I Read and Possibly Liked Taltos by Anne Rice So You Don't Have To.

[@jeremywatson9129]

These books are so off the rails that they seem more fun to talk about than actually read.

[@tearsong8744]

I couldn't agree more.

[@thomasfranche6770]

I liked the Fontevrault Mayfairs and the sinking house. They used to kill walking babies in Saint-Domingue.

[@Nightbird1914]

I want to suggest Blackwood Farm by Anne Rice which brings Mona back into the story toward the end but I must warn you of sexual terror. I read it about 20 years ago and it seriously scared me! But I was drawn in and fascinated as well. Thank you so much for reading and sharing your thoughts on Taltos. I read all the books when they came out but had forgotten details. Mona’s time at the swamp mansion stuck with me. Walking babies! If I recall correctly Michael, a building contractor by trade, restored the house for Mona? Or it was discussed. *I have not read Blood Canticle. In its description Mona and Rowan are mentioned. Book 10 of 13 of the Vampire Chronicles. Blackwood Farm is the only one I’ve read in that series.

[@roseclarity1493]

Blood Canticle is good but Lestat... He's a bit weird in it.

[@markgreyson9531]

Thanks for the summary! Forever my hero for jumping on this rough trilogy so I didn't have to.

[@TheNaughtyLibrarian]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@shadowecdysis]

The Talamasca breeding branch just wanted to learn the history of the Taltos? Damn, some history nerds go hard.

[@DianeWilliams-c4e]

This isn’t a happy ending for humanity. Remember the last line from Evelyn’s poem in the book Lasher: “Else shall our kind reign no more.”

[@its-beady-eyes5120]

I haven't read this book but the formal word for the "body hole" you kept mentioning is an oubliette. I saw one at a creepy fortress when I visited Belgium.

[@zachbrehany2253]

To be honest, I can side with you on this. For me, what sold me on it was what happened to Aaron. Didn't expect me to have cared so much for him. But in the end, for how weird and disturbing the series is, I can accept it as a darker side to Rice. I will always say the first phase of the Vampire Chronicles (Interview to Memnoch) is my favorite and arguably her best work, but as part of my theory is that all of her work can be seen as a metaphor for her relationship with her faith, I can see the overall point being how to continue on after abuse when your faith could be at an all time low. By the end, I can see this as being an interesting perspective on accepting family trauma in the past and moving on with existence. After this novel, she wrote Memnoch. Given how that novels ends and explores it's themes of accepting that God could exist, the Mayfair Witches planted the seeds after learning to accept what has happened and trying to see what the bigger picture is. Personally, I'm not the most religious person, but applying this view on her work does offer some interesting views and interpretation.

[@MaggieReads2023]

You are a steadfast reader with this trilogy. I stopped when I finished The Witching Hour.

[@superdani152003]

I'll never forget this: the hillbilly witches 😂😂

[@rebyj]

This is the very first Anne Rice book I read. I'm glad you found something to like in it. It was also the very first "supernatural" forbidden book I read after leaving a very conservative religion lol.

[@TheNaughtyLibrarian]

I was so surprised! I knew Anne Rice could write something I thought was poignant and I would enjoy. The first two books of the series just took a hard turn in the wrong direction.

[@rebyj]

@@TheNaughtyLibrarian I often wondered over the years if maybe her more lyrical passages were helped by her husband Stan. Nothing wrong with that. Just wondered. He was a prolific poet and probably had a wee bit more editing skills than Anne.

[@candyvanityheals7715]

Good on you

[@crystalgaddy2985]

I enjoyed Taltos the most also. If you have a chance, I enjoyed Blackwood Farm also. You are doing a very good job with these reviews!

[@TheNaughtyLibrarian]

Thanks, will do!

[@lindawebb-bf7ec]

You don't know how long I've been waiting 4 this review, I've been checking for it every week lol 😄 I thought it was a fascinating, entertAining, and satisfying conclusion to the story, and I hope the writers of the show stay faithful to the source material (although it wouldn't hurt if they could tone down some of the incest stuff, I don't think it would hurt the story if they cut out some of the father-daughter and sibling relations, I really don't). Also the parts about Mona are hard to handle, but aside from those elements I found the revelations of Ashler and his backstory, the origins of the Taltos ppl and their homeland, was all very intriguing. It also had a happy enough ending for most of the characters, and for the character who was loneliest of all. But I wonder, what does all of this mean now for the inheritor, and how would this affect her powers and everything, now that "the Man" is no more? 🤔

[@TheNaughtyLibrarian]

I was thinking about the future of the Mayfair witches too. I don't really think a lot will change for them. Like, the family is still full of witches and insanely wealthy. They just don't have a demon forcing them to inbreed with each other now. So I'm hoping things are looking up from here.

