This book was amazing. Great storytelling. And better yet, it shows that King is an amazing storyteller ouWowza. Now this is Uncle Stevie at his best.
This book was amazing. Great storytelling. And better yet, it shows that King is an amazing storyteller outside his normal genre of horror.
It was immersive and engaging and EPIC in scope. The story revolves around Charlie, and the dog he more or less "inherits" after coming to the aid of an old man who acts as the guardian of an old secret and an crazy connected world. My heart absolutely ached at how poignant and clear how Charlie loves the dog, Radar. Charlie goes to extraordinary lengths to help Radar. And Radar was an amazing character in her own right, a German Shepherd that would make anyone a pet lover.
And then the story REALLY begins...
It isn't really strong horror, although it does have some spates of horror and gore. But it is only the seasoning used to tell an amazing story of love, dedication, fate, choices, and what a person can do when circumstances call them to engage in extraordinary things.
This one's gonna stick with me for a good long time.
The narration was good. It is mostly by a bloke Seth Numrich, who had a good voice that made the story convincing. When Uncle Stevie reads part of his own stuff, I usually find it... well... not quite engaging. But it wasn't the whole story and the part that King narrated made sense and actually made the audio production a bit better than what it would have been without it....more
The Witching Hour is one of the best books I think I have ever read.
It hasn’t quite knocked The Stand out of its place as my all time favorite. But itThe Witching Hour is one of the best books I think I have ever read.
It hasn’t quite knocked The Stand out of its place as my all time favorite. But it is close. Damn close. As in my new second favorite book of all time. I’m rather upset with myself for taking so long to get to this one. If I’d read it when I was younger, I might have been able to make this one my second reading. Oh well. Maybe in 10 years I’ll read it again.
The Story: I love the story. Loved it. It seemed such a unique take on what a “witch” was and how they derived their power, at least in Anne Rice’s world. It has a great gothic feel to it rather than an up in your face literary punch trying to knock you out with fear. That’s hard to achieve in my humble view.
We start with a guy, Michael Curry, who at first blush seems like he should be a minor character. Isn’t the story supposed to be about Rowan and her being a long lost witch from this family? I thought initially. Not so. He is inextricably tied with Rowan Mayfair. In many ways, as it turns out. We get some of the current family stuff and then a very long history of the Mayfair witches dating back to the 1600s. I ultimately liked the way Anne Rice approached the family’s history, as told through sort of narrative reports created by an organization called the Talamasca. At first this technique seemed odd to me and I questioned how Anne Rice was going to hold my interest. This family history that takes you from the 1600s to the “modern” time when the story takes place spans almost 400 pages. Ultimately I needn’t have worried. I love world building in books and stories and this is what Anne Rice accomplished with this early-middle to middle of the book. Then we get back to Rowan and Michael, who has become befriended by Aaron Lightner of the Talamasca.
The images that Anne Rice can create. Damn. I was reminded very early on that so often every word and every sentence for pages on end exude emotion and imagery. Not many people can do that. Some of my other favorite writers often don’t accomplish this as well as Anne Rice does. Reading this book just made my heart absolutely ache to go and see New Orleans. (A visit there is on the bucket list. We’ll see.) The book creates the feel and environment of it so well.
For a book where most of the “action” takes place at the 75% mark, it still kept me engaged. The material before that, to me, created an investment where I could feel this world of this huge family of Mayfairs and being interested—and terrified—of their existence.
The conflicts are both all-encompassing and also smaller in scale. From the first conflict where Petyr is trying to help the first Mayfair witch, to Rowan, Aaron, and Michael trying to plan on meeting the apparent threat that Lasher presents, they were all engaging. Each little stage of the book built on what came before, as you would expect. But at first blush here, I felt like I was seeing several smaller impressionist paintings, but then toward the end I realize that, no, they really are a coherent work. To the point where I was thinking, well of course we have to have 40% of the book talking about their ancient history. You can’t understand the events in the final conflicts if you don’t!
