The Heretic’s Daughter

Title: The Heretic’s Daughter

Author: Kathleen Kent

Publisher: Little, Brown; September 2008

Summary:  Young Sarah Carrier has a tense relationship with her bold and opinionated mother, Martha. When she is sent to live with her aunt, cousins, and charismatic uncle during an outbreak of the plague, she wishes never to return to her parent’s household and backbreaking farm life. A family dispute over inherited land is soon overshadowed by an even larger threat to those who do not toe the line of Puritan conformity. The gossip about witches in the neighboring town of Salem soon escalates beyond any reason, and soon enough Martha Carrier is named a witch by the courts. Before she is arrested, she must ask Sarah, only 10 years old, to do the unthinkable.

Illuminating the horrifying nature of the trials, and the atrocious conditions those accused were forced  to live in, The Heretic’s Wife is historical fiction at it’s best. You will read this engrossing debut novel, written by a descendant of the Carrier family, in no time at all.

Who will like this book?: People who like intense historical fiction or who are interested in the Salem Witch Trials.

If you like this, try this: The Minister’s Daughter by Julie Hearn. A mystery set in modern-day Salem, The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry.

Recommended by: Nicole, Teen Librarian

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