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A review by latad_books
The House of the Witch by Clare Marchant
3.0
Using two different time periods, author Clare Marchant compares and contrasts two women, Ursula in 1648, and Adriana in the present. She shows how cultural and institutional bigotry have corrosive effects on those it is used against, and how easily abuse can be normalized and condoned.
In the present, Adriana rents a cottage in rural Norfolk. She's there to lick her professional wounds and is on sabbatical from her demanding job as a project manager. Her boyfriend Rick isn't happy she won't be in London with him, and is a little peeved that she won't leave him her car. But she does remind him that he's living in her swanky apartment in London. Adriana soon finds Rick to be displeased that she's enjoying a country life, with him dismissing her new friendships and interest in gardening.
While puttering around, she finds a bundle of notes under a floorboard, and feels these are important. She begins reading, and is drawn into the life of Ursula, a midwife in the mid-17th century, who happened to live in the same cottage.
In 1648, Ursula helps the women of her village to birth their children, and also prepares herbal remedies for a variety of illnesses and complaints. As a single woman resistant to ever taking a husband (her immigrant mother was abused), Ursula is seen as an anomaly, and an oddity, and she knows that it's a quick hop and skip from that to someone labelling her a witch.
When a wealthy man arrives in town, he immediately decides that he wants Ursula, and tells her so. She resists, at which point he begins a campaign to discredit her, which is too successful, and Ursula knows she's on very dangerous ground; i.e. witch accusation….
Marchant switches back and forth between Adriana and Ursula, ratcheting up the tension and danger in Ursula's life, while dismantling the fictions Adriana has come to believe about herself and her life in London.
Ursula's chapters were particularly interesting, and I liked the idea that this lone woman, despite the increasing peril she's in, maintains her principles and refuses to give in to the increasingly nasty demands of her aggressor.
Adriana's chapters were interesting, but I knew what was going on from early in chapter one, and it was just a matter of time waiting for Adriana to catch up to what was obvious.
I liked the recurring motif in the form of the bird in both timelines, and though I enjoyed this book, wished that Adriana's story had been more complex.
Thank you to Netgalley and to Boldwood Books for this ARC in exchange for my review.
In the present, Adriana rents a cottage in rural Norfolk. She's there to lick her professional wounds and is on sabbatical from her demanding job as a project manager. Her boyfriend Rick isn't happy she won't be in London with him, and is a little peeved that she won't leave him her car. But she does remind him that he's living in her swanky apartment in London. Adriana soon finds Rick to be displeased that she's enjoying a country life, with him dismissing her new friendships and interest in gardening.
While puttering around, she finds a bundle of notes under a floorboard, and feels these are important. She begins reading, and is drawn into the life of Ursula, a midwife in the mid-17th century, who happened to live in the same cottage.
In 1648, Ursula helps the women of her village to birth their children, and also prepares herbal remedies for a variety of illnesses and complaints. As a single woman resistant to ever taking a husband (her immigrant mother was abused), Ursula is seen as an anomaly, and an oddity, and she knows that it's a quick hop and skip from that to someone labelling her a witch.
When a wealthy man arrives in town, he immediately decides that he wants Ursula, and tells her so. She resists, at which point he begins a campaign to discredit her, which is too successful, and Ursula knows she's on very dangerous ground; i.e. witch accusation….
Marchant switches back and forth between Adriana and Ursula, ratcheting up the tension and danger in Ursula's life, while dismantling the fictions Adriana has come to believe about herself and her life in London.
Ursula's chapters were particularly interesting, and I liked the idea that this lone woman, despite the increasing peril she's in, maintains her principles and refuses to give in to the increasingly nasty demands of her aggressor.
Adriana's chapters were interesting, but I knew what was going on from early in chapter one, and it was just a matter of time waiting for Adriana to catch up to what was obvious.
I liked the recurring motif in the form of the bird in both timelines, and though I enjoyed this book, wished that Adriana's story had been more complex.
Thank you to Netgalley and to Boldwood Books for this ARC in exchange for my review.