At the center of Anne Rice's brilliant new novel, the beautiful Rowan Mayfair, queen of the coven, must flee from the darkly brutal yet irresistibl...
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Dec 07, 2007
Silvana
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This is a difficult book to write a review about. I've been an avid fan of Anne Rice's books since I was in junior high, since I love her style of writing and of course her gothic themes (vampires, demons, witches).
Lasher is the second novel of the Lives of the Mayfair Witches trilogy. The first is "The Witching Hour" and the third is "Taltos". I guess I have to find Taltos a.s.a.p. in order to complete this whole er...journey.
Lasher is a Taltos, which is More...
Lasher is the second novel of the Lives of the Mayfair Witches trilogy. The first is "The Witching Hour" and the third is "Taltos". I guess I have to find Taltos a.s.a.p. in order to complete this whole er...journey.
Lasher is a Taltos, which is More...
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Feb 07, 2008
Erin
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I read this in highschool also. It is book 2 in the Mayfair witches series.
The Talamasca, documenters of paranormal activity, is on the hunt for the newly born Lasher. Mayfair women are dying from hemorrhages and a strange genetic anomaly has been found in Rowan and Michael. Lasher, born from Rowan, is another species altogether and now in the corporeal body, represents an incalcuable threat to the Mayfairs. Rowan and Lasher travel together to Houston and she becomes pregnant with More...
The Talamasca, documenters of paranormal activity, is on the hunt for the newly born Lasher. Mayfair women are dying from hemorrhages and a strange genetic anomaly has been found in Rowan and Michael. Lasher, born from Rowan, is another species altogether and now in the corporeal body, represents an incalcuable threat to the Mayfairs. Rowan and Lasher travel together to Houston and she becomes pregnant with More...
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Mar 22, 2011
AstrogirlM42
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Actual Rating: 2.5
I first read this book about 14 years ago and remember loving it. However, I was a little disappointed the second time around. The first book in the series was so strong and detailed and amazing and this book was, I hate to say it, a little boring.
The story dragged for the first half and the explanations (i.e., Lasher, Little People, Taltos) was all rather silly and not at all convincing. I will definitely read the third and final book in the series as More...
I first read this book about 14 years ago and remember loving it. However, I was a little disappointed the second time around. The first book in the series was so strong and detailed and amazing and this book was, I hate to say it, a little boring.
The story dragged for the first half and the explanations (i.e., Lasher, Little People, Taltos) was all rather silly and not at all convincing. I will definitely read the third and final book in the series as More...
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Oct 12, 2009
Colleen
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Boy was this a letdown after reading The Witching Hour. It was really long and drawn out. I felt like the entire book was just two very long rehashings of the first story with a couple of blanks filled in. It was almost like re-reading the first book and became quite tedious at times. I guess it was important to develop the character of Lasher, but I think it could have been done effectively by just adding another chapter or two to the already long first book. I haven't read the Queen of the Dam
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Aug 20, 2009
RNOCEAN
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So stunningly bad is the first third of this book that only the lunatic and the true devotee are likely to get beyond it. It is actually a riot of Rice's worst sins: strained and wooden characterizations, the abandonment of plot for the sake of a tangled and murky history, and a sort of mutant prose stumbling between a modern person's idea of old-fashioned elegance and an old-fashioned person's idea of how people actually talk in the 1990s. Part of the purpose of this 200-page cancer is to make
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Feb 14, 2009
Alexa
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I'm a huge fan of Anne Rice, and loved The Witching Hour along with many of her other books, but for some reason had never gotten around to reading Lasher. When I first started it, I was fully absorbed. I love Rice's detailed and luscious writing style, and her ability to create fully fleshed-out, interesting characters. These are some of this book's best elements, along with a additions to the Mayfair history in the back stories of Julian and Evelyn, and new, engaging characters like Mona and Y
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Apr 22, 2009
Lisa
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Utterly mesmerising from start to finish (to the point that I actually took a day off work just to read it!), and brings yet more depth and complexity to the series than I previously thought possible.
