"Hour of the Witch"

 Title: Hour of the Witch

Author: Chris Bohjalian

“Hour of the Witch” is a story about a woman named Mary Deerfield. Mary, who lives in 1600s Boston, is married off to Thomas,  a widower old enough to be her father. Mary finds married life to be different from her parent’s marriage. Firstly, she is unable to conceive a child with Thomas. Due to the fact that Thomas has a daughter from his first marriage the failure is solely on Mary’s shoulders. Thomas is unkind to Mary and often berates her while doling out what he calls discipline. After an exceptionally cruel attack from Thomas Mary has had enough and decides to try and get a divorce. What she hoped would grant her freedom quickly turns into a fight for her life. The pious city's inhabitants start pointing fingers at her and accusing her of sins like being prideful and lustful. When the accusations turn to witchcraft Mary must try and figure out who is plotting against her while also trying to prove her innocence. If she fails, she knows the gallows await. 

Bohjalian showed off an impressive amount of knowledge about the daily lives and habits of the people of New England. At the end of the book, there is a list of research material and it is substantial. There were a few times I had to turn to Google to figure out what something was, so I found the book to be educational as well as entertaining.

The characters held my attention throughout the story and made me want to keep reading during the times the plot dragged. More on the plot in a moment. While I can’t say that I particularly liked any of the characters I found a number of them to be very human. All the characters but Thomas I could understand their motives for their actions. Even though I could not understand Thomas’ motives I recognized him as someone that could and probably did, live during that time. The only character that I felt lacked in fleshing out was the character Henry Simmons, which I found to be a shame. He started out as interesting but in the end, became a somewhat flat knight in shining armor kind of character. At least, that was how he came across to me. YMMV

My only real problem with the book was that it took a bit too much determination to make it through the first half. While I understand it was to set up the latter half of the book I found myself wishing the plot would just get on with it. Had I not wanted to see what fate had in store for Mary I probably would have given up. I am glad I didn’t because I really did enjoy the latter half of the story. My advice to anyone wanting to give the book a go is to skim the first half up to Mary’s divorce petition. If you do that though, be aware you will miss out on a lot of the details that Bohjalian uses to make the world of 1600s Boston come to life. 

Would I recommend it? 

Yes, I would. Someone that likes the time period and is interested in how a woman might come to be accused of being a witch will most likely find it interesting. Someone looking for a book that involves the supernatural should look elsewhere. As previously stated, I think a good many people could skim the first half to get the gist of things and then settle in for the second part where, in my opinion, the story really starts to take off. 

I think the book would be a good fit for a book group and give plenty to talk about and debate. There are a few characters that I think with the right group could provide some interesting conversations regarding their motivations. There is also a heavy emphasis on the unfair system women had to live under which could also lead to some good discussion. 

Purchased?

No, I got it on loan from my library. I am not planning on purchasing it. 

Rating: 3.5/5