Reviews tagging 'Racism'

The Witching Hour by Anne Rice

19 reviews

mall3tg1rl's review against another edition

I got halfway through and I only really cared about the “historical” look at the fucked up Mayfair family.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Racism, and Rape

cinderrunner's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• 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

Overly long. Convoluted and dull plot. I hate a pregnancy trope. Extremely boring for the first half and, even after it does start to get interesting, the story doesn't stay consistently engaging. This was such a struggle to get through. This is my first Anne Rice novel and I am extremely confused as to why she has so much hype around her. The obsession she has with relating sex in this book to r*pe is disgusting. Like Rowan will be having consensual sex and be like "oh god yes, r*pe me." Its genuinely nasty and so unnecessary. Also a lot of incest and undertones of racism from all the characters regardless of what time period the story is set in. Please don't waste your time with this series. 

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Content Warnings

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

comfycozytomes's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• 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? It's complicated

2.25

In all honesty this book may have been written/published in 1990 but how the characters were portrayed and how they behaved it felt like it was from the 50s. This book did not draw me in at all initially like I thought it would--I love witchy books, I love dark books. I didn't really like this book until I got to the actual history of the family shortly before the half-way mark (I don't think we needed a 45 paged chapter on Michael's entire backstory...I found Rita's backstory more interesting than his, my god). Only then things sped up for me. 

That history was the most compelling aspect to me. I didn't even really like the characters until after the half-way mark and even then my like/dislike fluctuated; which may have also been the point that the characters are not supposed to be entirely likeable, idk. Also the Talamasca is an utterly useless organization. They bemoan the devastation wrought on women/those with supernatural gifts and they HAVE the wealth and influence to interfere yet they do nothing...? They KNEW what was happening in that house, to the legacies of the Mayfair powers, and they stood by and did nothing...? They suspected there was incest/rape/abuse under that roof/within that family...and just stood by and did NOTHING...? Disgusting imo. 

I also think I would have liked this book more if it had been centered on breaking the generational trauma the Mayfair family had endured, as it seemed that was the path it was going, the total change/swerve away from that was utterly disappointing. Though I also understand breaking through that kind of trauma is difficult. Perhaps that is also addressed/a main aspect of the later books in the series. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Racism, Misogyny, Pedophilia, and Rape

mispaintedlady's review against another edition

I was enjoying this story until I got to the double whammy of romanticized  slavery and erotic  incest between father and daughter. I was truly disgusted at how Anne Rice wrote about slavery. Using the excuse of a character in the past and their journals, Rice glorified  slave owners simply because they  were Mayfair Witches and white washed the traumatic history of an enslaved person’s kidnapped life. 

The incest just kept going even up until the end of the book. Glad I just skipped ahead to find out the ending wasn’t worth reading the whole book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Racism, Adult/minor relationship, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual assault, Colonisation, and Murder

Moderate: Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Torture, Pregnancy, Medical content, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Child death, Suicide, and Terminal illness

saintyeehaw's review against another edition

I just couldn't get into it. It's very long, very boring, and very gross at times. Very out of place and anti-choice leaning sentiment on abortion at one point.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abortion, Racism, Ableism, Alcoholism, Racial slurs, and Mental illness

foreverinastory's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

• 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

3.5

Damn that was long as fuck.

Rep: white female MC, white bisexual male side character, Black side characters, white achillean male side character.

CWs: Adult/minor relationship, alcohol consumption, alcoholism, blood, death, death of parent, drug use w/o consent, forced institutionalization, incest (many times), injury/injury detail, medical content, mental illness, misogyny, murder, pedophilia, pregnancy, rape & coercion, religious bigotry, sexism, sexual assault, sexual content, suicide (two times), violence. Moderate: racism, homophobia/homomisia, grief.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, Violence, and Drug use

Moderate: Racism, Homophobia, and Grief

fra_ci90's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative inspiring mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense medium-paced

• 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

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Content Warnings

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

katt's review against another edition

Rape and incest and pedophilia dressed up as fantasy. Just too intense. Also racist glorifying of “plantations”. All before 100 pages of 1200. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape and Racism

rrovezzi's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Racism, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Incest, Murder, Pedophilia, Rape, and Sexual content