Hour of the Witch by Chris Bohjalian (2021)
Laura’s Rating: 2/5 Stars
I am absolutely fascinated by the Salem Witch Trials and continue to attempt to read fictional books set during that time (see my review of The Crucible), but unfortunately I continue to be disappointed.
The Analysis:
Mary Deerfield lives in 1660s Boston with her husband Thomas, who is much older than her and often makes rude and demeaning comments towards Mary after getting drunk. When his cruelty and abuse turns physical, Mary knows she can no longer remain married to Thomas. However, Puritan society frowns upon divorce and a public trial may expose Mary’s own secrets as she tries to expose Thomas’s.
This book is described as a thriller but I’d call it historical fiction, emphasis on the historical. The dialogue was boring and the activities were mundane with a few exceptions. There’s nothing wrong with accuracy or being grounded in reality, but I expect fiction to take some liberties in the name of an engaging plotline. This could have been an engaging thriller about women’s empowerment during a time when women had few liberties in society or even a story of how a woman was driven to real witchcraft during a time of public panic, but instead it was a slow story of an abusive relationship during a time of closed mindedness.
The general story isn’t bad and I actually liked the ending but it was excruciatingly slow and boring to get there. I did listen to the audiobook and I wonder if the narrator did not help the excitement factor. The pacing of the book also felt inconsistent, with some scenes dragging on followed by large jumps in time. The Hour of the Witch has some good qualities but it wasn’t what I was looking for and I didn’t enjoy it enough to recommend it.
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