How to Hang a Witch

How to Hang a Witch by Adriana Mather

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf

July 2016

ISBN: 978-0-553-53947-9

Pages: 355

Contemporary Young Adult

Salem, Massachusetts

Sixteen-year-old Samantha Mather is new to Salem, Massachusetts which also happens to be the site of the infamous Witch Trials. Being recently transplanted from New York City, Sam isn’t exactly welcomed with open arms. Sam is a descendant of Cotton Mather who was one of the men responsible for the Trials. And almost immediately Sam becomes the enemy of a group of girls that call themselves The Descendants. No need to guess who their ancestors were.

Sam also finds herself face to face with a real, live (though technically dead) ghost as if dealing with everything else wasn’t enough. The ghost is handsome and also angry that Sam keeps touching his stuff.

Sam soon finds out she is at the center of a centuries-old curse that is affecting everyone with ties to the Trials. Sam needs to work with The Descendants and come to terms with the ghost if she is going to have a chance at stopping the deadly cycle that has been going on since the first alleged witch that was hanged. Salem should have learned its lesson if any town should have learned from the past. Though it seems history may be about to repeat itself.

This is a book that takes several different topics and ties them all together to make for a story that proves to be an amazing read. The reader will find themselves turning the pages just to see what will happen next and just where this one will end up at. The way history is brought to life through the incidents that are happening in contemporary Salem prove to be fascinating and makes for a story that is very hard to put down. It will also have readers hoping to read more from this author as she writes a book that is unforgettable.

I give this one 5 red roses

LRH