The Witching Hour

After The Witching Hour was published, the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer became a huge hit. How are the watchers in Buffy similar to and different from the members of the Talamasca? How else does Rice influence the trope of people who study the paranormal?

Rice repeatedly describes female characters like Rowan and Mary Beth as masculine because of their high libidos. How was her portrayal of female sexuality innovative in the 1990s? How has it held up over the years?

How do houses—such as the First Street House, Michael’s house in San Francisco, Rowan’s houseboat, and the Talamasca motherhouses—function as characters in The Witching Hour? Why does Rice pay so much attention to homes, buildings, and architecture?

There is an undercurrent of anti-abortion rhetoric throughout The Witching Hour. How does Michael’s religion influence his thoughts about his ex, Judith, getting an abortion? How does this anti-abortion logic factor into Lasher’s plans?

How does Rice’s book-within-a-book, the huge Talamasca file, function in relation to the events that occur in 1989? How does Rice use a variety of first-person voices in letters and reports? How do the first-person (I/my pronouns) sections of the novel compare with the sections written in limited third person (she/her pronouns)?

What is Rice’s purpose in alluding to paintings, literature, and film in various parts of The Witching Hour? What does she allude to and why? How does this deepen the reader’s understanding of the text?

Rowan is a billionaire through her inheritance, but Michael is a self-made millionaire. How does their high socioeconomic class function in their romance? How does Rice characterize Rowan and Michael through their ideas about money?

Rowan brings together inherited magic and her work in medicine. How does the relationship between science and the occult evolve through the Mayfair lineage before Rowan? How does Rowan change this relationship?