very lonely & deprived of emotional companionship & of course her powers scare her, but she's determined to use them for good & healing & compassion toward the little people of the universe who are human enough to need medical care, and...
Excuse me for disparaging her self-righteous spews of whinge. *chortle* At the end of the book, after vowing repeatedly & at great length to destroy Lasher at her first opportunity, what does she do? She falls into the first mental trap Lasher sets, abandons the great love of her life that she's been banging on about for the entire novel, lets a demonic spirit seduce her, falls in love with said demonic spirit, heals his freaky fetus body because she can't bear to destroy life, & runs away with him to hide in Europe & do medical research on his cellular tissues. Seriously?
So what happened to the Mayfair Witches storyline -- the one about a family of occultists that do witchy things to each other & have a ghost haunting their family? Looking back, I can only say the book's true focus wasn't on witchcraft. I wanted to read a 1000-page book about an inbred line of witches...but that's not what I got. Instead I found a 400-page family history & a 600-page metaphysical sci-fi adaptation of the The Omen. The result was a book that felt like two different concepts forced into one unwieldy whole -- not to mention the book was 300 pages too long. o_O
3.5 stars. The family compendium was quite interesting, but the rest was a borderline snooze.
To conclude, here's a picture of Robb holding an armload of puppies.
...I feel better already.
November 1, 2021
It feels like a slow seduction.
You felt the foreboding first. Vicious, poisonous, catastrophic…all mingled together, a darkness so black and deep.
You felt the dizziness. A history brought you to various places, New Orleans, Amsterdam, France, Port-air-Prince. A history that was a secret itself. Incest, greed, lust, revenge, murder, jealousy, so morbid and complex that you were frightened. You were thrilled.
One of the most amazing books I’ve ever read. It reminds me of how I used to read when I was a teenager. I read, read, and read, I can read anywhere and anytime and pick up the book without feel distracted. It took me almost three weeks to finish it, but I enjoyed every second of this story. Anne Rice is such an amazing story teller.
P.S. Rowan Mayfair is one of the most disturbing female protagonist I have ever encountered. There is something really masculine about her, and the malice in her chilled me to the bone from the very beginning.
Key Words: Haunted House | witchcraft | multi-generational family dramas | dysfunctional family
You felt the foreboding first. Vicious, poisonous, catastrophic…all mingled together, a darkness so black and deep.
You felt the dizziness. A history brought you to various places, New Orleans, Amsterdam, France, Port-air-Prince. A history that was a secret itself. Incest, greed, lust, revenge, murder, jealousy, so morbid and complex that you were frightened. You were thrilled.
One of the most amazing books I’ve ever read. It reminds me of how I used to read when I was a teenager. I read, read, and read, I can read anywhere and anytime and pick up the book without feel distracted. It took me almost three weeks to finish it, but I enjoyed every second of this story. Anne Rice is such an amazing story teller.
P.S. Rowan Mayfair is one of the most disturbing female protagonist I have ever encountered. There is something really masculine about her, and the malice in her chilled me to the bone from the very beginning.
Key Words: Haunted House | witchcraft | multi-generational family dramas | dysfunctional family
November 13, 2017
My witchathon concludes with The Witching Hour, the eleventh novel by Anne Rice. Published in 1990, I was hoping it might be the author's thirteenth book, but this goth epic of blood, sugar, sex and black magic is a monster as is. The word count is 327,360 words, 10,000 shy of Stephen King's baby high chair Under the Dome. Rice is a gifted scenarist who sets the table for adult horror dripping with sensuality and dread, the type moviegoers had to imagine in the 1940s with thrillers like Cat People or I Walked With a Zombie. While her atmosphere is combustible, her storytelling skills are flaccid and I reached a point where I just wanted this to end.
The novel gets off impressively. Chapters one through six alternate between three main characters and three citizens of New Orleans: a doctor, a priest and a woman who marries into a family owned funeral parlor. These locals are traumatized by their experiences with Deirdre Mayfair, a woman in her late 40s and heir to a family fortune. Deirdre has existed in a catatonic state for thirty years since her child was taken away from her to be raised by a cousin in California. Cared for by her sister Carlotta, Deirdre wastes away in a grand but decaying house on First Street, spook central for stories the nuns tell naughty children about witches in the Garden District.
The doctor, the priest and the woman have at one time wanted to help cure Deirdre or reunite her with her daughter, but find the heir to the Mayfair fortune to be lost in her own world, as well as controlled not only by feared attorney Miss Carl, but a strange man that has been seen near her for years. Each of our do-gooders has had an encounter with that man and unburden themselves to inquiring mind Aaron Lightner, an Englishman who's part historian and part psychic detective for a transcontinental organization called the Talamasca, which in addition to investigating vampires and ghosts, has kept tabs on the Mayfair family for generations.
Lightner had proved an excellent listener, responding gently without ever interrupting, But the doctor did not feel better. In fact, he felt foolish when it was over. As he watched Lightner gather up the little tape recorder and put it in his briefcase, he had half a mind to ask for the tape.
It was Lightner who broke the silence as he laid down several bills over the check.
"There is something I must explain to you," he said. "I think it will ease your mind.:
What could possibly do that?
"You remember," Lightner said, "that I told you I collect ghost stories."
"Yes."
"Well, I know of that old house in New Orleans. I've seen it. And I've recorded other stories of people who have seen the man you described."
The doctor was speechless. The words had been said with utter conviction. In fact, they had been spoken with such authority and assurance that the doctor believed them without doubt. He studied Lightener in detail for the first time. The man was older than he seemed on first inspection. Perhaps sixty-five, even seventy. The doctor found himself captivated again by Lightner's expression, so affable and trusting, so inviting of trust in return.
"Others," the doctor whispered. "Are you sure?"
"I've heard other accounts, some very like your own. And I tell you this so you understand that you didn't imagine it. And so it doesn't continue to prey on your mind. You couldn't have helped Deirdre Mayfair, by the way. Carlotta Mayfair would never have allowed it. You ought to put the entire incident out of your mind. Don't ever worry about it again."
Meanwhile, in San Francisco, forty-eight year old Michael Curry has plied himself with beer and shut himself indoors while the news media stake him out. Pulled from the bay and revived after drowning, the New Orleans native and restorer of old houses has discovered an unwanted talent for psychometry, picking up psychic visions off any object he touches. Donning leather gloves to blunt the effect, Michael received a vision while clinically dead of others instructing him that he had some purpose to fulfill, but can't remember what it is he's supposed to do. He compels his doctor to track down his rescuer, hoping he might have spoken about his vision to them.
Michael's savoir is Rowan Mayfair, thirty year old board-certified Staff Attending in Neurosurgery. Rejecting a promising career in research, Rowan has found her calling in trauma surgery. Raised by wealthy adoptive parents in Tiburon and recently orphaned, she recharges her batteries after a fifteen-hour shift by taking her yacht, the Sweet Christine into Richardson Bay and then the open sea. The cabin of the yacht has been the location of Rowan's other favorite pasttime, taking select cops, firemen or first responders she picks up in neighborhood bars for recreational sex.
Rowan has followed Michael's story in the tabloids and wants to contact him for far more than professional courtesy. There are three people Rowan knows of that she's has killed by thought, most recently, her philandering adoptive father who threatened to leave Rowan's terminally ill adoptive mother unless Rowan slept with him. Michael's experience with psychic phenomena make him one of her people, while his rough and tumble build, blue eyes and worker's hands cloaked in leather have their allure to her as well. Rowan takes Michael to her home and in addition to vividly describing the mystique of New Orleans and San Francisco, Rice demonstrates her facility for writing hot sex.
When he saw her breasts through the thin covering of nylon, he kissed them through the cloth, deliberately teasing himself, his tongue touching the dark circle of the nipple before he forced the cloth away. What did it feel like, the black leather touching her skin, caressing her nipples? He lifted her breasts, kissing the hot curve of them underneath--he loved this particular juicy crevice--then he sucked the nipples hard, one after the other, rubbing and gathering the flesh feverishly with the palm of his hand.
She was twisting under him, her body moving helplessly it seemed, her lips grazing his unevenly shaven chin, then all soft and sweet over his mouth, her hands slipping into his shirt and feeling his chest as if she loved the flatness of it.
She pinched his nipples as he suckled hers. He was so hard he was going to spill. He stopped, rose on his hands, and tried to catch his breath, then sank down next to her. He knew she was pulling off her jeans. He brought her close, feeling the smooth flesh of her back, then moving down to the curve of her soft clutchable and kneadable little bottom.
No waiting now, he couldn't. In a rage of impatience he took off his glasses and shoved them on the bedside table. Now she would be a lush soft blur to him, but all the physical details he'd seen were ever present in his mind. He was on top of her. Her hand moved against his crotch, unzipped his pants, and brought out his sex, roughly, slapping it as if to test its hardness--a little gesture that almost brought him over the edge. He felt the prickly curling thatch of pubic hair, the heated inner lips, and finally the tight pulsing sheath itself as he entered.
I did mention that The Witching Hour is 327,360 words, so, if you like the supernatural and erotica, Anne Rice has more. A lot more.
After three rounds of world class sex, Michael takes leave of Rowan to make a flight to New Orleans (he'd booked his passage before they officially met). Michael feels pulled to his hometown and after picking up no clues from Rowan or her boat, believes the riddle behind his vision lies in the Big Easy. Michael has many memories of the city, particularly a house on First Street in the Garden District his mother would take him past on walks and where a strange man watched him from the porch. Drunk, Michael heads straight for that house and sees the man again. He passes out.
When Michael recovers, he finds himself at the Pontchartrain Hotel with Aaron Lightner. The Englishman attempted to make contact with Michael in San Francisco, intrigued by his psychometric talents, and is operating under the impression that Rowan Mayfair hired Michael to do some work for her in New Orleans. Through much exposition, Lightner reveals that Rowan is heir to a vast family fortune here in the Crescent City and that house that Michael has been obsessed with--and everything in it--belongs to her. He convinces Michael to come with him to a motherhouse the Talamasca has in Metairie, where he is given a file to read on the Mayfair Witches.
Back in San Francisco, Rowan is awakened by a presence. She finds a man standing on the dock who dims away. In the morning, Rowan receives a call from Carlotta Mayfair. Miss Carl is unaware that Rowan's adoptive mother is deceased and has to notify her niece that her birth mother Deirdre passed away that morning. She warns Rowan to avoid New Orleans at all costs. The doctor ignores her. Michael makes progress on the file of the Mayfair Witches, which goes back twelve generations and spans Scotland, France and New Orleans in an orgy of persecution, personal fortune, and madness, with "that man," who goes by the name Lasher, waiting in the wings.
