The Witching Hour (Lives of the Mayfair Witches, #1)

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The Witching Hour (Lives of the Mayfair Witches #1)

4.05 of 5 stars 4.05 · rating details · 51,358 ratings · 1,915 reviews

On the veranda of a great New Orleans house, now faded, a mute and fragile woman sits rocking. And the witching hour begins ...

Demonstrating once again her gift for spellbinding storytelling and the creation of legend, Anne Rice makes real for us a great dynasty of witches --- a family given to poetry and incest, to murder and philosophy, a family that over the ages is it...more

Paperback, 1038 pages

Published March 22nd 1993 by Ballantine Books (first published 1990)

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Nov 14, 2012 Ellie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: physical-books, series, 2012, reviewed, favorites, horror, fantasy

The Mayfair's are an extremely powerful and wealthy family, in each generation there is a chosen one, a witch, who inherits not only the family home and money, but supernatural powers and an evil entity, named Lasher, who only has one aim – to become human again.

The Witching Hour is an extremely long novel, 1207 pages, but don't let that put you off reading as once you open the first page you soon find yourself completely absorbed in the chilling tale of the Mayfair Witches. This novel has a sp...more

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Jun 01, 2008 RunForTheRoses rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I got this book for Christmas that year. This was my first ever Anne Rice book, and it was about a year after Interview With A Vampire came out as a movie with Brad Pitt, Christian Slater and Tom Cruise. I was blown away people. If you like a story, like Gone With the Wind on crack, no seriously, epic like that, except VERY ADULT (don't let your tweens get their hands on this one Mom's and Dad's!), but such an addicting read that you may just get fired for calling in sick over it.

This was far an...more

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Feb 09, 2008 Elise Jensen rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

I actually quite enjoyed this book up until the very end, when I felt like the main female character just had some sort of weird personality seizure and did something that the character as you've come to know her just wouldn't have done. It just made it seem poorly written to me, like Ms. Rice decided in the last 10 pages or so that it was going to have a sequel after all when she had been intending from the beginning for it to be a one-book story.

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Aug 01, 2009 Derek Oberg rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Most

One of my top 3 favorite novels of all time. Anne Rice gets a bad rap for being pure shlock, but what most people who haven't read her don't realize is that the woman is obsessed with history. She studies a particular time period, learns everything she can about it, and then creates characters and sticks them in it. She rarely disappoints me. And the woman's prose is beautiful. You can sit down to read and realize that 2 hours have passed having not even noticed.

This book is about a woman named...more One of my top 3 favorite novels of all time. Anne Rice gets a bad rap for being pure shlock, but what most people who haven't read her don't realize is that the woman is obsessed with history. She studies a particular time period, learns everything she can about it, and then creates characters and sticks them in it. She rarely disappoints me. And the woman's prose is beautiful. You can sit down to read and realize that 2 hours have passed having not even noticed.

This book is about a woman named Rowan Mayfair, who was given up for adoption at birth. She has lived a very normal, successful life and become a doctor, knowing nothing of her birth family or the circumstances of her adoption.

...And then her birth mother in New Orleans dies. Suddenly Rowan finds herself haunted by an apparition that she cannot explain. She is approached by an old man named Aaron Lightner who tells her that he is with an orginazition called the Talamasca. He explains that they exist to watch and study paranormal and supernatural events, but do not interfere. They have been watching the Mayfair family for hundreds of years. (After this book, the Talamasca was merged into Rice's primary ongoing serial, "The Vampire Chronicles.")

Aaron presents her with the file on her family, and the narrative breaks away for a good 300 pages to tell the tale of an ancient coven of witches, reaching back as far as the 1600's. The familiar of the Mayfair family is a very powerful spirit named Lasher. He is passed down to the first-born daughter of each generation. Now that her mother is dead, Lasher has moved on to Rowan.

Rowan decides to head to New Orleans to attend her mother's funeral and meet the family. VERY thrilling, exciting, white-knuckled reading ensues.

