Enter Slewfoot, a powerful spirit of antiquity newly woken… and trying to find his own role in the world. Healer or destroyer? Protector or predator? But as the shadows walk and villagers start dying, a new rumor is whispered: Witch.
Both Abitha and Slewfoot must swiftly decide who they are, and what they must do to survive in a world intent on hanging any who meddle in the dark arts.
Abitha is trying her best to fit in to this strange new world, America where she is wedded to a man she never knew until her father sold her off from England. Though not necessarily in love with her new husband there is an affection there, and she does what she can to be a good wife. Her husband's brother is a selfish and greedy man while her husband is often too meek to stand up to him. The villagers are Puritans, and are more realistically portrayed in this work of historical fiction than in the actual history book I was made to study as a child. They are not people who believe in religious freedom, they are my way or the highway kind of people who would sooner shackle you and stone you than let you get away with being 2 minutes late for a sermon, and heaven help you if a lock of hair ever escaped from under your cap! When Abitha's husband is killed, his brother expects Abitha to become his servant. He tried to tell her she was weak, that she did not matter because she was only a woman, he tried to sabotage her efforts, however she was stronger and more powerful than he knew, and with some magical helpers she will have her revenge.
This book is so many things in one. It's horror, fantasy, historical fiction, and a harrowing tale of revenge. It begins in 1666 and has a perfect ending in a 1970s epilogue. It is at times hauntingly beautiful and at others graphic and gory. I loved the way Abitha awakened to her true self.
4 out of 5 stars
I received an advance copy for review.
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