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Jan 04, 2011

Jackie rated it:

I won this here at GOODREADS!

While it seemed slow in the beginning, boring even, it was just that very thing that made this book very powerful in it's representation of the events surrounding The Salem Witch Trials.
The first half of the book was a day-to-day in the life a 9 year old girl, Sarah Carrier of Andover, giving me a feel for life 17th Century New England.
When the book gets to the accusations, the fear is palpable. As events spiral out of control, the novel shed More...

1 comment like (13 people liked it)

Nov 11, 2011

Jeanette rated it:

An outstanding first novel. Kathleen Kent is a direct descendant of Martha Carrier, the novel's heroine who was hanged in 1692 at the height of the Salem witch trials. Kent spent five years researching and writing this novel of her heritage, and the result is exceptional. The prose is solid and smooth, and the portrayal of late-17th century New England is rich with fascinating details of life in that era.

The story is told through the eyes of Martha's daughter Sarah Carrier, who i More...

0 comments like (8 people liked it)

Nov 22, 2008

Beth rated it:

When I was manning a booth for the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Mystery Writers of America at the Mountain and Plains Independent Booksellers Association conference, I picked up an ARC (Advanced Reading Copy) of this book that was published in September. I just finished it and I highly recommend it! The book is beautifully written, powerful, and gives you a clear, emotion-filled picture through the eyes of a girl living in late 1600's Andover, Massachusetts (near Salem), of what life was like b More...

1 comment like (8 people liked it)

Aug 26, 2008

Tricia rated it:

This historically accurate story allows the reader to be immersed into the Carrier family's Puritan life in Massachusetts and the Salem Witch Trials. It is a hauntingly written tale and definitely made me angry, uncomfortable, and just plain sad.

Kathleen Kent is a descendant of Martha Carrier, who was hung for witchcraft in 1692. The story is told from the perspective of Martha's daughter as she looks back on her life and tries to come to terms with her familial relationships and More...

0 comments like (12 people liked it)

Jul 02, 2008

MK rated it:

The Salem Witch trials has always fascinated me, so perhaps I am biased, but I loved ....loved.... loved this book. Sarah Carrier is an interesting narrator since she sees the proceedings as a child might, but with a teen's relationship with her unusual mother. I was amazed by how readily the people of Salem were to believe the tales of witchcraft as the net ever expanded wider and wider. How many women were left untouched in the Salem area?? Is this another allegory for our times - how rea More...

0 comments like (8 people liked it)

Jun 16, 2008

Brandi rated it:

When we got the ARC for this at work I was immediately interested because the author was related to the women she was writing about. This is a fictionalized version of events during the Salem witch trials revolving around Martha Carrier and her daughter Sarah. The first half of the book dragged for me, but the second half made up for it.

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Dec 02, 2008

Sara rated it:

If you can get past the creepy cover art, you may enjoy this retelling of the Salem Witch Trials. The narrator is the young Sarah Carrier who has just moved to Salem, and is forced to contend with the witch terror gripping the town at the time. This harsh coming of age story is told in a time where family squabbles, neighborly disputes, and mild forms of fortune were causes for condemnation.

Using a child to try and make sense of what is happening is heart breaking and genius. Th More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jun 16, 2008

Alexandra rated it:

If you like colonial American history or have an interest in the history of Salem, MA, this is the book for you. It is told from the perspective of Sarah Carrier, whose mother, Martha, was executed during the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. Sarah herself was also accused and spent several months in jail. The writing is great--very poetic and almost hypnotic--and there is some great imagery about life in New England during that time. Though today scholars have lots of theories about what actually cau More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 20, 2010

Melanie rated it:

This book transported me to the 1600's. There were times I struggled to pick it up because the world near Salem, Massachusetts at that time was a dark place---a place where one was not free to believe or practice the religion of one's choice, a place where you were guilty before proven innocent, a place where the only way to survive was to give into the crazed accusations of begrudging neighbors and said possessed girls. Kathleen Kent's debut novel was almost poetic, well-researched, and yes, More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Dec 31, 2008

KristenR rated it:

As a direct descendant of Martha Carrier, when I saw some great reviews of this fictionalized account of her family's ordeal in the witch trials, I felt I simply had to read it.

