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Taltos
lives of the Mayfair witches
736 pages
A lush, sprawling gothic tapestry of ancient curses, immortal loneliness, and decadent family secrets.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like wandering through a sprawling, dimly lit mansion heavy with the scent of old roses and dark secrets. The narrative unfolds at a leisurely, deliberate pace, inviting you to sink into its lush, baroque prose and deeply atmospheric world-building. It is a deeply sensual and philosophical experience, steeped in a brooding gothic mood that balances the eerie with the grandiose. The story weaves together the existential loneliness of ancient beings with the chaotic, melodramatic entanglements of a cursed dynasty. It is perfect for readers who crave immersive, decadent occult fiction where history, magic, and intense emotional drama bleed together across centuries, offering a rich, intoxicating escape into the shadows.
- Mood
- gothic
- brooding
- decadent
- eerie
- atmospheric
- Tone
- grandiose
- melodramatic
- philosophical
- sensual
- earnest
- Pace
- leisurely
- Themes
- ancient bloodlines · existential loneliness · burden of immortality · family curses · science versus magic
- The writing
- Lush, baroque, and heavily descriptive, lingering on sensory details and sweeping historical vistas.
- The arc
- Begins with the solitary melancholy of an ancient being and spirals into a chaotic, emotionally charged collision of family secrets and dark destinies.
- Who it's for
- Fans of sprawling, decadent gothic sagas who prefer their occult mysteries steeped in rich history and intense family drama.
Content notes
- sexual content
- incest
- violence
- pregnancy trauma
- body horror
About the book
Meet Mr. Ash, quiet-spoken, tall, unfailingly kind - sole survivor of an ancient species, the Taltos - thriving among humankind as he has always done, now the head of a great corporate empire. As the novel opens, he is stunned to learn from an old and mysterious friend that another Taltos has been seen - in the very same Scottish glen where centuries ago, long before the coming of the Romans, Ash ruled his clan.
At once he is propelled into the world of Rowan Mayfair, and into the mysteries of the Mayfair family - the New Orleans dynasty of witches forever besieged by ghosts, spirits, and the dizzying powers of his own species - a family intimately involved with the heritage of the Taltos, a family of unique, brilliant, and troubled souls struggling as they have for centuries to use both science and magic in their battle for greatness, even survival.
At the heart of the novel is the Talamasca, a secular order of psychic scholars, the only organization in existence which may understand Ash, his Taltos past, and the dilemma of the Mayfair witches. The story of the Mayfair family continues, moving from London to Donnelaith, Scotland, to New Orleans, back and forth through time - from the origins of the Taltos and their mythic Lost Land to the moral crises of the present day.
Description from Open Library.
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