This is the first book in "The Lives of the Mayfair Witches," a series which originally spanned only 3 books. But when Rice decided that it was time to end all of her ongoing serials, she merged these characters with those from the Vampire Chronicles and ended them both together.(less)

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Jan 21, 2009 Liisa rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: vampire-werewolves-witches-mystical, trilogies-and-series

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Dec 09, 2008 Lesli rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Knowing my love of vampires and witches, my sister, upon hearing a review of this book sent it to me for my Birthday and I cold not put it down. This book connects the spirit world, with old world interest, new world love for anything gothic and just plain good writing. I followed the witches, spirits and vampires in every book by Anne Rice. This by far was the best!

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Jun 21, 2007 Needleroozer rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people who like to read "to be continued" at the end of a long book

Shelves: fiction, louisiana

When I got to the end of this thick book, after having read hundreds of lukewarm pages, and found that it basically said "to be continued," I was pretty pissed off. If the book had been mine and not one I had borrowed from a friend, I would have tossed it across the room. That was when I decided that I would never again buy an Anne Rice book. I haven't.

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Dec 19, 2007 Meredith Watson rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2008

I FINALLY finished this. Good Lord, what a long winded mess this was. All the wordy history was boring but I stuck it out then ended up hating the ending! Why in the world to I keep reading Anne Rice?

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Aug 12, 2008 Zach rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Anybody that has no fear of page numbers.

This is one of the best books that I have read. With her Dickensian writing, Anne Rice weaves a wonderfully dark and historically fascinating tale about a spirit attached to a family of witches. Although this book is almost 1000 pages, it goes by so quickly! The historical description of the family's travels from places such as Scotland and Port-au-Prince, Haiti is detailed in a way that made me swoon! (Yes, swoon.)

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Jan 10, 2011 Geek Lee rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Be Warned. Thar be major SPOILERS ahead!

All and all, I loved this tale of a family with generations of witches. The witches are so interesting and seductive. Their "spirit", Lasher, is an enigma who does both good and bad things to the Mayfair witches. Anne Rice gave just enough information to keep me unsure but I always felt as though he was calling the shots with the witches, as early as Deborah. The Mayfair witches are free spirits who rarely conform to the norms of the day. The current witch...more Be Warned. Thar be major SPOILERS ahead!

All and all, I loved this tale of a family with generations of witches. The witches are so interesting and seductive. Their "spirit", Lasher, is an enigma who does both good and bad things to the Mayfair witches. Anne Rice gave just enough information to keep me unsure but I always felt as though he was calling the shots with the witches, as early as Deborah. The Mayfair witches are free spirits who rarely conform to the norms of the day. The current witch, Dr Rowan Mayfair, is a neurosurgeon who is on the cutting edge of genetic experimentation, a controversial topic for many.

We see the story for a large part from the Talamasca’s POV so I am on the fence about whether the witches really had powers other than being able to see Lasher. There is a big fuss made of one witch's ability to make millions of dollars but Lasher tells Rowan he was the one who told ALL the witches where and when to invest. I'm still not sure what these witches can do -- this is very underdeveloped – and I can’t help thinking it would have been extremely helpful to hear some stories from the witches themselves.

As it turn out Lasher was manipulating the witches in order to achieve his goal. We are never told about whether they realize he was lying and controlling them so I assume they didn’t know. Lasher turns out to be much more powerful than I expected. I mean, he was omniscient! He killed and had sex without the slightest remorse in order to become human. I suspect he possessed the witches frequently to create the incestuous relationships that formed the genes he needed from the Mayfair babies and that they did not do this of their own free will. Again, I can only assume this.

Carlotta is a horribly twisted character. I thought her bitter cruelty came from being jealous of NOT being a witch so I was surprised to learn she WAS one. Interesting dichotomy to have her use her power to keep Lasher away from her while all the others use their power to keep Lasher with them. While I think she is the only truly "evil" witch, I have to admit, she had it right when it came to handling Lasher. And it is interesting to note that while Lasher is very powerful, he is the first to acknowledge he has made mistakes and we see one or two times Carlotta has tricked “the trickster”.

The second drowning scene of Michael Curry, Rowan’s husband, was amazing. I could envision it so vividly and it seemed so morbidly fascinating that I wanted it to last much longer. All the Mayfair witches running around -- "frozen" to look as they did at the time of their death. All waiting for Lasher to bring them back to life and arguing over who goes first. I loved it!!! I wanted this to be the reality and not that Lasher was once again tricking Michael with another mind game. (Although I really like the idea of hell being your worst fears and not generic “brimstone and fire”) Anyway, this was a great scene for me.

