Reviews with content warning for Pedophilia - The Witching Hour

Reviews tagging 'Pedophilia'

The Witching Hour by Anne Rice

27 reviews

aliennas's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No

2.0

It honestly has no business being this long. The “Yes, rape me!” and the pedophilia, incest and other… uncomfortable aspects of the book were big yikes. That being said, the narrative and the plot in itself is really cool. Part 2 is a clear highlight.

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kenoughbi's review against another edition

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3.75

listen i enjoyed reading it for the most part but wtf, especially with the ending

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lilythegoblin's review against another edition

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Alot of instances of incest and/or pedophilia.

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cuteasamuntin's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

I’m not sure I particularly liked this book. It isn’t a particularly fun or nice read, but I can already tell that it’s going to really stick with me. While it’s slow enough that I was at times impatient for Rice to get on with it, the narrative was still very compelling.

I really enjoyed the family chronology and learning more about the Talamasca. My favorite parts were 1) the deep and pure expressions of familial and romantic love dappled throughout an otherwise grim and haunting story and 2) Michael

in a joyous frenzy over restoring the house, to the point that I was hanging onto every word about his historically accurate and thoughtful renovations

, but the latter is probably just a hazard of my day job.

Funnily enough, I just didn’t care at all about the spirit Lasher, to the point that I found myself actively bored when

he is finally present in the narrative and begins interacting directly with Rowan

. I think this may have been a stronger story without that aspect being so explicitly present. This may, of course, be in part to already knowing the general principles of how spirits/“demons” work in the Anne Rice universe due to being a dedicated admirer of Maharat and her Great Family™ from The Vampire Chronicles.

For audiobook listeners, the talented Kate Reading really makes this heavy tome a lot less of a slog.

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cgrays's review against another edition

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dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No

2.0

The main characters are incredibly dull and their "romance" is one of the worst put to writing. The book swings between the present with the main characters, to stories going from each generation of the Mayfair witches.

The sections of the book about the Mayfair witches of the past is genuinely exciting to read, but the main plot is so unbearably awful that it can't lift this book beyond two stars for me. The ending as well, is unsatisfying for as long as we spent with the Mayfair family.

Oh, and in Anne Rice fashion, there's unnecessarily graphic descriptions of children in sexual situations and some strangely racist undertones.

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