Lasher

Written by Anne Rice

Narrated by Kate Reading

From the day her first Vampire Chronicle was published, critics and readers--readers by the hundreds of thousands--have been mesmerized by the writings of Anne Rice.  And with the publication of The Witching Hour, she created for us yet another world and legend, and both the chorus of praise and the multitudes of her readers once more increased.

Now, Anne Rice brings us again--even more magically--into the midst of the dynasty of witches she introduced in The Witching Hour.

At the center:  the brilliant an beautiful Rowan Mayfair, queen of the coven, and Lasher, the darkly compelling demon whom she finds irresistible and from whose evil spell and vision she must now flee.  She takes with her their terrifying and exquisite child, one of "a brood of children born knowing, able to stand and talk on the first day."

Rowan's attempt to escape Lasher and his pursuit of her and their child are at the heart of this extraordinary saga.  It is a novel that moves around the globe, backward and forward through time, and between the human and demonic worlds.  Its many voices--of women, of men, of demons and angels, present and past--haunt and enchant us.  With a dreamlike power, the novel draws us through twilight paths, telling a chillingly hypnotic story of occult and spiritual aspirations and passion.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
• Release date: Nov 10, 2015
• ISBN: 9780147525376

Anne Rice

One of America's most read and celebrated authors, Anne Rice is known for weaving the visible and supernatural worlds together in epic stories that both entertain and challenge readers. She has written over thirty novels and one autobiography. Her books are rich tapestries of history, believe, philosophy, religion, and compelling charactrs that examine and extend our physical world beyond the limits we perceive. She lives and works in California.

Reviews for Lasher

[lostinmn1990 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Great narrator... Great plot and really cool blend of magic and romance. Didn't love the loads of incest or the glamorizing the sex appeal of a 13 year old through the eyes of the 50 year old "hero" mc.. It's so well written, that I felt dirty for accepting the justifications and still relating to the mc after he jumped from the moral high ground diving board, straight into the pool of pedophile sex scenes.. graphic scenes... Idk I wish Mona was a bit older..

[quickmind · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

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 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.

[equestrienne · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

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.

[carl_alves_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

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 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

[sweetzombieducky · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

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.

[jenladuca · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Mayfair Witches is by far my favorite Anne Rice series! Lasher, book #2 in this series is really, really good. I zipped right through it and spent several sleepless nights reading cause I just had to find out how it ended. The ONLY reason I didn't give it 5 stars was because nothing, in my eyes, can compare to Mrs. Rices's, The Witching Hour and I must leave that one at the top :)

[aliceanna-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Much more enjoyable than The Witching Hour. It really moved fast except for Lasher's story toward the end of the book. It took me days to wade through that part and brought the narrative to a screeching halt. She should have interspersed his story a little at a time rather than stopping the story and switching gears so abruptly.

[kraysaulis · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

LONG AND BORING. On average Anne Rice's books take me about a week to read. I have been working on for what? Four months now? I just couldn't bring myself to pick it up. When I did I spent the whole time struggling through page after page, waiting for the end of each chapter. The stories told within the story were incredibly lengthy, drawn out, ridiculous. I found myself going against my usual instincts and actually skimming the overly descriptive, ridiculously details sections of the book, and still following the predictable story line without a struggle. TOO MUCH. There is just too much in this book. Too many story lines. Too much incest. Too many paragraphs that simply seemed to restate the paragraph before it. Too much. I remain an Anne Rice fan, however this is not her best work. In fact, this is pretty much the worst Anne Rice book I have ever read. I will likely read "Taltos", simply because I can't read only a portion of a series... but I am not looking forward to it. After "The Witching Hour" I was hoping beyond hope that since so much history was laid out in that book, maybe this book would have the action and excitement I was looking for. Yet, just like "The Witching Hour" it was simply more history... and more history... And finally I close this book... and move on to something I hope will prove to be more interesting!