Though Deirdre has slumbered in a twilight induced by drugs all of her adult life, there have been countless sightings by those around her of "a mysterious brown-haired man." Nurses in St. Ann's Asylum claimed to have seen him--"some man going into her room! Now I know I saw that." At a Texas hospital where she was incarcerated briefly, a doctor claimed to have seen "a mysterious visitor" who always "seemed somehow to just disappear when I wanted to question him or ask him who he was."
At least one nurse in a northern Louisiana sanitarium insisted to her superiors that she had seen a ghost. Black orderlies in various hospitals saw "that man all the time." One woman told us, "He not human. I know him when I see him. I see spirits. I call them up. I know him and he know me and he don't come near me at all."
Most workmen cannot work on the First Street house any more today than they could in the days when Deirdre was a girl. There are the same old stories. There is even some talk of "a man around here" who doesn't want things done.
The strengths of The Witching Hour and part of what has driven Anne Rice up the bestseller's charts over the years is her command of prose while trafficking in the supernatural and the sensual. Her attention to detail--whether it's describing a witch burning in the 17th century or a crumbling Irish Catholic church in the present--is so good. Rather than ride a marketable genre to its obvious and boring conclusions, Rice paints vivid pictures of places and people. She knows cities. She knows Catholicism. I liked how a family owned funeral parlor in New Orleans knows where all the bodies are buried and keep quiet about more than they'll ever reveal, and this is one minor character.
I loved how Rice's characters who've come in close contact with the Mayfair witches are suffering from the same trauma as a motorist buzzed by a UFO; they've experienced something they can't explain and want answers. In another excellent stroke, Rice stumbles onto the conceit of renovating a haunted house, confident enough to cite novels about great houses like Great Expectations or Rebecca by name and in addition to crafting home design porn that matches her skin porn, raises compelling questions about whether new tenants and new fixtures are enough to drive out bad energy hovering around an old house.
The problem with The Witching Hour is that it's two stories: a back story about witches that's exciting and a front story about modern lovers that's lame. Rice doesn't like Rowan Mayfair much--the author's sympathies lie with her tragic men while her women seem to be asking for whatever misfortune is visited on them--and the neurosurgeon has a cunning that felt robotic to me. Rowan and Michael do spend a lot of time crying, but the machinery of their romance made me want to get back to the flesh and blood of the witches. And 327,360 words is too damn long. Rosemary's Baby had a far more compelling story and characters trapped in a web of black magic and deceit and at 79,360 words, can be read in a quarter of the time.
The novel gets off impressively. Chapters one through six alternate between three main characters and three citizens of New Orleans: a doctor, a priest and a woman who marries into a family owned funeral parlor. These locals are traumatized by their experiences with Deirdre Mayfair, a woman in her late 40s and heir to a family fortune. Deirdre has existed in a catatonic state for thirty years since her child was taken away from her to be raised by a cousin in California. Cared for by her sister Carlotta, Deirdre wastes away in a grand but decaying house on First Street, spook central for stories the nuns tell naughty children about witches in the Garden District.
The doctor, the priest and the woman have at one time wanted to help cure Deirdre or reunite her with her daughter, but find the heir to the Mayfair fortune to be lost in her own world, as well as controlled not only by feared attorney Miss Carl, but a strange man that has been seen near her for years. Each of our do-gooders has had an encounter with that man and unburden themselves to inquiring mind Aaron Lightner, an Englishman who's part historian and part psychic detective for a transcontinental organization called the Talamasca, which in addition to investigating vampires and ghosts, has kept tabs on the Mayfair family for generations.
Lightner had proved an excellent listener, responding gently without ever interrupting, But the doctor did not feel better. In fact, he felt foolish when it was over. As he watched Lightner gather up the little tape recorder and put it in his briefcase, he had half a mind to ask for the tape.
It was Lightner who broke the silence as he laid down several bills over the check.
"There is something I must explain to you," he said. "I think it will ease your mind.:
What could possibly do that?
"You remember," Lightner said, "that I told you I collect ghost stories."
"Yes."
"Well, I know of that old house in New Orleans. I've seen it. And I've recorded other stories of people who have seen the man you described."
The doctor was speechless. The words had been said with utter conviction. In fact, they had been spoken with such authority and assurance that the doctor believed them without doubt. He studied Lightener in detail for the first time. The man was older than he seemed on first inspection. Perhaps sixty-five, even seventy. The doctor found himself captivated again by Lightner's expression, so affable and trusting, so inviting of trust in return.
"Others," the doctor whispered. "Are you sure?"
"I've heard other accounts, some very like your own. And I tell you this so you understand that you didn't imagine it. And so it doesn't continue to prey on your mind. You couldn't have helped Deirdre Mayfair, by the way. Carlotta Mayfair would never have allowed it. You ought to put the entire incident out of your mind. Don't ever worry about it again."
Meanwhile, in San Francisco, forty-eight year old Michael Curry has plied himself with beer and shut himself indoors while the news media stake him out. Pulled from the bay and revived after drowning, the New Orleans native and restorer of old houses has discovered an unwanted talent for psychometry, picking up psychic visions off any object he touches. Donning leather gloves to blunt the effect, Michael received a vision while clinically dead of others instructing him that he had some purpose to fulfill, but can't remember what it is he's supposed to do. He compels his doctor to track down his rescuer, hoping he might have spoken about his vision to them.
Michael's savoir is Rowan Mayfair, thirty year old board-certified Staff Attending in Neurosurgery. Rejecting a promising career in research, Rowan has found her calling in trauma surgery. Raised by wealthy adoptive parents in Tiburon and recently orphaned, she recharges her batteries after a fifteen-hour shift by taking her yacht, the Sweet Christine into Richardson Bay and then the open sea. The cabin of the yacht has been the location of Rowan's other favorite pasttime, taking select cops, firemen or first responders she picks up in neighborhood bars for recreational sex.
Rowan has followed Michael's story in the tabloids and wants to contact him for far more than professional courtesy. There are three people Rowan knows of that she's has killed by thought, most recently, her philandering adoptive father who threatened to leave Rowan's terminally ill adoptive mother unless Rowan slept with him. Michael's experience with psychic phenomena make him one of her people, while his rough and tumble build, blue eyes and worker's hands cloaked in leather have their allure to her as well. Rowan takes Michael to her home and in addition to vividly describing the mystique of New Orleans and San Francisco, Rice demonstrates her facility for writing hot sex.
When he saw her breasts through the thin covering of nylon, he kissed them through the cloth, deliberately teasing himself, his tongue touching the dark circle of the nipple before he forced the cloth away. What did it feel like, the black leather touching her skin, caressing her nipples? He lifted her breasts, kissing the hot curve of them underneath--he loved this particular juicy crevice--then he sucked the nipples hard, one after the other, rubbing and gathering the flesh feverishly with the palm of his hand.
She was twisting under him, her body moving helplessly it seemed, her lips grazing his unevenly shaven chin, then all soft and sweet over his mouth, her hands slipping into his shirt and feeling his chest as if she loved the flatness of it.
She pinched his nipples as he suckled hers. He was so hard he was going to spill. He stopped, rose on his hands, and tried to catch his breath, then sank down next to her. He knew she was pulling off her jeans. He brought her close, feeling the smooth flesh of her back, then moving down to the curve of her soft clutchable and kneadable little bottom.
No waiting now, he couldn't. In a rage of impatience he took off his glasses and shoved them on the bedside table. Now she would be a lush soft blur to him, but all the physical details he'd seen were ever present in his mind. He was on top of her. Her hand moved against his crotch, unzipped his pants, and brought out his sex, roughly, slapping it as if to test its hardness--a little gesture that almost brought him over the edge. He felt the prickly curling thatch of pubic hair, the heated inner lips, and finally the tight pulsing sheath itself as he entered.
I did mention that The Witching Hour is 327,360 words, so, if you like the supernatural and erotica, Anne Rice has more. A lot more.
After three rounds of world class sex, Michael takes leave of Rowan to make a flight to New Orleans (he'd booked his passage before they officially met). Michael feels pulled to his hometown and after picking up no clues from Rowan or her boat, believes the riddle behind his vision lies in the Big Easy. Michael has many memories of the city, particularly a house on First Street in the Garden District his mother would take him past on walks and where a strange man watched him from the porch. Drunk, Michael heads straight for that house and sees the man again. He passes out.
When Michael recovers, he finds himself at the Pontchartrain Hotel with Aaron Lightner. The Englishman attempted to make contact with Michael in San Francisco, intrigued by his psychometric talents, and is operating under the impression that Rowan Mayfair hired Michael to do some work for her in New Orleans. Through much exposition, Lightner reveals that Rowan is heir to a vast family fortune here in the Crescent City and that house that Michael has been obsessed with--and everything in it--belongs to her. He convinces Michael to come with him to a motherhouse the Talamasca has in Metairie, where he is given a file to read on the Mayfair Witches.
Back in San Francisco, Rowan is awakened by a presence. She finds a man standing on the dock who dims away. In the morning, Rowan receives a call from Carlotta Mayfair. Miss Carl is unaware that Rowan's adoptive mother is deceased and has to notify her niece that her birth mother Deirdre passed away that morning. She warns Rowan to avoid New Orleans at all costs. The doctor ignores her. Michael makes progress on the file of the Mayfair Witches, which goes back twelve generations and spans Scotland, France and New Orleans in an orgy of persecution, personal fortune, and madness, with "that man," who goes by the name Lasher, waiting in the wings.
Though Deirdre has slumbered in a twilight induced by drugs all of her adult life, there have been countless sightings by those around her of "a mysterious brown-haired man." Nurses in St. Ann's Asylum claimed to have seen him--"some man going into her room! Now I know I saw that." At a Texas hospital where she was incarcerated briefly, a doctor claimed to have seen "a mysterious visitor" who always "seemed somehow to just disappear when I wanted to question him or ask him who he was."
At least one nurse in a northern Louisiana sanitarium insisted to her superiors that she had seen a ghost. Black orderlies in various hospitals saw "that man all the time." One woman told us, "He not human. I know him when I see him. I see spirits. I call them up. I know him and he know me and he don't come near me at all."
Most workmen cannot work on the First Street house any more today than they could in the days when Deirdre was a girl. There are the same old stories. There is even some talk of "a man around here" who doesn't want things done.
The strengths of The Witching Hour and part of what has driven Anne Rice up the bestseller's charts over the years is her command of prose while trafficking in the supernatural and the sensual. Her attention to detail--whether it's describing a witch burning in the 17th century or a crumbling Irish Catholic church in the present--is so good. Rather than ride a marketable genre to its obvious and boring conclusions, Rice paints vivid pictures of places and people. She knows cities. She knows Catholicism. I liked how a family owned funeral parlor in New Orleans knows where all the bodies are buried and keep quiet about more than they'll ever reveal, and this is one minor character.
