An engrossing story of one of the last accused witches in England’s history.
In Molland’s historical novel, a young girl in 17th-century England learns how to heal her fellow townspeople and suffers as a result.
It’s 1656, and 10-year-old Alice Molland is living in Exeter, near Devon, when she first witnesses a woman being put to death for the crime of witchcraft. The hanged woman, Goody Luscombe, had always been kind to Alice, showing her the right herbs and roots to use to treat various ailments. Alice vows to remember all that the deceased woman taught her and to continue her studies. Those studies help to keep her going, even when she experiences the tragic loss of loved ones over the next few years. Still, Alice starts losing her faith in God, and her faith in society, asking, “Why is it always women who are arrested and hanged?” since men always seem to be the cruelest ones. Her ability to tend to the sick, as well as her beauty, attracts the attention of Richard Greenway, the son of a wealthy merchant, and the two later confess their romantic feelings for each other—but when she becomes pregnant, Richard cruelly turns her away. She may be able to avoid scandal and escape Exeter for Ivycombe, but the peace she experiences doesn’t last; a year later, rumors and accusations fly, and, as a result, Alice’s life is endangered. Molland offers a fictional retelling of the life of her own ancestor, who led a similarly difficult life. The narrative tells Alice’s story from the age of 10, skipping months and years between chapters, but although the timeline moves rapidly, the missing time doesn’t adversely affect the reading experience, and dates in each chapter heading effectively keep readers on track. Alice’s impressive drive to help others and to be true to herself, no matter the consequences, will have readers rooting for her when her circumstances look the most dire.
An engrossing story of one of the last accused witches in England’s history.Pub Date: June 9, 2026
ISBN: 9798896363248
Page Count: 256
Publisher: She Writes Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 10, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
It's almost enough to make a person believe in ghosts.
A disturbing household secret has far-reaching consequences in this dark, unusual ghost story.
Mallory Quinn, fresh out of rehab and recovering from a recent tragedy, has taken a job as a nanny for an affluent couple living in the upscale suburb of Spring Brook, New Jersey, when a series of strange events start to make her (and her employers) question her own sanity. Teddy, the precocious and shy 5-year-old boy she's charged with watching, seems to be haunted by a ghost who channels his body to draw pictures that are far too complex and well formed for such a young child. At first, these drawings are rather typical: rabbits, hot air balloons, trees. But then the illustrations take a dark turn, showcasing the details of a gruesome murder; the inclusion of the drawings, which start out as stick figures and grow increasingly more disturbing and sophisticated, brings the reader right into the story. With the help of an attractive young gardener and a psychic neighbor and using only the drawings as clues, Mallory must solve the mystery of the house's grizzly past before it's too late. Rekulak does a great job with character development: Mallory, who narrates in the first person, has an engaging voice; the Maxwells' slightly overbearing parenting style and passive-aggressive quips feel very familiar; and Teddy is so three-dimensional that he sometimes feels like a real child.
It's almost enough to make a person believe in ghosts.Pub Date: May 10, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-81934-5
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Vintage King: a pleasure for his many fans and not a bad place to start if you’re new to him.
The master of supernatural disaster returns with four horror-laced novellas.
The protagonist of the title story, Holly Gibney, is by King’s own admission one of his most beloved characters, a “quirky walk-on” who quickly found herself at the center of some very unpleasant goings-on in End of Watch, Mr. Mercedes, and The Outsider. The insect-licious proceedings of the last are revisited, most yuckily, while some of King’s favorite conceits turn up: What happens if the dead are never really dead but instead show up generation after generation, occupying different bodies but most certainly exercising their same old mean-spirited voodoo? It won’t please TV journalists to know that the shape-shifting bad guys in that title story just happen to be on-the-ground reporters who turn up at very ugly disasters—and even cause them, albeit many decades apart. Think Jack Torrance in that photo at the end of The Shining, and you’ve got the general idea. “Only a coincidence, Holly thinks, but a chill shivers through her just the same,” King writes, “and once again she thinks of how there may be forces in this world moving people as they will, like men (and women) on a chessboard.” In the careful-what-you-wish-for department, Rat is one of those meta-referential things King enjoys: There are the usual hallucinatory doings, a destiny-altering rodent, and of course a writer protagonist who makes a deal with the devil for success that he thinks will outsmart the fates. No such luck, of course. Perhaps the most troubling story is the first, which may cause iPhone owners to rethink their purchases. King has gone a far piece from the killer clowns and vampires of old, with his monsters and monstrosities taking on far more quotidian forms—which makes them all the scarier.
Vintage King: a pleasure for his many fans and not a bad place to start if you’re new to him.Pub Date: April 20, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9821-3797-7
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
PERSPECTIVES
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