The author has beautifully woven together family history/legend and the facts of the witch trials. She has created a fascinating account of the politics, religion, and conditions of Puritan Massachusetts during this hysteria that, however horrifying, is very believable.

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Nov 01, 2008

Denine rated it:

If you enjoy reading about the Salem Witch trials, this one is for you.

I found it to be a sad book, but a good sad book.

It's just hard to stomach that a handful of teenage girls could ruin so many people...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Sep 09, 2011

Kathryn rated it:

Again, a book read that leaves me with a tight chest of emotion for what occurred during the Salem witch trials. What they endured I cannot even imagine. This book was beautifully written, the author's descriptions are so crisp and exact I knew with every word precisely what was being depicted. A very enlightening story told with such compassion and honesty. I would read a book by this author again in a heartbeat.

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 01, 2008

Carey rated it:

" A needle is such a small, brittle thing. It is easily broken. It can hold but one fragile thread. But if the needle is sharp, it can pierce the coarsest cloth. Ply the needle in and out of a canvas and with a great length of thread one can make a sail to move a ship across the ocean. In such a way can a sharp gossipy tongue, with the thinnest thread of rumor, stitch together a story to flap in the breeze. Hoist that story upon the pillar of superstitious belief and a whole town can be pul More...

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Feb 13, 2009

Susan rated it:

"Hyssop for cough. Rosemary for fever. A sprig of mint to cleanse ill humors from the mouth. Slippery elm for the midwife. Horse chestnut for stiffness of limb. Golden bough for palsy. But what is the cure for rage? And what of the tortures of a guilty mind? A seeping wound can be bound. Salve can be dabbed to a burn or a swelling bubo. Poison can be drawn with a leech, or a lance. But guilt is a ghost that takes the shape of the body it inhabits and consumes all that is tender within its s More...

2 comments like (10 people liked it)

Sep 09, 2011

Carole rated it:

Having been shocked and fascinated by the Salem Witch Trials since learning about them in school, I couldn’t wait to read this book. The author is a descendent of Martha Carrier, one of the first women to hang as a witch, despite the fact that she maintained her innocence until the end. Telling the story through a child’s eyes, the daughter of Martha Carrier, was brilliant. Nine year old Sarah learns about the harsh world and unfair accusations and tries to make sense of it all, landing in pr More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 04, 2011

Hannah rated it:

This book became an incredible, un-put-downable read after a somewhat slow begnning. Personally, I didn't mind the slow paced beginning, as I felt it set the stage for what would transpire in the final 150 pages, but I do see how readers expecting a fairly instantaneous exposure to the Salem witch trials and hangings might be put off by the steady yet meticulous fashioning of the world of her characters, notably the Carrier family.

Author Kathleen Kent happens to be a descendant of M More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Sep 09, 2011

Melody rated it:

I can tell you that after struggling through The Other Boleyn Girl I was not looking forward to reading this. I was all prepared for a half-thought-out sensational-seeking wimpy bit of historical fiction dealing with the underbelly of the Salem witch trials. It didn’t take long for me to change my mind. The story is told from the narrator’s point of view when she was a child. Although the author does not clearly reveal why she uses the technique of having the narrator write a letter to her g More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 19, 2009

Lisa rated it:

For Sarah Carrier's family life was always hard. As it was for most people living in Andover, Massachusetts in 1690. For nine year-old Sarah, her two older brothers, her baby sister and her parents, hard times seemed to follow them. They fled their home in Billerica to escape smallpox which was spreading rampantly throughout the villages killing entire families. In cover of night, they traveled to Andover to live with Sarah's maternal grandmother with the hopes of starting a new life there. What More...

4 comments like (3 people liked it)

Sep 09, 2011

Gwen rated it:

"The Heretic's Daughter" is a haunting true story lyrically rendered. This book is astounding not only for its clear rendering of the grim place in history how it transports you through time, but especially for its stunningly beautiful writing. The authors vivid descriptions and at times poetic metaphors capture and crystallize everyday life in the late 1600s.

