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willow1113's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
3.25
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Sexual harassment, Alcoholism, Toxic relationship, Rape, Racism, Mental illness, Infidelity, Murder, Death, Addiction, Religious bigotry, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Alcohol, Death of parent, Suicide, Stalking, Sexism, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Panic attacks/disorders, and Incest
aliennas's review against another edition
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
2.0
Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual assault, Violence, Religious bigotry, Child abuse, Infidelity, Blood, and Incest
Moderate: Pregnancy, Adult/minor relationship, Rape, Pedophilia, Emotional abuse, and Domestic abuse
Minor: Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, Murder, Grief, Religious bigotry, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Child abuse, Medical content, Gaslighting, Death, Confinement, Chronic illness, Adult/minor relationship, Violence, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Body horror, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pedophilia, Infidelity, Incest, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Terminal illness, Rape, Fire/Fire injury, and Pregnancy
cuteasamuntin's review against another edition
- 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 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
Funnily enough, I just didn’t care at all about the spirit Lasher, to the point that I found myself actively bored when
For audiobook listeners, the talented Kate Reading really makes this heavy tome a lot less of a slog.
Graphic: Child abuse, Pedophilia, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Blood, Death of parent, Ableism, Abandonment, Death, Incest, Bullying, Gore, Grief, Self harm, Emotional abuse, Rape, Violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Medical trauma, Confinement, Body horror, Mental illness, Medical content, Pregnancy, Stalking, and Torture
Moderate: Classism, Confinement, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Dementia, Medical content, Murder, Adult/minor relationship, and Sexual content
Minor: Drug use, Abortion, Body shaming, Cultural appropriation, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Colonisation, Dementia, Kidnapping, and Car accident
starry2013'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
2.5
Graphic: Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Physical abuse, and Drug abuse
Minor: Abortion
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
alkeeco's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
5.0
Graphic: Rape, Sexual content, Incest, and Sexual assault
theangrystackrat'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? It's complicated
1.0
Graphic: Sexual assault
cgrays's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
2.0
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.
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Rape, Colonisation, Child abuse, Incest, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Slavery, and Racism
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
sinleyvera's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.5
Graphic: Sexual assault
Slavery and gross depections of sexual assault. No just because it is WW doesn't mean it isn't assault and the fact she implied they enjoyed it was sickening. They may have been under magic influence but... that doesn't make it better... it makes it worse...