Book Review: Anne Rice – 'Lasher'

ANNE RICE 

'Lasher' 

ALFRED A. KNOPF 

Once upon a time, there was a woman who blew my brains out.

Readers expect that a book series gets better with each book they read, that the universe reinvents itself buts keeps the magic that made them fall in love in the first place, making it a new trip in an bigger travel through the story. And it happened in 'Lasher', by Anne Rice, the second instalment in Lives of the Mayfair Witches.

One may think that horror books could only be gruesome, creepy and send shivers down the spine. Rice proves to do much more than that by creating a dark, seductive world where souls never truly die and where passion never truly burns out, and mixes it all with the classic elements we want to find a good horror novel.

Each of the characters presented in 'Lasher' has a voice on its own, a different personality and add their unique enchant to the overall plot, which, I have to say it, I’m not sure if I love it or hate it. There were so many emotions at the same time, all of them so intensive that the whole reading process becomes organic, very natural.

To see many of the different loose threads the first book left being tied up and having a meaning and purpose in this one is perhaps the best thing about it, but the promise of new discoveries in the third one could be even better. Risky thing to do, but if two books have already been this good, I’ll keep my own doubts under control before saying anything else.

However, it bothered me more than once the large amount of pages and endlessly long scenes that cross this book that focus on insignificant details, challenging the reader to keep on the pages. It took me out of the story and made it hard for me to keep an eye on it, but the plot’s complexity made it worth it.

The lack of actual horror, besides the general decadent, dark idea that filled even the most insignificant of scenes, started to become and issue until a certain chapter, where all religion, all faith and all belief was corrupted. Short, quick, but intense, not counting with the later murdering of certain character I couldn’t stand any longer. Rice knows how to make the reader feel what she wants them to.

I’ll lie if I said I’m not scared and afraid of what could happen next, but also eager to see what happens next in such an interesting world Rice has created.

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