What readers think of Daughters of the Witching Hill, plus links to write your own review.

Told from the point of view of two of the most notorious of the “Pendle Hill Witches", Mother Demdike and her granddaughter, Alizon, this is a compelling, well written story of magic, superstition and the danger of being a woman of power in the time of King James. Every time I picked this book up I was immediately transported to Pendle Forest and completely absorbed in the story of these women.

Daughters of the Witching Hill is a fictionalized account of the so called “Witches of Pendle Forest”, who were found guilty of witchcraft in England in the early 1600’s. The main focus of the story is Elizabeth Southerns, a cunning woman, who had been helping the people of the area for some 50 years by using herbs and charms to cure ills in exchange for food for her family. Both her daughter and granddaughter have the same talent for curing, but choose not to pursue their talent, and the family’s eventual downfall forms the crux of this story.

I usually enjoy stories of this type, but I found that at times this book went on and on describing walks to and from various homes of the townspeople. The bleakness of the lives these people led was often hard to read about, that isn’t a criticism of the writing, it’s just a statement that the book was often depressing. I also had a hard time connecting with the characters, with the exception of Alizon Device, the granddaughter; to me she was the most fully realized character in the book. It was hard to follow time frames, years seemed to go by with the turn of a page. After all the time spent setting up the story, the eventual imprisonment and trial seemed very rushed. Although it’s clear that a lot of research went into this I never ‘felt’ the story.

"Daughters of the Witching Hill" should have been more interesting than it was. The premise was interesting - an actual witch hunt and trial of a family in the 1580's- but it was very dull and the characters just did not come to life for me.