Reviews with content warning for Racism - The Witching Hour

There are aspects of this book that aged like milk. Rape, Mysogony, incest and all the black characters seemed to be servants of some kind.

From a horror perspective, it's extremely disturbing. However, it is very long and drawn out and at least 1/3 of not half of this book could have been cut.

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licisalsa2's review against another edition

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dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

If you can get past the incest misogyny and rape it has a compelling story. I was already hundreds of pages in before it starts so i felt committed.

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mall3tg1rl's review against another edition

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

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cinderrunner's review against another edition

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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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comfycozytomes's review

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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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