Wicked Girls: A Novel of the Salem Witch Trials by by Stephanie Hemphill

I've always been fascinated by the history of the Salem Witch Trials, so when I was checking this book in, I immediately nabbed it for myself! It wasn't until later that I realized that the book is written in verse. I've only read a few other books in verse, but I do like the style, so I was looking forward to a quick read about a topic that I enjoy.

At first I had a little trouble getting into the old style of language, which isn't always a problem for me, but I think it had something to do with with the flow of the language in verse. It wasn't long before I was wrapped up in the book though.

The story is a fictional account of the witch trials told from the perspective of three of the actual girls who made the accusations during the trials, Ann Putnam, Jr., age 12, Mercy Lewis, age 17, and Margaret Stewart, age 17. While Hemphill has created an interesting tale of what might have been the girl's motivations for accusing so many people of being witches, she has included factual information at the back of the book about the actual people involved in the case. This information covers all of the girls involved in the accusations in the story, as well as those accused.

This is definitely an interesting book with a different look at possible motivations behind the trials, but the characters of the story twisted and turned a bit too much at times. Ann Putnam, Jr. was clearly in charge for most of the story, though her servant, Mercy Lewis, stepped into the lead at times, and people found it easy to follow her. Mercy would go from that lead to being conflicted because she knew they were accusing innocent people and the guilt was too much for her. Margaret was unlikeable from the start because of her snobbiness towards Mercy for being a pretty servant girl, but after she finds out that Mercy is not interested in her fiance, they team up together which upsets Ann. Elizabeth was never comfortable with accusing peolpe of witchcraft but she goes along with it to fit in. Sometimes it appeared that Ann was calling out names that her parents had fed her, while other times it seemed like she really believed she was doing the Lord's work. Then it would twist again to seem like she was just trying to stay in power. At the end, even after reading the factual accounts, I was left wondering what had actually happened to afflict little Betty and Abigail Parris...

I think this book was good, but I think it had the potential to be much better.

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