Lasher

I'm a huge fan of Anne Rice, and loved The Witching Hour along with many of her other books, but for some reason had never gotten around to reading Lasher. When I first started it, I was fully absorbed. I love Rice's detailed and luscious writing style, and her ability to create fully fleshed-out, interesting characters. These are some of this book's best elements, along with a additions to the Mayfair history in the back stories of Julian and Evelyn, and new, engaging characters like Mona and Yuri. In pieces, this is a great book, but unfortunately, the parts never really come together. The pacing becomes awkward and slow, and the story's best characters don't get enough page time. The book took me forever to finish, because I would get bored, and after putting it down would not go back to it for several days. Most of all, the title character, Lasher, as he develops to show his true flaws, fostered a deep loathing in me, despite his sympathetic characteristics, and I became overly anxious for him to meet his end. When his back story is finally revealed, it should have been a dramatic moment, because his story is the great mystery that the saga of the Mayfair witches is founded on, but I found myself not caring at all.

I wish this was a better book since it has so many great elements, and the writing, as usual for Rice, is beautiful, but because of the poor pacing it was a rather tedious read.