My apologies to the author, but I had to give up on this one.
Hill is a renowned historian on the Salem witch trials, and I thought the premise sounded fascinating. I remember visiting Salem, Massachusetts, when I was 16 years old, so the topic appealed to me. I love great historical fiction. I should have paid closer attention to the negative or lackluster reviews, though.
About the only positive thing I can say is that the author clearly knows her history and can paint a realistic setting--in the beginning I was intrigued by the Indian attacks, conflict between Anglicans and Puritans, and the girls who kept having seizures. But she lost me completely in the plot details (or lack thereof). Hill is a historian, not a novelist, and it shows. It felt like she thought we should understand the story without telling us what was going on.
I read about 60 pages into the book, but it was so poorly written and with so many colorless characters that I finally had to put it down. And it was such a relief to do so.
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