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Loading... The Heretic's Daughter (2008)by Kathleen Kent
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Historical Fiction (135) » 5 more No current Talk conversations about this book. As God in heaven knows, changing a name cannot change the history of a place. Nothing can change the history of Salem, Massachusetts, so the inhabitants have embraced it. They have built a memorial to the innocents who died there, they have made a kind of tourist industry of it, but the reality of what transpired stills the heart when truly contemplated. ...on that exact hour, a four-year-old girl, Dorcas Good, was examined by those judges in Salem Town jail. Her little feet and hands were bound by iron manacles so she could not send her spirit out and torment further the girls who were her accusers. The reality of what happened to 20 innocent men and women in Salem, and to countless others who were not hanged, reads like a twisted fairytale; but of course, it is all too real and all too revealing of who we humans can be in our worst hours. Look around, closely, and see the blame game and hysteria of our own times. Most of us are familiar with the events, and perhaps even with the details, but Kathleen Kent has put such a human face on Martha Carrier and her family that it all seems imbued with a fresh kind of horror and terror. What could you do in the face of such accusations? How long could you stand up for your innocence or that of your loved ones when sanity has taken a vacation and your mere denial places others in jeopardy? Who hasn’t uttered words that might be twisted and reshaped until they are swords in the hands of the unscrupulous fanatic? Kent writes beautifully, with a sharpness and wisdom in her words: A red wasp crawled across my hand and I froze lest he bury his stinger in my flesh. He was beautiful and frightful with his soulless black eyes and quivering barb and it came harshly to me that this garden was the world and from the world there would be no hiding. The book is sprinkled with words I wished to remember and quotes I stopped to ponder: Life is not what you have or what you can keep. It is what you can bear to lose. Men are always the last to ken what women know by sniffing the air. That’s why God gave bodily might to Adam, to balance the inequities in strength. The tension in this novel begins to build from the first page. The sense of foreboding is palpable. Sarah, our narrator, says The dread that had poured over me on the way to Samuel Preston’s farm returned to lick its way from my eyes to my neck. It congealed and tightened there like an insect caught in an amber necklace. That pretty much describes the way I felt throughout the book. We know where it is going, we know it will not end well, we know reason did not win this battle, and yet I sat on the edge of my seat, hoping and wishing for another outcome. But, this is not a book about fantasy, this is a book about reality--in 1692 this was a world and an event that was all too real. Like [b:The Crucible|17250|The Crucible|Arthur Miller|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1547467608l/17250._SX50_.jpg|1426723] before it, it is about strength; strength of character, impossible endurance, maintaining who you are in the face of unspeakable injustice. It is a reminder that there are different ways to define victory, some victories are shallow and some are intangible and worth remembering for ages. If I am ever able to make the trip to Massachusetts, I would like to stand before the memorial they have built there and say a prayer for the souls of the twenty, and for all the other lives that were touched and changed by what happened to them there. For now, I pray for us, that we will have more wisdom, judgment and compassion than our ancestors had. I have been reading a lot of books on Salem and the witch trials. This book stands out among them all for having a very vivid aura, told from the first person perspective, which greatly enhances the feeling of authenticity. Too many of the books are just a regurgitation of the historic records. This book brings the story of Martha Carrier and her particular family to life. I highly recommend it. Wow. Well written but terrifying and sad, it is the best book I’ve read on the Salem Witch trials. The horrors and the unbelievable stupidity and over zealousness of the accusers and the judges is eerily familiar in these dark days as we strive to save our country and our world from the incompetence, greed, and ignorance of Trump and his minions. no reviews | add a review
Belongs to Publisher SeriesGoldmann (46838)
Martha Carrier was one of the first women to be accused, tried and hanged as a witch in Salem, Massachusetts. Like her mother, young Sarah Carrier is bright and willful, openly challenging the small, brutal world in which they live. Often at odds with one another, mother and daughter are forced to stand together against the escalating hysteria of the trials and the superstitious tyranny that led to the torture and imprisonment of more than 200 people accused of witchcraft. This is the story of Martha's courageous defiance and ultimate death, as told by the daughter who survived. No library descriptions found. |
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![]() GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.6Literature English (North America) American fiction 21st CenturyLC ClassificationRatingAverage:![]()
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The author does not represent the passage of time well - sometimes Hanna was 3years old - but then it would (if you count events and years mentioned in narrative) add up to her age being 12 or 13 - yet she never matured... and then you find out that the narrator is still referring to her as a 3 year old.
The characters are flat - even the main character - who talks all the way through - never develops a good stable personality and representation. The father has a secret - which is referenced throughout the story as a hook - but even when someone was "telling the secret" - it was mostly untold - and the REASON for the (shhhh - telling... oh... but you dont really understand what I'm talking about do you?!) - is never told -
nor is the reason for the secret in the first place...
the guy is trying to "protect" his kids - the same kids that he will not walk up two steps to help them walk down when they step out into sunlight the first time after months of imprisonment - and makes them walk like ducks following him home...
it was a favor?
so he's protecting them from knowledge of him and his past - but he's so into protecting them that he barely welcomes them home.
it just got harder and harder to read... but eventually I did finish it. (