TITLE: Cunning Women
AUTHOR: Elizabeth Lee
PUBLISHER: Cornerstone
ISBN: 9781786091161
PODCAST EPISODE: Book Club 22
REVIEWER: Hilary Wilson
Something in his eyes stops me from leaving. A battle of fear and anger and hope, that I cannot bear to look upon. “Any conjuring here has been done by you, a notion of a lass that I am not and cannot be. You mustn’t be kind. I’m not used to it.”
“You deserve kindness.”
“I deserve what I get. It’s what I was born to.”
Clouds roll above us, uncovering a bright moon that gleams in the black water of the river.
“Born to it how?” he asks.
“Chosen.”
He shakes his head. “By - God?”
The laughter that comes from me is tainted.
Cunning Women, released April 22, 2021, is Elizabeth Lee’s electrifying debut novel. Set in 1620s Lancashire, in the wake of the Pendle Witch Trials, it follows a brief period in the lives of two characters from very different backgrounds. Sarah Haworth lives with her brother, sister, and mother in a hamlet left abandoned after the Plague had swept through. She has been marked by the Devil, damned forever to a life following her mother, the village’s Cunning Woman, as a witch. It is a life she doesn’t want, but she has little choice in the matter. Daniel, on the other hand, is a very desirable bachelor - he is set to inherit the village’s only farm. When their paths cross and he shows Sarah a measure of kindness, romance blooms - but how do you navigate such emotions in a time where one could be hanged for showing even a basic knowledge of herbal medicine?
While this book is a romance, it does not follow the typical pattern of a romance novel. It reads more like a thriller, as Sarah uncovers more of the history of her family and just how stark the divide between her and the rest of the village is. There are riveting passages as Sarah realizes the depths to which her mother has had to stoop to keep her and siblings alive. Sarah’s own resolve to live her life on her own terms is at times inspirational - if tragic. Multiple times I found myself wishing that a different choice had been made, or a different phrase was said at just the right moment to alter the inevitable chain of events that came to pass.
One of the strengths of the book was the dual narration (although I found the switch in perspective from first to third person a bit jarring) as it allowed the reader to experience the full extent of the rigid class structure of the time period. Daniel, although from an arguably wealthy family, was as trapped by the expectations of his father and the rest of the village as Sarah Haworth was. While not trapped in poverty and starvation, he still was denied the ability to choose a partner he wished out of love as well as the ability to be true to his ultimately kind and gentle nature.
Cunning Women was a fascinating book. It proved easy to read and the pace of the book should easily engage any reader. While not a lighthearted summer read, the romance is believable and the claustrophobic terror of the villagers and Magistrate closing in upon Sarah and Daniel is downright thrilling. To anyone with a casual interest in how the witch trials might have affected the Cunning Folk and how they contended with it this should be an entertaining read.
AUTHOR: Elizabeth Lee
PUBLISHER: Cornerstone
ISBN: 9781786091161
PODCAST EPISODE: Book Club 22
REVIEWER: Hilary Wilson
Something in his eyes stops me from leaving. A battle of fear and anger and hope, that I cannot bear to look upon. “Any conjuring here has been done by you, a notion of a lass that I am not and cannot be. You mustn’t be kind. I’m not used to it.”
“You deserve kindness.”
“I deserve what I get. It’s what I was born to.”
Clouds roll above us, uncovering a bright moon that gleams in the black water of the river.
“Born to it how?” he asks.
“Chosen.”
He shakes his head. “By - God?”
The laughter that comes from me is tainted.
Cunning Women, released April 22, 2021, is Elizabeth Lee’s electrifying debut novel. Set in 1620s Lancashire, in the wake of the Pendle Witch Trials, it follows a brief period in the lives of two characters from very different backgrounds. Sarah Haworth lives with her brother, sister, and mother in a hamlet left abandoned after the Plague had swept through. She has been marked by the Devil, damned forever to a life following her mother, the village’s Cunning Woman, as a witch. It is a life she doesn’t want, but she has little choice in the matter. Daniel, on the other hand, is a very desirable bachelor - he is set to inherit the village’s only farm. When their paths cross and he shows Sarah a measure of kindness, romance blooms - but how do you navigate such emotions in a time where one could be hanged for showing even a basic knowledge of herbal medicine?
While this book is a romance, it does not follow the typical pattern of a romance novel. It reads more like a thriller, as Sarah uncovers more of the history of her family and just how stark the divide between her and the rest of the village is. There are riveting passages as Sarah realizes the depths to which her mother has had to stoop to keep her and siblings alive. Sarah’s own resolve to live her life on her own terms is at times inspirational - if tragic. Multiple times I found myself wishing that a different choice had been made, or a different phrase was said at just the right moment to alter the inevitable chain of events that came to pass.
One of the strengths of the book was the dual narration (although I found the switch in perspective from first to third person a bit jarring) as it allowed the reader to experience the full extent of the rigid class structure of the time period. Daniel, although from an arguably wealthy family, was as trapped by the expectations of his father and the rest of the village as Sarah Haworth was. While not trapped in poverty and starvation, he still was denied the ability to choose a partner he wished out of love as well as the ability to be true to his ultimately kind and gentle nature.
Cunning Women was a fascinating book. It proved easy to read and the pace of the book should easily engage any reader. While not a lighthearted summer read, the romance is believable and the claustrophobic terror of the villagers and Magistrate closing in upon Sarah and Daniel is downright thrilling. To anyone with a casual interest in how the witch trials might have affected the Cunning Folk and how they contended with it this should be an entertaining read.