This is the worst book I have ever read. If you are considering reading this book, please do not read it. I will never ever get those hours of my life back again- please do not waste yours! I would honestly rather gouge my own eyes out with a rusty fork than read this again. My husband read the book before me, hated it, but mischievously encouraged me to read it even though he knew I would hate it, as some sort of psychological test of endurance. I have never forgiven him for this.If you think t...

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.

My hatred of this book knows no bounds.

Having just finished 'The Witching Hour' I found myself still liking the novel, but it didn't impact me the way it did the first time I read it. I even understood the extensive details and character development for its set-up to the series. In the case of this second book of the series, not so much. This was detail and development overload. I can only imagine what it would be like to see a ghost, or to actually hear one speak, but what I can't seriously imagine is someone nonchalantly sitting by...

I truly enjoyed reading this! Anne Rice's writing is simply exquisite. The amount of detail in this book is tremendous. The characters are stunningly written. Some parts of this book are really slow moving but I didn't really mind it. I felt like it was all necessary in order to get a true sense of all the emotions that pour out of this book. Anne Rice's descriptions and world building are very intricate which is what makes this such a fun book to read. I thought this book worked well as the seq...

A saga of witchcraft.Mesmerizing, sensual, and deliciously gothic, Anne Rice created her queendom with her lush prose.After the enthralling introduction of the witching hour, the book Lasher is another immersive read. The story of Julian, the birth of Lasher, the name of Taltos…After the brewing storm of darkness, the Truth was finally being uncovered. Inspired by Hungarian mythology, Anne Rice knew how to weave everything together to make you feel the chill of the unthinkable horror.I was halfw...

Can't rate this one, since I'm still weirded out I buddy-read it with my father. *ahem* Lots of sex in this one. On to Taltos. ALONE this time!

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

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 Talamasca i...

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...

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. I allowed the author...

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...

Oh Anne, I wanted to love your Mayfair witches so very much but I just can't.We pick up right where The Witching Hour left us. Running after Rowan and piecing together an extencive family history from every possible angle.On and on we trudge, listening to Julian then Little Mona even Lasher himself. So many stories about the same events from different points of view. I almost shelved this as DNF when reading about Mona. I didn't finnish Lolita because I don't like reading about pre teen (yes she...

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...

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 re-read it and found Lash...

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 an almost extinct super-human race who l...

!!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 fusion of dis...

The follow-up to The Witching Hour, 1993’s Lasher, continues the masterful world-building of that precious volume while fully standing on its own: it is a cold, horrifying treat filled to the brim with Anne Rice’s signature gothic, sensual overtones. The daemon that is Lasher — He who has bestowed wealth and punishment upon the Mayfair clan for centuries — wants nothing more than to reproduce, but it has been a challenge. In Rowan, the most powerful Mayfair witch yet and current keeper of the an...

The second in the series of Mayfair Witches, this is another solid offering from Gothic Mistress Anne Rice. There are many characters and personalities that make up the charismatic and trouble Mayfair family - sometimes too many to keep them all straight, but each of the family members is fully fleshed out - there are no throw-aways. A chilling, terrifying and at times erotic tale of the lust for revenge, power, and above all - love.

My favorite demon next to Captain Howdy. Looking forward to book three.