Book Review: The Witch by Freida McFadden
Freida McFadden’s newest mystery novel that’s just in time for spooky season. Check out my full review of The Witch below!
Book Information
Julia has no other choice but to move in with her grandmother at their family’s centuries old estate. She hasn’t been back there for years due to the creepy things that kept happening when she was a child. Her great aunt Ethel swears it’s Caroline’s ghost haunting the halls. Caroline was her ancestor who was accused of witchcraft and burned at the stake. There’s one thing that’s for sure: her ghost is angry.
In 1692, Caroline is trying to have an heir for her husband but can’t seem to get pregnant. When she befriends an old lady who uses herbs to heal people, Caroline starts getting accused of doing things that she’s never done. The townspeople are out for blood, and she may or may not be the witch they’re looking for.
Review | Heidi Dischler
I’ll be honest, I was enjoying this book for the most part. It’s told during two different times (one with Julia in the present and one with Caroline in the past). If I could’ve skipped ALL of Julia’s chapters, I honestly would have. Julia’s chapters had creepy instances with ghostly things, but it never felt super interesting to me. Not to mention, her little romantic subplot had NO chemistry. There were a few surprises for her POV at the end of the book that I’ll mention in the spoilers, but I genuinely disliked her character and was bored for her chapters.
For Caroline, this is where most of my enjoyment came from. Her chapters were interesting, spooky, and had way more emotion and overall humanness that Julia’s chapters (maybe it’s just because I felt like Julia was way too 2D and that made her chapters boring). Caroline was kind and showed a lot of emotion during her chapters. I was generally entertained and really wanted to know what would happen next.
This seems to happen a lot for me with Freida McFadden’s books. In The Boyfriend, I didn’t like the characters because they didn’t feel real enough to me. The Housemaid, though, was a lot better.
Spoilers ahead.
So, I really thought Molly was going to be the witch. She was just a terrible person, though, and wanted Caroline dead so that she could marry her husband. Caroline’s husband ended up being the night reaper (truly thought it would have been Strickland before he ended up burning in the cellar), and he strangled Molly to death. Caroline and Jonas leave their small town after escaping the jail and burying Molly and Archie (after Jonas kills him). They return decades later and just pretend that they are Molly and Archie and no one is the wiser.
For Julia, her great aunt Ethel was actually strangled shortly after giving birth by a woman named Celia. Celia has been pretending to haunt the house and be her great aunt Ethel (who is actually Julia’s grandmother). Not super surprising to be honest.
Overall, if it weren’t for Caroline’s chapters, I would’ve really not like this book. Because of them, though, I give this book a 3.75. Decently entertaining but not the best. Again, THANK YOU GOODREADS for adding the option to do quarter and half stars. My reviewer life is complete.
Source: Audiobook from Audible
(P.S. You can read tons of books—including ones written by me—by trying a free trial of Kindle Unlimited!)