In reading this book, I actually felt the settlers daily fears: the ever-present threats of "Indian" raids More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 26, 2008

Tamara rated it:

Since I am a descendant of several victims of the Salem hysteria, although not of the Carrier family line, I was very interested to read this book. I was definately not disappointed. In fact, the author did a terrific job in creating a very likable protagonist named Sarah Carrier. Sarah's mother is wrongly accused of witchcraft and after a time Sarah and her siblings are as well. Sarah can well attest to the extreme injustices that her family endures. It is a shameful time in our history whe More...

3 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 10, 2008

Corinne rated it:

This beautifully told and heartbreaking book is the story of Sarah Carrier, a ten year old girl living near Salem, Massachusetts in 1690. With near poetic prose, we witness a community harassed with Indian raids and smallpox plagues let fear and uncertainty turn into passion and terror. Neighbor turns against neighbor as old resentments and petty arguments lead to dire consequences - and Sarah and her family are sunk in the middle of it. Despite Sarah's previously course and unfriendly rel More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 10, 2009

Holli rated it:

I am going to say right off the bat that had this been written from Martha Carrier's perspective I think I would have liked this book more. Instead it was written through her daughter's eyes and because of that you only know what her daughter knows. Which isn't much considering she's under 13 for much of the book and living in the 1600's for God's sake where kids weren't privy to the adult information. This book was for me the life of a young girl on a farm in the 1600's with a bit of "S More...

5 comments like (3 people liked it)

Apr 11, 2009

Sarah rated it:

I really liked this book. I went back and forth between 4 and 5 stars, but decided on 4 because there were a few places int the story where I wanted it to speed up a little. As Kathleen Kent's debut novel, this is an amazing book. The foreshadowing throughout hightened the anticipation (and dread) of what was to come. I was impressed with the authors years of research previous to writing this book, and felt that it was more credible as a fiction story because of that. Kathleen Kent gives details More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Mar 08, 2009

Shannon rated it:

I have to think about this book in two ways, how it was written and subject matter.

I thought the writer did a good job telling her story. My only critic was that it seemed a bit wordy on the descriptions and she used quite a bit of simile.

I found the subject facinating, having never read about the Salem witch trials before. But with that said, I had a very hard time reading this book and found that I would not pick it up for fear of what I knew was coming.

T More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 30, 2008

Mary Jo rated it:

I LOVED this one! The author's ancestor was condemned as a witch during the horrible Salem witch period. Oh my dear lord in heaven, the trials and tribulations those poor people endured! I'd never read or heard much about the witch travesty... just knew it occurred. This really opened my eyes to what really happened. Fascinating and horrific!

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jan 31, 2009

Kimberly rated it:

This book is full of historic frightening examples of how witchcraft rumors were begun about neighbors and acquaintances and the motivation behind them. The description of prison life for these people will make you cringe. It was a book that I couldn't put down.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 19, 2008

Susan rated it:

This book makes my list of the Top Ten Best Books of All Time. Even though we all know how this will end (didn't keep us from watching Titanic, did it?) there is so much more here in this story about a family's ordeal during the witch trials. It takes place in my hometown (admittedly, a huge initial draw) and gives the reader a great perspective of how people lived, the family dynamic (RADICALLY different from what we know), and of greed and politics (sadly, not very different at all) The stor More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 29, 2010

Jane rated it:

I adored this book. It was another one that I was sad to see finished. While I know it is fiction, people did live through this and Kent got the facts and even mentioned names of women who suffered in Salem. I am so happy I had the opportunity to read this.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 20, 2008

Simi rated it:

This book spent a lot of time getting to the point, when it finally did I felt "the point" was a good one, but some of the details it focused on were random and not needed; where as there were other details that could have been useful; but were left to the readers imagination.

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jun 13, 2008

Jennifer rated it:

An English Teacher gave me The Witch of Blackbird Pond and The Crucible in junior high, and ever since I've been hooked on stories of the Salem Witch Trials.

This is an absorbing and haunting account of the misfortunes and the courage of the Carrier family. The author is a descendant of the family, a fact trumpeted from the back of the advance copy I read, and while I can understand why they highlighted it for marketing purposes I wish it had been in the afterword and the book could More...

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