The Heretic's Daughter

by Kathleen Kent

Martha Carrier was hanged on August 19th, 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts, unyielding in her refusal to admit to being a witch, going to her death rather than joining the ranks of men and women who confessed and were thereby spared execution. Like her mother, young Sarah Carrier is bright and wilful, openly challenging the small, brutal world in which they live. In this startling novel, she narrates the story of her early life in Andover, near Salem. Her father is a farmer, English in origin, quietly stoical but with a secret history. Her mother is a herbalist, tough but loving, and above all a good mother. Often at odds with each other, Sarah and her mother have a close but also cold relationship, yet it is clear that Martha understands her daughter like no other. When Martha is accused of witchcraft, and the whisperings in the community escalate, she makes her daughter promise not to stand up for her if the case is taken to court.
As Sarah and her brothers are hauled into the prison themselves, the vicious cruelty of the trials is apparent, as the Carrier family, along with other innocents, are starved and deprived of any decency, battling their way through the hysteria with the sheer willpower their mother has taught them.

• ISBN10: 033045630X
• ISBN13: 9780330456302
• Publish Date: 4 September 2009 (first published 1 September 2008)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 7 December 2012
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Pan Macmillan
• Imprint: Pan Books
• Edition: Unabridged edition
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 352
• Language: English

Reviews

[ibeforem]

I thought this was an interesting way to tell the story of the Salem witch trials. You see everything through the eyes of Martha Carrier's oldest daughter. But unfortunately, I think the story also suffers from this point of view. The focus is a lot more on the family's life and their hardships until suddenly they're caught up in the midst of the hysteria. They combat this somewhat with the use of court transcripts, but I don't think it goes far enough.

Also, there was one piece of the story that pulled me out every time. It's the youngest daughter, Hannah. I guess I'm a big ol' softy now that I have a toddler, but every time Hannah is mentioned it's to say how she's clinging to her sister or how dirty she is or how they have to tie her to a stake in the yard to keep her from getting lost while they're working and it broke my heart EVERY SINGLE TIME. I kept hoping there would be some sort of payoff by the end of the book, some sort of reason for this toddler to be in the story, but there really wasn't. It just felt like useless emotional torture, and it really affected my enjoyment of the story.

So if you can't handle stories containing children that are being neglected and emotionally damaged, skip this one.