Time of the Witches
Salem Village, 1692. Family quarrels and neighbor rivalries promise trouble in the Salem community, but 14-year-old Drucilla is blind to the building tension. An orphan who has long been shuttled between households, Dru cares only that the well-respected Putnam family has taken her in and given her the loving home she has never known. Better still, her friend Gabe, the only steady presence in her shifting childhood, has moved in with a family just down the road. As Dru adjusts to her new life, however, she finds that all is not as it seems within the Putnam household. Mistress Putnam may treat Dru as a beloved daughter, but she soon makes demands that compromise Dru’s sense of integrity. When accusations of witchcraft begin to break out, Dru must play a dangerous game, choosing sides between her new family and her oldest friends.
Anna Myers brings a new angle to the Salem witch trials, and confronts the dark psychology of the witch hunts with surprising directness for a young adult novel. Unobtrusive period details and natural dialogue immerse the reader in the life and mentality of 17th-century Massachusetts. Although Dru is a timid character all too easily influenced by the opinions of others, her loyalties run deep, and she ultimately proves herself a worthy heroine – one whom teen readers and older historical fiction fans alike can cheer along to the triumphant yet unsettling finish.
