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A review by jgintrovertedreader
The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent
3.0
The Salem Witch Trials. That's really the only summary you need for this book.
If you want to finish a book and feel like you hate pretty much the entire human race, pick this up. I was in a foul mood when I finished. There are so many rants I want to go on, I just don't even know where to start. I guess I'll content myself with saying that if you want another strong defense for the separation of church and state, this will give you some pointers. What an absolute travesty in our country's history.
Aside from that, the book was just okay. I think the author, who is related to the "witch" in the book, did what she set out to do, and taught me a few things about the witch trials and made me feel pretty strongly about it. But the story just moved too slow for me. I got too bogged down in the details of everyday life. In another book, I might have been interested. In this one, where I had a pretty good idea what was going to happen already, I just didn't care. I wanted to get on to the real meat of the story, rather than all the build-up. And then once we got to the point, there wasn't a whole lot there that I didn't already know. I read Arthur Miller's [b:The Crucible|17250|The Crucible|Arthur Miller|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166805388s/17250.jpg|1426723] back in high school, and I actually remembered some stuff from it. There was very little actual trial here and a lot of sitting around in the dark. I was disappointed in that.
But if you don't know anything about the trials, or if you know just a little bit and you want to know more, give this a try. You'll definitely learn something. I just can't help but wonder if there is better historical fiction about the Salem Witch Trials out there.
If you want to finish a book and feel like you hate pretty much the entire human race, pick this up. I was in a foul mood when I finished. There are so many rants I want to go on, I just don't even know where to start. I guess I'll content myself with saying that if you want another strong defense for the separation of church and state, this will give you some pointers. What an absolute travesty in our country's history.
Aside from that, the book was just okay. I think the author, who is related to the "witch" in the book, did what she set out to do, and taught me a few things about the witch trials and made me feel pretty strongly about it. But the story just moved too slow for me. I got too bogged down in the details of everyday life. In another book, I might have been interested. In this one, where I had a pretty good idea what was going to happen already, I just didn't care. I wanted to get on to the real meat of the story, rather than all the build-up. And then once we got to the point, there wasn't a whole lot there that I didn't already know. I read Arthur Miller's [b:The Crucible|17250|The Crucible|Arthur Miller|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166805388s/17250.jpg|1426723] back in high school, and I actually remembered some stuff from it. There was very little actual trial here and a lot of sitting around in the dark. I was disappointed in that.
But if you don't know anything about the trials, or if you know just a little bit and you want to know more, give this a try. You'll definitely learn something. I just can't help but wonder if there is better historical fiction about the Salem Witch Trials out there.