I loved how Rice's characters who've come in close contact with the Mayfair witches are suffering from the same trauma as a motorist buzzed by a UFO; they've experienced something they can't explain and want answers. In another excellent stroke, Rice stumbles onto the conceit of renovating a haunted house, confident enough to cite novels about great houses like Great Expectations or Rebecca by name and in addition to crafting home design porn that matches her skin porn, raises compelling questions about whether new tenants and new fixtures are enough to drive out bad energy hovering around an old house.
The problem with The Witching Hour is that it's two stories: a back story about witches that's exciting and a front story about modern lovers that's lame. Rice doesn't like Rowan Mayfair much--the author's sympathies lie with her tragic men while her women seem to be asking for whatever misfortune is visited on them--and the neurosurgeon has a cunning that felt robotic to me. Rowan and Michael do spend a lot of time crying, but the machinery of their romance made me want to get back to the flesh and blood of the witches. And 327,360 words is too damn long. Rosemary's Baby had a far more compelling story and characters trapped in a web of black magic and deceit and at 79,360 words, can be read in a quarter of the time.
August 3, 2019
I got this book for Christmas that year. This was my first ever Anne Rice book, and it was about a year after Interview With A Vampire came out as a movie with Brad Pitt, Christian Slater and Tom Cruise. I was blown away people. If you like a story, like Gone With the Wind on crack, no seriously, epic like that, except VERY ADULT (don't let your tweens get their hands on this one Mom's and Dad's!), but such an addicting read that you may just get fired for calling in sick over it.
This was far and away my favorite Anne Rice novel, and any of the other sequels and prequels that go with it, and a major recommendation from me on great, compelling, lose-yourself type reading.
This was far and away my favorite Anne Rice novel, and any of the other sequels and prequels that go with it, and a major recommendation from me on great, compelling, lose-yourself type reading.
January 21, 2009
What a queer little book (although at 1207 pages, little isn't the right word)! This was my first attempt at Anne Rice and I fear it might well be my last.
Halfway through "The Witching Hour", I was absolutely enthralled. I loved the idea of The Talamasca. At that stage of the story, I would have loved knowing it was a real organisation and applied for a job. I revelled in learning the entire Mayfair history. Anne Rice has a gift for choosing the words that bring it all to life. I could imagine the house on First Street and see everything as the characters walk through the Garden District.
So why only one star? Firstly, I thought it was too long. I love books & reading and don't shy away from a challenge but I felt it just took too long to get to a disappointing ending. And that really is the crux of my complaint. How it all ends. In a word, pitifully.
Rowan, the all-powerful 13th witch in the Mayfair Dynasty & destiny, so completely consumed in her eternal love for Michael - gives up, betrays Michael and helps Lasher? Please. For me, it not only belittled her character (and relationship with Michael) but made a mockery of it. None of it rang true. After wading through this, all I am left with is a feeling of being cheated.
Halfway through "The Witching Hour", I was absolutely enthralled. I loved the idea of The Talamasca. At that stage of the story, I would have loved knowing it was a real organisation and applied for a job. I revelled in learning the entire Mayfair history. Anne Rice has a gift for choosing the words that bring it all to life. I could imagine the house on First Street and see everything as the characters walk through the Garden District.
So why only one star? Firstly, I thought it was too long. I love books & reading and don't shy away from a challenge but I felt it just took too long to get to a disappointing ending. And that really is the crux of my complaint. How it all ends. In a word, pitifully.
Rowan, the all-powerful 13th witch in the Mayfair Dynasty & destiny, so completely consumed in her eternal love for Michael - gives up, betrays Michael and helps Lasher? Please. For me, it not only belittled her character (and relationship with Michael) but made a mockery of it. None of it rang true. After wading through this, all I am left with is a feeling of being cheated.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 1, 2009
One of my top 3 favorite novels of all time. Anne Rice gets a bad rap for being pure shlock, but what most people who haven't read her don't realize is that she is obsessed with history. She studies a particular time period, learns everything she can about it, and then creates characters and sticks them in it. She rarely disappoints me. And her prose is beautiful. You can sit down to read and realize that 2 hours have passed having not even noticed.
This book is about a woman named Rowan Mayfair, who was given up for adoption at birth. She has lived a very normal, successful life and become a doctor, knowing nothing of her birth family or the circumstances of her adoption.
...And then her birth mother in New Orleans dies. Suddenly Rowan finds herself haunted by an apparition that she cannot explain. She is approached by an old man named Aaron Lightner who tells her that he is with an orginazition called the Talamasca. He explains that they exist to watch and study paranormal and supernatural events, but do not interfere. They have been watching the Mayfair family for hundreds of years. (After this book, the Talamasca was merged into Rice's primary ongoing serial, "The Vampire Chronicles.")
Aaron presents her with the file on her family, and the narrative breaks away for a good 300 pages to tell the tale of an ancient coven of witches, reaching back as far as the 1600's. The familiar of the Mayfair family is a very powerful spirit named Lasher. He is passed down to the first-born daughter of each generation. Now that her mother is dead, Lasher has moved on to Rowan.
Rowan decides to head to New Orleans to attend her mother's funeral and meet the family. VERY thrilling, exciting, white-knuckled reading ensues.
This is the first book in "The Lives of the Mayfair Witches," a series which originally spanned only 3 books. But when Rice decided that it was time to end all of her ongoing serials, she merged these characters with those from the Vampire Chronicles and ended them both together.
This book is about a woman named Rowan Mayfair, who was given up for adoption at birth. She has lived a very normal, successful life and become a doctor, knowing nothing of her birth family or the circumstances of her adoption.
...And then her birth mother in New Orleans dies. Suddenly Rowan finds herself haunted by an apparition that she cannot explain. She is approached by an old man named Aaron Lightner who tells her that he is with an orginazition called the Talamasca. He explains that they exist to watch and study paranormal and supernatural events, but do not interfere. They have been watching the Mayfair family for hundreds of years. (After this book, the Talamasca was merged into Rice's primary ongoing serial, "The Vampire Chronicles.")
Aaron presents her with the file on her family, and the narrative breaks away for a good 300 pages to tell the tale of an ancient coven of witches, reaching back as far as the 1600's. The familiar of the Mayfair family is a very powerful spirit named Lasher. He is passed down to the first-born daughter of each generation. Now that her mother is dead, Lasher has moved on to Rowan.
Rowan decides to head to New Orleans to attend her mother's funeral and meet the family. VERY thrilling, exciting, white-knuckled reading ensues.
This is the first book in "The Lives of the Mayfair Witches," a series which originally spanned only 3 books. But when Rice decided that it was time to end all of her ongoing serials, she merged these characters with those from the Vampire Chronicles and ended them both together.
October 7, 2019
Quite possibly ground zero for the term “info dump.” Said info dump masqueraded as a lesson in family history that droned on for roughly half the (very long) book.
Also the rough sex enjoyed by the two MCs was disturbingly portrayed as some kind rape fantasy on both their parts. Think about that for a second . . . Michael Curry, presented as a stock Good Guy character, in his most secret dark thoughts, fantasized about raping a woman, and Rowan Mayfair, the smart, strong heroine, repeatedly asked her sexual partners to “make it a rape.”
I would say that some allowances should be made for the 25+ year old publication date, BUT . . . I’m not sure I can convince myself (or anyone else), that that sort of thing was ever socially acceptable.
Also the rough sex enjoyed by the two MCs was disturbingly portrayed as some kind rape fantasy on both their parts. Think about that for a second . . . Michael Curry, presented as a stock Good Guy character, in his most secret dark thoughts, fantasized about raping a woman, and Rowan Mayfair, the smart, strong heroine, repeatedly asked her sexual partners to “make it a rape.”
I would say that some allowances should be made for the 25+ year old publication date, BUT . . . I’m not sure I can convince myself (or anyone else), that that sort of thing was ever socially acceptable.
December 19, 2007
I FINALLY finished this. Good Lord, what a long winded mess this was. All the wordy history was boring but I stuck it out then ended up hating the ending! Why in the world to I keep reading Anne Rice?
August 1, 2011
Review is tainted by romance.
When my man and I first moved into the Garden District last summer (while I was still a bartender) we moved into a pristine apartment with a gallery balcony which overlooked Chestnut street. Left in our room in an otherwise pristine apartment was a box of clutter left by the previous tenant. She left spoons, a rubber ducky, a hideous vase and five Anne Rice novels.
I spent most of the summer mornings on the balcony reading the Mayfair witches series, starting with The Witching Hour. Under the shade of the magnolia tree next to our balcony I could actually see "the Mayfair House" from my window - the house that Anne Rice used to own when she wrote the series on Chestnut and First. A perfect way to spend the summer. So cliche, so wonderful.
No balcony at my new place in Central City, but from my gallery windows I can see the bar that the Wild Magnolia Mardi Gras Indians practice and leave from on Mardi Gras morning and on St. Joseph's Day. Still a winner, just need a matching book.
When my man and I first moved into the Garden District last summer (while I was still a bartender) we moved into a pristine apartment with a gallery balcony which overlooked Chestnut street. Left in our room in an otherwise pristine apartment was a box of clutter left by the previous tenant. She left spoons, a rubber ducky, a hideous vase and five Anne Rice novels.
I spent most of the summer mornings on the balcony reading the Mayfair witches series, starting with The Witching Hour. Under the shade of the magnolia tree next to our balcony I could actually see "the Mayfair House" from my window - the house that Anne Rice used to own when she wrote the series on Chestnut and First. A perfect way to spend the summer. So cliche, so wonderful.
No balcony at my new place in Central City, but from my gallery windows I can see the bar that the Wild Magnolia Mardi Gras Indians practice and leave from on Mardi Gras morning and on St. Joseph's Day. Still a winner, just need a matching book.
April 21, 2011
I imagine this as a fabulous mini-series featuring Kathy Bates and Sharon Stone in key roles. why can't this happen? someone make this happen!
December 8, 2020
Por fin me he iniciado con Anne Rice y tengo sentimientos encontrados.
He disfrutado mucho de la mayor parte de la historia, siendo el nudo en sí lo más interesante para mi, pero el desenlace me ha resultado pobre y apresurado y ha bajado bastante mi concepción de la novela en conjunto.
En 'La hora de las brujas' vamos a conocer a Rowan Mayfair, una neurocirujana con habilidades especiales. Cuando fallece su madre adoptiva decide descubrir el origen de su familia y volver a la vieja casa familiar en Nueva Orleans a pesar de la promesa que le hizo a su madre adoptiva de no regresar jamás allí. Así conoceremos la historia de toda una saga familiar desde el siglo XVII en el que en cada generación de los Mayfair ha aparecido una bruja capaz de ver "al hombre" y transmitir su legado a la siguiente bruja.
