Rating: 
Summary: It was OK
Review: This book was alright. The first 300-400 pages were long and very detailed. But it did get better!...Anne Rice is Great!! and she shows it in every book she writes!
Rating: 
Summary: Great Book, you should read it!!
Review: I just finished reading The Witching Hour two nights ago. It was by far the best book I have ever read. It literally stretched my mind to a parameter I didn't know existed in there. I can't wait to read the next two books!
Rating:
Summary: A long worthwhile read
Review: This is probably not a book for everyone, as it is long in detail and long on developing the plot. If you love novels like these, you will love this.If not, do not even pick this up.The story of the Mayfair witches starts in the present, moves to the past and back to the present with some loops thrown in. Anne Rice made beautiful usage of the language and description. I felt half the time that I was there in New Orleans (and it being over 90 degrees here helped =) watching a ghost story unfold. The ending is definitely a shocker, however, if you take the time to read the second and third book it all makes sense. This was not written to be a one book novel. Anne spent a lot of time developing the characters in this novel, which explained why certain characters do and react the way they do. It also made me feel that I knew each individual character very well. I almost cried at points, and got very angry in others. To me it was well worth the read (it grabbed my attention immediately, I didn't put it down for 2 days thank god it was the weekend!) and then I had to run out and by the next two books, which I will not go into details on here.
Rating: 
Summary: Page turner
Review: I'm not a big Anne Rice fan. She's far to morbid and gothic for my taste. This book would be the exception to that. The characters were so well written that I cared enough to wade through this too long novel. I did wish it wouldn't end, and in essence, it doesn't. But it's fun and I loved the New Orleans setting and the way she shifts time periods effortlessly to create a seamless storyline. I enjoyed it but not enough to keep my copy of the book.
Rating: 
Summary: a strange mishmash of the good and the dreadful
Review: The book is strong in parts and extraordinarily weak in others, especially the long-awaited conclusion. The greatest failing of the novel, however, is Rice's approach to the narration of the case history on the Mayfair Witches. She contracts one of the worst cases of verbal diarrhea I've ever encountered and becomes an utter bore. Some parts of the case history are interesting (e.g., Langtry's account of Stella's death and the letters of van Abel - although these, too, are remarkably long-winded, given that Abel often wrote them under pressured conditions, e.g., when he was being stalked by Lasher). Most of it, however, is completely irrelevant, serving only - and why Rice felt the need for this God only knows - to distend an already grossly bloated novel. It never ceases to amaze me how ready publishers and editors are to overlook the insufferable over-indulgences of writers who have acquired best-seller status, while reserving nothing but criticism for those would-be writers who dare approach them with manuscripts of over 120 000 words. In sum, I would recommend Rice's book only to those who suffer from acute insomnia.
Rating:
Summary: One of two books I've hurled across the room
Review: I have really enjoyed Ann Rice's Vampire Chronicles and Ramses...but this series will not be on my list of favorites. The description of life in New Orleans was pricesless. The book had very interesting characters, both in the current plot and the background, geneological history plot. The two main characters in the "current plot" could have been more central to the "current plot." The climax seemed so juvenile, especially compared to the style of the first 90% of the book. The ending so disappointed me that I sold the second book without reading it. I was in graduate school while reading Witching Hour. I took much longer than usual since I was so busy. The ending left me feeling as though I wasted my time.
Rating:
Summary: WOW! What a Family
Review: This was a wonderful book. The world in which Anne Rice created for the Mayfair witches to exist in is a timely, accurate reflection of our own world. The novel started rather slowly, but bacame much more interesting once the reader realizes the depth of the Mayfairs' story, and the realism of the characters. The family's demon, Lasher, is not realy met until the end of the book. If he was introduced as a character in the beginning of the book, he would have taken on much more scope as an evil character. I have really enjoyed Ms. Rice's novels, but this one takes the cake. She portrays the lives of thirteen different women over a length of 300 years in a neat, paperback package. An excellent read for anyone who enjoys fiction. But one question: How can a family be so inbred, but have properly functioning descendants?
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books I have read
Review: This book is completely absorbing. I didn't know if I would like it as well as Anne's vampire books but I actually liked it better. Her writing is so beautiful and the story was just so interesting. The characters were extremely well-developed and the past of the Mayfair family was very exciting. Rowan Mayfair was sheltered from her heritage as a witch. But circumstances force her to become involved with her family and to find out the truth about herself and her heritage. What happens after that is just incredibly absorbing. This is a book that I will read over and over. Definitely one of Anne's best, if not the best.
Rating:
Summary: An intriguing tale
Review: This book has one little problem: It is about 400 pages too big. The book packs punch with the history of the Mayfair Witches which is described for 300-400 pages in the middle of the book. In this description, the first 200+ pages are summarized. A question beckons: Why bother reading the first 250+ pages? There is no good answer. The only interesting story in the first part of the book is of Michael Curry and his romance with Rowan Mayfair. This is spilled over a hundred pages but could have been told just as well in fifty. The history of the Mayfair Witches is extremely intriguing. So intriguing in fact, that nothing compares before or after it. The rest of the book is a bit stale and the final confrontation is so weak and completely unresolved that unless you continue on to the sequel, you will be left unsastisfied. One of the biggest problems in the whole book is that the character that supposed to be the most interesting, Rowan Mayfair, is extremely unlikable. Like Aaron, I could not warm up to her. And then, right when I became used to her too-smart-and-cool-for-her-own-good persona, she becomes a weak, weeping woman that is pathetic. Michael is a better character but he is depicted as so trusting that he appears weak. The only characters that I really admired were Aaron and Carlotta. Carlotta might be an evil character but at least she stays true to her nature. Aaron is truly the hero of this novel: principaled and unjudgemental, he is the only character in the novel that I liked and admired. As I said before, the history of the Mayfair Witches is the most interesting part of the whole book. I especially liked the characters of Deborah, Mary Beth, and Deidre. Charlotte, Julien, and Cortland were a little bit demented and scary. Katherine, Stella, and Antha were just too pathetic. The most disappointing character of all was Lasher. I expected for him to be a debonnaire and intriguing figure like Lestat in "Interview with the Vampire", but he is far from being "irresistable" as Anne Rice wants us to believe. I recommend the reading of the history but advise to skim all the rest.
Rating: 
Summary: I recommend this book only to my enemies
Review: Over the years I have read many novels and as time passes I only come to remember the very good and the very bad, the rest sliding away into the sleepy land of mediocrity. Let me say that I will always, always, remember the Witching Hour and only for the wrong reasons. I suppose I could write a thorough essay on the technical reasons why this book is flawed. However, having already sacrificed on an extremely bloody alter so much of my time on this lengthy story, I will edit myself in a way Anne Rice obviously never was and keep myself pointed. This book is boring. After a few hundred pages of character development one wonders if Anne Rice is simply trying to torture you. Then a few hundred more pages pass, the end starts coming, all the character traits simply vanish in what must be 900 pages of character resolution in the last fifty pages, the story crumbles, and you are left with nothing more than tendinitis from holding the book up so long. Oh yeah, you are also left with anger. As for some other reviews claiming that Rice's style is wonderful, my reply is that if somebody spends nine hundred pages describing a sloth crossing a concrete room in the most poetic manner possible, I still do not have to like it. Please don't read this book.
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