GALLOWS HILL

Two teens come of age during the Salem witch trials.

After losing their father on the ship from England, Thomas, a 15-year-old Quaker, has just arrived in Salem, Massachusetts, with Grace, his younger sister. It’s February 1692, and they reach their new home just as girls exhibiting abnormal behavior are believed to be bewitched and community members are accused of practicing witchcraft. Struggling in a Puritan community that is not welcoming to Quakers, Thomas eventually finds work as a shoemaker’s apprentice and locates housing with cantankerous Goodwidow Blevins. Meanwhile, 14-year-old Puritan Patience is alarmed when her younger sister, Abigail, succumbs to frightening fits. Abigail accuses Goodwidow Blevins of cursing her. In this story told in alternating points of view, Thomas’ and Patience’s paths cross and feelings begin to grow between them. Historical elements are deftly woven in, showing the impacts of the Salem witch trials, from the horrid conditions the accused faced while imprisoned to brutal hangings and the ways families were torn apart. The prejudice the Quakers faced both in England and the Colonies is portrayed sympathetically; there are also mentions of Christians’ prejudice toward Indigenous communities and the abduction of a white girl by the Wabanaki. The author takes care to weave various different theories for the causes of the events into the storyline. All main characters are coded white.

Effective historical fiction revisiting a fascinating and complicated time in American history.