How to Hang a Witch by Adriana Mather.
Quote:
It's the Salem Witch Trials meets Mean Girls in a debut novel from one of the descendants of Cotton Mather, where the trials of high school start to feel like a modern day witch hunt for a teen with all the wrong connections to Salem’s past.
Salem, Massachusetts is the site of the infamous witch trials and the new home of Samantha Mather. Recently transplanted from New York City, Sam and her stepmother are not exactly welcomed with open arms. Sam is the descendant of Cotton Mather, one of the men responsible for those trials and almost immediately, she becomes the enemy of a group of girls who call themselves The Descendants. And guess who their ancestors were?
If dealing with that weren't enough, Sam also comes face to face with a real live (well technically dead) ghost. A handsome, angry ghost who wants Sam to stop touching his stuff. But soon Sam discovers she is at the center of a centuries old curse affecting anyone with ties to the trials. Sam must come to terms with the ghost and find a way to work with The Descendants to stop a deadly cycle that has been going on since the first accused witch was hanged. If any town should have learned its lesson, it's Salem. But history may be about to repeat itself.
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I went to Boston for 4th of July and was supposed to take a day trip to Salem. The weather turned nasty and the ferry was canceled. However, I still wanted to listen to this audiobook to get in the mood.
The author Adriana Mather is also the narrator for the audiobook. She did a good job. She has a teenager's voice and that was a good fit, but she was also able to change her voice for different characters.
There are the typical universal YA tropes, yet it's still a page turning mystery. It was really hard to pause the audiobook. I should have seen the character reveal
coming but for a hot second I suspected another character,
I liked the end message about breaking the cycle of the curse. Death begets death, violence begets violence. This is a quote I liked (Ch 46, page 342) "A curse is just a cycle, which may only exist because people want it to."
I also liked the analogy between a witch hunt and bulling. This is one of my favorite quotes (Ch 37, page 246): "I guess witchcraft accusations have not disappeared. They have just transformed."
I not usually one for love triangle but I liked this unusual love triangle. It was very subtle and not a huge soap opera.
I have a few criticisms. Some things were dropped. Like Sam and Jaxon's class project and the enactment play the class was supposed to do. Also,
I also thought the last chapter was too short. I would have liked to see
I'll probably see the answers in the sequel, Haunting the Deep, which I am reading next.
4 out of 5 Black Eyed Susans.