The Witching Hour

The Witching Hour by Anne Rice is an epic novel. At over 1,000 pages it is quite an undertaking, but worth the effort. It is the first in the Mayfair Witches trilogy. And while I am not sure if I will continue the series, The Witching Hour was an engaging read.

This book follows the history of the Mayfair family. This family is rich in history and run by powerful women, who all happen to have supernatural powers. In each generation there is one woman who continues the legacy. That legacy includes riches beyond your wildest imagination, and a demon who either thrills that particular witch or drives her crazy. The story switches from centuries ago into the present day rather fluidly and follows the history of this family from the 1600s into present day.

The current holder of the legacy doesn't even know it exists. Having been taken from her mother as an infant, in an attempt to break the cycle with the demon that alternatively haunts and helps this family, she has lived on the other side of the country and knows nothing of her families history. The reader learns a lot about the family through an organization that follows those with supernatural powers in an effort to learn more about the supernatural and help those with powers hone their particular skills and use them for good. The story takes a while to unfold into present day and the current Mayfair witch, described as the most powerful yet.

As I read this book, while it was entertaining, it was also disturbing. The Mayfair family is rife with incest (in an effort to create even more powerful witches). I found the family tree hard to follow. However the book is full of suspense, and the storyline is richly colorful. I was a little disappointed with the end of the book, which I felt did not resolve the story. But I guess in a trilogy, you have to keep your reader hooked for the next installment. I am very curious to see how the storyline played out. But as this book took me six weeks to read, it may be a while before I pick up the next volume.

Happy Reading!