Lasher

If you stripped down this novel and eliminated all of the extraneous parts to it (which means you would probably have to cut it in half), Lasher is a pretty good novel. The novel, about a demonic creature who haunts the females of the Mayfair witches in an attempt to have an offspring with them, now has a child with Rowan Mayfair, the matriarch of the Mayfair witches. This follows The Witching Hour in a long-winded saga that seems like it will never end.

The problem is that the novel is horribly overwritten with rambling narratives about the history of the Mayfairs and the Donnelaith clan from Scotland. There is so much material that doesn’t belong in this novel. It’s hard to even boil down what the actual story is at times. This is show more what has plagued Anne Rice’s writing since about her fifth novel. It seems as if she gets paid by the word at times. It’s still a solid novel that I would recommend if you like Rice’s work.

Carl Alves – author of Blood Street show less

This book is not for the faint of heart. There is so much questionable content in this book, mostly consisting of incest, rape, and pedophilia. The ending of the last book left a bad taste in my mouth and I wasn't sure if I was going to continue the series, even though I had a copy of this book and its sequel. But I decided to continue the series and use this as an entry in Reddit's r/fantasy book bingo for the Sequel card. Even though the first book was very messed up, Anne Rice wrote with such a richness of detail and worldbuilding, that I was drawn into the world and retained a lot of memories of the book and characters so even though I read this one a year later, I still knew all of the details. But so much of the content is show more revolting. I question the people who wrote blurbs for these books describing them as "steamy" or "sexy" because most of the sex involves incest, rape, or pedophilia. So, why did I read this? I wanted to see if there was an explanation for why these behaviors were normalized for these characters, and there was. Sort of. The magical being Lasher was subtly manipulating this family for countless generations to create right circumstances for his physical rebirth. I choose to believe that the characters were acted upon by forces they don't understand or even acknowledge to behave the way they did. And in that regard, I wanted to see where the story went. I was much happier with the ending of this book, but I'm still only rating it 2 stars because there was so much gross and wrong content to get through. show less

In my ongoing effort to get back into Anne Rice, I sat down and read LASHER, the second book in her Mayfair Witches trilogy, and another tome which has sat on my shelf more than a few years. Rice might be an acquired taste – for very good reasons – but I greatly admire her abilities as a story teller and a creator of compelling characters, mainly on the strength of her VAMPIRE CHRONICLES. Having read the first book in the trilogy, THE WITCHING HOUR, and not liking it quite as much as her vampire epics, I picked up LASHER with lower expectations. And I can honestly say that I was not disappointed.

To start off, at just over 600 pages, LASHER, is shorter than the over long THE WITCHING HOUR by a third, and that is a plus. This book show more centers on the missing Rowan Mayfair, her new husband Michael Curry, and the creature named Lasher, a demon bound to the wealthy Mayfair family of New Orleans for generations, ever since Scotland in the time of Queen Mary. The major portions of this book elaborates upon what we learned in THE WITCHING HOUR, mostly through Rice’s patented set piece where one character sits and listens to another tell a long tale, filled with much detail in the first person POV. Through multiple chapters, the spirit of Uncle Julian, the one male witch in the Mayfair line, tells Michael a story that stretches from ante bellum New Orleans to the 20th Century, which illuminates the family’s dark relationship with Lasher, even as it travels over ground already covered. Then Lasher himself, now flesh and blood again, tells his story, and we learn something of his true origin and nature, that he is a member of an ancient race called the Taltos that inhabited Scotland before the arrival of Christianity. Among their attributes is that they are born fully formed, with an overwhelming desire to mate, but that can only successfully happen with those of a certain genetic type, hence the long history of incest in the Mayfair line. This is where Rice’s talent really shines in her ability to recreate history in absorbing detail, especially in Lasher’s account of a Scotland in the time of Elisabeth the 1st and Mary Queen of Scots, and a country and culture torn apart by a civil war between Protestants and Catholics. The novel’s plot revolves around three entities – the Mayfair family, the Talemasca, and Lasher himself – and what their true motives might be. The novel introduces some new characters, such as Mona Mayfair, a precocious 13 year old designated as the new “witch,” and Ancient Evelyn, another one of the endless elderly Mayfairs who have seen much and knows more.

