The Witchfinder's Sister

by Beth Underdown

Book Overview

"This is a novel for our times. . . . The Witchfinder's Sister [lays] bare the visceral horror of what a witch hunt truly is."-- The New York Times Book Review (Editors ' Choice) "Vivid and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0399179143
• ISBN13: 9780399179143
• Release Date: April 2017
• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.4" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

An engaging story

This was a very quick and engaging read. The writing was detailed without being too wordy and the story was intriguing. The anticipation was built up slowly, I wished it had progressed sooner as it came to a head near the end of the story. I found myself becoming a bit frustrated with the character but if you look at her place in the world, her helplessness makes sense. Overall, it was a great book for those who love historical fiction.

Ehhh I liked it except...

So, this book has a very cool premise and the author is gifted in many areas. It is an engaging book and kept me reading all day. It moved along fairly well. The setting and build up are well done. Her grasp of keeping things a mystery is good. Depending on the plot, I would read another of her books. First books are notoriously difficult and she pulled off a bit of historical fiction that was intriguing at the outset. And yet... Her use of expletives, while historically viable, would not have been used with the frequency or in the ways that the protagonist uses them. Normally, swear words don't bother me but the way she used them drew me right out of the story. She seems to have clung to a particular style at the expense of maintaining credibility in her story. As for the protagonist, she seems to make blatantly stupid choices without being forced to make them. I'm all for flawed protagonists who make mistakes or poor choices based on the information they have at the time of making that choice but this is another level of bad decisions. She is also sort of difficult to connect to after the first few chapters. A bit of style over substance. There's also a bit of disconnect toward the end where things come spilling out all too conveniently, but they don't really resolve. Several threads are left dangling as if to leave it up to the audience to decide what really happened but, they're sort of pointless threads. As I said above, I would give this author another chance, she definitely has the skill to pull off a more polished mystery-revelation-resolution cycle in the future. And this certainly does have an interesting plot behind it. But it more tells you what to think than actually makes you think.