Lasher

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely dreadful! Rice at her ...worst!
Review: This book should never had been written. The plot is so dreadful that my temporary suspension of disbelief positively snapped! The series started high, Anne Rice at her best, but her creativity began to dry up and her characters became cartoon characters by this point. Finishing this book was an unbearable chore and was similar to a seven-course meal prepared by a bungling chef who cannot read a recipe.

Rating:
Summary: I thought it was wonderful...
Review: One thing I enjoy most about Anne Rice is that her books are far from the ordinary. Sure, there may have been some odd parts, but it kept my interest. I will only take a passion in what I enjoy reading. I was in love with the plot and the whole scheme of things. I never read a book I enjoyed until I received a copy of "Interview with a Vampire". I finished all the vampire chronicles and I just finished "Lasher". As a new teenage reader, I couldn't be happier with my selections. For those who did not enjoy the book, I wish for you all to be seduced by the dark side, the odd, and the unordinary. Because without these elements in books, the rest is dull, human, and despairing.

Rating:
Summary: Not bad, but not nearly as good as The Witching hour (part1)
Review: This is not a bad book. But being the sequel of The Witching Hour, which was a masterpiece, it definitely doesn't stand up to expectations. The first 2/3 of the book are actually good, the story continues and you are eager to see how it will develop. But the final part, where Lasher talks about his previous life, is incredibly boring. It might have been interesting if it wasn't so long, because it does give you insights on who he really is and sort of gives a different perspective to a character you thought you had pretty much figured out; but it's way too long and descriptive and it loses impact, so the reader is no longer thrilled to know what really happened, but merely wants to "get to the point". I felt like skipping ahead and didn't just because I was afraid something important would come at some point (and it didn't, really).
But aside from this last section, this is a pretty good book, and you anyway need to read it to know what happens after the incredible ending in The Witching Hour, and you need to read it to get to the last book of the trilogy, Taltos. I think it's worth it :)

Rating:
Summary: ...
Review: Absolute ..., and as far fetched as they come. What a disappointment after The Witching Hour! The series began with a sexy mysterious spirit following the generations of Mayfair Witches through the years(loved the concept). By the second book it was suddenly about a five thousand year old GUMBY! This series made The Vampire Chronicles read like an Almanac.

Rating:
Summary: Not as good as The Witching Hour, but not bad at all.
Review: Though it cannot compete with The Witching Hour, it is still a fine novel full of plot twists and dark imagery we expect from Anne Rice. Rice fans will not at all be disappointed. If you enjoyed The Witching Hour, you'll want to read this one, too, and catch up with the Mayfair witches. If you haven't read The Witching Hour, start with it instead.

Rating:
Summary: I rather get 50 lashes than to read this book..
Review: DREADFUL! It's boring, it drags, it's boring, it's a waste of money...and did I say it was boring? BECAUSE IT IS. It lacked explanation of the characters and why somethings occured..etc. And my book fell apart......there are better Anne Rice books out there...avoid this one. You can do better than this.

Rating:
Summary: It'd be a great movie...
Review: ...if Lauren Ambrose of *Six Feet Under* fame plays Mona. Aside from that, the descriptive detail here is luscious and the chatacterizations sound--and the plot makes this book a read page-turner, especially when Rice puts the pedal to the floor around page 300, even if it gets bogged down in places. MOST Anne Rice books suffer from this, of something to that effect, but overall this book is without doubt one of her best.

Rating:
Summary: Lasher
Review: I really enjoyed this book and could not put it down. They Mayfair series is great. I don't agree at all with the comments that this book is not as good as The Witching Hour. I would highly recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: not worth a title
Review: Here before you glows a critical remark on some of the lousiest ideas the human kind could ever come up with: sequels. I'm sure everybody knows Batman, Jurassic Park, Terminator, The Mummy, Men In Black, Superman, Godfather (, Interview With The Vampire ;-)) and a lot of corny B-style movies, and I'm also sure most of that crowd knows the second or even third parts of the same brand. Let me ask you this: how many of the sequels were better or at least as good as the original? A few in my humble opinion. Well, the same crap comes on paper. The Witching hour was a masterpiece compared to this rubbish. Don't get me wrong, after all there would be no Aghata Christie if it weren't for them, but in today's reading-industry the continuings usually mean only commercialised writing.

If you're a blindfolded fan who gulps down every word Ms Rice has to say, then do yourself a favour and get your eyesight back and then read. Don't go rushing to the bookstore if the story you just read has an open ending, for disappointment is easy to buy. I much rather look up on some fanart..., but that's a story Madam Rice would gladly reject.
Here is the summary through my "unclouded" eyes: Some time has passed since I've read this book and if my memory doesn't fail me, the word-made-flesh-spirit Lasher kidnapped the super-neurosurgeon Rowan (who is curiously unknown to the wider society of doctors) and takes her around the country, trying to avoid the Mayfair clan. OK, I can deal with that. - On the other hand we find Rowan's husband Michael on all kinds of drugs that kick his brains out, without which he consequently has visions and constantly nags. Herein comes a brand new character Mona, whose mission is to reconnect Michael's brain with the help of her constant horny nature. OK, whatever. - Lasher grows literally before our very eyes and sees Rowan as his mother and the mother of his children. Therefore he rapes her on every occasion and generally makes her a sex object, while it, sorry, she doesn't/can't do a thing about it. Oh, and do you know why she's so special? Because she has an extra chromosome, just like he does and that way they can mate. But does Anne know that an extra chromosome means a genetic disease syndrome, thrisomy, where the person is mentally and physically disabled? Maybe that's why Rowan's so good at her work. Anyway, let's leave the details and just try to believe the disfiguring tale of Lasher's life, which involves living in a monastery (from modesty to molesting), Little People (including extra chromosomes), living after death and other peculiar adventures. Imagination has no limit. When Rowan is FINALLY pregnant, she talks riddles with the fetus and after some time FINALLY runs away. Somewhere on the road, a truck-driver picks her up and she heads down to the old south. On the way she gets labour pains, jumps from the truck, runs to a meadow, finds a tree, lays under it and gives birth to a mutant. Now, that's what I call instinct. Then she falls into a coma. And she doesn't seem to wake up. The family finds her, her sober husband holds her hand - still nothing. Then Lasher comes back, Michael kills him, the newborn mutant comes back for mother's milk, and Rowan kills it. The end. Thrilling, isn't it?

Rating:
Summary: Oh, Ann Rice, why do you make me suffer????
Review: This secuel of "The Witching Hour" turns to be an excellent book of intrigue and horror, even when this book is not so good as the fist one, but it's understandable because this is a secuel, this is the one when the story becomes monstrous and cruel in all aspects, I am amazed of the capability of Ann Rice to dig in the most inner fears of human beeing and turn them into an unable to stop reading plot. If you think you don't have the stomach to deal with a book that will keep you in suspense, that will make you feel impotent and disgusted, then don't read it, because when Ann Rice wants to twist your guts she'll do it in the most crude and yet elegant way.
Anyway, you have to read this book if you read "The Witching Hour" because neither of both books have sense if you don't read the other, including the third part of them called "Taltos", so, you have a decent trilogy to read.