I found the ending anti-climatic. In fact the climax for me seems to be when Michael nearly drowns for a second time and while I loved the scene, it didn’t feel as though that should be such a strong scene while the real climax - the showdown between Rowan and Lasher - was so weak. With Lasher's birth happening "off screen" and Rowan trying to trick him to kill him so completely underdeveloped, I found this is a weak finale to the centuries old story. By the time of his birth on Christmas day (ridiculously cheesy, imho), Rowan has morphed from a strong, angry witch into a spineless, frightened girl. And she is the only one I am sure actually had "powers". Very unsatisfying.

The ending was too soft and predictable. I wanted a stronger bang. Rowan leaves with Lasher – seemingly of her own free will – after being completely seduced and tricked by him. He told her she would have to choose between him and Michael and it seems as if she has. Michael is recovering from his near drowning at the house on First Street and the other Mayfairs are all convinced that everything is as it was meant to be. In fact, Michael wonders if witches are even real in the last pages of the book. No real push to read the sequels, to be honest. Although I am still wondering about those “witches”.
(less)

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Jun 11, 2008 Sarah rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is one of my favorite summer trash reads. It's like a soap opera with witches and sex. Good fun.

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Feb 07, 2008 Erin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read this book back in High School. I loved the whole Mayfair witches series. The first in the Mayfair Witches series, The Witching Hour introduces the fictional Mayfair family of New Orleans, generations of male and female witches. This tight-knit and deeply connected family, where a death of one strengthens the others with his/her knowledge. One Mayfair witch per generation is also designated to receive the powers of "the man," known as Lasher. Lasher gives the witches gifts, excites them, a...more I read this book back in High School. I loved the whole Mayfair witches series. The first in the Mayfair Witches series, The Witching Hour introduces the fictional Mayfair family of New Orleans, generations of male and female witches. This tight-knit and deeply connected family, where a death of one strengthens the others with his/her knowledge. One Mayfair witch per generation is also designated to receive the powers of "the man," known as Lasher. Lasher gives the witches gifts, excites them, and protects them. Unsure as to exactly what this spirit is, the Mayfair clan knows him variously as a protector, a god-like figure, a sexual being, and the image of death. Lasher's current witch is Deirdre, who lies catatonic from psycological shock treatments.

Deirdre's daughter, Rowan, has been spirited away from this "evil" and has happily become a neurosurgeon and has an uncanny gift to see the intent behind the facade. Rowan also has a gift few doctors possess--she can heal cells. Yet, though she uses it to save lives, she also fears that she hs caused several deaths. She rescues Michael from drowning. Michael then develops some extraordinary powers that compel him to seek New Orleans and to seek Rowan. He finds both, and pulls the tale closer together by meeting people connected to the Mayfair family who now fear Rowan because she is the first Mayfair who can kill without Lasher's help.

Michael dives into learning the history of the Mayfair witches: Deborah, Charlotte, Mary Beth, Stella, Antha, and many others across hundreds of years and three continents. When Michael looks up from his reading, he learns that Rowan has come to New Orleans to attend her mother's funeral. Rowan learns of her family history, her ancestral home in shambles, and Lasher waiting for the next one. Rowan dedicates herself to stopping Lasher's reign. Michael too has his own mission, but it is foggy and unclear to him. But Lasher is seductively powerful and Rowan's gifts offer him the opportunity to achieve his ultimate goal.

The only warning I would give on these books is that they have a couple of pretty sexual parts, so if that bothers you, then I would pass.(less)

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Nov 24, 2007 Samantha Rose Slade rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

Note: Just a short comment on the book, no summary – possibly spoilers.

