Rating: 
Summary: Dark, Morbid... Rice
Review: A long read, but worth it in the end, somewhere along the middle Rice over does the details and slows down the story's pace to a snail's crawl, but she picks the pace up after a bit and takes a hold of your will to sleep, it's really difficult to put down this book before reading it whole and even then the only real problem I see with "The Witching Hour" is that once you're trough with it you just crave for the next book of the series... remember the feeling? If you recall the ending on book two of Rice's Vampire Chronicles you'll sure know what I'm talking about.
Rating:
Summary: scary
Review: this book scared the *bleep* outta me while i was reading it. i had to put it down a couple of times! anyways this is the beginning of mayfair witches saga and "the witching hour" starts it all off. "the witching hour" is a long read... it's loaded, sometimes cluttered with info, so you may need to read the page a couple of times to absorb it all. once you do it'll hook you in. do not read this in a dark place! :) the only downfall is that it can become confusing at times 'cause ann rice flip/flops to the past and present quite often.
Rating: 
Summary: descending from literature to commercial potboiler
Review: While I loved the first two volumes of the Vampire Chronicles, which were of such high quality that they could be considered literature, I find myself increasingly disappointed with Rice, as the rather mediocre "The Witching Hour" illustrates. She obviously has great talent for character, theme, and writing style, not to forget that sense of wonder that the best fiction generates.However, it appears to me that, instead of aiming high, she has decided to make money. There is nothing inherently wrong with this, except that it squanders a unique talent. Perhaps she has said all that she has to say, but I still think she could do much much better. This story is fun if you want simple entertainment: it has attractive people, plenty of bizarre ..., and an evil entity seeking to merge with a human. Though a bit too long, the plot keeps you interested and moves quickly through many ages of history. You have a family being bred in thrall to an evil spirit as well as a good man - ..., working class Irish made good - swept into the mix. At times, it creates a nice atmosphere of terror. Unfortunately, though the book has some of the pretense of aspiring to something more, it fails to do so. The characters are too ..., the occult connections so elaborate as to get tiresome, and the circumstances increasingly outlandish, formulaic, and comic-bookish. This is a pity, but then, she has made her choice. Recommended as a fun way to waste time.
Rating: 
Summary: The Best Book for readers who want to read about witches
Review: At first, I was not sure if I wanted to buy The Witching Hour for it had 1038 pages and I thought it would be uneventful. I was way wrong. I decided to start reading the book because I wanted to tell all my friends that I had read a 1038 page book. The first 75 pages of the book was a little boring for me but after that it got intruiging. Then, when I got to the Mayfair history I thought, A history of witches, woudln't it be boring. It was also 400 pages of history. I started reading it and found it was the opposite of boring. I learned about Lasher and about the mayfair witches. I liked it so much all I did was read. I am so happy i decided to read the book. It is soooo good. So for any of you readers wondering if you should buy a book about paranormal things and witches, this is the right book.
Rating:
Summary: Magically gothic
Review: This is such a fabulous book; I wallowed in it for two weeks, enjoying every second. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. (If you love this, you might love my other favourite book "The Resurrectionists" by Kim Wilkins. Just as gothic and lush.) Anne Rice writes best when she _doesn't_ do vampires!
Rating:
Summary: truly bewitching
Review: beautifully written, anne makes you feel like your there. buy the set you won't regret it. i had the set in paperback but bought a hardcover set too, it's that good.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent, until the end...
Review: This book was written wonderfully, full of detail and charactor development, until the end where I was totally disheartened, with the feeling of this being it? For me, the reader, to have become so familiar with the charactors, including Rowan, Michael and Aaron, and then the ending left me w/nothing. Again, the book was one that I could not put down throughout the entire reading (even with the slow-reading chronicles), but the ending was just so quick and incomplete. I've began reading Lasher, and hope that this will tie up the many loose ends and questions that I have. I rate this book with a '1' because although well written 'til the end, I fear that I invested much time in 1038 pages only to be letdown with an incomplete end.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, Excellent writer who has done it yet again!
Review: Anne Rice writes in a unique way that allows the reader to feel they are there - her writing grabs you and doesn't let you go. Get to know this Mayfair family and their tale - you wont' be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Not too scary, but a good read
Review: Witching Hour was my first Anne Rice novel. I suggest it for a first Anne Rice to anyone. The story centers around the Mayfair family and a common handyman's discovery of their history. Rowen Mayfair is a surgeon with extraordinary powers to detect life in even the deadest patients. She brings them back to life to repay her debt to the world for things that happened in her childhood. This book wasn't quite as scary as I thought, because i read the first part in the daylight, but as soon as I turned out the lights and was home alone, the book took a new twist.
Rating:
Summary: The Mayfair Tragedy
Review: Although I ahve only read a fraction of Rice's work I believe this book is as well told and well written as any book I have ever read. Rice's novel is set in current tim eNew Orleans and San Francisco. The Witching Hour gives a detailed history of the Mayfair familyfrom their ancient descendants from scotland in the 1600's, up untill the current time when we see the main characters emerge. Michael Curry is a comtractor from the "wrong side" of New Orleans. Michael however, becomes a historian out of college, but could not tear himself away from building with his hands. Michael is the ounder of the company Great expectations, named after his favorite book, and makes a life of restoring old victorian houses. Michael meets with the "Witches" when he is swept out to sea and is rescued by Rowan Mayfair. Rowan is a Neurosurgeon who was born in New Orleans but adopted only hours after her birth. Rowan has had an intuitive sense of what people were feeling or thinking since she was very young. Rowan is also the strongest of all the Mayfair witches. The day Rowan rescues Michael from the ocean is the day both their lives get turned upside down. They both encountera spirit that has hounted the mayfair family since Scotland: Lasher. Rowan vows to destroy the spirit that has destroyed so many of her ancestors, but will she have the strenght to do it? I would recomend this book to anyone who likes books that go outside the realm of reality while staying believeable. Iwill probably Re-read this book because it is good enough to keep my intrest a second time.
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