The Familiars : Are you familiar with them?
Author: Stacey Halls
Genre: Historical Fiction
Number of pages: 416
The year was 1612, various witch trials were taking place all over the world and so was the case at Pendle around which this book is set. The book opens with Fleetwood Shutterworth, Mistress of Gawthrope running away from her home into the forest because of the news she just received about her fourth pregnancy. I must say the opening scene is very dramatic and cinematic and it completely engrossed me like roots latching onto the ground.
Soon we are introduced to a girl named Alice Gray who goes on to become a midwife to Fleetwood. Now, a lot of people wanted to be in the good graces of King James at that time, who disliked the county of Lancashire so to appease him a dear friend of Mr and Mrs Shuttleworth, named Roger starts accusing innocent(or not?) women of witchcraft. Amongst the accused is Alice Gray.
Halls has written about the trial of Pendle witches from Fleetwood's point of view, who wasn't directly involved in it. The trial and the life of Fleetwood (which is full of problems) works as parallel plots, which constantly keep crossing over.
One major issue I had with this book was its title which I did not think was an appropriate title for the book, as not more than a paragraph is dedicated to the topic of familiars in the book and the concept of familiars is not even described properly so that a person new to that concept (like me) would be able to understand it easily. [A familiar is an animal who is close/loyal to a witch and can and will perform almost anything asked of it. A witch and a familiar are rarely separated].
The first half of the book is full of twists and turns, making this book a page-turner but towards the end, the story just goes downhill as the author is not able to hold a solid storyline and it also becomes quite predictable. The ending is quite ambiguous, which I frankly do enjoy but in this case, I didn't as there were so many things left unanswered that it was more annoying than enjoyable.
The story is somewhat a coming of age story of Fleetwood, and in the end, Halls stayed true to historical facts. All in all, I really think the premise was very interesting and could have been experimented with in a lot more ways. Although, the author did great work in showing the plight of women and her style of writing is effortless.
My Verdict : 3/5
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Genre: Historical Fiction
Number of pages: 416
The year was 1612, various witch trials were taking place all over the world and so was the case at Pendle around which this book is set. The book opens with Fleetwood Shutterworth, Mistress of Gawthrope running away from her home into the forest because of the news she just received about her fourth pregnancy. I must say the opening scene is very dramatic and cinematic and it completely engrossed me like roots latching onto the ground.
Soon we are introduced to a girl named Alice Gray who goes on to become a midwife to Fleetwood. Now, a lot of people wanted to be in the good graces of King James at that time, who disliked the county of Lancashire so to appease him a dear friend of Mr and Mrs Shuttleworth, named Roger starts accusing innocent(or not?) women of witchcraft. Amongst the accused is Alice Gray.
Halls has written about the trial of Pendle witches from Fleetwood's point of view, who wasn't directly involved in it. The trial and the life of Fleetwood (which is full of problems) works as parallel plots, which constantly keep crossing over.
One major issue I had with this book was its title which I did not think was an appropriate title for the book, as not more than a paragraph is dedicated to the topic of familiars in the book and the concept of familiars is not even described properly so that a person new to that concept (like me) would be able to understand it easily. [A familiar is an animal who is close/loyal to a witch and can and will perform almost anything asked of it. A witch and a familiar are rarely separated].
The first half of the book is full of twists and turns, making this book a page-turner but towards the end, the story just goes downhill as the author is not able to hold a solid storyline and it also becomes quite predictable. The ending is quite ambiguous, which I frankly do enjoy but in this case, I didn't as there were so many things left unanswered that it was more annoying than enjoyable.
The story is somewhat a coming of age story of Fleetwood, and in the end, Halls stayed true to historical facts. All in all, I really think the premise was very interesting and could have been experimented with in a lot more ways. Although, the author did great work in showing the plight of women and her style of writing is effortless.
My Verdict : 3/5
You can connect with us on these platforms Zomato | Instagram | Twitter | Email
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