Abandoned by Booklikes

FYI, this is the cover of my Kindle book:

Wow. I haven't read this in years. I bought this a long time ago (October 2011) probably as a Halloween read. I never posted a review for it on Goodreads or here, but I think I did post one way back on my Amazon reviewer days. It was nice to re-read this. I really loved how Sharratt weaved this fictional story with real life events.

"Daughters of the Witching Hill" follows Bess Southerns, and her granddaughter Alizon who she has taught her white/folk magic to. Taking place in the 1600s, Sharrat draws upon the Pendle witch trials that took place in England. Apparently the witch trials are famous in England. I felt like an idiot at the time when I first read this since it just didn't occur to me that England was going around hanging women accused of witch-craft too. I always read about the Salem witch trials every year, so maybe next year I can see about incorporating some books about these trials too. 

Excerpt from Wikipedia: Six of the Pendle witches came from one of two families, each at the time headed by a woman in her eighties: Elizabeth Southerns (a.k.a. Demdike^[a]), her daughter Elizabeth Device, and her grandchildren James and Alizon Device; Anne Whittle (a.k.a. Chattox), and her daughter Anne Redferne. The others accused were Jane Bulcock and her son John Bulcock, Alice Nutter, Katherine Hewitt, Alice Grey, and Jennet Preston. The outbreaks of witchcraft in and around Pendle may demonstrate the extent to which people could make a living by posing as witches. Many of the allegations resulted from accusations that members of the Demdike and Chattox families made against each other, perhaps because they were in competition, both trying to make a living from healing, begging, and extortion.

I thought the writing was very good. I had no idea that many of the white magic that Bess Southerns was doing was a mixture of Catholicism and herbs though. It makes sense that so many people would be trying to wipe out the Catholics in this time and place though that even doing this would be seen as heresy and illegal since prior to this time the Catholics were wiped out in this area. They had to go around and conduct mass in secret. 

The flow though was up and down as I read which was one of the main reasons why I gave this one four stars. The main reason though is that the ending felt too rushed to me. We don't get to the trials until almost the very end. Everything else that came before with exploring the families, and how Alizon came into her powers started to feel really long after a while. 

The setting of England in the 1600s for poor people who were forced to beg or to sell charms was a sad one though. When you see what actually started all of this mess you just feel bad for everyone involved. 

I will say though that if you read about what really happened, Sharrat changes things up with regards to Alizon and a few other characters. I don't want to get into what happens, read the book or go to Wikipedia if you are interested. I was fascinated though by the betrayals in this book and ultimately what ended up happening to everyone.