As usual Rice's ability to allow the reader to feel they're reliving the events in a first hand account delivers. That's the one thing I enjoy about her writing, it flows so easily, while you're reading, it's like watching a movie. She's able to be so detailed and vivid, you see the scenes just play out in your mind. Many years ago, I was a huge fan of her vampire chronicles, for the reason – everything just comes alive on t...more

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May 25, 2007 Israel rated it 5 of 5 stars

Rowan Mayfair, una joven neurocirujana poseedora de unos extraños poderes psíquicos, encuentra a un ahogado, y tras devolverle la vida se enamoran apasionadamente. Al recuperar la consciencia, Michael descubre que le ha sido conferido un extraño don, y lo único que sabe es que tiene relación con una misión que le ha sido encomendada, con una entrada y con un número. Aaron Ligthner, miembro de la Talamasca, les ayudará a desentrañar el misterio, al mismo tiempo que le informa a Rowan que pertenec...more

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Aug 24, 2007 Jennifer rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, saga

after reading most of the vampire chronicles, i decide to try Rice's Witches' trilogy... i know that for a lot of people, this book was hard to get through... there's a lot of information in it that seems like, "well who the hell cares????"... but it's all relevant in one way or another, and it SOOOOOOOOOOO sets you up for the subsequent novels, Lasher, and Taltos. (there's also Merrick, Blackwood Farm, and Blood Canticle, which came later.) if you can bear with a somewhat slow read for a little...more

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Jan 07, 2009 Ashley rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Anne Rice is quite the interesting lady. Sometimes the book was a bit much for me, but she does a fantastic job of making you feel like you are really there and a part of what she is developing.

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Apr 02, 2012 Veronica rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

Engrossing from the first paragraph. Anne Rice is best known for her book, "Interview With the Vampire," but she SHOULD be best known for this.
This is an epic novel that follows the lives of the Mayfair witches through generations, time and place. Eerie, magical, and mysterious. Characters are woven into an intricate and mesmerizing plot. Beautiful descriptive writing.
I was chilled to the bone and genuinely scared during nearly every chapter, but addicted like nothing else. Stayed up way pa...more

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Dec 13, 2007 Abbey rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Anyone who enjoys history, family trees and witchcraft

Shelves: recently-read

I always hated vampire/witch stories but my honors English teacher in high school recommended this book to me for our final paper. Its about 1000 pages long so I used the first 500 hundred and literally fell in love. Since then I have read the book about five times. I LOVE IT. It centers around a wealthy family living in New Orleans, there is a spirit that follows one woman in every generation and the story follows the spirit from its conception. It is a really interesting, complex novel with ma...more

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Dec 30, 2008 Missy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

My favorite Anne Rice book of all time, anyone who reads this book will fall in love with New Orleans and Anne's writing. Not a vampire book, and I do love her vampires, but this is the best.

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Mar 05, 2011 Twilightandstars rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: anyone who likes strong women, sexy vampires, and more detail than they can handle

Shelves: horror, guilty-pleasures, top-reads, fiction, owned, anne-rice, new-orleans, haunted-houses

Edition/Condition: Hardbound/Used

This book, along with running up there with the last Harry Potter in the heavy-enough-to-be-a-doorstop department, also wins in the most-frequent-guilty-reads department. I can't remember how times I've read it, mostly for the incredibly detailed backstory of the Mayfair family. I'm a sucker for so-in-so begat so-in-so, and if there's priceless gems involved, all the better. The rest of the Mayfair Witches trilogy went drastically downhill, but this one should de...more

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Sep 23, 2011 Kim Farnsworth rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Awesome.....awesome.....awesome!!!

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May 20, 2009 Gibson1984 rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What a great book ! Enjoyed the chronicals and relationships of the Mayfair Family.

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Dec 17, 2008 Monique rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: on-and-on-trilogies-two-part-books

Okay so starting sagas now and to give me a larger challenge and this was 1026 page monster was my first endeavor..what can I say it is an engrossing and absorbing read that will take you away to a whole confusing, strange but entirely new place...Okay so its a saga of witches, women who call upon magic to conjure up spirits--in the family this story revolves around the Mayfairs witches from the beginning of about the sixteenth century to basically nineties present. It is a tough book to get thr...more

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May 07, 2013 Sabrina Abreo rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ok-tier

I've got the Vol. 2 of this book on a library for a really tempting price (1 dollar!!) and seeing "ANNE RICE" written on the cover, I just couldn't resist.

Being my first book ever from Anne Rice, I didn't got disappointed. I've always know her by name (Who didn't watch that movie with Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt? Yeah. That movie. You know the name.) but never really wanted to read the actual book.

