History Meets Fiction

"The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane"

 

By now, you have almost certainly become bored of the various wizard-and-witch fiction books that have tried, in vain, to fill the void left by the absence of the Harry Potter series. So it is with great pleasure and joy that I present to you "The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane," by Katherine Howe. The book alternates between the Dane family of Salem, Massachusetts, and Connie Goodwin, a Harvard graduate student in 1991. Connie has just been tasked by her eccentric, free-spirited mother Grace to get her grandmother's old house ready for sale, but wile there, Connie begins to have startling visions. These visions lead her to the discovery of a single, strange name: Deliverance Dane. But what at first seems like a gold mine of historical information for her graduate thesis soon turns into something else entirely, forcing Connie to accept her-self for what she is...a witch. And no sooner does she learn this when she is thrust into a deadly duel with a sorcerer, where her failure will cost her far more than her life.

Meanwhile, back in Salem of 1692, Mercy Dane is just beginning to discover her own powers, when her mother, the cunning-woman (witch) Deliverance, is called to cure a girl who has been afflicted by a more-than mortal sickness. As the sickness spreads, Deliverance is accused of witchcraft, and Mercy must use her new powers if she is to save her mother's legacy.

 

This book is extremely entreating, and touches onto the very real traditions of British Witchcraft. It also utilizes its different time setting to its full humorous advantage Such as making the hilarious comment "One of my summer school kids had a cell phone that her kept on his desk! Can you imagine if every teenager had one of those?''

I fully recommend this book completely to anyone who wants a s to read a truly great book