Book Summary and Reviews of How to Kill a Witch by Zoe Venditozzi, Claire Mitchell

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Janine_S

Great history
There are so many books with “witch” in the title - some are fantasies, some murder mysteries, some historical - so when I came across this book, the 2025 Goodreads nonfiction winner, I thought I’d explore the topic a bit more.

The book, written by two Scottish women, explores Scotland’s witch trial history. It’s a dark, comedic look at how Scotland while basing witchcraft on the premise of women being the ones up to this mischief has also promptly assured these women were forgotten in history and how patriarchy often places women in cruel and unusual places (in this case as the villains of unexplained circumstances and phenomena). In doing this the authors show historical parallels that even apply today: scapegoating (DEI is 47’s answer to that) and modern-day misogyny.

The book breaks down the witch hunting process into the following phases: identifying, torturing, trying, and executing. Deeply researched with references from trial records, books published at the time (two written by King James) and other information, the book shows the deep religious factor played into the whole process. I thought this was an excellent way to explain the witch phenomena of the 16th-17th Cs especially highlighting certain women who perished this male cruelty. Particularly egregious was the witch pricker who was charged with finding the “Devil’s Mark.” He’d get to see the accused naked and got to do “who knows what” (shades of the orange toad getting to walk through female dressing rooms for Miss Universe contestants).

While a lot of the witchcraft evidence probably came from torture (most likely sleep deprivation), most of it is crazy and unproven - shades of QAnon. How it ever came to accusing someone always seemed to me a vengeful thing - shades of false claims found even today by people seeking to ruin a reputation (courts are bit more civilized today but not necessarily less corrupt). But strangling and burning the witch seems like cruel and unusual punishment - no higher was available at that time to challenge that means of execution (the fear was the witch could come back so kill it twice).

Most counties have repealed their witch laws but interestingly Britain used The Witchcraft Act of 1735 to convict Helen Duncan of fraud for the seances she performed - that act was tacked on more for the flimflam of the seances than witchcraft. That 1735 law was eventually repealed. One of the last chapters chronicles the status of witchcraft today pointing to some African and Asian countries where accusations are still common.

The book concludes with an examination of the status of women today noting “that it is the very existence of women that is problematic to some men.” Indeed in this country white Christian nationalism wants to relegate women back to traditional biblical roles. As with the book’s beginning where the authors noted no statutes of females from Scottish history exist in their country m, the authors did find a Norwegian sculpture dedicated to 91 people executed for witchcraft in 1621 in Vardø, Norway. But the conclusion remains that women today and as in the past just don’t hold the same importance as men.

I gave this book five stars because the topic was well researched, for the strength of the book’s structure, focusing on a process and explaining it, and for its focus on women and how history continually tries to erase us.