Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

Witching Hour by Anne Rice

11 reviews

alyxandrathegr8's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

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

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Incest, and Violence

Moderate: Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Rape, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Colonisation

Minor: Car accident

amberinpieces's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Death, Incest, Infidelity, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Sexism, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Cursing, Misogyny, Racism, Slavery, Terminal illness, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Abortion, Colonisation, and Classism

cuteasamuntin's review against another edition

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. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Medical content, Dementia, Murder, and Classism

Minor: Body shaming, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Dementia, Kidnapping, Car accident, Abortion, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Alcohol, and Colonisation

cgrays's review against another edition

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. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Incest, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, and Colonisation

lyfeistrip's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense 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

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body horror, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Car accident, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and Classism

circe813's review against another edition

challenging dark slow-paced

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

2.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Colonisation

Minor: Alcoholism, Child abuse, and Chronic illness

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. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

mafer1's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• 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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Colonisation

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.

---

Content Warnings

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

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

samthescorpio's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• 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? Yes

5.0

Wow this book is such a masterpiece, it’s very dark but very well crafted, I can’t believe it doesn’t have more of a cult following than it does. AMC has plans to make it into a show soon, so read it now before it’s spoiled for the world!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Incest, and Abortion

Moderate: Body horror and Blood

Minor: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Sexual violence, Forced institutionalization, Car accident, Death of parent, and Colonisation