Slewfoot: A Tale of Bewitchery starts off with a marker and that you know that a lot of people died at a particular location. From there, we have someone or something waking up and then a Puritan housewife, Abitha is out searching for her lost goat. Abitha, born and raised in England, was sent to the Colonies to marry her husband, Edward. Abitha is trying to be a good Puritan wife and Christian woman, but finds it hard when she sees the men and some of the women that live among her and how they treat others. And Abitha who is a ‘cunning woman’ and learned from her mother is reluctant to give up a part of herself to just fit in. But when her brother-in-law decides he’s going to try to pass on debt to Edward and herself, Abitha calls up something dark that may destroy her.
I absolutely loved all the parts of the story we get with Abitha. I felt so sorry for her throughout the story and heck, for one of the other women in this story, Sarah. I often say to myself I could not have survived in such and such a time. Starvation seems very close back in the 1600s and the Puritans as we all know from our history, are definitely a group of people that will turn on a woman that is not “acting right.” I kept wanting Abitha to be smarter about things, but after a while, I get why she didn’t even care anymore.
The majority of the book is about Abitha trying to make sure she and her husband were free of Edward and Samson figuring out their identity. Once the latter is addressed it just fully becomes Abitha’s story and I think that worked better. It takes a while for Brom to shape the backstory of Samson and I won’t lie, his parts and then whole thing just slowed the book down for me. I just started to skim some of those until we got past the halfway mark and things got better flow wise. That’s the main reason why I just gave this four stars. Another reason, I don’t see me re-reading this book though I enjoyed it. I stick to 5 stars with books that not only blew me away, but I know in the future I will revisit again.
Slewfoot takes place in Connecticut in 1666 (what a year) I thought that Brom did a very great job of not only describing the location, but the people, mannerism, dialect, etc. It does drive me a bit up the wall when I read any historical fiction novels and the characters talk like they are from the current day/age.
I thought all in all this was a great fantasy/horror read and if people are looking for a book to read during October or for any book bingos, games, this one has a ton of things in it that would fit.
