The Mayfair Witch Boom refers to a period of popularity and success for the novels written by American author Anne Rice, specifically the books focused on the Mayfair family witches. The boom can be traced back to the early 1990s when Rice released her novel "The Witching Hour" in 1990. The success of this book, which delved into the history and mythology of the Mayfair witches, set the stage for a series of sequels and spin-offs that captivated readers. The Mayfair witches were a prominent feature in Rice's popular Vampire Chronicles series, adding a supernatural and mystical element to an already established vampire mythology. With the publication of "The Witching Hour," the Mayfair witches received their own standalone narrative and became a fan favorite. The richly detailed world of the witches, filled with their unique powers, family secrets, and complex relationships, captured the imagination of readers and propelled the series to new heights of popularity.
The TV series showcases Rowan becoming aware of her powers but takes a sharp left and never manages to catch back up with the book, bolstered by the decision to combine Michael’s character with another character. Michael Curry is combined with Aaron Lightner, a Talamascan scholar assigned to monitor the Mayfair family. The producers combined these two characters into Ciprien Grieve (Tongayi Chirisa) who is just a tool for explaining Lasher’s exposition and not a fully-realized new addition. For the best of both characters, Ciprien is a Talamascan scholar assigned to watch the Mayfair family, who has Michael’s powers of clairvoyant touch. Whoop de do.
This is the kind of silly shit you can only hope for from Anne Rice, which is why trying to successfully adapt this story to TV was such a shot in the dark. He and Rowan become lovers and travel to Michael s childhood home of New Orleans, where Rowan knows she ll get more information on the mysterious being she sees in her dreams Lasher and learn more about her powers and her family.
The richly detailed world of the witches, filled with their unique powers, family secrets, and complex relationships, captured the imagination of readers and propelled the series to new heights of popularity. The Mayfair Witch Boom reached its peak with the release of "Lasher" in 1993, the second book in the Mayfair Witches series. This installment further expanded the mythology and introduced new characters, creating a sense of anticipation and excitement among fans.
The Disappointing Over-Simplification of Anne Rice’s The Mayfair Witches
If you were a teenage girl in the 90s, you were either a Vampire Girl, a Witch Girl, a Horse Girl, or you were popular. Suffice it to say, I’ve been wanting an adaptation of Anne Rice’s Lives of the Mayfair Witches trilogy since before I had a driver’s license. But even as a 90s weirdo tween, I still understood that the book was so long the story would be unadaptable.
Despite knowing better, I decided to watch the AMC series with optimism this past January, but Mayfair Witches was as disappointing as I expected. Everyone knows not to expect much from TV adaptations but slogging through the first season of Mayfair Witches still stung.
The first book of the Mayfair trilogy, The Witching Hour, clocks in at a hefty pre-internet attention span of 1,056 pages, and is at its core, three books in one. I was hoping the volume of source material alone would give producers the ability to start on the right foot and prevent what I’ve started calling The Bitchening—the current trend of turning powerful, complex women into magical girl bosses who just keep whining, infighting, and are easily manipulated away from their power by a man or a baby or both. It did not.
It’s hard to summarize a thousand-page book but like all Rice novels, after reading The Witching Hour, you feel steeped in the vivid history of the Mayfair family. Some of the fun of reading Anne Rice is just being pulled along on a journey that starts with a doctor in San Francisco and ends with the demon ghost of Anne Boleyn’s bastard son trying to knock up that doctor so he can become embodied after hundreds of years possessing the Mayfairs. That’s what Lasher is, by the way, the demon ghost reincarnation of a saint born to Anne Boleyn called a Taltos. He was born human, became a priest, and was killed during the Reformation, only to have his soul reawakened by Rowan’s ancestor, Suzanne. This is the kind of silly shit you can only hope for from Anne Rice, which is why trying to successfully adapt this story to TV was such a shot in the dark.
The Bitchening—the current trend of turning powerful, complex women into magical girl bosses who just keep whining, infighting, and are easily manipulated away from their power by a man or a baby.
The Witching Hour starts with neurosurgeon Rowan Mayfair discovering she has the power to kill or to heal with her mind. Rowan saves a man named Michael Curry from drowning, after which he discovers he has a type of touch-induced clairvoyance and can see the history of an object or person by touching them. He and Rowan become lovers and travel to Michael’s childhood home of New Orleans, where Rowan knows she’ll get more information on the mysterious being she sees in her dreams (Lasher) and learn more about her powers and her family.
The TV series showcases Rowan becoming aware of her powers but takes a sharp left and never manages to catch back up with the book, bolstered by the decision to combine Michael’s character with another character. Michael Curry is combined with Aaron Lightner, a Talamascan scholar assigned to monitor the Mayfair family. The producers combined these two characters into Ciprien Grieve (Tongayi Chirisa) who is just a tool for explaining Lasher’s exposition and not a fully-realized new addition. For the best of both characters, Ciprien is a Talamascan scholar assigned to watch the Mayfair family, who has Michael’s powers of clairvoyant touch. Whoop de do.
