Dorcas Good: The Diary of a Salem Witch
Written: Nov 12 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great beginning and based on a true story
Cons: The plot twists seems completely inconsistent with the characters
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| nollequeen's Full Review: Rose Earhart - Dorcas Good: The Diary of a Salem W... |
Dorcas Good: The Diary of A Salem Witch by Rose Earhart is based on the true story of the youngest Salem witch. Dorcas Good was accused and imprisoned in the Witches’ Dungeon of Salem at the age of 5. Her mother, Sarah Good was tried, sentenced to death and hung at Gallow’s Hill. Despite never having been convicted, or even tried, Dorcas was imprisoned for years and forgotten by the people of Salem.
Dorcas Good is a completely graphic and compelling tale of the Salem Hysteria from the point of view of a little girl, who suffered not only terrible poverty but incest as well, at the hands of her evil and alcoholic father. Forced to beg for her keep (and her father’s as well), Dorcas comes to the attention of Anne Putnam, leader of the accusatory girls of Salem after she attempts to defend her mother from Anne’s accusations of witchcraft by revealing Anne’s own lies and interest in the supernatural.
The first third of the book is excellent. Earhart’s account of the trial of Dorcas’s mother kept me reading late through the night. Unfortunately it is toward the end of the trial where Dorcas, at the unbelievable age of 5 meets her love interest a sea captain named Quelch. Quelch takes a somewhat fatherly interest in her now, but manages to carry a torch for her throughout her years of imprisonment and comes back for her years later when she is of suitable age. Ugh. What had been a great novel up until this point now takes a nasty turn in the romance novel direction.
The book somewhat recovers its former glory in the last third, where it takes another strange turn in yet another direction, turning at last into a New Age novel in which Dorcas discovers the tortured souls of those who were hung at Gallows Hill residing beneath it in a cave.
“Listen to us, daughter and learn of our fate. We are the condemned of Salem. Beneath this town lies a city of lost souls. We beg you to find your way to us. Only you, Dorcas Good, can bring us comfort. It is for this that you were spared...You must make the veil between the world that is yours and the place we are trapped within these rocks so thin that you can pass through and guide us home.”
It takes the realization of all that Dorcas has been through and the unification of her separate personalities (of course, as the victim of childhood abuse, she has multiple personalities which must be united) to thin the veil and rescue and vindicate the souls of her mother and the other victims.
“Dorcas Good” began with such promise that I found myself annoyed with what seemed to be completely inconsistent plot twists. I do however, still recommend it. It is entertaining and a good read despite seeming like a book that the author may have started and stopped writing at very different points in her life. It is disappointingly inconsistent but would still be enjoyable to anyone with an interest in the 17th century or the Salem Witch Trials.
Recommended:
Yes
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nollequeen
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