This is a historical fiction that deals with witchcraft and injustices. I love the historical fiction genre but a lot of the books about Witchery seems to be so boring.
I love the showing of questioning of faith. It shows understanding of what others may believe. During this timeframe Christianity ruled Britain. Seeing that a lady who also during this time was not considered an equal to men shows that changes were needed even back then.
I am enjoying the fact that they talk about withcraft as an evil item and use purely coincidental issues that others have suffered as a way in which to ensure that the lady in question would be found guilty.
Withcraft as they describe doesn’t work in the same way. Curses and other items is merely superstition and a way to justify the evil actions of a few.
I like the characters and see Gwen as an innocent and very naive lady who has disabilities. She is trying to survive and because she has no family in the area she is feared as well because she is different then the others.
The names that many of the women had are very time oriented such as name like Hester. It is interesting how some names have grown out of favour and others are still around and popular.
I do think there is some odd issues with this book. They treat women as not worth much but allow a woman in to visit a prisoner who has been accused of murder and withcraft. It seems like that I something that is a bit too unrealistic as to my mind why would you out another woman at risk by potentially allowing a witch to control her.
I like the story and think that while it is great and not really what I am used to it also strikes some chords with me. Gwen is a scapegoat in many ways as people fear her and it is because of something that while not common is certainly not dangerous to anyone other than themselves.
The starting of a club perse to try and help Gwen could be seen as seditious as well as could be seen with the name as one that deals with witchcraft.
I must say I am glad that I am not living in that time period as I would hate to be stuck with anything like what they go through. It is shocking the sheer horror that many must have felt during this time period in history.
Reading this you are transported back into a time where everything seems to be backwards and that legal issues can be brought up without any proof. It shows a time where superstition in witchcraft was very rampant.
I really enjoyed the book but I also think that this narrative shows how bad things were especially if you were poor or had no official titles. It is sad to see this as well since there are so few who are wealthy and those who aren’t have to suffer at the hands of tyrannical despots who want to keep the working class of people down.
I find that the way this was written was interesting and it showed that laws aren’t really fair and that the magistrates can do what they please for lesser crimes. It is shameful to see this but also interesting.
Crazy Canadian Writing 