‘It’s like Cleftwater’s got ringed about by badness – by ill luck,’ she said. ‘And at its middle is you.’
Dedicated to the women who “fell victim to the 1645-7 East Anglian witch-hunt”, this was never going to be a light read. I’m not generally drawn to historical fiction but can’t help myself where witches are concerned, probably because if I’d been born in the wrong century, it’s very likely I would have been burned at the stake.
Master Makepeace, “with his great knowledge of witches”, is on his way to Cleftwater. This is really bad news for the women of the coastal village. Having “gathered considerable evidence of their Devilish work”, Master Makepeace quickly stirs up a witch-hunt. Loyalties are tested and accusations are made.
Martha, mute since childhood, is caught in the middle. Trusted by her community as a midwife and healer, Martha is now tasked with searching the bodies of the accused for telltale signs of witchcraft.
When? When would they come for her? If they came, what then? Nothing then. She would be less than nothing. Disowned, stateless. Worse than that: she would be reinvented, made monstrous; every one of her misdeeds and defects – real or imagined – magnified a thousandfold.
God help her then. God help them all. All the taken women.
I could practically smell Cleftwater as I followed Martha but, try as I might, I didn’t form a connection with any of the characters so when the stakes were raised (not literally), I didn’t feel the danger. It was as though I was watching from a safe distance rather than being in the thick of it. The poppet’s role was not as integral to the story as I had hoped and the resistance was quieter.
I expect those who read a lot more historical fiction than I do will appreciate the research that has gone into making this story as accurate as possible. My expectations and reality were never destined to meet, though. Martha’s story was never going to fire me up like Alix E. Harrow’s The Once and Future Witches did. In hindsight, it was unfair of me to expect it to.
Thank you so much to Hachette Australia for the opportunity to read this book.
Once Upon a Blurb
East Anglia, 1645. Martha Hallybread, a midwife, healer and servant, has lived for more than four decades in her beloved coastal village of Cleftwater. Everyone knows Martha, but no one has ever heard her speak.
One morning, the peaceful atmosphere is violently shattered and Martha becomes a silent witness to a witch hunt. As a trusted member of the community, she is enlisted to search the bodies of the accused women. But whilst Martha wants to help her friends, she also harbours a dark secret.
In desperation, she revives a witching doll that she inherited from her mother, in the hope that it will bring protection. But the doll’s true powers are unknowable, the tide is turning, and time is running out …
A spellbinding and intoxicating novel inspired by true events, The Witching Tide breathes new life into history whilst holding up a mirror to the world we live in now. A story of loyalty and betrayal, fear and obsession, the impact of misogyny and the power of resistance, it is a magnificent debut from a striking new voice.
Schizanthus Nerd 