How to Hang A Witch
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4.8 • 537 Ratings
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
The #1 New York Times bestseller!
It’s the Salem Witch Trials meets Mean Girls in this New York Times bestselling novel from one of the descendants of Cotton Mather, where the trials of high school start to feel like a modern-day witch hunt for a teen with all the wrong connections to Salem’s past.
Salem, Massachusetts, is the site of the infamous witch trials and the new home of Samantha Mather. Recently transplanted from New York City, Sam and her stepmother are not exactly welcomed with open arms. Sam is the descendant of Cotton Mather, one of the men responsible for those trials—and almost immediately, she becomes the enemy of a group of girls who call themselves the Descendants. And guess who their ancestors were?
If dealing with that weren’t enough, Sam also comes face to face with a real, live (well, technically dead) ghost. A handsome, angry ghost who wants Sam to stop touching his stuff. But soon Sam discovers she is at the center of a centuries-old curse affecting anyone with ties to the trials. Sam must come to terms with the ghost and find a way to work with the Descendants to stop a deadly cycle that has been going on since the first accused witch was hanged. If any town should have learned its lesson, it’s Salem. But history may be about to repeat itself.
“It’s like Mean Girls meets history class in the best possible way.” —Seventeen Magazine
“Mather shines a light on the lessons the Salem Witch Trials can teach us about modern-day bullying—and what we can do about it.” —Bustle
“Strikes a careful balance of creepy, fun, and thoughtful.” —NPR
I am utterly addicted to Mather’s electric debut. It keeps you on the edge of your seat, twisting and turning with ghosts, witches, an ancient curse, and—sigh—romance. It’s beautiful. Haunting. The characters are vivid and real. I. Could. Not. Put. It. Down.” —Jennifer Niven, bestselling author of All the Bright Places
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
When her father's illness forces 15-year-old Samantha "Sam" Mather and her stepmother to move to Salem, Mass., her family's connection to the witch trials makes Sam a target of the Descendants, girls whose ancestors were among the accused witches. After Sam befriends a charming young ghost named Elijah, she begins to piece together just how much of Salem's past continues to haunt its present; forming a tentative truce with the Descendants may be the only way to break a 300-year-old curse. Inspired by her own lineage to Cotton Mather, debut author Mather infuses the story with a rich history of real places and events to anchor its more fantastical elements, including a supernatural love triangle involving Elijah, secret rooms, and hidden compartments containing ancient writings. Witty repartee can seem too irreverent in passages where the teenage characters are facing (and sometimes succumbing to) death, but Mather crafts an entertaining story that draws intriguing parallels between the 17th-century trials and modern-day bullying, as well as the fears and mob mentalities behind both. Ages 12 up.
Customer Reviews
Best book ever!!!
This book was absolutely amazing, i literally finished it in a day cause i couldn’t stop reading!!!
Amazing read
This book was wonderful . I got pulled in after the first few pages and could bot put it down . I am about to read haunting of the deep ! I like paper books a lot so I got that one in paperback .
Loved it!
I absolutely loved this book! It was so easy to get lost in, and the story so intriguing, I didn’t want to put it down. I needed to know what was going to happen next.
Samantha Mather has spent most of her life living in NYC with her father and stepmother, under the impression she’s cursed due to all the terrible things that happen to those around her. When her dad falls ill and slips into a coma, and she and her stepmother have to move to Salem, she thinks maybe things will be different, but what she discovers is the curse she imagined she’s under may not be so imagined after all. With the help of a new friend and a ghost, Sam has to figure out how the curse started and how to break it before it’s too late.
How To Hang A Witch straddles a fine line between the parallels of the past and the future, and how history, if left unchecked or challenged, will repeat itself. A lesson Samantha and the other descendants of The Salem Witch Trials learn the hard way through a series of twists, turns, building tension, and one heck of a jaw-dropping moment.
This book easily mashed history, fantasy, and magic together that not only made for one heck of a can’t-put-down-until-I-reach-the-end paranormal story, but also simultaneously served as a lesson in bullying and the crowd mentality that goes along with it to either perpetrate or ignore it, and how standing up and saying something can break the cycle.