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. ( )

Very enjoyable read. I admit that I liked this better than The Witching Hour. Even though there was a lot of history related in book #1, I think book #2, Lasher, builds a firmer foundation with the pasts of Julien and Lasher being added to the story. ( )

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. ( )

Very Good ( )

Nope, nope, nope.

I ventured into LASHER because I was curious about Rowan's continuing story, but what I got here is lot of really sketchy non-consensual sex and tedious backstory and this book didn't pay out for me in all the worst ways. I didn't like the tone of the book or the way it was written or the direction of the plot and I didn't care about any of the characters.

While this series may entice some, I am beyond disappointed, personally. And I know what I read here is not atypical of Rice's writing, so honestly, I don't know what I was expecting. What I do know is that I'm longer curious in the least about the Mayfair witches and I'm done.

For a more detailed review of LASHER, as well as other reviews and bookish content, please visit The Literary Phoenix. ( )