{Thank you to Doubleday Books for my gifted copy.}
Hour of the Witch by Chris Bohjalian
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Book Summary:
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 from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Flight Attendant.
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.
Publication Date:
May 4th, 2021
Genre:
Historical Fiction/History Thriller
Read Your Copy:
Amazon Link | LibroFM Bookstore Link
My Thoughts:
Chris Bohjalian is a local Vermont author and I have had the pleasure of reading his work from the very beginning. I used to love his weekly “Idyll Banter” newspaper column and one of the very first books I ever read “outside of school” was his Oprah Book Club pick, The Midwives.
One of his writing gifts is being able to write books that totally immerse you in an entirely new concept or experience, one you were probably not even expecting when you opened to the first page.
Chris Bohjalian is known for his character-driven novels that are also completely propulsive. His 2020 novel, The Red Lotus, was a page-turner and while it was a topic I would never have predicted I would be into, I had a hard time putting it down. What I have learned from his books, is that it isn’t always the topic matter that draws you in, but the storytelling itself. 
This novel was wholly engaging and totally thought-provoking. I loved how although it was set in the mid 1600s, there were so many connections to issues that still arise today. This would make an amazing book club discussion and I highly recommend adding it to your spring 2021 reading list.
Thank you to @doubledaybooks for my gifted copy. As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own.
Disclosure: Some of the links above are Amazon affiliate links. This means if you click through and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission that helps support this blog at no cost to you.
