She's a Witch!! I'm not a witch, I'm NOT a witch..."

Ahhh, Monty Python's witch hunt scene. One of cinema's greats in my opinion.

With all the current hype about witches (Harry Potter) and other mythical figures, such a vampires, flooding into contemporary literature these days, it is interesting to think back on the very real and historical role of witches, real or otherwise, in the U.S. I am talking specifically about the Salem Witch Trials in Massachusetts in the 1690s, which happens to be the topic of my most recent read. Stats:
Title: The Heretic's Daughter
Author: Kathleen Kent
Publisher: Little, Brown and Co (My fav!)
Date: 2008
My start date: 4/11/10
My finish date: 4/18/10

I have been fascinated by this topic since I was a kid. When I was about twelve years old, two things happened to draw me into the study of the Salem trials. First, a movie came out which came over time to be a classic within my family, that is, Hocus Pocus. We watch that movie every Halloween to this day. For some reason, I just loved this movie and when it came out, true to form for me, I immediately took to the encyclopedias to find out more about it. Almost simultaneously, in a move that in retrospect might well have been planned to correspond to the hit movie by a smart teacher, my class read a great book by an author who I think is among the best of Young Adult writers, Ann Rinaldi. The book was called A Break With Charity and told the events in historical fiction format from the perspective of one of the girls in the ring of accusors. This story of the power of a few young and bored girls to grip entire communities in terror and bring people to tragic deaths had me hooked.

Needless to say, when I saw Kent's fictionalized account of the story of her own family's experiences of the trials, I was intrigued. Kent is a direct descendant of Martha Carrier, one of the women historically most strongly accused and Kent weaves mostly true facts into a delightful fiction that takes you behind the scenes into a very hard time in this country while also writing a story about the bonds of family, particularly mother-daughter relationships and coming of age. It was fun as I read to run to the internet and double check the veracity of each development and Kent keeps not only a webpage, but also a facebook fanpage which has pictures of real locations and other things.

One thing I might add, however, is the relative slowness of the beginning. However, I am not even sure that "slowness" is the correct word. Considering my fascination with the subject of the trials, I expected the book to dive right into "witchcraft" in the community from the beginning, but the topic of witchcraft and the trials is actually almost entirely absent until the second half of the book, or perhaps even later. Yet, a slow beginning doesn't really describe it. The first half gives the reader a beautiful view of the realities of life in the late 17th century and the story is still quite engaging. It is just "slow" in getting to the advertised point. But rich in historical value at least.

Great book, fascinating topic, I definitely recommend.

Time for the next one!
Keep reading!
Sarah