The Witching Hour

Anne Rice is a wonderful poet disguised as a novelist who creates dreamy and eerie landscapes in this book. She paints backdrops of multiple settings and weaves those landscapes with the mood of her characters: modern and bustling San Francisco to mysterious and moody New Orleans.

The plot involves an analytical science girl who is suddenly immersed in a mysterious past that includes witches and other supernatural beings. It explores the roots of societal misogyny by recapping the history of the Mayfair clan and an unleashed demon spirit that haunts the family, all with a romance lurking in the subplot.… show more.

I love this book because it is about a family of witches, one of my favorite paranormal subjects, originating in old New Orleans, the creepiest, coolest city in America. Second, it is Anne Rice, my favorite author, bar none.

The protagonist, Rowan, is a doctor who learns that her superb medical skills are due in part to the supernatural abilities she has inherited from the Mayfair witches.

As a neuroanatomist, I can imagine what it would have been like if I had powers like telekinesis and clairvoyance and how that could have helped me in my brain mapping research as… show more.

So DARK. I love Anne Rice and her amazing mind when it comes to writing. Her blend of historical references and out-of-this-world plot development makes her books one of a kind. I love witches and anything to do with magic.

Her stories and series (Mayfair Witches) have me tied up in knots. Her work is the perfect blend of suspense, horror, beauty, and mystery. I was in complete suspense, needing to know what happened next. 

Anne Rice is a master of atmosphere, and the Mayfair Witches may be her greatest creation, in a sweeping saga of dread-inducing nights and unparalleled depravity.

Hypnotic echoes of the distant past converge upon a modern New Orleans, bringing with it keys to long-lost mysteries, seduction, and death. As magic whirls through this world of witchcraft and creatures shambling from the shadowy crypts of Rice’s imagination, a storm brews, propelling readers toward an explosive climax of unbridled passion and evil that could devour Rowan whole.

As one of my first introductions to what a Gothic novel can do incredibly well,… show more.

As much as I love The Vampire Chronicles, this is my favorite Anne Rice book. The home of the Mayfair Witches on First Street in New Orleans (Greek revival with Italianate elements) is my favorite haunted house ever; every time I read this book, I just want to move in. Come for the horny evil spirit and the murder and mayhem he inspires; stay to watch our heroine, Rowan Mayfair, spend obscene amounts of money restoring the gorgeous mansion he haunts. This is the first book in a series, and it establishes a lot of the world-building Rice used throughout… show more.

What can I say about Anne Rice that hasn’t already been said? She is the Queen of the genre, especially with how Gothic and historical her tales are. She always incorporates such rich descriptions and historical background that you fully immerse not only into the story, but in the world it is taking place in. In the case of this book you’re taken on a mesmerizing journey through New Orleans. A huge fan of the area, Anne Rice brings everything to life from the magnolias growing in the garden to the wrap-around porches. This story was a ghost/demon feature story,… show more.

This was the first dark fantasy novel I ever read on the matter of divine feminine power, and it remains by far the greatest. Dripping in lush, elegant prose, Anne Rice’s story of the haunted Mayfair family has never left my mind. Rice exposes the histories of thirteen incredible women, each haunted by a diabolical ghost who follows their bloodline through the centuries.  

You’ll need a month and an organization chart to ingest every detail, but you won’t regret getting lost in this magnum opus. The sequels are far more digestible and focused, but nowhere near as delicious as this… show more.