Take a photo of a barcode or cover
skhoury 's review for:
The Witching Hour
by Anne Rice
I have mixed feelings about this book. Rice writes a rich history of the Mayfair family and describes the city and culture of New Orleans in evocative language. Rice wrote the book while living in New Orleans and her love for the city is obvious. Despite the readability, this book is almost 1000 pages and (in my opinion) needs a strong edit. Extreme detail is provided when it's unnecessary to the plot and even minor characters receive lengthy backstory.
Rice is not afraid to write about taboo subject matter. The entire book is full of them. If you are squeamish (or just not interested in reading) about rape, incest, calculated inbreeding, and the sexualization of minors then you might want to pass on this one. I don't believe in censoring authors/artists but when all of these taboo subjects are repeatedly brought up it makes me question why they are relevant to the story. Rice doesn't write about the themes in condemnation. It seems like they are here to attract rather than repulse us. I know there's something to attraction/repulsion but I'm not smart enough to analyze literature that deeply. This book is categorized as horror and it achieves that in spades. The book was also published in 1990 and I think it's representative of its time.
A final note on the characters. I wish we could hear the history of the Mayfair family from the witches themselves. Their entire history is given to us through investigation documentation, gossip heard about the family, and observation by members of the Talamasca. You finish the 1000 page book realizing you don't know anything about the majority of the characters it chronicles. It would have been so interesting to get chapters from the POV of each generation's witch to see what was really happening. The Talamasca's documentation on them is obviously biased and incomplete.
Rapid-fire pros: chapters on the restoration of the First Street house. Rice obviously did her research on several time periods/themes. Suspenseful plot; I almost missed my subway stop multiple times because I was so engrossed in the book.
Rapid-fire cons: the length. All of the Mayfairs are perfectly perfect (or "not like other girls") characters. Our two main characters (Michael and Rowan) are enjoyable to read but sometimes frustrating in their ability to be outstanding and without flaws. The last 150 pages were not satisfying to read; I won't be finishing this trilogy.
Rice is not afraid to write about taboo subject matter. The entire book is full of them. If you are squeamish (or just not interested in reading) about rape, incest, calculated inbreeding, and the sexualization of minors then you might want to pass on this one. I don't believe in censoring authors/artists but when all of these taboo subjects are repeatedly brought up it makes me question why they are relevant to the story. Rice doesn't write about the themes in condemnation. It seems like they are here to attract rather than repulse us. I know there's something to attraction/repulsion but I'm not smart enough to analyze literature that deeply. This book is categorized as horror and it achieves that in spades. The book was also published in 1990 and I think it's representative of its time.
A final note on the characters. I wish we could hear the history of the Mayfair family from the witches themselves. Their entire history is given to us through investigation documentation, gossip heard about the family, and observation by members of the Talamasca. You finish the 1000 page book realizing you don't know anything about the majority of the characters it chronicles. It would have been so interesting to get chapters from the POV of each generation's witch to see what was really happening. The Talamasca's documentation on them is obviously biased and incomplete.
Rapid-fire pros: chapters on the restoration of the First Street house. Rice obviously did her research on several time periods/themes. Suspenseful plot; I almost missed my subway stop multiple times because I was so engrossed in the book.
Rapid-fire cons: the length. All of the Mayfairs are perfectly perfect (or "not like other girls") characters. Our two main characters (Michael and Rowan) are enjoyable to read but sometimes frustrating in their ability to be outstanding and without flaws. The last 150 pages were not satisfying to read; I won't be finishing this trilogy.