Review: The Village Healer’s Book of Cures by Jennifer Sherman Roberts
Perhaps Halloween season is to blame. I’ve been enjoying books about witches or set in relevant situations. The Witch of Tin Mountain by Paulette Kennedy set it off. It hooked me into wanting to read more about these oft-misunderstood characters.
I like that witches in literature can be good or bad. Some do follow the black magic tradition of curses and steaming cauldrons. Other witches, like the protagonist in the book I’m about to review, are healers whose reputations suffer from superstition.
Are all healers witches? Can the two be separate professions? That’s a question to ponder in another post.
We live in a world that can be unforgiving towards anything that is unfamiliar or misunderstood. While society in general has become better at learning the facts before passing on condemning titles, things were not always so rational.
I enjoy books that capture simpler time periods where panic was quick and easy to find. They showcase a darker side of the human mind. This is one of them.
The Village Healer’s Book of Cures by Jennifer Sherman Roberts chronicles how one accusation can unleash a chain of falsehoods. It is a reminder that even the young and innocent are not free from danger when fear motivates a mob.
It is set in Bicknacre, a small village in seventeenth-century England. It’s one of those places where one would think that it’s impossible not to know all of one’s neighbors. With thin walls and big mouths, how many secrets can there be?
The arrival of a witchfinder marks the beginning of a feverish search for sorcery. The accused are tortured until they confess to demonic practices that would condemn them to hang. Death is better than the punishment dealt by a witchfinder and his guards. More frightening, perhaps, than the torture, is the ease with which a friend would betray a friend to it.
The protagonist is Mary, a young widow who cares for her six-year-old brother, Tom. She is apprentice to the village healer, Agnes, and together they create remedies for all sorts of illnesses that the villagers suffer, from childbirth to headaches. These cures are all forgotten, however, when Agnes is accused of witchcraft and arrested.
The village is roused into a frenzy; they spew lies about Agnes with the intention of making her appear guilty. It does not matter how she might have cured their maladies in the past. The mob is hungry to see a hanging and will speak mistruths for the thrill of it. In the midst of this chaos, Mary and even little Tom become suspects.
What will it require to clear their names and escape the death penalty?
This enchanting story touches on the mysteries of alchemy, and the human desire for eternal life (or, at least, the reversal of death). It also has romance, but these scenes are closed-door. Though we all have different boundaries, I did not consider them to be graphic.
It is a romance between two souls with intelligent minds who wish to begin their lives again, and I think it is beautiful.
I would read this book again. It has motivated me to seek more witchy books and explore this corner of fantasy literature. If you like stories about magic, familial love, second chances, and historical fiction, I suggest that you give it a try.
Do you have some favorite witchy books of your own? Please suggest them in the comments!