But the thing about LASHER that most reviewers mention, and what most readers had a problem with, is its sexual content, more to the point, its casual use of rape and underage sex. The worst case of this is when Mona has sex with Michael, who is described as being in his 40’s. It does not matter that he is not in his right mind, and that the girl is attempting to seduce him; this pushes a button with many people, and I don’t begrudge anyone their outrage. Even if, like me, you are willing roll with it for the sake of the story, this passage stops the book cold. As some others have noted, only an author as successful as Rice could have gotten by with this in the 90’s, and I don’t know if it would fly today. She does like her erotica; the inhuman Lasher is often described in words one would use for a lover. I think Rice is deliberately trying to shock people, but more than that, to make the reader feel as if the they have entered a world where the forbidden is commonplace, where the bonds of conventional morality do not hold, especially behind closed doors and in the dark of night, and in this, I think she succeeds.

The climax of LASHER does bring more of a sense of resolution than most second books in a trilogy; a plot thread that I thought would be left dangling for the next book appears to have been neatly snipped off. Yet there is a third book in the trilogy of the Mayfair Witches, titled TALTOS, and I do look forward to reading it just to see how Anne Rice wraps her saga of incest, rape, and ancient super humans. I’m predicting two characters will sit around while one tells the other a long story. show less

at 3/5 stars, Lasher is a sequel to the Witching Hour, which ended on a cliffhanger and left the reader wanting more. However, I found the whole premise of Lasher keeping Rowan prisoner (and tied down to the bed plenty of the time and leaving her alone, even being gone for so long that she actually soiled herself due to being unable to get off the bed and go to the toilet) A more realistic kidnapper/hostage situation could have been set up, especially because Lasher wants Rowan to help him restart the Taltos race, that IS asking a lot out of her and she should have been treated far better than this. I mean, really, that's not a good way to treat a woman.

I liked Lasher's backstory and how he came to serve Suzanne of the Mayfair and her show more descendants. So here in this book you have good parts and bad parts. Not Ms. Rice's best work, especially with what I mentioned above, but it IS a decent read, and a nice sequel to the Witching Hour as the past of the Mayfairs/Lasher/Taltos is explored a bit (but nowhere near as much as Witching Hour) I would have given this book a higher rating if not for the way Ms. Rice handled the hostage situation. show less

My overall opinion of the Mayfair witch trilogy is that "Witching Hour" is the best, and it is a minor downhill ride from there. I did enjoy this book, particularly Julien's tale that fills in the missing links from the first novel.

I liked the character of Lasher better in the first novel, when he was just a ghost on steroids. I find the whole concept of the Taltos to be intriguing in "Lasher" but it wears thin by the end of "Taltos".

I know some people would be deeply disturbed by the incest and sexually active thirteen year old girl in this book, but I don't let that stuff bug me when I read a work of literature.

I knoew I was done with this book in the first few chapters following the Mona/Michael thing. It wasn't that it was shocking, it's just that Mona is such an unlikable character. I was disgusted with Michael when he went back for seconds, not so much because she was a child but because I was wondering how he could be sexually attracted to something so irritating. Rowan's reaction was a gem, too.

Rice does get brownie points for the grotesque scenes of Rowan's captivity however.

Nope, nope, nope.

I ventured into LASHER because I was curious about Rowan's continuing story, but what I got here is lot of really sketchy non-consensual sex and tedious backstory and this book didn't pay out for me in all the worst ways. I didn't like the tone of the book or the way it was written or the direction of the plot and I didn't care about any of the characters.

While this series may entice some, I am beyond disappointed, personally. And I know what I read here is not atypical of Rice's writing, so honestly, I don't know what I was expecting. What I do know is that I'm longer curious in the least about the Mayfair witches and I'm done.

For a more detailed review of LASHER, as well as other reviews and bookish content, please show more visit The Literary Phoenix. show less