I thought I was going to finish last night. I didn’t, despite my best efforts. I fought against fatigue and fatigue eventually won. But toward o-dark-thirty last night I’m near the end and I came across the part where (view spoiler)[Michael figures out the “coven” isn’t all thirteen witches all at the same time and place as the rest of the family assumed to create a gate for Lasher to come through, but that Rowan was the thirteenth main witch in the line of the Mayfairs and that her ascension created the coven and the gateway Lasher needed. Clever demonic spirit that one! (hide spoiler)] When I read that, I realized just how clever the story was and had hit me with a blindside. I sat there for some number of minutes with my copy clutched to my chest just taking that plot point in, marveling at how much I was enjoying this one.
The Characters: The books I like the most are those that have good stories but also create characters that seem like real people. I found an analogy in the epilogue that seems to fit:
”I’ve been slowly going through the attics, finding interesting things. I’ve found all of Antha’s short stories, and they are fascinating. I sit upstairs in that third-floor room and read them by the sunlight coming in the windows, and I feel Antha all around me—not a ghost, but the living presence of the woman who trying to voice her agony and her struggle, and her joy at being free for such a short time in New York.
That’s how it felt reading about Rowan, and Michael, and Aaron. Rowan is absolutely brilliant. Michael is absolutely dedicated. Aaron is the epitome of planning and patience, the perfect benevolent benefactor working behind the scenes. Even Carlotta and some of the earlier witches offered a richness. But the main trio of characters, in particular. I feel like If I ran into Michael at the Starbucks tomorrow morning (or hey, maybe if I get to NOLA and make it into Café du Monde to try some beignets and black coffee and chicory!) I’d recognize him as an old friend. The characters, their lives, backstories, emotions and motivations seemed that real to me.
The Ending: The Witching Hour had an unexpected, but very satisfying end to me. Again, not formulaic, but once I read it and closed this volume, I realized just how much it made sense. It ends with the trio more or less (view spoiler)[scattering to the winds in different parts of the world. (hide spoiler)] It is part of a trilogy so I got an ending but it left me with enough suspense and desire to read more.
It created all these questions that I look forward to exploring in Lasher and then Taltos:
1. Is Lasher in fact a bad guy? 2. Is Rowan playing him or the other way around? 3. What is Michael going to do? I feel the coolest conflict and story-telling is going to be his for the unfolding. 4. Are any of the Mayfairs going to be of any real help going forward? 5. Is the Talamasca going to be of any real help going forward? 6. (view spoiler)[Are the dead witches really dead (hide spoiler)]?
The answer to each of these questions is – dunno. And that is very, very cool to make me want more after two months of reading 1038 pages.
The Structure and the Content: I loved The Witching Hour for its LACK of formulaicness. As you might know, this is a BEAST of a book. My copy was 1038 pages. Not many novels go that long. I personally like longer novels. Gives the writer more of a chance to world build and create characters that feel real to me.
There are unique storytelling techniques in here, like the long historical discussion.
This family, the Mayfairs. Oof. Soooooo much incest. The way Anne Rice unflinchingly had that in there and how it was so largely responsible for making such a large family. It was, well, what can I say… oh yeah, I already did—unflinching. Now, before you scratch this one off, I personally never got the sense it was put in there for cheap thrills or for purely salacious reasons. It was just part of the darkness of how this family came to be. The measure of a good story is sometimes found, in my humble opinion, how you can feel uncomfortable yet engaged in the narration at the same time.
And yes, there is a lot of intimacy in there too. I think Anne Rice dealt with this very well. It (view spoiler)[helped create the strong interconnection – physical and emotional – between Rowan and Michael. (hide spoiler)]
There’s a bit at the end that hit me pretty hard too and the reason why I think why people are drawn to stories and why we need stories—of all kinds, shapes, colors, and everything else—in our lives:
”I believe that through our finest efforts, we will succeed finally in creating heaven on earth, and we do it every time that we love, every time that we embrace, every time that we commit to create rather than destroy, every time that we place life over death, […].