Como decía, la parte en que descubrimos la historia de todas estas mujeres a lo largo de varios siglos y viajando desde Escocia a Nueva Orleans pasando por Haití, ha sido una maravilla. El inicio también me gustó mucho, con ese ambiente tan decadente, fantasmal y misterioso. El problema es que según vamos obteniendo respuestas me fue resultando cada vez menos interesante....
También advierto que hay bastantes rollos sexuales turbios xD
Sea como sea, para ser una novela de 1200 páginas es una historia que se lee muy bien, atrapa muchísimo y la mayor parte del tiempo disfruté enormemente.
Leeré sin duda Entrevista con el vampiro que sigue comentándose que es una de las mejores obras de la autora, pero no continuaré con esta trilogía.
He disfrutado mucho de la mayor parte de la historia, siendo el nudo en sí lo más interesante para mi, pero el desenlace me ha resultado pobre y apresurado y ha bajado bastante mi concepción de la novela en conjunto.
En 'La hora de las brujas' vamos a conocer a Rowan Mayfair, una neurocirujana con habilidades especiales. Cuando fallece su madre adoptiva decide descubrir el origen de su familia y volver a la vieja casa familiar en Nueva Orleans a pesar de la promesa que le hizo a su madre adoptiva de no regresar jamás allí. Así conoceremos la historia de toda una saga familiar desde el siglo XVII en el que en cada generación de los Mayfair ha aparecido una bruja capaz de ver "al hombre" y transmitir su legado a la siguiente bruja.
Como decía, la parte en que descubrimos la historia de todas estas mujeres a lo largo de varios siglos y viajando desde Escocia a Nueva Orleans pasando por Haití, ha sido una maravilla. El inicio también me gustó mucho, con ese ambiente tan decadente, fantasmal y misterioso. El problema es que según vamos obteniendo respuestas me fue resultando cada vez menos interesante....
También advierto que hay bastantes rollos sexuales turbios xD
Sea como sea, para ser una novela de 1200 páginas es una historia que se lee muy bien, atrapa muchísimo y la mayor parte del tiempo disfruté enormemente.
Leeré sin duda Entrevista con el vampiro que sigue comentándose que es una de las mejores obras de la autora, pero no continuaré con esta trilogía.
September 15, 2019
Jar of Death Pick #13
4.5 Stars!
This book is a monster!
On the verandah of a great New Orleans house now faded a mute and fragile woman sits rocking.
I read those words about a decade ago and I just had to read this book. The Witching Hour actually belongs to my sister but after I read for the first time all those years ago, I just kept it.
And I don't feel bad about it either.
The Witching Hour is about the Mayfair family. The Mayfair's are family of very powerful witches, who are watched over by a powerful, dangerous and seductive being.
This book has everything. Romance, incest, murder, incest, secret societies....Did I mention incest, because there is A LOT of incest and rape.
If you have any triggers then don't read this book. Anne Rice is widely known for her very dark and sexy novels and I think with The Witching Hour she reached her peak.
A must read!
4.5 Stars!
This book is a monster!
On the verandah of a great New Orleans house now faded a mute and fragile woman sits rocking.
I read those words about a decade ago and I just had to read this book. The Witching Hour actually belongs to my sister but after I read for the first time all those years ago, I just kept it.
And I don't feel bad about it either.
The Witching Hour is about the Mayfair family. The Mayfair's are family of very powerful witches, who are watched over by a powerful, dangerous and seductive being.
This book has everything. Romance, incest, murder, incest, secret societies....Did I mention incest, because there is A LOT of incest and rape.
If you have any triggers then don't read this book. Anne Rice is widely known for her very dark and sexy novels and I think with The Witching Hour she reached her peak.
A must read!
September 9, 2021
This was my 3rd timing reading this book. Rowan got on my nerves this time around.
October 27, 2021
The Witching Hour is one of the best books I think I have ever read.
It hasn’t quite knocked The Stand out of its place as my all time favorite. But it is close. Damn close. As in my new second favorite book of all time. I’m rather upset with myself for taking so long to get to this one. If I’d read it when I was younger, I might have been able to make this one my second reading. Oh well. Maybe in 10 years I’ll read it again.
The Story:
I love the story. Loved it. It seemed such a unique take on what a “witch” was and how they derived their power, at least in Anne Rice’s world. It has a great gothic feel to it rather than an up in your face literary punch trying to knock you out with fear. That’s hard to achieve in my humble view.
We start with a guy, Michael Curry, who at first blush seems like he should be a minor character. Isn’t the story supposed to be about Rowan and her being a long lost witch from this family? I thought initially. Not so. He is inextricably tied with Rowan Mayfair. In many ways, as it turns out. We get some of the current family stuff and then a very long history of the Mayfair witches dating back to the 1600s. I ultimately liked the way Anne Rice approached the family’s history, as told through sort of narrative reports created by an organization called the Talamasca. At first this technique seemed odd to me and I questioned how Anne Rice was going to hold my interest. This family history that takes you from the 1600s to the “modern” time when the story takes place spans almost 400 pages. Ultimately I needn’t have worried. I love world building in books and stories and this is what Anne Rice accomplished with this early-middle to middle of the book. Then we get back to Rowan and Michael, who has become befriended by Aaron Lightner of the Talamasca.
The images that Anne Rice can create. Damn. I was reminded very early on that so often every word and every sentence for pages on end exude emotion and imagery. Not many people can do that. Some of my other favorite writers often don’t accomplish this as well as Anne Rice does. Reading this book just made my heart absolutely ache to go and see New Orleans. (A visit there is on the bucket list. We’ll see.) The book creates the feel and environment of it so well.
For a book where most of the “action” takes place at the 75% mark, it still kept me engaged. The material before that, to me, created an investment where I could feel this world of this huge family of Mayfairs and being interested—and terrified—of their existence.
The conflicts are both all-encompassing and also smaller in scale. From the first conflict where Petyr is trying to help the first Mayfair witch, to Rowan, Aaron, and Michael trying to plan on meeting the apparent threat that Lasher presents, they were all engaging. Each little stage of the book built on what came before, as you would expect. But at first blush here, I felt like I was seeing several smaller impressionist paintings, but then toward the end I realize that, no, they really are a coherent work. To the point where I was thinking, well of course we have to have 40% of the book talking about their ancient history. You can’t understand the events in the final conflicts if you don’t!
I thought I was going to finish last night. I didn’t, despite my best efforts. I fought against fatigue and fatigue eventually won. But toward o-dark-thirty last night I’m near the end and I came across the part where When I read that, I realized just how clever the story was and had hit me with a blindside. I sat there for some number of minutes with my copy clutched to my chest just taking that plot point in, marveling at how much I was enjoying this one.
The Characters:
The books I like the most are those that have good stories but also create characters that seem like real people. I found an analogy in the epilogue that seems to fit:
The Ending:
The Witching Hour had an unexpected, but very satisfying end to me. Again, not formulaic, but once I read it and closed this volume, I realized just how much it made sense. It ends with the trio more or less It is part of a trilogy so I got an ending but it left me with enough suspense and desire to read more.
It created all these questions that I look forward to exploring in Lasher and then Taltos:
1. Is Lasher in fact a bad guy?
2. Is Rowan playing him or the other way around?
3. What is Michael going to do? I feel the coolest conflict and story-telling is going to be his for the unfolding.
4. Are any of the Mayfairs going to be of any real help going forward?
5. Is the Talamasca going to be of any real help going forward?
6. ?
The answer to each of these questions is – dunno. And that is very, very cool to make me want more after two months of reading 1038 pages.
The Structure and the Content:
I loved The Witching Hour for its LACK of formulaicness. As you might know, this is a BEAST of a book. My copy was 1038 pages. Not many novels go that long. I personally like longer novels. Gives the writer more of a chance to world build and create characters that feel real to me.
There are unique storytelling techniques in here, like the long historical discussion.
This family, the Mayfairs. Oof. Soooooo much incest. The way Anne Rice unflinchingly had that in there and how it was so largely responsible for making such a large family. It was, well, what can I say… oh yeah, I already did—unflinching. Now, before you scratch this one off, I personally never got the sense it was put in there for cheap thrills or for purely salacious reasons. It was just part of the darkness of how this family came to be. The measure of a good story is sometimes found, in my humble opinion, how you can feel uncomfortable yet engaged in the narration at the same time.
And yes, there is a lot of intimacy in there too. I think Anne Rice dealt with this very well. It
There’s a bit at the end that hit me pretty hard too and the reason why I think why people are drawn to stories and why we need stories—of all kinds, shapes, colors, and everything else—in our lives:
For all the dark stuff in this book, for all the twisted, screwed up, icky-ness of how the family came about, I felt my reading life—and maybe my life-life—got a little bit closer to the spirit of this ideal for having read The Witching Hour.
But I won’t BS you. Maybe this book isn’t for everyone. It’s long. It’s got some brutal content. But an open mind and letting someone take you on an epic journey—even one that makes you cringe and think and FEEL—is well worth the time.
I’m sure there is more I can say, but I think you get the idea. Dark. Enthralling. Powerful.
Thank you for writing this, Anne Rice. I look forward to reading Lasher soon.
It hasn’t quite knocked The Stand out of its place as my all time favorite. But it is close. Damn close. As in my new second favorite book of all time. I’m rather upset with myself for taking so long to get to this one. If I’d read it when I was younger, I might have been able to make this one my second reading. Oh well. Maybe in 10 years I’ll read it again.
The Story:
I love the story. Loved it. It seemed such a unique take on what a “witch” was and how they derived their power, at least in Anne Rice’s world. It has a great gothic feel to it rather than an up in your face literary punch trying to knock you out with fear. That’s hard to achieve in my humble view.
We start with a guy, Michael Curry, who at first blush seems like he should be a minor character. Isn’t the story supposed to be about Rowan and her being a long lost witch from this family? I thought initially. Not so. He is inextricably tied with Rowan Mayfair. In many ways, as it turns out. We get some of the current family stuff and then a very long history of the Mayfair witches dating back to the 1600s. I ultimately liked the way Anne Rice approached the family’s history, as told through sort of narrative reports created by an organization called the Talamasca. At first this technique seemed odd to me and I questioned how Anne Rice was going to hold my interest. This family history that takes you from the 1600s to the “modern” time when the story takes place spans almost 400 pages. Ultimately I needn’t have worried. I love world building in books and stories and this is what Anne Rice accomplished with this early-middle to middle of the book. Then we get back to Rowan and Michael, who has become befriended by Aaron Lightner of the Talamasca.
