The Daughters of Salem: How we sent our children to their deaths: Part 1

by Thomas Gilbert

[pamela]

The Daughters of Salem was...not good. It was meant to be feminist but fell into the stereotypes of women's oppression without actually having anything important to say, and was, quite frankly, borderline racist in places. Study of the history of Salem is already historically about understanding female oppression and scapegoating, and The Daughters of Salem simply didn't add anything to that and ended up adding elements that muddied the waters instead.

The writing is too simple, and cliche'd. It's narrated, so the text doesn't build on what the images show, it just tells us the story that isn't conveyed in the pictures. It reads like something aimed at a much, much younger audience than it is. Overall I think it simply lacked any real depth.

There are much better books on the subject matter that tackle it much more effectively. If The Daughters of Salem had not been so graphic in its art and violence I might have recommended it as an introduction to pique interest in the subject for middle-schoolers. But its images have an adult audience in mind, where its text appeals to much younger.