For all the dark stuff in this book, for all the twisted, screwed up, icky-ness of how the family came about, I felt my reading life—and maybe my life-life—got a little bit closer to the spirit of this ideal for having read The Witching Hour.
But I won’t BS you. Maybe this book isn’t for everyone. It’s long. It’s got some brutal content. But an open mind and letting someone take you on an epic journey—even one that makes you cringe and think and FEEL—is well worth the time.
I’m sure there is more I can say, but I think you get the idea. Dark. Enthralling. Powerful.
Thank you for writing this, Anne Rice. I look forward to reading Lasher soon. ...more
I don’t even know where to start I loved this book so much.
But what I do know is that this book prompted me to create a new GR shelf to properly cI don’t even know where to start I loved this book so much.
But what I do know is that this book prompted me to create a new GR shelf to properly categorize this book as one of my top 10 reads of all time. My Best Friend’s Exorcism is going into slot number three, after The Stand and The Witching Hour. If I could rate this book 10 stars I would do it in a heartbeat.
I am going to hold onto and cherish the paperback copy I bought on a whim from an independent bookstore in Redmond.
I’ve heard the term “cozy horror.” I’m not sure this book is that. I’m even less sure that that label even matters. Yes, this book has horror elements, supernatural stuff, and only a little bit of the gross stuff sporadically seasoning this story.
None of that matters to how I rate this and how much I am about to (continue) to gush.
Because at its core, My Best Friend’s Exorcism is about friendship and the power of friendship. As a believer in the idea that the family you choose (i.e., spouse and close friends) is at least as important as the family you’re born into, this book really spoke to me. Gretchen and Abby’s friendship came alive off these pages so much that it made my heart ache. The characterizations of feelings and drive and need felt so real. The bond these two young girls form at a failed birthday party as young children is a bond of friendship that strengthened, got tested, almost breaks, bounds back, gets pulled at, becomes an imperative at alternating and conflicting times and in all kinds of contexts. It serves as a powerful reminder of what “love” can mean in the context of a person that serendipity delivers into one’s life, and then what you do with it. It is choice at a very primal level of human need. At least that is the way I have felt when I develop lasting bonds with people.
Abby was such a strong character. I loved her. I loved what she was. I loved her as a symbol. I loved the hope and resilience she embodied. When every societal norm at the time (the 1980s), scholastic pressure, peer pressure, legal threat, all coupled with constant adult ass-hat-ish non-sense, was screaming at junior year Abby to back off and leave Gretchen to the demon wolf that wanted her, what does Abby do?
She (view spoiler)[tells all of those people, mores, and forces acting upon her to go eff themselves. She’s gonna stick by her friend and does what needs to be done to kick the crap of a douchenozzle demon wrecking not only Gretchen’s life, but every life that touches them. (hide spoiler)]
What made it even more compelling was that Abby (view spoiler)[had natural anxieties and a degree of torment due to her appearance. She wasn’t the drop-dead gorgeous red-haired, Red-Sonya, ass-kicker, gun-toting, mutant superpowers kind of hero. She had more anxieties and issue stemming from her appearance than most kids because of height, poverty relative to her friends, and acne that was wrecking her complexion. But that meant f#@*-all because she was going to do what she knew to be right. (hide spoiler)]
The story tells us what can happen when a person faces those nearly insurmountable physical and societal challenges and put her friend first no matter what others tried to do or all the gaslighting she was subjected to.
What bravery! We should all have such integrity, determination and grit. We should be lucky to have a friend like Abby. We should all be a friend to someone like Abby was to Gretchen.
I also really dug the 1980s vibe and content. As a Gen-Xer that really spoke to me, too, and I found myself reminiscing and refreshing my recollection of that time. For example, (view spoiler)[remember ‘stick ups’ air fresheners? (hide spoiler)] So quaint, but I do now? The elements of the ordinary history from that decade (which so many now consider “retro”—affectionately or not) added another layer. To me, having lived through that time at roughly the same age, My Best Friend’s Exorcism felt like a warm, comfortable blanket. And while I could see the flaws of the time, they weren’t overpowering to the book’s overall message and it was like I had had that blanket packed away and then rediscovered it and as it comforted me, I could see the pills in the yarn from age, but it didn’t bother me.
