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j_nell's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Blood and Sexual assault
Moderate: Pregnancy, Miscarriage, Violence, Toxic relationship, and Incest
Minor: Alcohol, Gaslighting, Murder, and Gun violence
skeptic_hecate's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
I will start with t he good:
The book is beautifully written, you can tell the author has a great imagination and good story telling. The lore is really well built, quite deep and interesting. The story has a lot of potential.
Now, what I didn't like:
The lore is so interesting, the life and family tree of the Mayfair witches is what kept me reading, too bad is so little and only dealt deeply for a few select chapters. The rest of the book we follow 2 very unlikable protagonists. Rowan, who is so not like other girls with a large pick me energy. Reading Rowan's thoughts only made me dislike her even more. She has this holier-than-thou attitude, she thinks she is smarter and better than everyone in the room, doesn't respect anyone, not even her (supposed) love of her life. She only thinks about sex, how everyone else is beneath her, and how smart she is. She is also very misogynistic, for absolutely no reason too, and towards every woman she encounters, dead or alive.
I can get behind a character like that, if the plot showed us that she is in the wrong. But she never is shown that, she never learns, and she is so boring to read. The second most boring character to read, the most boring character to read is Michael Curry.
I think the author was aiming for the lovable Himbo but forgot the lovable part. Not only is he widly inconsistent (a complete idiot at one point, then smarter the next page and then even more of an idiot the following chapter, only to be again somewhat smart), he is also very boring to read. We are told that he is this brave old-fashioned man who carves his own path, and shown over and over again how cowardly he acts. I wanted to skip all his parts because he is so unbelievably boring.
Aron Lightner is the best character, I love him, I wish there was more of him.
This book drags, this book is so slow, everything happens so slowly and is repeated constantly. I do not need to be spoon fed the same irrelevant information over and over again. There is so much in depth description of the house (which I actually enjoyed the first 2 or 3 times), but it gets stale after the eleventh time.
The book ending is an obvious sequel bait, too rushed, little effort and detail put, Rowan does a complete 180 personality wise. Also, the entire book reeks of the author's internalizedf misogyny. I mean the amount of hat thrown towards women who *gasp* are child free. I only wish she treated incest and rape (prominently present in her book) with the same level of disgust as a woman deciding to be child free (abortion scene and birth scene are so ironic, I cannot believe the author couldn't put two and two together).
Unless you are a die hard Anne Rice fan, don't bother with this book, read the Wikipedia summary and maybe look up a Mayfair witches family tree online and you'll be missing very little.
Graphic: Violence, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Sexism, Incest, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Rape, and Death
silversparkles50's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Graphic: Alcoholism, Mental illness, Death, Incest, Murder, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Sexual content, Blood, Violence, Sexual violence, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, and Rape
lyfeistrip's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Violence, Stalking, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, Infertility, Emotional abuse, Cursing, Alcoholism, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Medical trauma, Child abuse, Alcohol, Pregnancy, Murder, Medical content, Sexual assault, Rape, Gore, Death, Child death, Car accident, Grief, Incest, Infidelity, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Colonisation, Toxic friendship, Suicide, Racial slurs, Pedophilia, Miscarriage, Mental illness, and Chronic illness
Moderate: Classism, Death of parent, Infertility, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Racism, Toxic friendship, Violence, Chronic illness, Alcohol, Child abuse, Death, Gaslighting, Gore, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Rape, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Drug use, Medical content, Medical trauma, Abortion, Cancer, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Car accident, Cultural appropriation, Physical abuse, Suicide attempt, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Infidelity, Fire/Fire injury, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Torture, Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Colonisation, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Murder, and Sexual violence
sailormollie's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Miscarriage and Incest
Moderate: Rape
An exorbitant amount of incest.cinderrunner's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Slavery, Blood, Colonisation, Death of parent, Gore, Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Classism, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Murder, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, and Violence
mafer1's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Alcoholism, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Miscarriage, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Incest, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Addiction, Colonisation, Emotional abuse, and Medical content
rumireads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Blood, Medical content, Pedophilia, Rape, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Suicide, Miscarriage, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Religious bigotry, Sexual violence, Torture, Murder, Excrement, Gaslighting, Incest, Death, Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Gore, and Body horror
readwithbells's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
I don’t have a lot of words here. Idk who I would recommend this to, I don’t know who else might find this book. I love it. But I am deeply horrified. Rice is the Queen of horror after all. I feel trapped in this world. Ugh.
The reason this doesn’t get 5 stars (even though it probably deserves it) is I had just gotten invested in Michael and Rowan, and then commence 500 pages of the Mayfair family history. I liked the history, I really did, I liked the patterns and the stakes and the story wouldn’t be nearly as eerie and unsettling without it. But Jesus Christ there was so much of it. I can’t get mad at Rice for worldbuilding but omg girl that was a LOT of worldbuilding.
This is all a very dramatic way of saying this book is very good, well-written, horrifying in its horror, so overwhelmingly successful in getting me to care about these characters and hate hate HATE Lasher. Absolutely superb.
Graphic: Miscarriage, Rape, Incest, and Sexual violence
fra_ci90's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Abortion, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Colonisation, Confinement, Cultural appropriation, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Incest, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Trafficking, Violence, Vomit, and Xenophobia