[aketzle · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Honestly got bored with this. Loved her vamp series, but not as into this one. I was 35 pages from the end & didn't care enough to finish it. Too much other more interesting stuff to read. Like Sex at Dawn, which I'm reading now & am totally enthralled by.

[meggiemoo0 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Since I was a big fan of The Witching Hour, I picked up the sequel thinking it would continue the provocative story. In a way, it did, but it also (as Anne Rice often does) goes back in time. I wasn't really convinced by how far back she went, into the memories of the early Lasher being a taltos in the 13th century. The history Julien told was boring compared to the Mayfair File from the first book. The book overall didn't have the same feeling as the first, probably because it wasn't focused on Rowan. I didn't like Mona very much, so seeing things with a focus on her was not as exciting. But, the ending was so conclusive I wass surprised and satisfied. It was worth it to finish the book all the way through for it. I also liked the incorporation of the creepy poem. The secret behing the Talamasca was fascinating as well, with such a gothic overtone that is usually in Anne Rice's vampire novels.

[johnmischief · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Whilst i agree that this isn't as good as The Witching Hour, i would also have to say it is a lot better than some of the reviews below would have you believe.
In essence Lasher is the second half of the same story begun in the previous book and completes the story arc well (there is Taltos to complete the trilogy but Lasher is the true ending to this particular story).
Where it falls down however is in repeating Mayfair history told already in the first book. Also it lacks some of the passion.
However we get to delve deeper into Julien's history and discover more on Lasher's origins.
Overall an excellent book which you must read if you enjoyed the first.

[natalie220 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is NOT a Vampire story it is a continuance of The Witching Hour. Although it is not as good as the first Mayfair family book, it is interesting. It introduces a lot of new interesting Mayfair characters and you get to know Lasher and Julien on a deeper level. The only thing I didn't like was so much talk of thirteen year old's having sex or being sexually abused by their family members. Other than that the book is a must, if you want to find out what happens to Lasher and the Mayfair Family.

[emscape · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Though not as compelling as it’s prequel, Lasher is an entertaining read. Again shifting back and forth from past to present, Lasher tells his own story, Julian tells his, and we meet the enchanting present-day Mona. While in “The Witching Hour” the method of telling about past events was unique, the historical documents of the Talamasca, in “Lasher” we are told about the past in narrative fashion from the ghost of Julien, as well as Lasher himself. It’s a perfectly acceptable convention, but not quite as unique. It was good to get more back-story, although Julien’s is more fill-in-the-blank as we know most of that from the first book.
What this volume does have over it’s predecessor is a much more satisfying ending, one I really didn’t see coming, considering the existence of a sequel.

[leore_joanne · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book was weaker than its predecessor (The Witching Hour), and was a bit of a dissapointment. It continues the story line and explains what happens to Lasher and to the Mayfair family, and also explaind what Lasher actually IS. So I DO recommend it for whomever read and fell in the spell of the first book, because it answers a lot of questions.

I liked this book much more when I first read it, but now, on a second reading, it doesn't live up to my expectations. Somehow, it does not have the magic and the feel of the first book. Also, all that weird incestuous sex, is starting to get a bit disturbing.

Another annoying point is, that Lasher has lost all his mysteriousness and became quite awful, while I liked his character a lot in the previous book, even when he was mean, I begun to hate him in this.

Rowan becomes a weak character as well, and Michael fares no better. The only two who bloom, are two new characters - thirteen year old Mona Mayfair, and Ancient Evelyn.

[thioviolight · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It took a while to really sink into the book, but when I did, I pretty much enjoyed it. While it's not quite as good as The Witching Hour, it was far from bad, for me.

[corgidog2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Anne Rice writes about the New Orleans witches as if she knows them personnaly. I guess she does, actually, having written so many books about them.

[sdtaylor555 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A bit disappointing after the masterpiece that was the Witching Hour, but pretty good really. I did enjoy it.

[vampyredhead · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The 2nd book in the lives of the Mayfair witches. This isn't a good as the first, but still worth reading. It's scary and sensual.

[alexthehunn · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

tedious, overly self-absorbed.