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The Witching Hour

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The Witching Hour

By: Anne Rice
Narrated by: Kate Reading
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About this listen

"[A] huge and sprawling tale of horror." (The New York Times Book Review)

Demonstrating once again her gift for spellbinding storytelling, Anne Rice makes real for us a great dynasty of four centuries of witches - a family given to poetry and incest, murder and philosophy, a family that over the ages is itself haunted by a powerful, dangerous, and seductive being called Lasher who haunts the Mayfair women.

Moving in time from today's New Orleans and San Francisco to long-ago Amsterdam and the France of Louis XIV, from the coffee plantations of Port-au-Prince to Civil War New Orleans and back to today, Anne Rice has spun a mesmerizing tale that challenges everything we believe in.

©2010 Anne Rice (P)2015 Random House Audio Fantasy Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Horror Psychological Scary Magic Haunted Paranormal Witchcraft New Orleans Magic Users

Critic Reviews

"[A] huge and sprawling tale of horror." (The New York Times Book Review)
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Such a good book although quite long. Easily one of her best. Highly recommended. A true gem.

Simply marvellous!

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I read this story and the other 2 in the 90's loved it then love it know .Rowan Michael & Lasher .
Thank you Ann For a grate series of books 📚♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️🌹

The Witching Hour by Ann Rice

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I was very much enjoying the book to begin with. Then there was the incest between father and daughter which goes into great detail and has a quite detailed back story. I thought, okay that is over, great. Then there is a character who frequently visits a brothel, often with his wife, to have sex with a mother and her two daughters who are prepubescent. It also seemingly tries to make justification of this. If brings forth the impression that the author had an incestuous relationship with her father and mother from a young age and is trying to justify that relationship to the world through her writing. I say this because I know that this is not the first book of hers which has these themes. If only she had gone to therapy, I may have been able to enjoy her actually skilful writing. Instead we have literature to entertain the perverted.

Became a turn off

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Very good story but nearly lost me a few times with over describing. Could of been half the size.

Great book but a bit wordy

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The actress perfectly captures the voices of Rice’s characters, which is a brilliant achievement given how vast and long spanning this particular story is.

Was a great Re-“read” of this story just in time before AMC release their television series based on these books, thank you!

Such a detailed and intricate story, performed so beautifully.

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Not my favourite Anne Rice story but definitely not bad. There are things in it that are unagreeable, but perhaps with out them there wouldn’t be the right emotion towards certain characters. It’s haunting sad and beautiful like all of Ms Rice’s work.

Not my favourite Anne Rice story but definitely not bad.

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I love this book - i have read it twice in the past and decided to purchase it as an audio book for the car - my only negative to say is that there are parts where it woffles on a bit - on tangents of self reflection and angst - i realise this is all about character development but it was a bit repetitive and as a listener I just wanted to get to the core story - so found myself fast forwarding a bit.
Having said this - and having purchased other books in this series - it is a common theme
Otherwise an epic story

Epic Book

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Amazing performance by Kate Reading. The story was good but needs a profound edit. It was excruciatingly repetitive and long winded. It’s arrogant of AnneRice to think that every word she writes is important and to take that much of peoples time. No way am I listening to any more in the series.

Half as long would have been twice as good.

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A superbly written opera. Skilfully narrated. Dark and engrossing, rich and enthralling. Anne and Kate magic.

Brilliant.

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I read this book 20 years ago, then everything that followed merging with the vampire chronicles. After all these years it’s such a whirlwind to hear it and visualise it all again shatter Deon scratch as a more matured human.
Love love your narrator. She really had me enthralled and I knew who each character was based on her voice change.

Great storytelling

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