That part was a little too sordid for me. I think I would have been more impressed if Lasher treated them with kindness as children therefore encouraging loyalty. I don't think it is necessary to write about sexual encounters with children - I don't care if they are witches. I'm also a bit disturbed by Anne Rice's apparent obsession with kinky and illegal sex (with minors) It's an obvious theme in both books so far and would make me wary of leaving my children alone with her.

Way too much repetition from the first book. I liked hearing Lasher's story, Julien's story could have been pared down alot. I haven't read the Queen of the Damned yet, but my feeling was that this book was the filler book until she could come up with a plot for the third book. I guess it was important to develop the character of Lasher, but I think it could have been done effectively by just adding another chapter or two to the already long first book. It was almost like re-reading the first book and became quite tedious at times. I felt like the entire book was just two very long rehashings of the first story with a couple of blanks filled in. In the investigation, Lasher's origins are revealed, the new Taltos Emaleth returns, and the climax of death and life engulfs the family.īoy was this a letdown after reading The Witching Hour.

Michael's ghostly visiting from a long-dead Mayfair reveals the importance of destroying Lasher. Michael remains entwined in the Mayfair family and learns how he comes by his strange powers. The Mayfairs declare all-out war on Lasher and try to nurse Rowan back to heatlth. Rowan escapes and becomes comatose as her fully-grown Taltos daughter is born. Lasher seeks to reproduce his race in other women, but they cannot withstand it. Rowan and Lasher travel together to Houston and she becomes pregnant with another creature like him, a Taltos. Lasher, born from Rowan, is another species altogether and now in the corporeal body, represents an incalcuable threat to the Mayfairs. Mayfair women are dying from hemorrhages and a strange genetic anomaly has been found in Rowan and Michael. The Talamasca, documenters of paranormal activity, is on the hunt for the newly born Lasher.

Lives of the mayfair witches books