Hour of the Witch by Chris Bohjalian
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
It’s Boston 1662. Women are to be seen, and not heard. We meet Mary Deerborn, who is a feisty young woman, married to an abusive older man. After many verbal and physical altercations with her husband, Mary decides that she has had enough, and seeks divorce, which surprisingly, is allowed. Of course, since this is 1662 and Boston, Mary is accused of being a witch, and her trial is more about the possibility of her being possessed by Satan, than her abusive husband.
Chris Bohjalian has written a mesmerizing book, that is a slow burn. He builds his characters slowly, but masterfully, and we become entwined in the mystery of who is setting Mary up, will she ever be able to leave her husband, and will she be deemed a witch. What makes this book so powerful is that Mary is a woman who is forced to be a submissive, dutiful wife, and that is just not her nature. The Hour of the Witch is a fantastic look into our history, not only our religious background but how we have treated women, which sadly to say, we still struggle with today.
The story has an excellent sense of time and place, I really enjoyed, The Hour of The Witch.
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