The whole show feels like a cash grab after the success of the adaptation of Interview With The Vampire. Most Rice fans know that the Vampire Chronicles eventually dovetail with the Mayfair trilogy when Rowan falls in love with Lestat in Blood Canticle, which is probably the only saving grace for Mayfair Witches at this point, with most viewers just waiting to see when the shows will cross over. The whole series seemed like they were just hoping proximity to other characters in the Rice universe would be enough, which it obviously was since it was renewed for a second season. It was simply too much story to cram into 8 episodes.
Instead of using the literal hundreds of pages of material at their disposal, they created something uncomfortable and hard to watch, that left me feeling like I got suckered into reading a colleague’s fanfiction mashup. I got weird Outlander vibes from the flashback scenes. Even though Lasher’s (Jack Houston) human origins were in Scotland, the flashbacks felt like they belonged in another show altogether. What the show lacked most was the almost campy Southern Gothic Anne Rice atmosphere. Instead, Lasher is dressed like a cocaine kingpin and the emerald pendant that links Lasher to Rowan has an Etsy Steampunk store vibe that ups the cash grab factor. They tried to harken back to other productions in the Rice universe in episode 5, “The Thrall,” where Ciprien, in a fugue state, has a vision of a previous Talamascan scholar annoyingly named Stuart Townsend. This is a forced cheeky connection to the 2002 film Queen of the Damned, where Lestat was tepidly played by Stuart Townsend. Womp womp. Hearing “Oh, you’re Stuart Townsend” was the only thing that made me look up from my phone that episode.
The crux of the Mayfair’s story and relationship with the Taltos is bound up in Lasher’s generational manipulation of the family, their wealth, and their powers until the thirteenth generation when a more powerful witch, Rowan (Alexandra Daddario) will be able to carry a magical fetus strong enough to embody him. This is typical Anne Rice fare, but the producers wrote Rowan Mayfair with static aimless panic that ends with fierce echoes of Bella Swan. In deviating from the source material and creating new storylines, they lost a lot of opportunities.
Another new character Odette Grieve, (Keyara Milliner) Ciprien’s sister, was like an unfired Checkov’s gun. Odette is a gestational surrogate and I assumed she’d have a role here, that Lasher or another Taltos would try to become embodied using her fetus, and body horror would ensue. Were producers trying to normalize surrogacy or did they just forget they started a certain storyline for her character? When producers kind of bumble around inclusivity and come at it sideways it comes off disingenuous and very weird, especially with the heavy amount of fertility/pregnancy conversation they put into the storyline. Even if they went off book, they missed the opportunity to parallel that with the witch hunters they created: white Christian men aimed at taking power away from the Mayfair women and women in general. If showrunners couldn’t stick to the original plot, why did they create so many loose thread characters they couldn't follow up on?
The whole thing was a disappointing mess and I should have known better than to get my hopes up. Anne Rice is simultaneously so simple to adapt while also extremely difficult to get right, so entrenched is the readership and fandom. To watch an Anne Rice adaptation is to be so angry you can’t even see your TV because you’re throwing shit at it. So yes, obviously, I’ll be watching season two.
Get The Witching Hour at Bookshop or Amazon
Rice’s tale is a very long book that shifts between modern times (for when the book was written, 1990) and the 300 years leading up to the current events. The switching time frames is an interesting way for Rice to get us invested in Rowan, the current Mayfair witch, while simultaneously giving us all the information we need to process what is happening to Rowan and her lover, Michael, in the present.
Rice continued to explore the Mayfair witches in subsequent books, including "Taltos" in 1994, which concluded the trilogy. During the Mayfair Witch Boom, fans eagerly awaited each new installment in the series, craving more glimpses into the lives of the Mayfair witches and their intertwined destinies. The success of the books inspired readers to delve deeper into the lore and inspired discussions and analyses of the complex themes and characters presented in the series. However, like any boom, the Mayfair Witch Boom eventually faded. Anne Rice shifted her focus to other projects and the popularity of the Mayfair witches waned over time. Nevertheless, the impact of the Mayfair Witch Boom can still be felt in the literary world today, as the series continues to have a devoted following and remains an influential part of contemporary fantasy literature..
Reviews for "The Escapist Appeal of Mayfair Witches: Why Readers Are Drawn to Their World"
- Jane Smith - 2 out of 5 stars - I found the Mayfair Witch Boom to be overly complex and confusing. The multiple storylines and plethora of characters made it difficult to keep track of what was happening. Additionally, I felt that the pacing was extremely slow and the narrative dragged on for far too long. The excessive detail and flowery language added to the overall sense of confusion and made it difficult for me to connect with the story or its characters.
- John Doe - 1 out of 5 stars - As a fan of Anne Rice, I was sorely disappointed with the Mayfair Witch Boom. The story lacked the depth and elegance that I have come to expect from her novels. The characters were uninteresting and lacked development, making it difficult for me to care about their fates. Additionally, the plot was convoluted and meandering, leaving me feeling unsatisfied and unengaged. Overall, I found the Mayfair Witch Boom to be a significant letdown and not up to the standards set by Anne Rice's other works.
- Sarah Thompson - 2 out of 5 stars - I found the Mayfair Witch Boom to be a chore to read. The overly descriptive writing style was overwhelming and made it difficult for me to fully immerse myself in the story. Additionally, the excessive focus on the history and genealogy of the Mayfair family felt unnecessary and took away from the main plot. While there were some interesting elements and potential, I ultimately found the overall execution to be lacking and left me feeling underwhelmed.