[@lindawebb-bf7ec]

@@TheNaughtyLibrarian Well said! 😉😄

[@Nightbird1914]

Mona’s story continues in Ann Rice’s vampire book Blackwood Farm. I only read the Witching books but this one is very much a stand alone book.

[@PanicMerchant]

I am so confused. So, they want to breed Taltos to get at their wealth of inherited knowledge. BUT THEY ALREADY HAD A LIVING TALTOS WHO LIKED THEM AND WAS WILLING TO SPEAK WITH THEM?! And then they find out she's super fucking old and can't have children - BONUS! She's probably got this wealth of living memory and personal experience of the world and like, that apparently means nothing to Stuart?

[@TheKrabbyPattiez]

Book talks about how taltos are born with knowledge from like past taltos memories. So Tessa has knowledge but she doesn’t have the full scale picture of everything, so they think if they breed taltos they will eventually get the whole story of everything and not just the bits and pieces Tessa has. She knows things but doesn’t know everything

[@MamaBearAngela]

You had me at "I am so confused." This series is a library of confusion, to quote Lestat.

[@flyingteeshirts]

when I found out Anne Rice had written a series on witches, I expected something more along the lines of how she wrote vampires (I guess), not introducing a whole other mythological species with a ton of sexual assault and trauma and eugenics/breeding programmes/themes. . .what a weird side of her body of work.

[@rachreid8746]

Thank you for the celebrity pictures! I’m going to believe they are your celebrity crushes

[@TheNaughtyLibrarian]

Trying to fancast the books as best as possible. :)

[@camgeorge6222]

So the taltos are basically fairy creatures.

[@DalonikaKellar]

Thank goodness I found this. I could not get through these books but I really wanted to know how everything turned out! Thanks for the reading !!!!

[@tamerah9788]

Girl you know how to tell a story! I am living for these Mayfair recaps,thanks 🎉🎉

[@JulieDixson]

I think I appreciated the sexual terror more than the random addition of Ashlar. And the Talamasca issues - they were all wrapped up so quickly! As for the little people - Smaltos - they are dying out… why even bring them up? Nope. Super well written book about so much and nothing at all. The Witching Hour was so good. The next two, not so much. But I read them, damn it. I finished them!

[@TheNaughtyLibrarian]

“Smaltos” 😂

[@TT_Author]

I totally forgot I had read this until watching this video. Thanks for the recovered memories.

[@butternuggets868]

Have you read the All Souls trilogy? I'm curious to hear your thoughts on it

[@TheNaughtyLibrarian]

I tried reading it several years ago and it wasn’t for me. I know I have the unpopular opinion about the series.

[@butternuggets868]

@@TheNaughtyLibrarian Eh, to each their own. I'm a fan of the series and even I can see it has its problems.

[@sam88415]

Is that on the background a Trixie Mattel funko pop...? I'm sorry, I saw it half way into the video and the doubt is turning me nuts

[@TheNaughtyLibrarian]

I do have a Trixie pop on my shelf!

[@sabraibrahim9922]

Wait until you read Blackwood Farm and Blood Canticle..The Vampires meet the witches 🤫

[@TheNaughtyLibrarian]

I’m reading Blackwood Farm in June!

[@jazcc]

I had to hear all three of the books because I read them around high school and college and beside the spirit Lasher and Rowan and the abilities of the witches. I totally blocked off all those sexual stuff including the incests. But I remember enjoying the books and reading them at warp speed to get to the ending.

[@Nightbird1914]

Do you agree with me that the TV series is lacking by not including Mona and Michael. They are such important characters in the books. Mona may still appear. I recall a young girl with Cortland’s daughter in a scene in one of the later episodes. I guess we shall see.

[@ohlookshinee]

ok i dropped lasher but i think you've convinced me to give taltos a try 😂

[@Juleru]

6:13 Who's that actress?

