The Witching Hour

Rating:
Summary: The Best Book I ever read!!
Review: The Witching Hour is the first book that I read from Anne Rice. When I first started, I just could but the book down! It only took me two weeks to finish the book. Anyone who is a fan of Anne Rice should LOVE this!

Rating:
Summary: Way too long
Review: The Witching Hour is a book that is 300 pages too long. Two people before me attempted to read it, and they bowed out. I guess they were swamped with the completely unnecessarily long-winded descriptions which made the "good parts" extremely tedious to read. Towards the end I found myself skipping pages until I saw Rowan or Lasher somewhere. Finally, at the end of the book I wish I hadn't even wasted the energy turning the pages. Completely dissapointing.

Rating:
Summary: A disappointment
Review: I have read a number of Rice's other works...I admire her grand and effortless mastery of the English language and her ability to conceive twisting, intriguing plots involving unique characters from both the past and present. I like most of her other novels that I've read, and I wanted to like this book...but I couldn't. The Witching Hour is massive and bloated. Overly long, it became a genuine effort to finish. I nearly put it down permanently until I realized I could flip through about 10 consecutive pages each time I encountered an extended description of New Orleans and not miss anything of the plot. Only for those with a great deal of patience...

Rating:
Summary: Hell Hath no Fury...than Anne Rice.
Review: Witching Hour is a giant work of sublime horror and soulful mystery wherever you turn in the book. The enigma of Lasher makes for almost no dull moments throughout, and incased inside is a thorough history of the Mayfair witches that makes you get that deep down hypothermic feeling straight to your bones. Subtle terrors abound in the olden streets of the French Quarter in New Orleans. Marvelous.

Rating:
Summary: This book illustrates Anne Rice at her best.
Review: I am an avid Anne Rice fan and believe this to be one of her best. I have read every book that Mrs. Rice has written and I am spell-bound every time I pick up her books. This was the first book of hers that I read. After twenty pages I was hooked. In the past two years I have devoured everything she writes and look foward to the next.

Rating:
Summary: Oh, for the love of <deleted>
Review: Reading this book was an act of faith on my part. That faith was very poorly placed. First, you get maybe 300 pages of actual plot and current-day character development. Then (@!*%#), you are subjected to another 300+ pages of a historical narrative that *never seems to end.* When the story resumes, you are dragged along as characters act in a "most unseemly" way. Finally, the ending is the worst I have ever seen in a book this long. After having read (and suffered) so long, to make the ending essentially a "stay-tuned-for-our-next-book" finish is like pouring acid in the already festering reading wounds of those who somehow managed to make it that far to the end of the book. Ann Rice? Never again.

Rating:
Summary: MOST EXCELLENT BOOK
Review: I READ ABOUT 4 OR 5 BOOKS A MONTH, SO OBVIOUSLY I'VE READ MANY BOOKS. THIS BOOK BY FAR WAS THE BEST BOOK I'VE READ. AT FIRST I DIDN'T HAVE ANY INTEREST IN ANNE RICE'S BOOKS BECAUSE I THOUGHT THEY WERE ALL HOKEY POKEY. FROM PAGE 1 OF THE WITCHING HOUR I WAS HOOKED. NOW I HAVE TO READ EVERYTHING THAT SHE HAS WRITTEN. I AM NOW IN THE MIDDLE OF LASHER WHICH IS THE SECOND BOOK IN THE MAYFAIR SERIES AND IT IS JUST AS ADDICTIVE AS THE WITCHING HOUR. I HAVE NEVER ESCAPED THE REAL WORLD AS I HAVE WHILE READING HER BOOKS. THE WAY SHE WRITES KEEPS YOU COMING BACK FOR MORE.

Rating:
Summary: Witches and Incest. What else is there???
Review: Anne Rice is a fascinating and intriguing writer. This book takes quite a while to get into the swing of things but once over that barrier you'll be hooked. You will find yourself swimming into the lives of the Mayfair family and all their secrets. For four centuries, the Mayfair witches have killed, have had love affairs, and have made a terrific fortune. Rice has the ability to intertwine several stories and characters among one another, which will leave you sitting at the edge of your seat waiting for the next big surprise. What will happen to Rowan and Michael? Who is Lasher and what will he do next? Hopefully, these questions will be answered in the next book. There are witches. There are secrets and a long history of incest and love affairs. What else could you ask for?

Rating:
Summary: Easily the worst book I have ever read.
Review: While I have enjoyed other works by Anne Rice, this story was really rough sledding. Boring, overly long, and, to add insult to injury, the story has no ending. Really, none at all. After the intrepid reader has fought through all this needless grot, he is expected to buy another book to see how the story ends. Sorry, but this was the last time I will purchase Rice's work. The Witching hour is strictly for masochists.

Rating:
Summary: Boring, But Gets Better
Review: I thought this book was exceltant. Though it did take me a month to read it. The beginning was boring yes, but after you get passed the first several chapters, it gets very interesting. What I liked most about this novel was the character Lasher himself. He could get anything he wanted, and do anything practically. He was mean, and minipulative (spelling?), he got every one of the Mayfair witches to do EXACTLY what he wanted of them.

I'm not an expert at critizing books. All I know is what I like and I'll tell people about it.

All in all, I thought Ms. Rice wrote a very good and entertaining book and I can't wait to start the second.