Hour of the Witch

A Novel

By: Chris Bohjalian

Narrated by: Grace Experience, Saskia Maarleveld, Danny Campbell, Cassandra Campbell, Arthur Morey, Mark Deakins, Julia Whelan, Kaleo Griffith, Kirby Heyborne, Rebecca Lowman, Mark Bramhall

NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • From the acclaimed author of The Flight Attendant: “Historical fiction at its best…. The book is a thriller in structure, and a real page-turner, the ending both unexpected and satisfying” (Diana Gabaldon, bestselling author of the Outlander series, The Washington Post).

A young Puritan woman—faithful, resourceful, but afraid of the demons that dog her soul—plots her escape from a violent marriage in this riveting and propulsive novel of historical suspense.

Boston, 1662. Mary Deerfield is twenty-four-years-old. Her skin is porcelain, her eyes delft blue, and in England she might have had many suitors. But here in the New World, amid this community of saints, Mary is the second wife of Thomas Deerfield, a man as cruel as he is powerful. When Thomas, prone to drunken rage, drives a three-tined fork into the back of Mary's hand, she resolves that she must divorce him to save her life.

But in a world where every neighbor is watching for signs of the devil, a woman like Mary—a woman who harbors secret desires and finds it difficult to tolerate the brazen hypocrisy of so many men in the colony—soon becomes herself the object of suspicion and rumor. When tainted objects are discovered buried in Mary's garden, when a boy she has treated with herbs and simples dies, and when their servant girl runs screaming in fright from her home, Mary must fight to not only escape her marriage, but also the gallows.

A twisting, tightly plotted novel of historical suspense from one of our greatest storytellers, Hour of the Witch is a timely and terrifying story of socially sanctioned brutality and the original American witch hunt.

Look for Chris Bohjalian's new novel, The Lioness!

don't let the bad reviews deter you

I purchased this book a few months ago because I've been wanting to read it for a long time and just never got the chance. I read the reviews after purchasing and was horrified. It kept me from listening to the book and I was so annoyed with myself that I hadn't read the reviews before purchasing. I decided to finally give it a try and it was so good. I didn't think the narrator was boring at all, she gave the story reverence. I was still very captivated by the story and was so sad when the book was over.

Narration does not help this story

Reader has great diction but terrible inflection, found it irritating to listen to her, sounds like a diction class student. Too bad some of the readers who introduced new chapters weren’t solicited to assume reading for their characters throughout.
Unfortunately the story isn’t much better, i guess geared to YA audience. Predictable, terrible decision making that made me wince and say don’t do that! Quite like a horror movie where the victim freezes and screams uselessly instead of taking action. Probably one of the few times I wanted the protagonist to fail. Best part was the ending. And not because the novel was finally ending but because it truly was a surprise. Best part of the story.
PS I will not choose a future book if narrated by this same person.

Tough to finish

Two and a half stars charitably rounded up. The first hurdle was all the thees, thous and prithys. It was as if the author learned a few words from the 1600s and used them exclusively over and over. And over. Then there was the unneeded descriptions of masturbation, and finally a lead character who consistently made stupid decisions. I did finish the book but it was difficult.

Liked it!

At first I thought that I couldn't listen to thou art... any longer, but then the story grew on me. Any other comments would be a spoiler. Otherwise, I'm glad I wasn't born during those times.

Story good but some annoyances

The pace was a bit slow

The authors use of thee/thou seemed wrong: these were not Quakers? Even Quakers don’t say thee to superiors

I find the ending less than impressive but saying why spoils the ending. It could have been done with more art