Gallows Hill by Lois Ruby
Publisher: Carolrhoda Lab
Special thanks to Firefly Books for sending a copy for review.
Summary:
Salem, Massachusetts – 1692
Thomas is marked as an outcast the moment he steps off the ship from England. As a Quaker, he’s outnumbered and distrusted by Salem’s Puritans. And as an orphan without any useful skills, he has nowhere to live and no way to earn his keep. In a stroke of luck―perhaps good, perhaps not―he’s taken in by the aged widow Prudence Blevins, who’s rumored to be a witch.
Patience has tried all her life to be a good Puritan―obedient to God and to her elders―and all her life, she has come up short. But her orderly world is upended when her younger sister, Abigail, falls victim to a mysterious affliction. The same torments have stricken other Salem girls, who claim they’re being bewitched by servants of the Devil. Soon the girls, including Abigail, begin accusing neighbors of witchcraft.
As the community becomes consumed by suspicion and fear, Thomas and Patience search for the truth. To protect those they care about, they will have to question everything they think they their faiths, their loyalties, and their places in Salem (Goodreads).
Thoughts:
Centred around the period of the Salem witch trials, this book gave me hopes for an epic story of social justice and action-packed narrative. I hoped to be immersed in the heat of rampant fires or shell-shocked by violent persecutions of the innocent; yet, I mostly dawdled over idle conversations about 17th Century living and “he-said-she-said” accusations.
The narration is largely through character dialogue that the intense atmosphere of Salem felt sorely lacking. I quickly found that this style of writing would have appealed more to younger readers seeking to learn about the history of the witch trials. The two main characters follow journeys that frame them as side characters watching the perilous destiny of the accused take place. I had trouble imagining what it must have been like to be accused as a witch because Thomas’s perspective was geared towards survival as an orphan, and Patience’s narrative was almost like a perpetrator inflicting accusation onto others. It was interesting to see how both of their lives were affected by the tragedies that their loved ones faced on opposite ends of the spectrum: poverty came to Thomas as a result of his caretaker being called a witch, and vengeance consumed Patience’s life as a result of her believing witches harmed her sister. It is not uncommon for main characters to be motivated by the noble goal of wanting to protect loved ones, but there was little personal growth for Thomas and Patience as a result of that.
Living in times of rumour and hearsay should have generated many moments of suspense during courtroom scenes. Since so many people were accused with varying levels of evidence against them, I found it very difficult to feel strongly for any of the courtroom scenes as there wasn’t a relationship built with the characters throughout the book. Whether or not a person was found to be guilty or innocent started to feel stale and unimportant since so many people went to trial. While the large death toll during the witch trials is an aspect that remains true to our history, for the story’s sake, I would have preferred to have fewer and more intimate scenes in the courtroom to feel a deeper connection with the characters being tried.
Despite its shortcomings, I appreciate that this book teaches readers true facts about the witch trials. Mass public hysteria did cause great social divide among all economical classes, and it created a very dystopian society as a result. Religious politics between the Quakers and the Puritans was also real and generated much discourse that led to more innocent people being hanged. The names of characters who died from these trials were also names of real victims, which is informative as these well-known names are now widely symbolic and carry heavy weight of such a dreary era.
People who enjoy historical fiction and have an interest in learning about periods of civil unrest will no doubt find many insightful gems in this book.
Reviewed by Anna F.