Hour of the Witch by Chris Bohjalian

 

Title: Hour of the Witch

Author:  Chris Bohjalian

Narrated by:  Grace Experience, Saskia Maarleveld, Danny Campbell, Cassandra Campbell, Arthur Morey, Mark Deakins, Julia Whelan, Kaleo Griffith, Kirby Heyborne, Rebecca Lowman, Mark Bramhall

Publisher: Random House Audio

Length: Approximately 12 hours and 8 minutes

Source: Checked out from the Kewaunee Public Library through Overdrive.  Thank-you

 Do you take books out of a library or always buy your own?  I do a mix.  I check out books from the library, buy new or used books, and love getting books for review from publishers, authors, and NetGalley.

 In 1662 Boston, Mary Deerfield is the 24-year-old wife of the much older Thomas Deerfield.  Thomas is a miller, and they have a fine life, but it is a loveless marriage.  As Thomas’s abuse of Mary escalates, she decides to take matters into her own hands and apply for a divorce.  Why would a woman want a divorce in 1662 Boston?  Why is she thinking independently for herself?  Why have the “devil’s tines (i.e., forks)” been buried near her doorway?  Is she a witch?

 Hour of the Witch was the October pick for the Page-turners Book Club at the Kewaunee Public Library.  I loved this book.  I listened to the first half on audiobook which I thought was intriguing, but I switched to the regular book for the last half after I came down with COVID.   I sadly didn’t get to attend the meeting because I was sick, and I think this would have been a great book for discussion.

 I thought this was a tightly written, intriguing historical fiction novel.  It’s disturbing how women who were alone or women that spoke their minds were accused of witchcraft.  It is written in the speaking style of the 1600s, which I enjoyed.    I couldn’t put this book down, I really wanted to see how it ended.  I thought the narration of the book was good.  There were different quotes at the start of different chapters, and they had different narrators for the quotes.  I was convinced that this was based on a true story until the end.  Author Chris Bohjalian did a lot of research on the time and trials, but this is a fictional account.

 SPOILER ALERT I very much enjoyed the ending of this book.  Although I did enjoy the ending, I realized that it was farfetched and not the ending of that any of the accused women of the time would have had.  SPOILER END

Favorite Quote:  "She was sent to the scaffold because she had a sharper tongue and a shrewder mind than her accusers.  It is always the case when men hang women.  Look at Magistrate Caleb Adams: there is nothing that frightens a man more than a woman who does not live happily under a man's thumb."