The writing is absolutely spellbinding, and never more so than throughout the stories recounted by Julien and Lasher - both two characters whom I had previously thought of as unsympathetic, depraved and sinister, though seductive (when seen through the file on the witches compiled by the More...
The writing is absolutely spellbinding, and never more so than throughout the stories recounted by Julien and Lasher - both two characters whom I had previously thought of as unsympathetic, depraved and sinister, though seductive (when seen through the file on the witches compiled by the More...
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Oct 31, 2011
Gabriel
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Lasher is the second book in the Mayfair series, and was something of a let down to me. The previous book was such a Goliath, that this book seems to be tiny in comparison.
Rowan is queen of the coven, and her female relatives are dying all around her due to a cerebral hemorrhages, and Rowan and Michael have discovered that they have genetic abnormalities. Rowan gives birth to Lasher, and has a body of his own now, and is a serious threat to the Mayfair women.
Rowan travels More...
Rowan is queen of the coven, and her female relatives are dying all around her due to a cerebral hemorrhages, and Rowan and Michael have discovered that they have genetic abnormalities. Rowan gives birth to Lasher, and has a body of his own now, and is a serious threat to the Mayfair women.
Rowan travels More...
Feb 18, 2011
Lori
rated it:
Anne Rice certainly took her liberties with LASHER by including incest into the clan of the Mayfair Witches. But I wasn't prudish enough to NOT read or dismiss this very common happening thoughout because it is very real in our own 'real world history.'
If you want a warm, mushy family story then LASHER is not for you. Lasher is a demon spirit who preys on female Mayfairs in his attempt to procreate. Rowan Mayfair, queen of the coven who has borne Lasher's child, has now disappeare More...
If you want a warm, mushy family story then LASHER is not for you. Lasher is a demon spirit who preys on female Mayfairs in his attempt to procreate. Rowan Mayfair, queen of the coven who has borne Lasher's child, has now disappeare More...
Mar 15, 2011
Kathryn
rated it: 
In my opinion this was the weakest book in the series. I HATED Lasher, the immortal idiot who never seems to learn, or care, about his mistakes. And I was still so mad about what Rowan did at the end of the first book that I found it hard to sympathise with what Lasher puts her through (Hard, but not impossible. Rowan has it ROUGH through most of this book). Mona is an odd character, fun to read but difficult for me to like since she skates the fine edge between precocious free-spirit and self-e
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Nov 27, 2011
Joey
rated it:
This book kind of surprised me. As I wrote in my review for The Witching Hour, I really loved THAT book as a young adult (13-15 I'd guess), and had for many years after considered it one of my favorite novels ever written. However, re-reading it at age 31 revealed a number of fatal flaws that I could not get over.
I was not expecting much from Lasher by consequence, as I read it as a young adult too, though I do not believe I ever finished it.
Imagine my surprise when I r More...
I was not expecting much from Lasher by consequence, as I read it as a young adult too, though I do not believe I ever finished it.
Imagine my surprise when I r More...
Jul 03, 2011
Daniel
rated it:
What can't I say about Anne Rice. Another great novel. This is the second book in the Witching Hour series. We now get more indepth detail into the spirit known as Lasher.
The first book Witching Hour leaves off on christmas day when Michael and Rowan Mayfair gets married. The demon Lasher runs off with Rowan. Lasher is wanting to interbreed between the family of witches so that he can become stronger and become flesh. He breeds on Rowan and they both have a child.
The first p More...
The first book Witching Hour leaves off on christmas day when Michael and Rowan Mayfair gets married. The demon Lasher runs off with Rowan. Lasher is wanting to interbreed between the family of witches so that he can become stronger and become flesh. He breeds on Rowan and they both have a child.
The first p More...
Aug 26, 2011
Leontine
rated it:
!!WARNING!! This review can contain spoilers if you haven't read The Witching Hour!!
