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3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
Could not get past page 115. This is just such a snooze. Abandoned it...life’s too short.
I so wanted to like this book, but it was way too long. It would have been a great short story.
This book was sitting on a display table at the library when I walked in. I was there to pick up a book I’d requested but the title intrigued me. I hadn’t read a single spooky book this month and so I picked it up to read, wondering how a witch would come into play in the story.
I found that the story is set in Boston, MA in 1662. I remembered about the many innocent women hanged, accused as witches, around this time. Would this be about a real witch or an accused one? The heroine is Mary Deerfield, a young woman married to a vile, cruel man. Her husband Thomas is a well respected miller in the growing town and wont to becoming “drink drunk” and that’s when he is most abusive.
Mary’s parents are well to do. Her father imports many desired items to the colony. From one shipment, Mary’s mother gifts her with some forks. Forks are new to the colony and suspicious people call it “the Devil’s tines.” Even Mary resolves not to use them but Thomas has other ideas during a drunken rage at his wife. He drives a fork through her hand.
After that act, Mary decides to petition for divorce from Thomas. At about the same time, she finds forks and a pestle buried near their home. Are they signs of witchcraft? Her servant comes upon Mary as she is reburying the items and flees. Mary goes to her parents’ home for safety from Thomas.
Mary’s petition is heard before a group of paternalistic men who seem more interested in the servant’s accusation of witchcraft than they are of the abuse Mary endured. That’s as far as I’m going because I don’t want to spoil the story for anyone who wants to read the book.
Some of the things I particularly liked was that Chris Bohjalian uses the language of Colonial times. For example, he uses thee and thou when the characters speak. There are no contractions in speech. He also showed how a rumor of witchcraft could spread in a community and how easily an innocent woman could be accused of it. It was also very clear that this was a paternalistic society and a woman’s value was determined by whether or not she could bear a child.
Although it isn’t a traditional spooky story, I sometimes find the motives and behavior of some people to be much more horrifying than witches, warlocks, vampires and werewolves. I fell into the book and found it hard to put down. I would recommend it, especially for those who enjoy historical fiction.
I found that the story is set in Boston, MA in 1662. I remembered about the many innocent women hanged, accused as witches, around this time. Would this be about a real witch or an accused one? The heroine is Mary Deerfield, a young woman married to a vile, cruel man. Her husband Thomas is a well respected miller in the growing town and wont to becoming “drink drunk” and that’s when he is most abusive.
Mary’s parents are well to do. Her father imports many desired items to the colony. From one shipment, Mary’s mother gifts her with some forks. Forks are new to the colony and suspicious people call it “the Devil’s tines.” Even Mary resolves not to use them but Thomas has other ideas during a drunken rage at his wife. He drives a fork through her hand.
After that act, Mary decides to petition for divorce from Thomas. At about the same time, she finds forks and a pestle buried near their home. Are they signs of witchcraft? Her servant comes upon Mary as she is reburying the items and flees. Mary goes to her parents’ home for safety from Thomas.
Mary’s petition is heard before a group of paternalistic men who seem more interested in the servant’s accusation of witchcraft than they are of the abuse Mary endured. That’s as far as I’m going because I don’t want to spoil the story for anyone who wants to read the book.
Some of the things I particularly liked was that Chris Bohjalian uses the language of Colonial times. For example, he uses thee and thou when the characters speak. There are no contractions in speech. He also showed how a rumor of witchcraft could spread in a community and how easily an innocent woman could be accused of it. It was also very clear that this was a paternalistic society and a woman’s value was determined by whether or not she could bear a child.
Although it isn’t a traditional spooky story, I sometimes find the motives and behavior of some people to be much more horrifying than witches, warlocks, vampires and werewolves. I fell into the book and found it hard to put down. I would recommend it, especially for those who enjoy historical fiction.
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
What could be more fun than reading 360 pages of utter cruelty to a woman, barely more than property in the 1660s version of America? Pepper it with more than its share of absolute despair, and you've got a hit on your hands.
That's a tough and unfair description, frankly, but what I thought I was in for when I first started reading. I was mostly wrong.
Mary Deerfield, in her early 20s, is married to Thomas, twice her age, and a well-to-do mill owner, devout, admired, and well-respected throughout the community. Mary herself comes from good stock, coming from England as a young child with her parents, who have established an excellent trading company, doing admirable business with Europe and the Orient. Everything seems like a picture of perfection, but we learn early on that Thomas likes his drink, and when he's had perhaps a drip or two too much, he tends to turn into a hell of a brute with his wife. He's never so drunk as to not strategically land his blows so they are not easily seen by the general churchgoing public on Sundays, but perhaps goes a bit too far when Mary is falsely accused of practicing witchcraft, producing a terrible wound that all can see. Like the rarely spotted bruise, there are always stories to answer for this wound - careless Mary, falling on a tea kettle.
