The Witching Tide, a story about witch hunting in the 17th Century, is what I want historical fiction to be. Not just well written, but also enlightening. It’s a reminder that men held all the power and when things go wrong, it’s women that bear the pain. Even the drunkards’ words held more sway than a sober woman. Being rich provided no safety net. Even a careless remark by a priest could land him in hot water.
Martha is a mute servant woman, who also acts as the village’s midwife. The rumors begin flying just as the witchfinder comes to Cleftwater. Soon, everything is being laid at various women’s feet - dead babies, bad winter weather, illnesses, sunken ships, dead animals. No one stops to think how such a small village could hold so many witches. Guards from other towns are brought in and the gaol runs out of space. And then, Martha is corralled into helping examine the women for marks of the devil.
The book is well written and the characters were fleshed out. It’s not an easy book to read, especially the ability to quickly turn on a neighbor, the walking torture of the supposed witches. But it was a gripping story. Martha’s torment and guilt were so real.
My thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for an advance copy of this book.

The Witching Tide is a story based on the 1600’s witch trial era.
I did like the twist with our main character being mute.
The other characters were like well flushed out and did want to see how their stories played out.

I also enjoyed the added behind the scenes during the trials and the brutality unleashed to hunt these supposed witches.

With all that being said, there was not much though that made me excited to get back to the story to read.
Overall if you are into this time period and witch trials you will enjoy it.
Thank you to Net Galley , Margaret Meyer and Scribner Publishing for the eARC of the novel in exchange for my honest review.

So, I personally did not enjoy this book. It was pretty triggering for me based on the proverbial witch hunts that are going on with librarians around the country right now. That being said, this book was beautifully written and really well done. I am giving it 5 stars because I think it was a 5 star book despite how upsetting it was to me on a personal level. The characters are well rounded and impeccably fleshed out. They feel like real people, and I mean that in the best and worst ways possible. Meyer did a beautiful job of capturing humanity in all its beauty as well as its ugliness. The plot and atmosphere were incredibly well done. I felt the foreboding laced throughout the book. Very well done.

The incredible richness of the author's descriptions makes this book a winner, for me, although patience is required because there is a lot of detail put into building atmosphere. As I am fairly new to the witch trials, having read only one other book on the subject, I devoured this story set in an historic and horrific time period -- horrific and treacherous for women, that is. Martha, a speechless mute, is portrayed well, and since she is the main character of the book, hats off to the author for making her believable without her saying a word. Through her eyes, we witness the unjust treatment of the women accused of witchery, their fate, and finally, an ultimate irony. Recommended.

Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for the ARC.

The expertly written atmosphere and clear tie in with the history behind the theming of this story I found absolutely gripping, and I could not wait to dive in to this story. I do love a good witchy tale, especially when real life history is involved. The author is phenomenal with theming and details.

Sadly, I found it difficult to follow along with the language used and often found myself rereading whole passages to completely understand what I just read. While I eventually became use to spoken language, it took away from the pleasure of reading what I felt could be an utterly gripping tale.

I also found myself not connecting with the main protagonist, even though I really enjoy witchy characters and theming. I honestly cannot place exactly what it was about her that I didn't care for, and admittedly that could be my own personal lack of connection emotionally to her personality.

Perhaps I need to go back and reread at a different time, the story itself was very well plotted and I found myself researching the East Anglia witch hunt. Perhaps coming back with more historical knowledge and a mindset to read in the language of the past is what I need to fully love this book.

I wanted to love this so much. It has history and witches - two of my favorite things.

However, this book fell flat for me, but I think it’s me. The characters’ dialog was written as if they were speaking as Brits in the 1600s spoke (I find reading dialect very tedious). The places were described in almost Dickensian detail. And ultimately, there was so much authentic history in the book, that I didn’t end up caring about the characters at all.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The premise of the tale surrounding witchcraft in the 1600’s is right up my alley, I had incredibly high hopes for this work. Meyer’s prose was absolutely poetic and beautiful, she takes you right back to the time and you truly feel like you are immersed.

However, I felt very uninspired by the main character, and considering the entirety of the story revolves around hoping she does not get condemned for witchcraft… I feel that is a major point of contention.
Beautifully written story that fell flat for me.

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.