This book just felt good. I totally recommend it. ...more
This most recent time was my third time reading Jaws. I loved it then and I love this book still, despite a few petty issues I have with the story.
ThThis most recent time was my third time reading Jaws. I loved it then and I love this book still, despite a few petty issues I have with the story.
The first time I read it was when I was maybe twelve when I had to coax the parents and the school librarian to let me check it out from the restricted section of the library. At that point, I have this vague recollection of my 12 year old self emphatically thinking "WHY ISN'T THE SHARK EATING MORE PEOPLE!!!!" But I started having a love-hate-fear relationship with big bodies of water ever since. And it spurred my love of fish, sharks, ichthyology, you name it.
I think I was maybe 18 or 19 the second time I read it. Not a kid, but not really truly an independently functioning adult either. I know I understood more, but I also thinking, ugh, why is some of this stuff in here...I'm so bored, when does the shark turn up again???
Now as something several (okay a lotta) years older, I pick up on the undercurrents and the story-telling nuances I would have either not understood or glossed over until I got to the part where they're chumming/flirting with death. I appreciated the people that Benchley created with this story. The back stories and agendas and histories that drive character actions, those that are smart, and actions that are a bit less than smart and the downright stupid and malicious.
Most people have probably seen the movie and/or read the book. I love them both. And it was interesting to me to pick up the similarities, but more importantly the divergences between the book and the movie. Each, to me, was expertly crafted to serve its particular medium and story-telling method. For example, the amazing actor, Richard Dreyfus, plays Hooper. He does that role well. But here's Hooper's introduction in the book:
"This is Matt Hooper, Chief Brody." The two men shook hands [Brody and Hooper]. "You're the fellow from Woods Hole," Brody said, trying to get a good look at himin the fading light. He was young--mid-twenties, Brody thought--and handsome: tanned, hair bleached by the sun. He was as tall as Brody, an inch over six feet, but leaner: Brody guessed 170 pounds, compared to his own 200.
Um... okay. So they're different. But that's cool, because the Hooper is a lot different in the two stories.
Anyway, the book clips along, but it does focus more on the people than the shark. So there is that. It's not the blood-soaked gore-fest you might think. It's more subtle than that. Because the shark ends up wreaking as much--if not more--havoc on the people on land with the fear and idea of its presence, than in the actual water.
I will undoubtedly read this book again in the future. I wonder what I'll think in 10 years. Who knows.
Bottom line, this is a great time-capsule-y type thriller. Parts of the language show its age. It's fast and easy to read. The ONLY and I mean ONLY reason why this isn't getting five stars from me is because the ending just felt like Bechley (view spoiler)[ kind of gave up. It is enormously anti-climatic with the shark just sort of slowly sinking from a few collective wounds rather than a huge standoff with Brody. (hide spoiler)]...more
There's not much I can say that hasn't been said. But I'll put a few thoughts out there anyway. I think every kid who loves fantasy owes Tolkien an unThere's not much I can say that hasn't been said. But I'll put a few thoughts out there anyway. I think every kid who loves fantasy owes Tolkien an unpayable debt. Every kid that rolled gaming dice and imagined themselves as a stout dwarven fighter, a mage, or an eleven ranger. Every kid that wanted to or needed to imagine world different than our own, that needed an imagination. And yeah, I was one of those kids. Lots of us were.
Anyway, seems to me this book was the modern genesis of all of that. Yeah, it has little problems with continuity with the LOTR. It has a different tone. But it is the genesis for a whole slew of fantasy literature and will remain a classic for as long as people have literary classics.
I love this book. I've read it many times and I'll do it again I'm sure at some point again. The book is so layered and so rich, I always find something new to focus on, some nuance to think about, and something new to enjoy. ...more