A review by thefoxyreader
Hour of the Witch by Chris Bohjalian

informative mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

 
Don’t let the marketing ruin this book for you like it almost did me. Hour of the Witch is NOT a thriller. It has one suspenseful scene and some growing dread throughout, but it overwhelmingly is a historical fiction courtroom drama. Sort of like if John Grisham wrote an episode of Law & Order: Puritan Victims Unit.

SYNOPSIS: Mary’s husband is the woooooorst. He beats her, belittles her, and rapes her. When he sticks a fork in the back of her hand, she’s done. Mary leaves him and pursues divorcing his abusive ass. But she forgot that it’s 1600s Boston, and she quickly learns that folks are beginning to suspect she’s a witch.

You can tell that Chris Bohjalian did a lot of research on the time period and location. I appreciate when an author’s research shows in the writing. For the most part, everything felt authentic to the period, and I love that he presents women in this time period as being smart and having a desire to be independent but not being able to achieve their wants and desires because of the way society was built to benefit white men.

The straight-forward approach was an interesting choice to take, and I appreciate that even though witchcraft isn’t real, the characters still believe in it and fear it. I thought we might get some lite witchcraft or at least some plausibility that it existed, but Bohjalian really sticks to the HISTORICAL part of historical fiction.

Despite the impressive research and interesting premise, <i>Hour of the Witch</i> is not without its flaws. The biggest missed opportunity is in the character of Henry, the dark-headed eff-society-and-all-its-conventions newcomer to town. I wish there had been more of a build to his relationship with Mary. This could have been the ultimate forbidden romance since she’s married and suspected of witchcraft. Their relationship just happens too quickly instead of being dangled like the apple in front of Adam and Eve.

And I get that Bohjalian is sticking to the realism, but I’m single and could have really used a scene where these two characters have an intense makeout on the docks in the dead of night. I get there’s no way they could do that without getting caught, but just give us a tiny bit of spice, please.

Bohjalian also relies too much on repetition to where it becomes borderline parody. If you don’t call a fork “the devil’s tines” after finishing this book, then I don’t believe you actually read it. Same goes for “prithee,” “drink-drunk,” and “white meat for brains.”

Overall, this book isn’t bad by any means, but I think it could have benefited from another editing/rewriting session to increase the tension and make the characters and story more interesting. 
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