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A review by dispurg
Hour of the Witch by Chris Bohjalian
3.0
Ugh. I hate giving a 3 star rating to one of my favorite authors, but I just wasn't in love with this novel.
The setting is New England in the 1660's - think the Puritans and the Salem Witch Trials. The story itself was not bad, but the courtroom drama and the use of the word "Prithee" in every sentence (not really, but it seemed like it) sort of made the middle 200 pages of the book drag on. At one point I thought -- do I even care how this ends?
The last 100 pages saved the novel. In true Bohjalian fashion, the ending was full of twists that I did not see coming. If there could have been more of this, I'd have loved this book.
It did get me to thinking about two things:
1) How blessed I am to live in 21st century America as a woman who can own things and say things and do mostly as I please.
2) How will people 300 years from now look back on our writing and be annoyed with the conversational language of our time?
The setting is New England in the 1660's - think the Puritans and the Salem Witch Trials. The story itself was not bad, but the courtroom drama and the use of the word "Prithee" in every sentence (not really, but it seemed like it) sort of made the middle 200 pages of the book drag on. At one point I thought -- do I even care how this ends?
The last 100 pages saved the novel. In true Bohjalian fashion, the ending was full of twists that I did not see coming. If there could have been more of this, I'd have loved this book.
It did get me to thinking about two things:
1) How blessed I am to live in 21st century America as a woman who can own things and say things and do mostly as I please.
2) How will people 300 years from now look back on our writing and be annoyed with the conversational language of our time?