In Lasher, Anne Rice immediately picks up where she left me in The Witching Hour. The first half of the story there are lots of events rapidly following each other. Of course things happen which are dark, which stretch the boundaries and speak of untold mysteries. Especially the erotic encounter between Michael and teenager Mona may go against the grain for some readers. The storytelling holds this fus More...
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Aug 20, 2008
Wendy
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OK.. WEIRD, story line is unlike anything I've ever read. But I loved it! The story was so unusual, had me eager to turn the page. Not for the faint of heart, but entertainment value truly high up on the scale.
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Feb 09, 2010
Tamielt
rated it:
Rating's only 3.....I like the book no matter how "sinful" it is XD but the thing there is, I don't really like the idea of Lasher being dead....especially the sweet girl-taltos Emaleth.
One more thing is that,why does it seem like everyone's blaming Lasher for the "evilness"? And besides, Rowan wasn't kidnapped by Lasher, she RAN away with him!And oh...I don't really like Michael Curry, even from the very beginning (The Witching Hour).
The title is LASH More...
One more thing is that,why does it seem like everyone's blaming Lasher for the "evilness"? And besides, Rowan wasn't kidnapped by Lasher, she RAN away with him!And oh...I don't really like Michael Curry, even from the very beginning (The Witching Hour).
The title is LASH More...
Aug 30, 2010
Starling
rated it:
In the past this book was anything but my favorite. I've read it several times. I didn't like where Anne Rice took the story of her Witches. But reading it again, and finally accepting that she went where I did not want her to go, made it clear that this book is one of her better ones.
There is the usual heavily layered detail. The cities from viewpoints that I don't personally have.
You really hate Lasher before the book is over. He truly is an evil being caring only for what More...
There is the usual heavily layered detail. The cities from viewpoints that I don't personally have.
You really hate Lasher before the book is over. He truly is an evil being caring only for what More...
Aug 15, 2011
Shelley
rated it:
After experiencing the density and depth of "The Witching Hour", I had very high expectations for "Lasher", which were not entirely met, hence the 3 vs. 4 stars. This is still a wonderfully written book with detailed characters. I'm impressed by Rice's ability to bring so many varied personalities to life in one series. I'm not thrilled with the ending of the book, even though I had come to despise Lasher. Much of the way his story played out was just not what I expected. Per
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Mar 08, 2011
Emily
rated it:
Though not as compelling as its prequel, Lasher is an entertaining read. Again shifting back and forth from past to present, Lasher tells his own story, Julian tells his, and we meet the enchanting present-day Mona. While in "The Witching Hour" the method of telling about past events was unique, the historical documents of the Talamasca, in "Lasher" we are told about the past in narrative fashion from the ghost of Julien, as well as Lasher himself. It's a perfectly acceptable
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Apr 09, 2010
Gabriel
rated it:
Within the first hundred pages, you know if you are willing to read the rest of this book. You know that you have entered a whole new realm, one that is much removed from the characters and love and themes and hopes of The Witching Hour. Within those hundred pages, you begin to feel the darkness seeping out of each printed word, flowing over your hands and onto your lap. Whether you embrace this change or not determines whether you finish this book or not.
I gave it a chance.
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I gave it a chance.
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Mar 01, 2011
Elizabeth
rated it:
After reading the Witching Hour, I was prepared to be highly let down by this book. I was pleasantly surprised after I got through the first few chapters and found it hard to put the book down.
Some sections of the book I found more exciting than others. Like the Witching Hour, there was several sections of background. While interesting at times, I feel that some of the description was needlessly long. This was especially true when it came to Lasher's story, it felt like the background des More...
Some sections of the book I found more exciting than others. Like the Witching Hour, there was several sections of background. While interesting at times, I feel that some of the description was needlessly long. This was especially true when it came to Lasher's story, it felt like the background des More...
