Call Me The Beldam: Review of The Manningtree Witches

  

The Manningtree Witches is historical fiction, but boy oh boy did I learn a lot. Matthew Hopkins was the jerk Witchfinder General in real life, the Manningtree Witch Trial really happened and the unfortunate women were really hanged. Ms. Blakemore puts it all together in a way where we really care about these people. Well, maybe not Hopkins who really was a jerk. Blakemore has an epilogue that explains the real history behind the story. 

With the hangings, she doesn't spare us. They didn't know back then how to snap a neck quickly, so the many hundreds, if not thousands, of people (mainly women) died slow, painful deaths of suffocation.  I've seen too many historical fictions that get this wrong, but not Blakemore. But, she did get the word wrong. People are hanged, not hung.

Speaking of words, I learned a lot of new words. A few weren't even in the dictionary, at least not on the kindle dictionary. There's lot of looking up to be done while reading this. This is how we learn stuff, right?

Here's my favorite new word. Pay close attention. The protagonist's mother was called The Beldam. The Beldam West.  Beldam is French for "beautiful dame" or "beautiful woman." It was used ironically, though, to mean an old ugly woman. I really like that word. The Beldam.

So, I've decided to call myself The Beldam. I, personally, hope it means "beautiful dame" but if you want to use it to mean ugly old woman, I don't want to know about it.

At first, I thought the story was a little slow, although the protagonist has a sly sense of humor. Once the action got going, it really got going. Exciting and horrifying. Poor Vinegar Tom! Beautiful language, too. Picture a book that is both literary and scary. 

Thanks to Publishers Weekly "Grab-a-galley" and Netgalley for allowing me a digital ARC in return for an honest review.