Lives of the Mayfair Witches

The Lives of the Mayfair Witches is a trilogy of books written by Anne Rice, author of The Vampire Chronicles. The series centers around an old family of witches -- the Mayfairs -- and their involvement with a spirit called Lasher. The books are:


 * The Witching Hour (1990)
 * Lasher (1993)
 * Taltos (1994)

This series provides examples of:
"At that moment I wanted no more of life. I wanted no more of suffering ordeath, or of the best of intentions resulting in abominable ruin."
 * Big Screwed Up Family: The Mayfairs.
 * Body Surf: Lasher takes over Rowan's baby, turning it into a Taltos. He also temporarily borrowed Julien's body on several occasions.
 * Burn the Witch: People tried to do this to Suzanne Mayfair, only to have her sic Lasher on them. Janet, Ashlar's lover, is burned after she starts talking about the Taltos's old ways in front of the Christians.
 * Chained to A Bed: Rowan by Lasher to keep her from escaping.
 * Deal With the Devil: Lasher offered the Mayfair family wealth and power if they helped give him a new physical form.
 * Death By Childbirth: Most women suffer this after sleeping with a male Taltos. When Lasher attempts to create more of his race by raping other members of Rowan's familiy, they all miscarry and hemorrhage. Only Rowan survives, but she has to have a hysterectomy afterwards.
 * Despair Event Horizon: Ashlar after his decision to convert his people to Christianity led to them being mostly wiped out. Summed up thusly:


 * Drop the Hammer: Michael kills Lasher with a hammer.
 * A Fete Worse Than Death: The Talamasca pretend to hold a wake for Aaron in order to keep Tommy and Marklin from escaping so they can confront them with what they did.
 * Flash Back: Multiple times.
 * For Science: Stuart's reason for killing people and manipulating events to get Lasher for Tessa.
 * Heroic BSOD: Michael goes into a depression after Rowan leaves with Lasher, and it takes Mona sleeping with him to snap him out of it. Rowan goes into one of these between Lasher and Taltos after killing and burying Emaleth, her daughter by Lasher.
 * Hollywood Heart Attack: When Stuart pulls a gun on them, Rowan uses her powers to make him have a heart attack.
 * Incest Is Relative: The Mayfairs. Even Michael turns out to be descended from Julien by one of the maids.
 * It Got Worse: Most of Lasher's backstory.
 * Kissing Cousins: Mona Mayfair, who is determined to sleep with all her male cousins.
 * Last of His Kind: Ashlar, until he finds out about Morrigan.
 * Living MacGuffin: Tessa, and later, Morrigan.
 * A Million Is a Statistic: The deaths of the Taltos.
 * The Nose Knows: When Rowan and Michael come back from meeting with Lasher, Morrigan smells his scent on them, recognizes it as another Taltos, and goes nuts. When Lasher comes to visit, wondering why they haven't called, they scent each other, and end up running off together.
 * Older Than They Look: The Taltos, who remain young and beautiful as long as they live.
 * Psychic Powers: Michael temporarily has psychometry after he nearly drowns, but quickly gets annoyed by people asking him to touch things. He loses this ability when Lasher tries to kill him.
 * Rapid Aging: A newborn Taltos grows to the size of an adult in a matter of hours.
 * Reincarnation: Stuart Gordon believed that Tessa was remembering things from past lives, not considering the possibility that she saw them first hand.
 * Sealed Room in The Middle of Nowhere: Stuart's two followers, Marklin and Tommy, end up trapped in one of these for betraying the Talamasca.
 * Stalker With a Test Tube: Stuart, who wants to see a Taltos birth for himself.
 * Switching POV: Several times.
 * Teen Pregnancy: Mona ends up pregnant by Michael, and gives birth to a Taltos daughter that she names Morrigan.
 * The Woobie: Michael cannot seem to hang onto his wife, what with all her cheating on him and running off and flirting with mighty supernatural beings like Lasher and later, Lestat.
 * White Haired Pretty Girl / White Haired Pretty Boy: All Taltos end up like this when they get sufficiently old enough.
 * Witch Species: The Mayfair witches