Mar 04, 2010
Paul
rated it:
I enjoyed this book quite a bit. It was very Anne Rice in her style of a roller coaster story-telling. Her plots always take you up and down, up and down. Just when you seem to reach the point of skim reading to get past all the details, you find yourself climbing back up that page turning roller coaster again. This book continues to add even greater insight and detail into the history of the Mayfair Witches, and even more so, Lasher (as the book is so appropriately titled). I found it not as en
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Jan 18, 2009
Monique
rated it:
Okay so Book Two on the Mayfair witches and I must say it was pretty good..the story continues where the last one left off with the mysterious birth and disappearance of a strong Mayfair witch and all the complications that come with it..you get the story from the beginning of this mysterious creature, insight into the witches and why they are in fact so different and a surprise ending that makes you yearn for book three..overall all this trilogy is hard to read with its descriptions, history an
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Jan 01, 2011
Imgnepc
rated it: 
LONG AND BORING. On average Anne Rice's books take me about a week to read. I have been working on for what? Four months now? I just couldn't bring myself to pick it up. When I did I spent the whole time struggling through page after page, waiting for the end of each chapter. The stories told within the story were incredibly lengthy, drawn out, ridiculous. I found myself going against my usual instincts and actually skimming the overly descriptive, ridiculously details sections of the book, and
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Jan 22, 2008
Elisa
rated it:
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
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Jan 08, 2012
Jason
rated it:
This is another book I read years ago. I vaguely remember the details but the major parts of the story are eternally fresh. Lasher was a dick, Rowan was a victim of her own weakness, Michael was a great protagonist and Mona (I think her name was Mona) was, and remains, the most awkward sexually infused character ever (talk about a pedophiles dream). Regardless, Lasher is one of Rice's best works to date. 4/5 stars for being a great read and reason to appreciate To Catch A Predator. (Sorry Mike)
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Apr 29, 2007
Joanne
rated it:
This book was weaker than its predecessor (The Witching Hour), and was a bit of a dissapointment. It continues the story line and explains what happens to Lasher and to the Mayfair family, and also explaind what Lasher actually IS. So I DO recommend it for whomever read and fell in the spell of the first book, because it answers a lot of questions.
I liked this book much more when I first read it, but now, on a second reading, it doesn't live up to my expectations. Somehow, it does no More...
I liked this book much more when I first read it, but now, on a second reading, it doesn't live up to my expectations. Somehow, it does no More...
Sep 10, 2010
Dizzy Squid
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Dec 17, 2009
Israel
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Anne Rice retoma el camino que abriera ya en La Hora de las Brujas con dos protagonistas de excepción: Rowan Mayfair, la hermosa y brillante reina del aquelarre; y Lasher, el demonio de oscuro atractivo al que ella encuentra irresistible y de cuyo hechizo pretende huir.
Ciertamente una digna secuela que se desarrolla en torno a la historia de Lasher, el espíritu que ha perseguido y ayudado a las brujas Mayfair.
Anne hace a Lasher un mounstruo, un amante, un farsante, un pe More...
Ciertamente una digna secuela que se desarrolla en torno a la historia de Lasher, el espíritu que ha perseguido y ayudado a las brujas Mayfair.
Anne hace a Lasher un mounstruo, un amante, un farsante, un pe More...
Aug 04, 2008
veronica
rated it:
I hated this book. I gave it 3 stars in reverence of it being the sequel to "The Witching Hour" which I loved. I'm not generally a squeamish reader, but this one took it too far. The overwhelming and almost venerated abundance of incest and borderline pedophilia, the incredibly disturbing attitude toward rape, the lack of interest in coherence in plot... these all added up to a huge mess that I couldn't wait to put down. Rowan and Lasher explore their complicated relationship through a
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Aug 24, 2011
Jolie
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I liked the tie in with the Boleyn history, particularly because it has not been that long since I read The Other Boleyn Girl. Anne Rice does a great job of giving history about her characters that allows the reader to better understand their motivations. She ties up all details very nicely. There is no moment where you think of something that was left hanging, which is amazing to me given the very detailed nature of her writing.