Mary's eventually had enough - the accusation of witchcraft goes no further than gossip at first - and so she enlists the assistance of a scrivener to request a divorce from her husband on the charges of cruelty. While she fancies her chances, few others do, because they see that Mary underestimates two things: her husband's public image, and the notion that people will accept a smart woman who is ready to take charge of her life once again. Not in 1662 Boston, they won't.
Once Mary decides that she has no choice but to impose justice on her loutish husband, we find her on the inevitable slippery slope towards the magistrate's court, facing criminal charges of witchcraft, with fewer and fewer of her peers believing her stories. Will the residents of Boston see her swing from a rope? Will her scumbag husband get off scot-free?
This is the right time for a book such as this - women's rights are human rights, empowering women, equality in all things for males and females, etc. My "etc." isn't meant as a denigration of the causes - I'm a firm believer - but it is meant to suggest that Bohjalian tried to crowbar as many of these principles into his book as he could. And he does a good job with it, but we might be left with a little too perfect an ending.
Three and a half pentagrams out of five.
That's a tough and unfair description, frankly, but what I thought I was in for when I first started reading. I was mostly wrong.
Mary Deerfield, in her early 20s, is married to Thomas, twice her age, and a well-to-do mill owner, devout, admired, and well-respected throughout the community. Mary herself comes from good stock, coming from England as a young child with her parents, who have established an excellent trading company, doing admirable business with Europe and the Orient. Everything seems like a picture of perfection, but we learn early on that Thomas likes his drink, and when he's had perhaps a drip or two too much, he tends to turn into a hell of a brute with his wife. He's never so drunk as to not strategically land his blows so they are not easily seen by the general churchgoing public on Sundays, but perhaps goes a bit too far when Mary is falsely accused of practicing witchcraft, producing a terrible wound that all can see. Like the rarely spotted bruise, there are always stories to answer for this wound - careless Mary, falling on a tea kettle.
Mary's eventually had enough - the accusation of witchcraft goes no further than gossip at first - and so she enlists the assistance of a scrivener to request a divorce from her husband on the charges of cruelty. While she fancies her chances, few others do, because they see that Mary underestimates two things: her husband's public image, and the notion that people will accept a smart woman who is ready to take charge of her life once again. Not in 1662 Boston, they won't.
Once Mary decides that she has no choice but to impose justice on her loutish husband, we find her on the inevitable slippery slope towards the magistrate's court, facing criminal charges of witchcraft, with fewer and fewer of her peers believing her stories. Will the residents of Boston see her swing from a rope? Will her scumbag husband get off scot-free?
This is the right time for a book such as this - women's rights are human rights, empowering women, equality in all things for males and females, etc. My "etc." isn't meant as a denigration of the causes - I'm a firm believer - but it is meant to suggest that Bohjalian tried to crowbar as many of these principles into his book as he could. And he does a good job with it, but we might be left with a little too perfect an ending.
Three and a half pentagrams out of five.
Hour of the Witch has all the elements I love about Chris Bohjalian's books. The history is researched and real. Fascinating history aside, the book is at the same time fiction and tells a story that keeps me rapidly turning pages from beginning to the end. What I might expect of this book is the story of Puritan New England and a male dominated society. Yet, this book is really the story of the women - those who would tear each other down and those who would lift each other up.
Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2022/02/hour-of-witch.html
Reviewed for NetGalley.
Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2022/02/hour-of-witch.html
Reviewed for NetGalley.
3.5 stars. This one is a bit slow moving, but I loved the unique premise. Bohjalian is an excellent writer who does his research but his research does not overwhelm the plot as it does with some other authors.
I don't know as though I can think of another author who has the range of Chris Bohjalian. No two of his novels are the same. As a result of his range, I can tell you that haven't elected to read all of his books, because the story lines do not all appeal to me, and I am totally good with that. I even stopped reading one of the books my book club chose because it wasn't for me. That being said, one of his books is one of my husband's favorites, and I first learned of the Armenian Genocide from another of his works that I loved (ok, I don't love genocide, but you get what I mean). This new work is another in a long line of excellent novels on diverse topics. It is definitely a slow burn, and the postscript at the end of every chapter doesn't do anything to hide where things are headed. Despite the span of centuries, the plot has many similarities to more recent times, although people don't often seem to write these days of people who come close to the edge of terrible crimes and step back from them. Even though we should expect it, the scenes is the 'courtroom' where we hear unsupported aspersions cast on her, are chilling. This is an absorbing story of a brave young woman. Thank you to Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review an ARC.
Whoever said this book was bad is confusing. I personally thought this book was pretty awesome. It wasn’t scary in the senses of horror but more so messed up in the sense of real life and a real witch trial. I will say the ending was the most satisfying ending in a while.