The images that Anne Rice can create. Damn. I was reminded very early on that so often every word and every sentence for pages on end exude emotion and imagery. Not many people can do that. Some of my other favorite writers often don’t accomplish this as well as Anne Rice does. Reading this book just made my heart absolutely ache to go and see New Orleans. (A visit there is on the bucket list. We’ll see.) The book creates the feel and environment of it so well.
For a book where most of the “action” takes place at the 75% mark, it still kept me engaged. The material before that, to me, created an investment where I could feel this world of this huge family of Mayfairs and being interested—and terrified—of their existence.
The conflicts are both all-encompassing and also smaller in scale. From the first conflict where Petyr is trying to help the first Mayfair witch, to Rowan, Aaron, and Michael trying to plan on meeting the apparent threat that Lasher presents, they were all engaging. Each little stage of the book built on what came before, as you would expect. But at first blush here, I felt like I was seeing several smaller impressionist paintings, but then toward the end I realize that, no, they really are a coherent work. To the point where I was thinking, well of course we have to have 40% of the book talking about their ancient history. You can’t understand the events in the final conflicts if you don’t!
I thought I was going to finish last night. I didn’t, despite my best efforts. I fought against fatigue and fatigue eventually won. But toward o-dark-thirty last night I’m near the end and I came across the part where When I read that, I realized just how clever the story was and had hit me with a blindside. I sat there for some number of minutes with my copy clutched to my chest just taking that plot point in, marveling at how much I was enjoying this one.
The Characters:
The books I like the most are those that have good stories but also create characters that seem like real people. I found an analogy in the epilogue that seems to fit:
”I’ve been slowly going through the attics, finding interesting things. I’ve found all of Antha’s short stories, and they are fascinating. I sit upstairs in that third-floor room and read them by the sunlight coming in the windows, and I feel Antha all around me—not a ghost, but the living presence of the woman who trying to voice her agony and her struggle, and her joy at being free for such a short time in New York.That’s how it felt reading about Rowan, and Michael, and Aaron. Rowan is absolutely brilliant. Michael is absolutely dedicated. Aaron is the epitome of planning and patience, the perfect benevolent benefactor working behind the scenes. Even Carlotta and some of the earlier witches offered a richness. But the main trio of characters, in particular. I feel like If I ran into Michael at the Starbucks tomorrow morning (or hey, maybe if I get to NOLA and make it into Café du Monde to try some beignets and black coffee and chicory!) I’d recognize him as an old friend. The characters, their lives, backstories, emotions and motivations seemed that real to me.
The Ending:
The Witching Hour had an unexpected, but very satisfying end to me. Again, not formulaic, but once I read it and closed this volume, I realized just how much it made sense. It ends with the trio more or less It is part of a trilogy so I got an ending but it left me with enough suspense and desire to read more.
It created all these questions that I look forward to exploring in Lasher and then Taltos:
1. Is Lasher in fact a bad guy?
2. Is Rowan playing him or the other way around?
3. What is Michael going to do? I feel the coolest conflict and story-telling is going to be his for the unfolding.
4. Are any of the Mayfairs going to be of any real help going forward?
5. Is the Talamasca going to be of any real help going forward?
6. ?
The answer to each of these questions is – dunno. And that is very, very cool to make me want more after two months of reading 1038 pages.
The Structure and the Content:
I loved The Witching Hour for its LACK of formulaicness. As you might know, this is a BEAST of a book. My copy was 1038 pages. Not many novels go that long. I personally like longer novels. Gives the writer more of a chance to world build and create characters that feel real to me.
There are unique storytelling techniques in here, like the long historical discussion.
This family, the Mayfairs. Oof. Soooooo much incest. The way Anne Rice unflinchingly had that in there and how it was so largely responsible for making such a large family. It was, well, what can I say… oh yeah, I already did—unflinching. Now, before you scratch this one off, I personally never got the sense it was put in there for cheap thrills or for purely salacious reasons. It was just part of the darkness of how this family came to be. The measure of a good story is sometimes found, in my humble opinion, how you can feel uncomfortable yet engaged in the narration at the same time.
And yes, there is a lot of intimacy in there too. I think Anne Rice dealt with this very well. It
There’s a bit at the end that hit me pretty hard too and the reason why I think why people are drawn to stories and why we need stories—of all kinds, shapes, colors, and everything else—in our lives:
”I believe that through our finest efforts, we will succeed finally in creating heaven on earth, and we do it every time that we love, every time that we embrace, every time that we commit to create rather than destroy, every time that we place life over death, […].
For all the dark stuff in this book, for all the twisted, screwed up, icky-ness of how the family came about, I felt my reading life—and maybe my life-life—got a little bit closer to the spirit of this ideal for having read The Witching Hour.
But I won’t BS you. Maybe this book isn’t for everyone. It’s long. It’s got some brutal content. But an open mind and letting someone take you on an epic journey—even one that makes you cringe and think and FEEL—is well worth the time.
I’m sure there is more I can say, but I think you get the idea. Dark. Enthralling. Powerful.
Thank you for writing this, Anne Rice. I look forward to reading Lasher soon.
August 10, 2017
Here goes another teenage favorite that I just had to revisit, just to see how my tastes have evolved over time… Why do I do this to myself?!
This book is a hot mess. Perhaps that’s why I loved it so much when I was sixteen. Now, I really see it as a multi-generational, historical soap opera, with weird (not always coherent) occult elements, and lots of (often weird) sex. That is not a bad thing: a good, juicy, trashy read is fun every once in a while.
This complicated, massive novel is the story of the Mayfair family: for thirteen generations, they have been protected and manipulated by a strange spirit familiar named Lasher, who has made them wealthy and powerful, but has also driven many of them to madness. This strange and seductive entity has his own endgame, and he serves the Mayfair dynasty because he wants them to eventually give birth to a witch powerful enough to give him a physical body. That witch is Dr. Rowan Mayfair, a neurosurgeon with terrifying telekinetic powers. After learning all about her family history with the help of the Talamasca (a secret order that studies paranormal phenomenon), she decides to move back to the family house in New Orleans with Michael Curry – a man who acquired strange powers following a near-death experience - with the intent of making it their home and outwitting Lasher and freeing the Mayfairs from his influence. Obviously, things don’t work out quite as Rowan had planned…
The historical research Anne Rice did to turn her Mayfair saga into this intimidating door-stopper is very impressive. The way the Talamasca’s file on the Mayfair Witches is integrated into the narrative was wonderful, as you discover all this massive saga along with Michael: the descriptions of Renaissance Amsterdam, the Saint-Domingue plantation and the New Orleans of the early twentieth century are so vivid that it is difficult to put the book down. I could picture the streets, houses, clothes and everything absolutely perfectly. That being said, the characterization features a lot of clichés, which is something I have apparently lost all patience for. The weird personality hiccup that hits Rowan in the final section is honestly infuriating. After everything she has gone through, she just suddenly decides to do the exact opposite of her plan? What? Pfff! And if Michael Curry is not some sort of stereotypical middle-aged women fantasy-fulfillment, I don’t know what is: he is so sweet, so caring, so sensitive, so appreciative of baroque music, architecture and Dickens… but he looks like a hunky Irish fireman. Again: what?! The interesting and more complicated characters get very little space to bloom (having read the sequel, I know Mary Beth and Julien get a lot more page time later on, but still...), and the “witches” themselves are all variants on a theme: beautiful, ruthless and sexually insatiable. Oh, except the “weak ones”, whom everyone just hates. Sigh.
The writing is gorgeous and lush, in that Southern Gothic way, and Rice certainly knows how to create creepy atmospheres. But at the same time, some elements of this book are pure shlock. The thirteen witches, the incest, the doctor who can kill people with her mind, the family secrets everyone knows about but won’t speak of: it’s all so over the top that you’d expect the book to be sponsored by Hammer Horror movies. Let’s be clear: I love Hammer Horror-type stories, but the camp factor is what keeps a book like this from being a really great novel and keeps it firmly in the trashy-fun section of my library. The pacing didn’t bother me, but I can see how this would not be everyone’s cup of tea: there are bucket-loads of exposition and backstory to go through before actual stuff happens. While it can be a challenge to keep all the information straight (but same could be said of “Vampire Lestat” and other Rice novels where she uses the stories-within-the-main-story trope) it is still very readable and intriguing.
Pick it up for you are looking for a gloriously trashy work of historical and occult fiction; just don’t go in expecting it to be much more than a creepy, very well-written soap opera.
This book is a hot mess. Perhaps that’s why I loved it so much when I was sixteen. Now, I really see it as a multi-generational, historical soap opera, with weird (not always coherent) occult elements, and lots of (often weird) sex. That is not a bad thing: a good, juicy, trashy read is fun every once in a while.
This complicated, massive novel is the story of the Mayfair family: for thirteen generations, they have been protected and manipulated by a strange spirit familiar named Lasher, who has made them wealthy and powerful, but has also driven many of them to madness. This strange and seductive entity has his own endgame, and he serves the Mayfair dynasty because he wants them to eventually give birth to a witch powerful enough to give him a physical body. That witch is Dr. Rowan Mayfair, a neurosurgeon with terrifying telekinetic powers. After learning all about her family history with the help of the Talamasca (a secret order that studies paranormal phenomenon), she decides to move back to the family house in New Orleans with Michael Curry – a man who acquired strange powers following a near-death experience - with the intent of making it their home and outwitting Lasher and freeing the Mayfairs from his influence. Obviously, things don’t work out quite as Rowan had planned…
The historical research Anne Rice did to turn her Mayfair saga into this intimidating door-stopper is very impressive. The way the Talamasca’s file on the Mayfair Witches is integrated into the narrative was wonderful, as you discover all this massive saga along with Michael: the descriptions of Renaissance Amsterdam, the Saint-Domingue plantation and the New Orleans of the early twentieth century are so vivid that it is difficult to put the book down. I could picture the streets, houses, clothes and everything absolutely perfectly. That being said, the characterization features a lot of clichés, which is something I have apparently lost all patience for. The weird personality hiccup that hits Rowan in the final section is honestly infuriating. After everything she has gone through, she just suddenly decides to do the exact opposite of her plan? What? Pfff! And if Michael Curry is not some sort of stereotypical middle-aged women fantasy-fulfillment, I don’t know what is: he is so sweet, so caring, so sensitive, so appreciative of baroque music, architecture and Dickens… but he looks like a hunky Irish fireman. Again: what?! The interesting and more complicated characters get very little space to bloom (having read the sequel, I know Mary Beth and Julien get a lot more page time later on, but still...), and the “witches” themselves are all variants on a theme: beautiful, ruthless and sexually insatiable. Oh, except the “weak ones”, whom everyone just hates. Sigh.
