Salem Witch Trials: Alliance Project #1

by Kathryn Wesley

Explores the events, motivations, and personalities involved in a dramatic recreation of the seventeenth-century Salem Witch Trials, a dark period that led to mass hysteria, accusations of witchcraft, and nineteen executions. Original. (A CBS-TV miniseries, produced by Alliance Atlantis, airing Spring 2003, starring Shirley MacLaine, Kirstie Alley, Rebecca De Mornay, Gloria Reuben, Alan Bates, and Peter Ustinov) (History)

Genres: History, Nonfiction

368 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith use the common pseudonym “Kathryn Wesley” for a part of their collaborative works.

Reviews

[Brookanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have always been fascinated by this dark moment of our history, so I was completly enthralled by this book. I don't know that someone who is not as interested in the history as I am would enjoy or not. I found it to be an easy read, but it did jump around a lot. I did find the author's perspective on the trials and appreciated the historical information at the end.

[Jordan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this paperback for $.50 at a used book store. I love historical fiction and find the Salem Witch Trials to be rather fascinating. This book was also made into a CBS miniseries a number of years ago. I figured this would be an entertaining read.

I was wrong. The story of the witch hunt is there (and accurate as far as I know) but the book itself was a bit on the boring side. The dialog was without excitement or creativity. If you wanted to jump right into the witch hunt, skip the first 100 pages or so. The first third is dedicated to getting to know the citizens of Salem, which is fairly important for their motives later on. However, I just wasn’t drawn in.

I was tempted to quit reading this book early on, but felt I needed to give it a chance for no other reason than I was interested in reading about this dark piece of history. I don’t completely regret reading it, but I certainly won’t be rereading it.

[Brianna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think the scariest thing about this book is that it is not fiction. This story did not come out of the dark recesses of someone's imagination, it came from history. This happened. We did this. It's truly terrifying to see what humans are capable of when we are scared.

[Wendy Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a historical fiction of the Salem Witch Trials. Learned lots of history in this entertaining and easy-to-read account. Would recommend this to anyone interested in the history behind the witch trials!

[Sue Getman · Rating 3 out of 5]

A barn burns. A baby dies. And the good people of Salem, Massachusetts, begin to fear that Satan's hand lies upon their village.... Massachusetts, 1691: a patchwork quilt of lonely settlements, surrounded by primeval forest and marauding Indians. It is a fearful, tense place ...

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great piece of historical fiction. It was a real page turner even though we all know how it ends.

[booklady · Rating 2 out of 5]

Plausible interpretation of how what occured in Salem, MA in 1691 might have happened. Don't remember being very impressed with it.

[Marylene · Rating 4 out of 5]

see my last post on ststuses...

[PRINCESS · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was always thinking this is a kind of scary tale that is used to scare people. Recently I was reading The Crucible by Arthur Miller. To search for the truth behind that story I found out “Salem Witch Trials” book. The author explains in details what happened in Massachusetts, 1691 that became one of the most famous trials in American History.

WITCHCRAFT TRIALS IN SALEM: a series of trials of people accused of witchcraft in Massachusetts between February 1692 to May 1693 as well as in other cities such as Danvers, Massachusetts, Ipswich, Massachusetts, and Andover.
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The vivid and painful legacy of the Salem witch trials endured well into the 20th century, when Arthur Miller dramatized the events of 1692 in his play “The Crucible” (1953), using them as an allegory for the anti-Communist “witch hunts” led by Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s.
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Nineteen people were hanged, one was tortured to death and eight were convicted. Of the 28, more than a third were members of some churches in England, more than half of whom were generally good speakers, and nearly fifty admitted that they were witches and did not survive One of them, more than one hundred and fifty in prison and were accused of more than two hundreds. . .
Robert Calf.