How to Kill a Witch
Thank you Sourcebooks for the advance reader copy and the opportunity to be an early reader. This title was released on September 30.
I knew next to nothing about witch trials in Scotland before picking this up and was fascinated by the information in this book. The authors have a podcast, which I have not listened to, but I can see their strong rapport from the writing style and footnotes. The information was presented with humor and an edge. It took a topic that could be dry and made it fun and interesting. I appreciated the many interviews the authors did with local experts and the way they approached their research. I also liked that while their main focus was Scotland, they also included information about England and America as well.
The subtitle on this is “The Patriarchy’s Guide to Silencing Women,” and I think the book does a decent job of arguing that witch trials targeted women, especially those considered troublesome and disruptive to society, more heavily. As the work pans out to modern day, the threads were a bit more lost on me. I don’t disagree that women are still shut down and silenced today, but the connections between that reality and witch trials was a little less concrete than I might have liked.
Overall, I’m glad I read this and know more about the rich and tragic history of Scotland in this arena.
