The Witching Hour

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Summary: Rice's journey through myth, legend and the supernatural
Review: "The Witching Hour," Anne Rice's 1990 foray into witchcraft and the occult, is not really a change of pace for the uniquely gifted author more than it is a better realized creation emphasizing her strengths and obsessions. As most readers know, Rice cut her teeth with the enormously successful Vampire Chronicles including "Interview with the Vampire" and "The Vampire Lestat." With "The Witching Hour," Rice has taken a well-deserved break from the immortal lives of her witty vampire clan, creating a fascinating legend of a family of witches stretching back four centuries and two continents.

The witches, known as the Mayfairs, are connected by the haunting thread of the mysterious spirit Lasher, appearing ghost-like to a selected few, standing within the shadows of ominous trees and forming within mirrors, tears streaking his pale face. Lasher forms an eerie, if not erotic bond with the women of the Mayfair clan, providing untold riches and eventually amorous damnation. But Lasher, much like the legacy of the Mayfair family, is an exotic mystery waiting to be solved, and this intimidating responsiblity falls into the modern-day hands of Michael Curry and Rowan Mayfair. This appealing, love-struck couple, set out for New Orleans to solve the mystery and reclaim the souls of the Mayfair family.

"The Witching Hour" was eventually followed by two sequels, but it stands alone as one of Rice's greatest novels, an enthralling, complex epic filled with gothic mystery, dancing ghosts and heartbreaking irony. Her descriptions of the decayed mansion on First Street, situated in the Garden District of New Orleans, a moody, ancient home owned by the Mayfairs for over 100 years, provides some of this novels most sensual and memorable passages. This house is indeed haunted by spirits and the hovering mysteries of past tragedies, but like Shirley Jackson's classic "The Haunting of Hill House," what is lurking within the home is much more than just crying spirits of the dead.

Rice's body of work has always had an old fashioned taste for the finer things in life, from exquisite bottles of wine to antique furnishings and dusty historic paintings. She caresses these lush trappings, much like a lover embraces an old flame. And her descriptions of these tasteful adornments - clothes, artwork, china, food and even New Orleans culture, all glowing within the flame of yellow candlelight, are examples of her sensual writing style. Granted, the passages leading up to the novel's final conflict, in which Michael and Rowan begin renovating the ancient Mayfair home, move slowly, perhaps providing more architectural detail than the reader is interested in. But Rice is strategically building a growing sense of dread. Horror is going to pay a visit to this young couple, and when it eventually does, the reader's mouth will be agape.

"The Witching Hour" is a mesmerizing novel, combining comfortable elements of the English ghost story with a feather-touch dash of erotica, witchcraft and the occult. As in all Anne Rice novels, the dead will simply not go away. They lurk in the shadows of history, as they have for centuries. Time may have passed these pseudo banshees by, but their power is far reaching. Even within the shadows of skyscrapers, automobiles and computers, these timeless supernatural fears are hiding. In Anne Rice's fascinating worlds, ancient legends live and wait, and our imagination is entranced.

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Summary: A #1 Book on my list
Review: I have always enjoyed reading different novels, but Anne Rice has recently become my favorite author. The Witching Hour was the first book of hers that I read. Once you start to read her books, the characters worlds become so real and wonderful that you don't want to put the book down. Most of the time I didn't. I believe that I read that book in 3 months time. What makes her books so wonderful, is that she starts the novel with something that will grab your attention. Towards the middle of the book she gets into detail so much about the family that it feels like you've been there watching all this happen. She tells the tradgedy and the joys that the family faced and how they overcame them that you feel happy when they were happy and sad while they were. Anne Rice can take a simple supernatural idea and weave it into a beatifully written story that you'll want to read again(regardless of the lenghth!). I also recommend The Vampire Chronicles and The Mummy or Ramses the Damned. They were also both great books.

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Summary: laborious opening and closing...
Review: I was really excited about reading this book because I love books with such an epic, dark subject matter, the period setting... the romanticism, occultism etc... My favourite type of fiction. It lived up to being everything I hoped it would be. I loved the middle 400 - 500 pages. I read them literally in less than two or three days, almost ravaging the pages. The hard part is getting through the beginning and most of the ending (the last 50 or so pages are good too)... It is so laborious and irrelevant! The only reason I persevered is because I knew Rice would have to get down to business and talk about the Mayfair witches EVENTUALLY... and I loved Interview With A Vampire, so I knew she could write stuff I loved... thusly, I persevered and it paid off. The bulk (middle) of the book is mesmerising.

I thought I'd add my two cents because I'm sure some readers will be put off by reviews stating that this book is boring -- the beginning and ending ARE boring, but those reviewers that dismiss the book as an outright bore obviously didn't bother to persevere, and missed out on the magic that lay in the middle. I couldn't put it down once I started to read about the history of the Mayfair witches. I absolutely loved it. Skim thru the boring opening if you have to, because the actual Mayfair history is an epic and spellbinding story. And Anne Rice should fire her editing staff, lol

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Summary: Eloquently written, but too long and tedious.
Review: The story in this novel is amazingly engrossing. Rowan, the unkowing benaficiary of an enormous legacy, and youngest member of the Mayfair witch coven, rescues a middle-aged man from drowning one stormy night off the San Francisco coast. The story then turns to Michael, who awakens with fragments of visions from his out of body experience, and a frightening telepathis ability. Determined to find out the details of his drowning, he tracks down Rowan...and finds himself in love. However, one thing stands between Michael and Rowan...the Mayfair legacy, and the jealous spirit, Lasher, that comes with it.
Anne Rice has one again woven a plot that will keep even the non-bookworms on the edge of their seat, but she ruins the book by interrupting the amazing plot, and slapping the long and tedious Mayfair history right down in the middle of it. (Michael is given a file on the Mayfairs to read by a man who has studied the family from afar, so he can learn more about Rowan) Although intresting, the "file" takes up about half of "The Witching Hour", when it could have been condensed into about two chapters. This ruins the entire book.
By the time I reached the end of the "file" I was extremely tired of the book, and didn't get as much enjoyment from the story's amazing climax and surprise ending as I would have had the "file" not been there.
The worst part is that, in order to understand the book, it is absolutely necessary to read the boring stuff.
It makes me wonder what happened to the charm of "Interview with the Vampire", which first got me hooked on Anne Rice.
My advice: skip this one.

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Summary: This bookis what made me a huge Anne Rice fan!
Review: To be honest, I can't stand the Vampire Chronicles, and I'm glad I did not judge Anne Rice based only on those. Because the Mayfair Witch trilogy are 3 of the best books I've ever read. I highly recommend you all read the Witching Hour, Lasher, & Taltos! Oooh I still have shivers just thinking about these books. I also highly recommend Servant of the Bones - my absolutele most favorite stand-alone Anne Rice book. Happy reading!!