Review of A Time of Witches by Madeline Martin

In this dual-timeline historical fiction-fantasy-magical realism-witchy story, Martin explores the Suffolk witch trials of 1645 and builds a link between one of the accused and a modern-day woman coming into her own mysterious powers--who just might be able to save both women, within their own times.

"All women have magic in them."

In Madeline Martin's dual-timeline novel A Time of Witches, Lilith lives in present-day Savannah, Georgia, and Sybil lives in 1645 Suffolk, England, but the two are mystically connected across the centuries.

Sybil is a strong-willed widow who, after refusing a powerful suitor, is accused of witchcraft and cruelly jailed.

Since Lilith's mother's death, she has developed strange powers and visions, and when her future is foretold by an odd, believable seer, Lilith knows she must find a way back in time to help Sybil, or else Lilith herself will die. Lilith travels to England to try to somehow reach Sybil, save her own life--and just maybe fall in love. (Hmmm. Let's stay on task, Lilith!)

At times the male characters in A Time of Witches are so evil, they feel like caricatures of bad men. Yet we know from history that what Martin builds in her novel is a version of real-life witch hunts, featuring infuriating reflections of men's past, actual, horrific abuses of control used to silence outspoken or threateningly powerful women. There is (and was) no way for the accused women to refute charges against them, so in an enraging cycle of absurd tests that cannot be passed, the women who have spurned men, hold wealth others want, or have offended someone in their household or elsewhere are eliminated from society and killed.

The past timeline intrigued me most; Lilith has promising powers about which she is ignorant, but for me she was primarily an avenue through which I could access more of Sybil and her story.

I read that this story was inspired by a recurring dream Martin experienced over multiple years. Suffolk was the site of actual witch trials that occurred in 1645, and Martin researched those events for the novel.

I received a prepublication audio version of this title (narrated by the wonderful Saskia Maarleveld) courtesy of Libro.fm and Hanover Square Press.

More Books to Check Out

Madeline Martin is also the author of The Secret Book Society, The Librarian Spy, The Last Bookshop in London, The Keeper of Hidden Books, and The Booklover's Library.

For more Bossy witchy reads, please check out the lists and titles at this link.