[@TheNaughtyLibrarian]

Julianne Hough

[@Juleru]

@@TheNaughtyLibrarian Thanks!

[@kristyallman4161]

Why does Michael have more DNA? Did I miss something?

[@TheNaughtyLibrarian]

He’s distantly related to Julien Mayfair. So technically he’s part Mayfair witch.

[@kristyallman4161]

@@TheNaughtyLibrarian oh I didn’t know that! Crazy Ann Rice!

[@birdieandthebooksalicia94]

Was not expecting that

[@TheNaughtyLibrarian]

Same! It’s nice to be pleasantly surprised

[@TheGloomyTuesday]

I'm heavy into anne rice..and all the weirdness she comes up with... like her stuff is so amazingly well written. It's genius, and I can't wrap my brain around how she even comes up with these scenes and illustrates them so brilliantly. I know what to expect when I read her stuff, so I guess it makes it less shocking for me to read the "sexual terror" stuff. But for whatever reason, it's something that comes up in quite a few books she's written. I'm more dark learning when it comes to everything in my life so I'm all for dark obscure literature. And I've never read anything ever from any author that reaches me the way Anne Rice does.

[@alanc3873]

What page does chapter 17 start at? I’m reading it on ebook but it doesn’t have a page number

[@jasper_the_killjoy]

Honestly I loved the parts about the corrupt Talamasca plot, Mary Jane Mayfair is awesome, I actually really loved Ashlar and Samuel. Overall it was way better than the other two books. I just wish Aaron didn’t die so early bc that man was my saving grace in this series- seriously the only sane one among them. But honestly I was secretly hoping they would shoot Morrigan bc that shit is freaky!!! Also Rowan divorce your husband- not only did he cheat on you but it was a 13 year old!!!

[@Cherryontopsweet]

I'd go boy crazy over Ash too. Anne Rice has never written a sexier character.

[@nisha405]

Same! In my head he's played by Keanu Reeves

[@camgeorge6222]

Do the taltos even have any real powers like witches or are they just useless.

[@Nightbird1914]

Not like witches. “What sets them apart from regular humans are their telepathic abilities, immortality, and their giant stature.” I think they were born with full knowledge of their past and of course reached their full growth shortly after birth.

[@PanicMerchant]

I wonder how much of this the series is going to skip over/condense - I could easily see them merging Ashler and Lasher's backstories, throw in some extra Talamasca betrayal, and then turning Lasher's plot into "get revenge on the Talamasca" instead of "forcibly impregnate all the Mayfair women". With Rowan along for the ride as a similarly aggrieved party (they were part of the whole plot to have her forcibly birth the Lasher-baby) but also like, only so she can figure out how to kill him.

[@cybeliandiamonds6445]

“Civil war part II Electric Boogaloo”

[@7n154]

Mona Mayfair? You're descibing the Blackwood Farm?

[@TheNaughtyLibrarian]

She’s in both series.

[@BarbaraAnderson-b2j]

Does Michael ever get back with Mona after his wife gets better???

[@normajeansovereign9716]

I loved the Taltos

[@coltonmartin5057]

Nerds with a breeding kink 🤣🤣

[@zoebrugg7594]

Anne Rice..... what the ###*&^! What?!

[@camgeorge6222]

Feels like a disappoint that all this work for the may fair was just to bring back a race of fairy to learn from them . Not any gods angel or demon . To breed.

[@Nightbird1914]

Well specifically the Mayfair witches just wanted to bring Lasher to life. I guess because that’s what he wanted.

[@camgeorge6222]

This series seem less about witches.

[@JCResDoc94]

*ive had exes, when we read bks that the other likes (i had to read stevn king once, ew, gross.) but since anne rice is the only fiction ive ever read (+lotr): but is it funny,* multiple exes have read all the vampire & witching hr bks and said _"huh. omg, this is you, your personality comes from here."_ unprompted. only 2, but ive only dated 3. & 2 of them died (unrelated, & they said these things before.) i never crossed paths w anne, & actually lest just leave that. but these bks are important to me. im glad yo liked it. hope you read more. for your honest reviews. but i know thr are a lot of bks in the world. but i

[@Miklos-hz8yl]

I'm Hungarian, making fun of a Taltos is not funny at all. This is so offensive

[@ambrosia5356]

Riverbend was the first house and it went into the water in the 1800s. Unless I’m forgetting, their house was a different one.