Review: Hour of the Witch, Chris Bohjalian (2021)

Chris Bohjalian's Hour of the Witch plunges the reader into the rigid, terrifying world of Puritan Boston in 1662, delivering a historical thriller that feels surprisingly relevant. The novel centers on Mary Deerfield, a strong-willed, twenty-four-year-old woman trapped in a violent marriage to Thomas Deerfield, a wealthy miller nearly twice her age. When Thomas’s abuse escalates to the point of driving a three-tined fork into her hand, Mary—a resourceful woman with a deep sense of self-preservation—takes the radical step of petitioning the Court of Assistants for a divorce on the grounds of cruelty.

This choice is the crucible of the novel. Bohjalian meticulously captures the suffocating, patriarchal society where Satan is considered as real as one's neighbor, and divorce is a scandalous, near-impossible feat for a woman. As Mary navigates the legal system, where the magistrates often seem more concerned with her "wifely obedience" and failure to bear children than her husband’s brutality, her pursuit of freedom quickly devolves into a desperate fight for her life.

Bohjalian is a master of dread, and he layers the historical detail with unsettling suspense. The book's central motif—the three-tined fork, viewed by the Puritans as the "Devil's tines"—is used brilliantly to illustrate the era's pervasive superstition. When strange, cursed objects are discovered in Mary's garden and circumstantial evidence mounts against her, her petition for divorce shifts into a trial for witchcraft.

The novel is at its strongest in the courtroom scenes, which are both frustrating and riveting. The author uses snippets of historical court documents to preface chapters, building a sense of impending doom and highlighting the chilling hypocrisy of the men in power. Mary’s strength lies not in being a modern-day iconoclast, but in her deeply human struggle to survive within the confines of her world, forcing readers to contemplate the timelessness of victim-blaming and institutionalized misogyny.

While the first half can be a slower burn as Bohjalian constructs the Puritan world—from the period-authentic dialogue to the daily routines—the latter half is an addictive, tightly-plotted rush toward a dramatic and ultimately satisfying conclusion.

Hour of the Witch is far more than a simple witch trial story. It’s a compelling piece of historical fiction that doubles as a psychological thriller, using the backdrop of 17th-century Boston to explore themes of female agency, power, and survival against a society determined to silence strong women. Highly recommended for readers who enjoy historical accuracy fused with high-stakes suspense.

Carolina Dean
12th House Books