The writing is gorgeous and lush, in that Southern Gothic way, and Rice certainly knows how to create creepy atmospheres. But at the same time, some elements of this book are pure shlock. The thirteen witches, the incest, the doctor who can kill people with her mind, the family secrets everyone knows about but won’t speak of: it’s all so over the top that you’d expect the book to be sponsored by Hammer Horror movies. Let’s be clear: I love Hammer Horror-type stories, but the camp factor is what keeps a book like this from being a really great novel and keeps it firmly in the trashy-fun section of my library. The pacing didn’t bother me, but I can see how this would not be everyone’s cup of tea: there are bucket-loads of exposition and backstory to go through before actual stuff happens. While it can be a challenge to keep all the information straight (but same could be said of “Vampire Lestat” and other Rice novels where she uses the stories-within-the-main-story trope) it is still very readable and intriguing.
Pick it up for you are looking for a gloriously trashy work of historical and occult fiction; just don’t go in expecting it to be much more than a creepy, very well-written soap opera.
November 14, 2012
The Mayfair's are an extremely powerful and wealthy family, in each generation there is a chosen one, a witch, who inherits not only the family home and money, but supernatural powers and an evil entity, named Lasher, who only has one aim – to become human again.
The Witching Hour is an extremely long novel, 1207 pages, but don't let that put you off reading as once you open the first page you soon find yourself completely absorbed in the chilling tale of the Mayfair Witches. This novel has a spellbinding, engrossing, well-written tale with complex and mysterious characters. There are plenty of compelling twists and turns in the plot to keep you interested and the suspense is drawn out to perfection. The novel is completely unpredictable, I found the ending to be quite a shock!
The settings of each generation of the family, from the plantations on Haiti to the modern day gothic mansion in New Orleans, are so richly described that you can easily imagine yourself there in those places. In fact, I loved all Anne Rice's vivid descriptions of New Orleans and the house on First Street, I found this really added to the intensity of the story.
There was a section in the middle, of about 300 pages or more, describing the history of the Mayfair family, the whole 12 generations of the family! I found this section quite tiresome and entirely too long, which is why I'm giving this novel four stars instead of five. I wished the author had shortened this section.
The characters were all quite complex, fascinating and well-developed. Anne Rice spent a lot of time explaining the motives behind her characters and why they react the way they do to situations in the novel. It also made me feel that I knew each individual character very well. Throughout the novel, I felt myself feeling both sympathy and anger towards the character of Rowan.
Beware, if you try to read this novel in paperback format, your eyes and wrists will be sore for about a week!
Four stars!
The Witching Hour is an extremely long novel, 1207 pages, but don't let that put you off reading as once you open the first page you soon find yourself completely absorbed in the chilling tale of the Mayfair Witches. This novel has a spellbinding, engrossing, well-written tale with complex and mysterious characters. There are plenty of compelling twists and turns in the plot to keep you interested and the suspense is drawn out to perfection. The novel is completely unpredictable, I found the ending to be quite a shock!
The settings of each generation of the family, from the plantations on Haiti to the modern day gothic mansion in New Orleans, are so richly described that you can easily imagine yourself there in those places. In fact, I loved all Anne Rice's vivid descriptions of New Orleans and the house on First Street, I found this really added to the intensity of the story.
There was a section in the middle, of about 300 pages or more, describing the history of the Mayfair family, the whole 12 generations of the family! I found this section quite tiresome and entirely too long, which is why I'm giving this novel four stars instead of five. I wished the author had shortened this section.
The characters were all quite complex, fascinating and well-developed. Anne Rice spent a lot of time explaining the motives behind her characters and why they react the way they do to situations in the novel. It also made me feel that I knew each individual character very well. Throughout the novel, I felt myself feeling both sympathy and anger towards the character of Rowan.
Beware, if you try to read this novel in paperback format, your eyes and wrists will be sore for about a week!
Four stars!
October 17, 2022
Yesterday, talking about the "Witchcraft Hour", I said it would be more interesting later, and I was not deceived. The second part of the Mayfair saga is excitingly interesting. Three hundred years of history from the illiterate Scottish midwife Susanna, burned at the stake for witchcraft to a powerful clan with interests in various spheres of modernity and the budget of a Central European country. About all sorts of "how we got to such a life", if the changes are creative, lead to wealth and prosperity, it's always nice.
And if we are also talking about the restoration of historical justice: here a poor woman was burned at the stake just for making childbirth easier for others, and her offspring, look, did not disappear, blossomed and scattered around the world - so it's completely joyful. And when all this is flavored with magic, mysticism, exoticism of Haitian plantations, southern Gothic of Louisiana, attributes of Dolce Vita, abundant sexual perversions and mental illnesses - then just imagine how cool everything is!
Still, yes, in the "Mayfair witches" all this will be.
Ведьма: ведающая или ведомая?
Ей излишне часто было известно чересчур многое, что приносило невероятно большую выгоду.
Вчера, рассказывая о "Часе ведьмовства", я говорила, что дальше будет интереснее, и я не обманула. Вторая часть Мэйфейрской саги захватывающе интересна. Трехсотлетняя история от неграмотной шотландской повитухи Сюзанны, сожженной на костре за ведьмовство до мощного клана с интересами в самых разных сферах современности и бюджетом среднеевропейской страны. Про разного рода "как мы дошли до жизни такой", если изменения созидательны, ведут к богатству и процветанию, всегда приятно.
А если речь еще и о восстановлении исторической справедливости: вот сожгли бедную женщину на костре всего лишь за то, что облегчала другим роды, а потомство ее, гляди-ка, не сгинуло, процвело и рассеялось по свету -так и вовсе радостно. А когда все это сдобрено магией, мистикой, экзотикой гаитянских плантаций, южной готикой Луизианы, атрибутикой дольче вита, обильными сексуальными перверсиями и психическими заболеваниями - то просто представьте, насколько все круто!
Таки да, в "Мэйфейрских ведьмах" все это будет. Плюс жгучая чувственность, не дотягивающая уровнем до софтпорно каких-нибудь "Оттенков", но все же. Плюс победивший в рамках одной отдельно взятой, но явно процветающей семье феминизм. Мэйферы наследуют капитал по женской линии и при вступлении в брак мужчины принимают фамилию жены. Череда женских персонажей, более или менее приятных, в которую вклинивается на лицо прекрасный, гадкий внутри Джулиен (единственная ведьма мужского пола), явно дает понять, что если бы мир управлялся нами, девочками, он был бы, если не лучше, то уж разумнее.
При этом то обстоятельство, что краеугольным камнем процветания стало создание демонической природы ускользает от внимания, до поры погружая читателя в утешительное заблуждение: "он мерзавец, но наш и нам вреда не причинит". На самом деле еще как причиняет, но так уж человек устроен, когда лично над ним не каплет, воспринимает ситуацию как нормальную.. Мэйфейрские дамы и господа не видят в Лэшере (имя семейного демона) зла, пока не оказываются по его милости на костре. в дурке или убийца��и, а там уж поздно трепыхаться.
Взявшись рассказывать о "Мэйфейрских ведьмах", сталкиваешься с непривычной для книжных серий структурой. Обычно если речь о группе романов, объединенных персонажами, темой, реже временем и местом, они и объемом не сильно различаются: могут быть на сотню страниц длиннее или короче один другого порой, как это бывает у Стивена Кинга и Джоан Роулинг, следующие тома пухлее предыдущих - ну. расписался человек (что позволено Юпитеру...) Не в этом случае, у Мэйфейрской саги разброс поразительный: первая книга 400 страниц, вторая 700, третья 300, четвертая 800, пятая 600.
Идем дальше, не вполне понятна разбивка на тома. Первоначально Энн Райс написала трилогию: "Час ведьмовства" (1990), "Лэшер" (1993), "Талтос" (1994), которую рачительное «Эксмо» выпустило шестикнижием:: "Час ведьмовства", "Мэйфейрские ведьмы", "Невеста дьявола", "Наследница ведьм", "Лэшер", "Талтос". Есть еще три не переведенные на русский продолжения: "Мэррик" (2000), "Ферма Блэквуд" Blackwood Farm (2002), и "Кровавая песнь" Blood Canticle (2003), их мы здесь касаться не будем, потому что я не читала и вряд ли прочту в обозримом будущем.
Переходим к основному, зачем вообще читать. Причин как минимум две: первая, это чертовски интересно и захватывающе, вторая - 5 января на АМС стартует сериал с Алессандрой Дадарио. Звезда "Спасателей Малибу" и "Белого лотоса" достаточно весомый повод смотреть кино, а знакомство с литературным источником всегда приветствуется и придает просмотру дополнительной радости. Есть еще третья - посмотреть, насколько пуританская современная цензура позволит сохранить первоначальный текст. Три десятка лет назад свободы говорения было больше, инцест и педофилия в изобилии на страницах книги, не говоря уж о привычке Роуан снимать в барах крепких мускулистых мужчин и трахать на своей яхте до умопомрачения. Как оно будет в кино?
Я не знаю, как будет дальше, если совсем честно, то знаю, что действие вернется в современность. Но часть "Хроник Мэйфейрских ведьм" почитать определенно стоит.
And if we are also talking about the restoration of historical justice: here a poor woman was burned at the stake just for making childbirth easier for others, and her offspring, look, did not disappear, blossomed and scattered around the world - so it's completely joyful. And when all this is flavored with magic, mysticism, exoticism of Haitian plantations, southern Gothic of Louisiana, attributes of Dolce Vita, abundant sexual perversions and mental illnesses - then just imagine how cool everything is!
Still, yes, in the "Mayfair witches" all this will be.
Ведьма: ведающая или ведомая?
Ей излишне часто было известно чересчур многое, что приносило невероятно большую выгоду.
Вчера, рассказывая о "Часе ведьмовства", я говорила, что дальше будет интереснее, и я не обманула. Вторая часть Мэйфейрской саги захватывающе интересна. Трехсотлетняя история от неграмотной шотландской повитухи Сюзанны, сожженной на костре за ведьмовство до мощного клана с интересами в самых разных сферах современности и бюджетом среднеевропейской страны. Про разного рода "как мы дошли до жизни такой", если изменения созидательны, ведут к богатству и процветанию, всегда приятно.
А если речь еще и о восстановлении исторической справедливости: вот сожгли бедную женщину на костре всего лишь за то, что облегчала другим роды, а потомство ее, гляди-ка, не сгинуло, процвело и рассеялось по свету -так и вовсе радостно. А когда все это сдобрено магией, мистикой, экзотикой гаитянских плантаций, южной готикой Луизианы, атрибутикой дольче вита, обильными сексуальными перверсиями и психическими заболеваниями - то просто представьте, насколько все круто!
