The tale told in The Witching Tide is tragic but true. It's not an easy book to read in that it makes you feel the emotions and fear of the time, especially as women are targeted / accused of being witches. I picked this up and set it aside several times while reading it but kept coming back. It is very well researched and true to my understanding of the era.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an Advance Reader Copy. This book would be an excellent choice for book clubs.

Martha, a mute midwife, watches in horror as the witchfinder comes to town. As woman after woman is taken and questioned she decides to take matters into her own hands. She unearths a wax witching doll that was gifted to her by her mother. Once pricked, the doll can cause chaos or offer protection. When Martha is chosen as one of the helpers to examine the accused women, suspicion quickly turns to her.

I couldn't put this book down. It was well paced and well developed. I felt the terror, hopelessness, and defiance of the women. My biggest complaint is that while Martha was mute - she had no trouble relating complex sentences or thoughts to those around her. No one seemed to have problems knowing what she was trying to say. This just did not seem realistic. I also wish some of the other women had been better developed. Perhaps alternating points of view could have helped develop these characters. Despite these criticisms, I enjoyed this book. 4 out of 5 stars.

This book was filled with such beautiful prose and I immensely enjoyed how well written the characters were. I did feel like the pacing of it felt a bit off as the first 2/3 was slow moving and the final 1/3 felt like a race to the finish. I do wish more time was spent on giving clear answers for where (and why) the witch hunters eventually left to. That was puzzling to me. All in all a heartbreaking tale that was subjectively good, but left me wanting.

Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for a free digital arc in exchange for my honest review.

The Witching Tide by Margaret Meyer is a book that took me a bit to get into (hang in there!), but once I did, I couldn't put it down.

Telling the story of a mute woman, Martha, who lives a peaceful life in her village as a mid-wife helping her friends and neighbors until she is forced to help the witchfinder, Silas, by searching the accused for "devil marks".

Martha's life is thrown into chaos by Silas and hoping to find protection, she takes a doll given to her by her mother for protection (or is it?) and we witness along with Martha what happens next.

After a slow-ish beginning, The Witching Tide kept me engrossed in the story of Martha and her village and hopes that all would turn out okay for them.

A different take on the Salem Witchcraft era that is thought provoking and enjoyable.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this advanced reader's copy. All opinions are my own.

The Witching Tide takes place in the 1600's in a small village where chaos comes to reign. The story centers around Martha Hallybread, who is known for her caregiving to the residents with her herbs and helping to welcome new babies into this world. She is also house servant to Kit and his wife Agnes. Martha has known Kit since birth and feels very maternal toward him, considering him the son she never had. Agnes is getting ready to give birth herself so it should be a happy time in the household.

However, a stranger comes to town. His name is Master Makepeace and he is on the hunt for any woman who may be a witch. He wants to rid the town of any evil that he deems is detrimental to the area. Martha is mute and uses a sort of sign language to communicate with her loved ones. This proves a disaster in this kind of situation where everyone is on edge and scared for their lives. Anything seems to be suggestive of being a witch and Martha is in Makepeace's sights.

Kit uses his influence to get Martha a position WITH Makepeace to "examine" and interrogate the women brought forth on charges of being a witch. What's heartbreaking is, that, because it's such a small village, Martha knows everyone and even brought some of their children into the world, so loyalties are tested and heartbreak follows.

I really have never read anything like this before and I had such mixed emotions reading it. First, the good. The author does a beautiful job describing the scenes, emotions and abject terror these women feel being rounded up. Her prose is beautiful and I genuinely felt sad in some parts, so that shows I connected with the characters. Well done there.

However, I thought it dragged in some places and it took me longer to finish that I would have liked. Once it got going, I found myself finally wanting to come back to it. Also, and this is going to sound nitpicky, but I started getting annoyed with some of the words the author chose to use. There's one I won't mention at all but as far as the other one, boy, did this woman love the word piss. Isn't there another word she could have used? Oxford dictionary says it's vulgar slang as it is. I read the kindle version so I put a count on it only because it grabbed my attention that it was used a lot. She used it 14 times.

In any event, it was enjoyable to the point that I wanted to finish it and was glad that I felt some connection to these characters, so if this sounds like your cup of tea, pick it up. Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for this opportunity. No review was required.

Beautifully written with a strong sense of time and place this book is a slow, tragic burn that takes chapters to unfold. Through The Witching Tide we learn just how quickly neighbors can turn against one another and society can delve into chaos. I loved the premise of this book but the pacing was perhaps a little on the slow side for my liking, that is however, a personal preference.

I really wanted to love this one but it felt so meh. Pretty lackluster but obviously heavily researched. It’s clear that the author is an academic and that makes the text heavy in tone, pacing, and character development. I wanted more.

This book was a hard read - not because it was badly written, but because it was so well written it felt like you were experiencing the horrors of the witch hunts and Martha's plight. The details were vivid, creating a clear scene, even if it was a horrifying scene at times.

I highly recommend it for any fan of historical fiction.

