Inspired by true events, this novel tells the tale of young Alice Molland, who must grapple with accusations of witchcraft and the persecution of women with mysterious gifts in turbulent seventeenth-century England. In the tumultuous era of seventeenth-century Exeter, England, Alice Molland, age ten, is forced to attend the brutal execution of her mentor in the healing arts, Goody Luscombe, who has been condemned to death for witchcraft. In the years that follow, with her use of herbs such as mugwort, slippery elm, and comfrey, Alice becomes well known as a magical healer. But such gifts come accompanied by danger in the times she lives in.
Before we start this review, I need to thank Mindbuck Media Book Publicity for sending me a copy of this book before the realize date of this book. And even thou I have gotten this book for free and before the release of it I will keep this review 100% honest and be as neutral towards this book as I am towards other books and comic books I review on this website. But without making this intro longer than it already is, lets get into the review of this book.
This book is set in the 17th century and it follows a resourceful young woman named Alice Molland who at the beginning of this book is 10 years old, but throughout this book gets older, more mature and more skilled as a healer. At the same time this we get England in the mid-1600s where the accusations of witchcraft and very rigid expectations for women are running wild. Which means that this book gives us a good picture of how the day-to-day life was like for most women with many women being accused of being witches and being sentenced to death because of those accusations. There is handful of deaths and violations in this book, which is important to keep in mind if those topics trigger you in any form.
I personally find this period of time to be interesting, because I personally cant wrap my head around why we as humans would ever hang someone because of some random accusations. So it was very easy for me personally to accept the pre-release copy of this book in exchange for a honest review.
The plot in this book is pretty intriguing and has a good premise overall. And I really enjoyed reading this book, but I couldn’t quite get into this book, because how fast the plot in this book. Because most chapters would skip weeks or months in advance mid-chapter which has pulled me out of the general plot of this book. And the subjects would change pretty quickly in this book. Like one paragraph would be about Alice talking with her mom and then the very next paragraph would be a complete 180 of that. It almost felt like the author was aiming for a chronological timeline of events (sort of like a history textbook) rather than giving us as readers a coherent plot in this book.
All the events we get in this book feel more like “this happened, then this happened, then this happened and this happened” rather than a engaging storyline which would make me interested and engaged in it.
But the historical backdrop of the plot in this book feels very realistic and very well researched which is the main reason why I liked this book. I also found the exploration of herbal knowledge and the quiet resilience of women characters in the pretty harsh 17th century England to be very well written in this book. This book was also inspired by the real-life story of the author’s distant relative who is the main character in this book, made me give this book and the author extra points for. Because it takes courage to share family history with the world especially during the witch hunt era of humanity.
The writing in this book was generally good, but there were times where the writing could have been improved because there were times (especially the first chapter) I was getting pretty annoyed at the continual mentions of Goody/Goodwife/Diana Luscombe when the characters and the overall context were already established in this book. It almost felt like the author was afraid that we would forget the context and time period of this book.
The characters in this book were pretty well written. The characters we get in this book were pretty likable and relatable. Every character in this book had their own personalities and something that made them standout from the rest of the characters in this book. Which made me give this book extra points for doing. Because I personally put a lot of weight on the characters when it comes down to rating a book and writing a honest review of the book.
However there were times where I would get irritated at the characters at times. Because the characters would talking through information or narrate the information to each other like the other characters wouldn’t all have known perfectly well what was happening if no one has over-explain the events to them like someone would over-explain something to a toddler.
There are also plenty of times where Alice (the main character of this book) was narrating context to herself like she didn’t grow up in the difficult time she was dealing with in this book. It felt more like the author was trying to point us as readers on where the plot was going by using the characters to explain everything to us.
The characters in this book would also say something obvious like “you should hurry back before they close the gates”, and then the characters would stall just to remind us how brutal that era in humanity really was.
But overall I enjoyed this book, because it gives us a glimpse on how it was to be a woman in the mid-1600s England, with all the witch accusing and very strict rules for women were running wild. If you are interested in that time period as me personally, you should give this book a shot even though it isn’t the best book on this time period. But it does give us a unique point of view into this time period.
I Give This Book 3 / 5
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