Таки да, в "Мэйфейрских ведьмах" все это будет. Плюс жгучая чувственность, не дотягивающая уровнем до софтпорно каких-нибудь "Оттенков", но все же. Плюс победивший в рамках одной отдельно взятой, но явно процветающей семье феминизм. Мэйферы наследуют капитал по женской линии и при вступлении в брак мужчины принимают фамилию жены. Череда женских персонажей, более или менее приятных, в которую вклинивается на лицо прекрасный, гадкий внутри Джулиен (единственная ведьма мужского пола), явно дает понять, что если бы мир управлялся нами, девочками, он был бы, если не лучше, то уж разумнее.
При этом то обстоятельство, что краеугольным камнем процветания стало создание демонической природы ускользает от внимания, до поры погружая читателя в утешительное заблуждение: "он мерзавец, но наш и нам вреда не причинит". На самом деле еще как причиняет, но так уж человек устроен, когда лично над ним не каплет, воспринимает ситуацию как нормальную.. Мэйфейрские дамы и господа не видят в Лэшере (имя семейного демона) зла, пока не оказываются по его милости на костре. в дурке или убийца��и, а там уж поздно трепыхаться.
Взявшись рассказывать о "Мэйфейрских ведьмах", сталкиваешься с непривычной для книжных серий структурой. Обычно если речь о группе романов, объединенных персонажами, темой, реже временем и местом, они и объемом не сильно различаются: могут быть на сотню страниц длиннее или короче один другого порой, как это бывает у Стивена Кинга и Джоан Роулинг, следующие тома пухлее предыдущих - ну. расписался человек (что позволено Юпитеру...) Не в этом случае, у Мэйфейрской саги разброс поразительный: первая книга 400 страниц, вторая 700, третья 300, четвертая 800, пятая 600.
Идем дальше, не вполне понятна разбивка на тома. Первоначально Энн Райс написала трилогию: "Час ведьмовства" (1990), "Лэшер" (1993), "Талтос" (1994), которую рачительное «Эксмо» выпустило шестикнижием:: "Час ведьмовства", "Мэйфейрские ведьмы", "Невеста дьявола", "Наследница ведьм", "Лэшер", "Талтос". Есть еще три не переведенные на русский продолжения: "Мэррик" (2000), "Ферма Блэквуд" Blackwood Farm (2002), и "Кровавая песнь" Blood Canticle (2003), их мы здесь касаться не будем, потому что я не читала и вряд ли прочту в обозримом будущем.
Переходим к основному, зачем вообще читать. Причин как минимум две: первая, это чертовски интересно и захватывающе, вторая - 5 января на АМС стартует сериал с Алессандрой Дадарио. Звезда "Спасателей Малибу" и "Белого лотоса" достаточно весомый повод смотреть кино, а знакомство с литературным источником всегда приветствуется и придает просмотру дополнительной радости. Есть еще третья - посмотреть, насколько пуританская современная цензура позволит сохранить первоначальный текст. Три десятка лет назад свободы говорения было больше, инцест и педофилия в изобилии на страницах книги, не говоря уж о привычке Роуан снимать в барах крепких мускулистых мужчин и трахать на своей яхте до умопомрачения. Как оно будет в кино?
Я не знаю, как будет дальше, если совсем честно, то знаю, что действие вернется в современность. Но часть "Хроник Мэйфейрских ведьм" почитать определенно стоит.
June 21, 2007
When I got to the end of this thick book, after having read hundreds of lukewarm pages, and found that it basically said "to be continued," I was pretty pissed off. If the book had been mine and not one I had borrowed from a friend, I would have tossed it across the room. That was when I decided that I would never again buy an Anne Rice book. I haven't.
November 2, 2024
There is enough passion here to almost make this work, but unfortunately, the structure is problematic. The middle of the book feels like a prequel to a successful series, similar to placing Fire and Blood in the middle of the first Game of Thrones book. And despite having a lot of interesting characters, not one is as charismatic as Lestat. That being said, I will continue the series.
January 20, 2024
26 years ago Anne Rice decided to move away from her vampire chronicles for a little while and tackle another supernatural theme which until then hadn’t showed up in her fiction––witchcraft. With this first installment in the Lives of the Mayfair Witches trilogy, she wrote the perfect family saga full of history, intrigues, description (and boy is there a lot of it!), fully-crafted (pun intended) characters (a plethora of them, actually!), dark magic, creepy scenes and details (boy, that scene in the cemetery with the dead rising from the grave!), plot twists, etc.; all this spread over two continents and something like 400 years for the main characters and basically since time beyond record for a few others… which makes for a very long read––close to a thousand pages, actually. This in and of itself could have been a real pain in the neck to plod through, but not with Anne Rice. Indeed she and Stephen King have this in common, that both can write never-ending tales that often enough never feel too long or drawn-out, always managing to grab our attention from the very first line. As always in my reviews, I won’t get into spoiler territory, but suffice it to say that if you’re into old (and immensely rich) family history whose dark origins are lost and found in the mists of time and human/inhuman memories, then you won’t be disappointed. Although part of a trilogy, it can easily be read as a standalone. A good read through and through.
OLIVIER DELAYE
Author of the SEBASTEN OF ATLANTIS series
OLIVIER DELAYE
Author of the SEBASTEN OF ATLANTIS series
July 12, 2024
Re-read August 2001.
Look, I get that this is trash, but sometimes you just luuurrrve the trash!
Look, I get that this is trash, but sometimes you just luuurrrve the trash!
August 12, 2008
This is one of the best books that I have read. With her Dickensian writing, Anne Rice weaves a wonderfully dark and historically fascinating tale about a spirit attached to a family of witches. Although this book is almost 1000 pages, it goes by so quickly! The historical description of the family's travels from places such as Scotland and Port-au-Prince, Haiti is detailed in a way that made me swoon! (Yes, swoon.)
June 11, 2008
This is one of my favorite summer trash reads. It's like a soap opera with witches and sex. Good fun.
August 22, 2017
Mi libro favorito de Anne, sin duda.
La estela de misticismo que rodea a esta familia y todo lo que han tenido que padecer esta narrado de una forma esplendida, con tintes de terror, suspenso y magia que nos envuelve enseguida.
Qué decir de los personajes, entrañables y enigmáticos. Viajes entre el pasado y el presente que nos guiarán a desentrañar el misterio y la leyenda que significa el ser un Mayfair.
La estela de misticismo que rodea a esta familia y todo lo que han tenido que padecer esta narrado de una forma esplendida, con tintes de terror, suspenso y magia que nos envuelve enseguida.
Qué decir de los personajes, entrañables y enigmáticos. Viajes entre el pasado y el presente que nos guiarán a desentrañar el misterio y la leyenda que significa el ser un Mayfair.
October 16, 2022
Gothic is certainly southern. Eastern fairy tales, northern fairy tales, and the west is completely wild, read: you can expect anything, but not sophistication." Southern Gothic is exquisite. Mysterious, mystical, redundant, both cultural and parasitic grow violently in the south, and all paths lead to thickets where evil lurks. It can take on a seductive and attractive appearance, appealing to pity and compassion, or vice versa - beckon with entry into higher spheres, promise wealth, popularity, love. But woe to you if, having believed, you allow him to enter into yourself.
"The Hour of Witchcraft" is the first novel of the epic canvas, which will unfold in the following volumes, it gives introductory notes, indicates the layout and introduces the main characters.
This is just the beginning, then it will be more interesting and without discounts on vintage.
Южная готика
Только раз оттуда в вечер грозовой вышла женщина с кошачьей головой,
Но в короне из литого серебра. И вздыхала, и стонала до утра,
И скончалась тихой смертью на заре, перед тем, как дал причастье ей кюре.
Н.Гумилев "Лес"
Готика непременно южная. Сказки восточные, северные сказы, а запад так и вовсе дикий, читай: ждать можно чего угодно, только не изощренности". Южная готика изысканная. Таинственная, мистическая, избыточная, на юге буйно произрастает как культурное, так и паразитическое, а все тропы ведут в заросли, где таится зло. Оно может принимать облик соблазнительный и привлекательный, взывающий к жалости и состраданию или наоборот - манить вхождением в высшие сферы, обещать богатство, популярность, любовь. Но горе тебе, если поверив, позволишь ему войти в себя.
История Мэйфейрских ведьм, в общем, об этом. То есть, о тысяче разных вещей, среди которых семейные отношения, история европейского, южно- и североамериканского ведовства, психические аномалии, богатство-бедность, профессионализм и моральные ограничения в профессии, мистика, любовь, Нью-Орлеан, для которого Райс сделала этой книгой примерно то, что Карлос Руис Сафон для Барселоны. Но главное все-таки природа зла и пути, какими оно входит в человека.
Энн Райс писала свою эпопею до урагана Катрина, на треть сократившего население прекрасного и ужасного города. Тогда, в середине девяностых прошлого века, его благополучие казалось незыблемым, сегодня все воспринимается сильно иначе, сквозь призму бед и несчастий, обрушившихся в начале тысячелетия на Нью-Орлеан и Америку.
В том смысле, что описание атрибутов красивой жизни с океанской яхтой, спортивным авто и полетами первым классом выглядит сегодня несколько олдскульно, а неожиданно вспыхнувшая любовь красивых, богатых, образованных, профессионально состоявшихся и обладающих паранормальными способностями героев на фоне чудесного спасения кажется прямо-таки развесистой клюквой.
Если еще прибавить мистику разрушающегося особняка, красавицы в кататоническом состоянии и периодически являющего себя призрака - так и вовсе штамповка, которой не эксплуатировал в только ленивый. Но это только первое впечатление, очень скоро пресыщенное ироничное вы��ажение сходит с твоего лица и действие затягивает тебя как в воронку.
"Час ведьмовства" первый роман эпического полотна, которое развернется в следующих томах, он дает вводные, обозначает расклад и знакомит с основными персонажами. Нейрохирург Роуан спасает и возвращает к жизни утопленника, у которого после воскрешения открывается дар ясновидения. Молодая женщина воспитана в приемной семье, никогда не видела биологическую мать и совсем недавно потеряла приемных родителей.
Встреча со спасенным ею мужчиной и взаимная влюбленность совпадает по времени со смертью настоящей матери, она отправляется в Новый Орлеан, куда днем раньше улетел Майкл, а с ним входит в контакт человек из могущественного тайного ордена, который утверждает, что Роуан ведьма из старинного клана, обещая представить необходимые доказательства.
Это только начало, дальше будет интереснее и без скидок на винтажность.
"The Hour of Witchcraft" is the first novel of the epic canvas, which will unfold in the following volumes, it gives introductory notes, indicates the layout and introduces the main characters.
This is just the beginning, then it will be more interesting and without discounts on vintage.
Южная готика
Только раз оттуда в вечер грозовой вышла женщина с кошачьей головой,
Но в короне из литого серебра. И вздыхала, и стонала до утра,
И скончалась тихой смертью на заре, перед тем, как дал причастье ей кюре.
