4/150 - The Vanishing Witch by Karen Maitland; 4.5/5
This is a strong historical novel set in the late Middle Ages that is rife with superstition, accusations of witchcraft, social inequity and unrest during the time period. It straddles the supernatural and the mundane, using multitude narrative threads to take you into very different ends of the social hierarchy.
With murder and witchcraft at its heart, there’s a malevolent tension across this and it manages to depict both the individual family scale drama along with the larger scale unrest from Richard III’s increase of the poll tax and the resultant rioting of peasants living in poverty. There’s a depth to this, bringing the time period to life around you along with a dark and engaging narrative that never quite goes where you expect it to.
This is a strong historical novel set in the late Middle Ages that is rife with superstition, accusations of witchcraft, social inequity and unrest during the time period. It straddles the supernatural and the mundane, using multitude narrative threads to take you into very different ends of the social hierarchy.
With murder and witchcraft at its heart, there’s a malevolent tension across this and it manages to depict both the individual family scale drama along with the larger scale unrest from Richard III’s increase of the poll tax and the resultant rioting of peasants living in poverty. There’s a depth to this, bringing the time period to life around you along with a dark and engaging narrative that never quite goes where you expect it to.