So, thoughts on "The Witching Hour"?
Confusing, thrilling, exciting. (maybe a bit rage inducing by the...more

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Dec 11, 2012 Robert Dunbar rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Seventeenth-Century Stonehenge: a woman sways and chants beneath a stony sky, calling to the Devil.

“We know there are such entities… they may grant our wishes in ways that cause us to cry to heaven in desperation.”
~ The Witching Hour

Anne Rice made terror respectable.

Okay, so some of her recent efforts have made me want to demand my high school ring back. But her early work did for contemporary horror what P. D. James did for detective fiction: legitimized it, returned it to the level of ‘litera...more

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Oct 08, 2012 Michelle rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: paranormal

Detailed characters and enticingly seductive story-lines!

The Witching Hour is the first book in Anne Rice's series The Mayfair Witches. This story is rich in the family history of the Mayfairs dating back over 300 years, moving through 5 countries and 13 generations of power.

Rowan Mayfair is a successful neurosurgeon, who knows nothing of her family history and has sworn to her adoptive mother that she will never seek to find out about where she came from. Michael Curry is a successful contracto...more

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Aug 14, 2012 Dennis Troy rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Nitpickers such as myself

Recommended to Dennis by: Skylar James Baxter

Having only read the other Anne Rice novels (you guessed it, The Vampire Chronicles), I learned some interesting things about her from reading her beefy 1990 tome, The Witching Hour. I learned that she can make a book interesting even if there are actually no vampires in it. I learned that New Orleans, in addition to being a magical place indeed, has some really beautiful flowers. And I learned that Anne Rice sure knows a lot of different ways to describe human genitalia.

So yes, the book is inte...more

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May 15, 2012 Wendy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This will always be one of my Top 5 Books. I loved The Witching Hour - so much that I missed two days of college reading it. I found the beginning slow and kind of hard to keep track of what was going on, but once the story hooks you - it takes off. As the plot thickens and we realize the relationships between characters, we are left on a suspenceful cliff hanger, and then wisked back generations to read the entire family history.

On my first reading this this frustrated me to no end. I was temp...more

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May 06, 2012 Laurel LaFlamme rated it 4 of 5 stars

Dedicated to Dianne Marriott Mistrot [03-30-2003]:

When I lived in New Orleans I had a rare opportunity to meet the legendary Anne Rice at a special invitation Halloween party my friends dragged me to. I didn't even want to go and it turned out to be phenomenal. After that, I became fascinated with Anne's fiction & all things "New Orleans," where the story unfolds.

A life-long reader of non-fiction & technical Journals, I didn't realize at first the book was going to be so spooky. I thou...more

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May 01, 2012 Carrie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Casts a spell – without Rice’s normal immortal touch

While most readers know Anne Rice as the author of Interview with a Vampire and the Vampire Chronicles that followed, her novel THE WITCHING HOUR is not one to be overlooked. A sexy, dark tale centered upon mortal but powerful characters, it is sure to grip you where Rice most often grips: your darkest imagination.

The story takes place in New Orleans, Louisiana as well as in San Francisco, California, and it brings two characters together with...more

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About Anne Rice

Anne Rice (born Howard Allen Frances O'Brien) is a best-selling American author of gothic, supernatural, historical, erotica, and later religious themed books. Best known for The Vampire Chronicles, her prevailing thematical focus is on love, death, immortality, existentialism, and the human condition. She was married to poet Stan Rice for 41 years until his death in 2002. Her books have sold near...more

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Books by Anne Rice

Interview with the Vampire (The Vampire Chronicles, #1)

The Vampire Lestat (The Vampire Chronicles, #2)

The Queen of the Damned (The Vampire Chronicles, #3)

The Tale of the Body Thief (The Vampire Chronicles, #4)

Memnoch the Devil (The Vampire Chronicles, #5)

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“Give me a man or woman who has read a thousand books and you give me an interesting companion. Give me a man or woman who has read perhaps three and you give me a very dangerous enemy indeed.” — 361 people liked it

“You were the vampire in my dream. My perfect one.” — 7 people liked it

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The Witching Hour (Lives of the Mayfair Witches #1)

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