Н.Гумилев "Лес"
Готика непременно южная. Сказки восточные, северные сказы, а запад так и вовсе дикий, читай: ждать можно чего угодно, только не изощренности". Южная готика изысканная. Таинственная, мистическая, избыточная, на юге буйно произрастает как культурное, так и паразитическое, а все тропы ведут в заросли, где таится зло. Оно может принимать облик соблазнительный и привлекательный, взывающий к жалости и состраданию или наоборот - манить вхождением в высшие сферы, обещать богатство, популярность, любовь. Но горе тебе, если поверив, позволишь ему войти в себя.
История Мэйфейрских ведьм, в общем, об этом. То есть, о тысяче разных вещей, среди которых семейные отношения, история европейского, южно- и североамериканского ведовства, психические аномалии, богатство-бедность, профессионализм и моральные ограничения в профессии, мистика, любовь, Нью-Орлеан, для которого Райс сделала этой книгой примерно то, что Карлос Руис Сафон для Барселоны. Но главное все-таки природа зла и пути, какими оно входит в человека.
Энн Райс писала свою эпопею до урагана Катрина, на треть сократившего население прекрасного и ужасного города. Тогда, в середине девяностых прошлого века, его благополучие казалось незыблемым, сегодня все воспринимается сильно иначе, сквозь призму бед и несчастий, обрушившихся в начале тысячелетия на Нью-Орлеан и Америку.
В том смысле, что описание атрибутов красивой жизни с океанской яхтой, спортивным авто и полетами первым классом выглядит сегодня несколько олдскульно, а неожиданно вспыхнувшая любовь красивых, богатых, образованных, профессионально состоявшихся и обладающих паранормальными способностями героев на фоне чудесного спасения кажется прямо-таки развесистой клюквой.
Если еще прибавить мистику разрушающегося особняка, красавицы в кататоническом состоянии и периодически являющего себя призрака - так и вовсе штамповка, которой не эксплуатировал в только ленивый. Но это только первое впечатление, очень скоро пресыщенное ироничное вы��ажение сходит с твоего лица и действие затягивает тебя как в воронку.
"Час ведьмовства" первый роман эпического полотна, которое развернется в следующих томах, он дает вводные, обозначает расклад и знакомит с основными персонажами. Нейрохирург Роуан спасает и возвращает к жизни утопленника, у которого после воскрешения открывается дар ясновидения. Молодая женщина воспитана в приемной семье, никогда не видела биологическую мать и совсем недавно потеряла приемных родителей.
Встреча со спасенным ею мужчиной и взаимная влюбленность совпадает по времени со смертью настоящей матери, она отправляется в Новый Орлеан, куда днем раньше улетел Майкл, а с ним входит в контакт человек из могущественного тайного ордена, который утверждает, что Роуан ведьма из старинного клана, обещая представить необходимые доказательства.
Это только начало, дальше будет интереснее и без скидок на винтажность.
May 9, 2021
How does one even begin to write a review for something as breathtaking as this? Well the honest answer is this: I have no idea. All I can do is give it my best shot.
I had never read anything by Anne Rice before. I picked a real doozy for my first Anne Rice experience. I had no idea what to expect. I really enjoyed her unique style of writing. I thought her descriptions were vivid and mesmerizing. She truly paints a word picture. She's able to create imagery that's some of the best I've read. It's not overly graphic although there are some graphic parts. Maybe a little erotica sprinkled here and there too.
The story centers on a family of witches. It covers the whole history of the family going back over 300 years. I enjoyed learning of the sordid family history. It all leads up to an unexpected climax. I thought the story was going one way and I turned out to be completely wrong. Still a good ending. I knew going in this was the first book in a series. I fully expected to have at least a few questions left after I was finally finished. This book is rather lengthy at over 1000 pages. That being said I didn't feel like there were any wasted words. It was all very necessary to get the full scope of everything that takes place. I felt like there were several layers to this story and I know I will be reading it again. It would be fun to do a detailed family tree while rereading. There's definitely enough material to complete one. I highly recommend reading this.
I had never read anything by Anne Rice before. I picked a real doozy for my first Anne Rice experience. I had no idea what to expect. I really enjoyed her unique style of writing. I thought her descriptions were vivid and mesmerizing. She truly paints a word picture. She's able to create imagery that's some of the best I've read. It's not overly graphic although there are some graphic parts. Maybe a little erotica sprinkled here and there too.
The story centers on a family of witches. It covers the whole history of the family going back over 300 years. I enjoyed learning of the sordid family history. It all leads up to an unexpected climax. I thought the story was going one way and I turned out to be completely wrong. Still a good ending. I knew going in this was the first book in a series. I fully expected to have at least a few questions left after I was finally finished. This book is rather lengthy at over 1000 pages. That being said I didn't feel like there were any wasted words. It was all very necessary to get the full scope of everything that takes place. I felt like there were several layers to this story and I know I will be reading it again. It would be fun to do a detailed family tree while rereading. There's definitely enough material to complete one. I highly recommend reading this.
December 14, 2022
Dear lord did I hate this.
October 6, 2024
I read this whole series years ago, and I remembered loving the books, so I wanted to go back and reread at minimum the Mayfair Witches trilogy to compare it with the Netflix series. When I watched the series, I kept thinking--wait a minute, isn't this aspect completely different? But it had been so long, I wasn't quite sure.
For anyone out there who felt lukewarm about the Netflix series, please don't let that put you off checking these books out. After only a few chapters, I did confirm my suspicions that yes, the books are in fact far more diverse, far more provocative, and far better organized than their tv counterpart. I actually love all the characters in the books as readers discover more about their backgrounds and motivations. Many of the tv depictions of these characters annoyed me. There are dozens of other comparisons I could make here, but you get the idea.
I did enjoy seeing some of visual representations in the tv series, but overall I think the tv series failures stem from the fact that the writers rushed it. These are fairly lengthy books and the dynamics they explore are complicated. Lasher is far more likable (for a demon 😊) in the novels, so readers can understand why Rowan and others before her would actually be seduced by him. The tv series, really just shows Lasher as a negative, corruptive force. In the books, readers see a far more detailed history of the persecution these women must endure simply to be independent and intellectually powerful. Lasher protects them. He is symbolically a manifestation of necessity in the face of societal ignorance. Rowan, too, is way more likable in the books--I remembered her as one of my favorite Anne Rice characters and that held true during this second, recent reading. She's clever, strong, brilliant and funny--she is never the victim in need of rescuing. She's not so quick to pass judgement on her relatives either.
I hope readers will keep an open mind about these books--they really do deserve a fair reading despite the tv series. To clarify, I didn't dislike the tv series--I just didn't love it. I found it mediocre and forgettable. It was well cast--all of those actors are highly capable. I just think they tried to squeeze too much into too few episodes and sacrificed the soul of the novel series. It's probably also true that the CGI they would have needed to truly represent the material in the novels ended up costing too much money. So the show never quite shows off the effects of the magic with which Anne Rice's words dazzle readers.
For anyone out there who felt lukewarm about the Netflix series, please don't let that put you off checking these books out. After only a few chapters, I did confirm my suspicions that yes, the books are in fact far more diverse, far more provocative, and far better organized than their tv counterpart. I actually love all the characters in the books as readers discover more about their backgrounds and motivations. Many of the tv depictions of these characters annoyed me. There are dozens of other comparisons I could make here, but you get the idea.
I did enjoy seeing some of visual representations in the tv series, but overall I think the tv series failures stem from the fact that the writers rushed it. These are fairly lengthy books and the dynamics they explore are complicated. Lasher is far more likable (for a demon 😊) in the novels, so readers can understand why Rowan and others before her would actually be seduced by him. The tv series, really just shows Lasher as a negative, corruptive force. In the books, readers see a far more detailed history of the persecution these women must endure simply to be independent and intellectually powerful. Lasher protects them. He is symbolically a manifestation of necessity in the face of societal ignorance. Rowan, too, is way more likable in the books--I remembered her as one of my favorite Anne Rice characters and that held true during this second, recent reading. She's clever, strong, brilliant and funny--she is never the victim in need of rescuing. She's not so quick to pass judgement on her relatives either.
I hope readers will keep an open mind about these books--they really do deserve a fair reading despite the tv series. To clarify, I didn't dislike the tv series--I just didn't love it. I found it mediocre and forgettable. It was well cast--all of those actors are highly capable. I just think they tried to squeeze too much into too few episodes and sacrificed the soul of the novel series. It's probably also true that the CGI they would have needed to truly represent the material in the novels ended up costing too much money. So the show never quite shows off the effects of the magic with which Anne Rice's words dazzle readers.
October 18, 2017
This book stinks. Anne Rice wrote really good vampire books, but the Feast of All Saints was dreadful and I couldn't finish. Her book about the childhood of Christ was horribly slow and boring. The Witching Hour goes on and on and on. It is as boring as real life. You just wait for something to happen. Every few pages she gets around to saying something about someone who may or may not be a witch.
The narrative runs sort of like, "In 1954 one of our investigators talked to a maid who lived down the street. She said that once she totally freaked out when she saw a man talking with the Mayfair girl in her yard. There have been several similar reports from this time period gathered from various sources that say similar things. Records also indicate that this girl got expelled from two schools during this time period. This strong evidence had lead some of my colleagues to conclude that she is most definitely a witch... And this person begat that person. And that person begat that person. And the other person begat so and so... Person A lived a very quiet life in which nothing happened. Person B lived a life of sin and scandal, but was not really a witch. Person C was a powerful witch, but never cast any spells. Person D was probably a witch, but there is no sound evidence. Person E is some random cousin who really has nothing to do with the story or with witches and could have been safely left out of the book... Now we turn to the period that covers the 1960's."
I know that the book has really lost my respect and attention when I start skimming or even skipping pages to get to where something is going on.
The narrative runs sort of like, "In 1954 one of our investigators talked to a maid who lived down the street. She said that once she totally freaked out when she saw a man talking with the Mayfair girl in her yard. There have been several similar reports from this time period gathered from various sources that say similar things. Records also indicate that this girl got expelled from two schools during this time period. This strong evidence had lead some of my colleagues to conclude that she is most definitely a witch... And this person begat that person. And that person begat that person. And the other person begat so and so... Person A lived a very quiet life in which nothing happened. Person B lived a life of sin and scandal, but was not really a witch. Person C was a powerful witch, but never cast any spells. Person D was probably a witch, but there is no sound evidence. Person E is some random cousin who really has nothing to do with the story or with witches and could have been safely left out of the book... Now we turn to the period that covers the 1960's."
I know that the book has really lost my respect and attention when I start skimming or even skipping pages to get to where something is going on.
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