Author Anne Rice is a spinner of yarns, a creator or worlds. She had spun tales as diverse as those of vampires, witches, and mummies, along with several hardcore erotic novels and dramatic books, such as "Cry to Heaven" and "The Feast of All Saints". With that in mind, let's take a look at Rice's spawling, huge novel of witches and demons known as "The Witching Hour", which was published in 1990 to generally decent critic reviews and massive book sales. And all of that was well deserved, as I found the book to be thrilling, a tad overlong but that can be forgiven, and ...  Read the complete review

"The Witching Hour" takes us out of Anne Rice's familiar vampire world, but not very far. We are back in New Orleans, where the air seems to be full of exotic, slightly sickening perfumes, and strange things lurk on almost every corner. "The Witching Hour" is the first in a series - "Lasher" and "Taltos" follow it, although given the huge bulk of this book, you'd be forgiven for wondering if there is any more story to tell. This isn't an easy book to unravel - largely due to the blk and the unconventional family it centres on. At the heart of the tale are the mayfair witches - 13 generations of women ...  Read the complete review

Call me a mysoginistic, uncultured pig if you like, but I honestly think that Anne Rice's Witching Hour is a severe reminder of what happens when women and horror fall drunkenly into bed, clumsily fumbling around with each other before finally realising they never really liked each other in the first place. I know it's terribly old-fashioned, and possibly offensive, but I have never read a horror novel by a woman author that truly scared me. I have read a *lot* of horror books and, don't get me wrong, there's a heap of piss-poor male authors in the genre too. But I have yet to find an equal to the genius of the Stephen King's and the Clive ...  Read the complete review