The Witching Hour
by Anne Rice
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 5309)
Read in November, 2007
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 the pages....more
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 the pages....more
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Read in January, 1994
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, exc...more
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Read in January, 1991
recommends it for:
hated it!
Major spoiler alert in this review. Spoiler warning!
I had no problem with all the exposition, backstory, and dysfunctional relationships surrounding the Mayfair family. They are aware, reasoning and consenting adults, or at least precocious teenagers. Bring on the promiscuity, the incest, the ghost sex, whatever!
No, what made me hate this book and throw it across the room, and give it away to a second-hand bookstore, was the ending. Rowan keeps telling us she is strong, she has lots of pow...more
I had no problem with all the exposition, backstory, and dysfunctional relationships surrounding the Mayfair family. They are aware, reasoning and consenting adults, or at least precocious teenagers. Bring on the promiscuity, the incest, the ghost sex, whatever!
No, what made me hate this book and throw it across the room, and give it away to a second-hand bookstore, was the ending. Rowan keeps telling us she is strong, she has lots of pow...more
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Read in May, 2008
recommends it for:
supernatural romance fans
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
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Read in January, 2000
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...more
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In her book "The witchhing hour", which is the first of the trilogy on the Mayfair withches, Ann Rice does an excellent job. I first read this book about 6 years ago, and I just read it again. And again, it kept me "glued" to the pages, unable to put it down.
The story takes place in modern times, describing a large family in New Orleans, with a strange legacy and a strange "ritual" in designing the heiress: it has to be a girl, and she has to see "the man&qu...more
The story takes place in modern times, describing a large family in New Orleans, with a strange legacy and a strange "ritual" in designing the heiress: it has to be a girl, and she has to see "the man&qu...more
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My second favourite book of all time. This is the beginning in the long series of the Lives of the Mayfair Witches, by Anne Rice.
Continuing in Lasher, Taltos, and then converging with the Vampire series, this story tells of the Mayfair witches, more specifically, Rowan who has a most disturbing relationship with a devil-like character, Lasher.
This was written before Anne Rice became born again and started writing Christian themed literature, and represents some of her best writing.
Al...more
Continuing in Lasher, Taltos, and then converging with the Vampire series, this story tells of the Mayfair witches, more specifically, Rowan who has a most disturbing relationship with a devil-like character, Lasher.
This was written before Anne Rice became born again and started writing Christian themed literature, and represents some of her best writing.
Al...more
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I will nerd up and admit that I love Ann Rice. Though sometimes over the top (especially with Lestat, but that is kind of his thing), Rice is a good writer with a great sense of history and of weaving a story through different locations and characters. This is probably my favorite of her books, and I think I may like it for the reasons that others may cite for not enjoying the book. The quarter book description of the lives of all of the Mayfair witches, and each of their relationships with L...more
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Loved Rice's vampire series a lot, and as you get on in the series, they begin to intersect and cross with the stories of a number of witches, which get their own stories told in the Witching Hour. So, for the sake of completeness, I read the first of the trilogy dealing with the Mayfair Witches.
I liked the vampires better. The same good writing style, if maybe perhaps rather too long winded at some points, but it just wasn't as compelling as her vampire stories, I found. It's not far into t...more
I liked the vampires better. The same good writing style, if maybe perhaps rather too long winded at some points, but it just wasn't as compelling as her vampire stories, I found. It's not far into t...more
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Read in January, 2000
I don't normally like vampire or witch books. A co-worker kept insisting that I read this book and I finally gave in and wasn't sorry.
Rowan Mayfair, a brilliant California neurosurgeon who was taken from her mother at birth and raised by an aunt in California, does not know that there has been a powerful witch in her family in each generation for the past five centuries. She returns to the family's antebellum mansion in New Orleans after bringing back Michael Curry from the dead. He, too, ha...more
Rowan Mayfair, a brilliant California neurosurgeon who was taken from her mother at birth and raised by an aunt in California, does not know that there has been a powerful witch in her family in each generation for the past five centuries. She returns to the family's antebellum mansion in New Orleans after bringing back Michael Curry from the dead. He, too, ha...more
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This is the first non-Vampire Chronicles book I've read by Rice and I must admit, the feel is very different. The story telling is still the same, she creates very vivid, detailed worlds and she still just as wordy and takes just as long to tell her story (this book is over 1,000 pages long). However, I didn't think this book worked as well for her. Without the cold nonchalance of the vampires (namely Lestat), the terrible things that happen to the "people" in this book are horrifyi...more
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Read in April, 1991
I didn't know anything about Anne Rice and had never heard of her when I saw this book. I picked it up and read the book jacket and thought that it sounded interesting. I loved it. I thought that the history of the Mayfairs was amazing and I couldn't put it down. There is a lot of truth in this book that I think that I needed to understand. The ending was awful , especially since Lasher wasn't out yet and I just had to wonder about the unresolved state of things. Other people that I know w...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in January, 2000
recommends it for:
Anyone who enjoys history, family trees and witchcraft
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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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 ...more
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Read in February, 2001
recommends it for:
Southerners
Rice's style is one you have to warm into - a little too slow paced for a big city sprinter...but perfect for that Southerner in you. She writes with a flourish that is like slowly drifting off to sleep in a warm candle lit bubble bath - so you don't even notice when the horror starts to set in. This book starts a the saga of the Mayfair Witches - a family line blessed & cursed with by the dark arts; and that has times both with the spirit world and the Talamasca (from the Vampyre series)....more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in January, 2008
Whoa. I have read Interview with a Vampire, which was pretty good. Then I tried reading Lestat and never really got into it...but let me tell you. This book got me HOOKED. It is such a page turner, from page 1! I am pretty sensitive to scary things and horror and don't much like to be disturbed by a book. And although this book is full of murder, incest, and the presence of the devil...it is so engrossing. Not scary but FASCINATING. I have not finished it yet so I am hoping it stays good for the...more
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Read in April, 2008
recommends it for:
YES!
I finally finished this book and I loved it! I wasn't particularly happy w/ the ending but I realized the story needed to end this way so that it could continue in book 2. I love her descriptive writing, how she made the Mayfairs come to life and their lives seemed so extravagant (thanks to Lasher ;-) )and mysterious. I was pulled into the story from the beginning and couldn't wait to finish it.I didn't realize that this was a trilogy and I read Taltos first, so now I have to read Lasher and re...more
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Read in November, 2007
This is the second time that I have read this book. I first read it when I lived abroad. I was desperate to find something to read in English and the only thing that I could find was this book by Anne Rice. Needless to say... I was totally hooked.
Ok ~ maybe I coulda done without say 200 pages of descrptive text about restoration of the First Street mansion with lttle else happening in the plot but.. and big but... the almost ending, the climax of this particular novel, is amazing. Even the ...more
Ok ~ maybe I coulda done without say 200 pages of descrptive text about restoration of the First Street mansion with lttle else happening in the plot but.. and big but... the almost ending, the climax of this particular novel, is amazing. Even the ...more
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I have to say that, while I am a real fan of Rice's Vampire Chronicles, I do not enjoy her Mayfair Witches series. I can't get into them as well--the characters aren't as captivating, nor do they latch onto your heart quite as tightly. I especially found Rowan Mayfair a difficult character to enjoy--I found her very petty and shallow.
The book, though, is still written in Anne Rice's beautiful (at least, back in the day when she wrote this book and IwtV) and descriptive southern prose...s...more
The book, though, is still written in Anne Rice's beautiful (at least, back in the day when she wrote this book and IwtV) and descriptive southern prose...s...more
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Read in January, 2001
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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