This was a short but fascinating look at how women, even those in relatively safe positions in their communities, were brutally beaten down during the witch hunts. From a psychological perspective, it was really interesting to see characters holding extremely varied opinions on the hunt and trials, although I had a troubled relationship with the ending (and really everything about the stupid poppet).

The last few chapters were from after Martha and Jennet survived being hanged, but we never know why they were saved—the roads were supposed to be flooded with the judge out of town, so him showing up last minute is odd already, but what evidence did he have to convince him neither were witches? We never find out.

Otherwise, I really did enjoy this, and I think a lot of people would benefit from reading books like this!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC to review!
Rating (on a scale of 1 to 5, 5 being excellent)
Quality of writing: 4
Pace: 3
Plot development: 4
Characters: 4
Enjoyability: 3
Ease of Reading: 3

Overall rating: 3 out of 5

I guess I don't like witch books, and I struggled to finish this one. Other will love it if you like witches books that take place in the past

I love a good witch hunt story and Margaret Meyer shows just how friendships can change the course of your life in 1645. This was hauntingly beautiful and sad that women faced this during this time period. Men suck.

I am an amateur historian and I really enjoy both historical and non fiction about witch trials. I was expecting more from this book. I found it to be just alright. The middle portion seemed to really drag on.

The Witching Tide perfectly captures the way that paranoia and personal agendas impacted witch hysteria throughout history. The story is told from the perspective of one woman who is an herbalist and caretaker of a family. A paradox that is explored in this book is how the townspeople become the embodiment of evil that they so relentlessly are pursuing.

The main character is an unusual narrator- she sometimes seems to be on the verge of declaring herself a witch, and other times acts in self-preservation. She is mostly mute and converses with other characters through gestures, which leaves her somewhat apart from those who cannot understand her. Overall, an interesting story!

The witching tide was a phenomenal witchy read. I really enjoyed the direction and pace of this book. I wanted to step into the pages of this story.

I really wanted to like this book. Based on the synopsis it was the kind of book that jumps directly to the top of my TBR. However, this book was just not for me. I found the pacing to be very slow and it was hard to keep track of the characters as they were often referred to by last name then randomly by first name pages later. .

A quarter of the way into the book I DNF'd. It seemed like nothing was really happening either to the main character (other than some grumblings that she may be a witch) or to the women that had been jailed on suspicion of witchcraft. It just wasn't holding my interest.

I am a sucker for historical fiction about witch trials. This one was just okay. The middle dragged on and on and on. I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to the author Margaret Meyer, publishers Scribner, and as always NetGalley, for an advance audio copy of THE WITCHING TIDE.

Martha is a mute midwife in 17th century England, who uses a form of sign language to communicate with those who are close to her. She's so different and aloof, and there's her proximity to every still birth in the last ten years, not to mention every birth defect, every single pregnancy. Once Makepeace, the witch hunter, comes to town, it isn't long before the townspeople set him on her scent.

I read this book twice, as the first time through, I didn't keep up well with all the narrative turns. It's definitely a twisty, suspenseful tale, and the second time through, I was hooked. This time, I was more prepared for the wild plot, so I had no trouble following the many threads. Even though this book is not written in multiple timelines or perspectives, Meyer provides abundant detail about all the secondary characters, setting, and backstory. It's an immersive read about a stunningly horrible time in human history. Here are my trigger warnings for extreme violence against women and children, religious persecution, extreme gender and disability persecution, scenes of torture, death of a fetus, infanticide, SA, and more; I don't think the author or publisher provided trigger warnings, but these barely scrape the surface.

I really adore the disability rep in this book. In the time this book is set, disability can be a death sentence for one of a hundred reasons, and Meyer really shows how Martha's disability can isolate her socially. In the character of Kit, Meyer also shows the importance and value of compassion and social responsibility. Martha had become an invaluable part of Kit's family, because Kit's and Marth had devised a method of communication. This was my favorite aspect of the book and the primary reason I recommend the read. Such well drawn characters!

Rating: 🫢🫢🫢🫢 / 5 mute main characters
Recommend? Yes!
Finished May 12 & 21 2023
Format: Advance Digital, NetGalley
Read this if you like:
🫢 Disability rep
🧙 Witch stories
🗿17th century stories
⏳️ Historical fiction
👩‍🦳 Women's fiction

Immersive and gripping, this novel really does a great job at putting the reader in the story world. I'm so impressed with how the author weaves her research into the narrative and provides just the right amount of details. The pacing is a tiny bit slow at times, but overall I was eager to keep turning the pages. I wish the climax had been slightly more clever; as it is, the flood feels a smidge too convenient. The sense of anger and helplessness builds as the story progresses. I especially liked how the author explored the issue of trust within this community.

I received a copy of this book in exchange from NetGalley for an honest review.

The story is weaved with such excellence and creativity that it made me feel as though I was present along side the characters vs just reading them from afar. I was immersed quickly into the tale and felt hooked from the first page. Characters are lovely. Setting is fantastic and story was well researched.