This was an interesting book about female killers during the time of the Tudors and the Stuarts, what made it interesting is that in this book I found the stories of women I had never heard about, women who shocked the society that they lived in. Society hasn't actually changed all that much when it comes to how female criminals of any description are viewed.

In a world where media is obsessed with true crime it is interesting to know that this was also the case in Early Modern Britain where the notoriety of criminals was the subject of much gossip. However the treatment of females was different to males - a female killer was an abomination and sent the locality into a frenzy. In this book Adams focuses on a select number of tales, each illustrating the different facets of female killers. For some the accusation was justified, serial killers and husband killers, for others they appeared in the wrong place at the wrong time and were falsely convicted. Whilst this is a short book, it is perfectly formed and immensely readable.

A look at female killers in the Early Modern period in Britain (roughly the 16th to 18th centuries CE), where the plethora of ballads & pamphlets would have had us believe that female killers were fairly common at this point. This book examines the evidence & argues that then, as now, most murders were committed by men & that those committed by women were sensationalised. Violence was thought to be in the nature of men but against that of women so women who killed were therefore going against the natural order of things.

There are examples here of women who killed under different circumstances, from escaping domestic violence to being accused of being a witch & the penalties thereof. Women have killed for various reasons, sometimes even because they wanted to, but they have always seemed to be deemed worse than male killers in the court of public opinion.

I thought this was an informative read about an intriguing subject. Coincidentally I read a book about Alice Arden earlier this year - before that I had never heard of her & she crops up in this book too. I didn't find it quite as good a read as the author's first book & there was some repetition in the chapters but it was interesting.

My thanks to NetGalley & publishers, Williams Collins, for the opportunity to read an ARC.

An interesting and well-researched book delving into the crimes of women killers. Not only giving the detail of their crime but providing the context of their situation, often at the plight of being a woman without rights and an unjust justice system in favour of men. The women were deemed savage for their crimes and often burnt alive as punishment. Even the sentencing and punishment of women compared to men was unfairly balanced. Blessing manages to weave in black comedy with each story whilst balancing with compassion for what women endured in historic times.

Repetitive in language and analysis in each section : in need of editing

This was probably inevitable in some ways : many women accused of witchcraft, for example, were so accused because they were a bit outspoken, stroppy, opinionated, and/or old and plain. Women in the period ‘the early modern period’ as Adams endlessly calls it – had limited options to be ‘acceptable’ and certainly being a bit ornery and opinionated was not one.

Females were also subjugated to ‘honour and obey’ their husbands, and if those husbands were brutal and unpleasant, and prone to violence, there was little justice available. Rape within marriage, for example, did not exist as a crime. Some women turned to murder as the only escape. Some women were also unpleasant and violent, just as some men were. Then, as now, there was more salacious interest in badly behaved women because women were ‘supposed’ to be nice and nurturing.

The conclusions, after each account of each woman’s ‘crime and punishment’ inevitably were repeats of previous accounts.

The annoying repetitions in the work were linguistic/stylistic. As Adams was writing about a specific period, and established that she was writing about ‘the early modern period’ there was no need to be constantly reflecting ‘in the early modern period’. Likewise, there were so many times when the repletion of a person’s name could have been replaced by him, her, he or she. I was surprised no editor had suggested such tidying.

I did however appreciate the ‘epilogue’ where Adams concludes that, for all the fact we no longer boil miscreants in cauldrons, burn them alive or hang them, all as entertainment and public spectacle, we still seem salaciously keen to be a baying excitable mob doing the equivalent of throwing refuse at people in stocks, hidden behind anonymity on social media platforms.

Laws may have changed for how miscreants – perceived or actual are dealt with, but we can’t really congratulate ourselves too far that we have advanced. Lynch mob mentality is still easily aroused

I really enjoyed this book. It was about the history of true crime, in particular female murderers. It was set around the 16th and 17th centuries in Britain and includes several true stories. Women in this period rarely killed and when they did it was often because of extreme provocation or domestic violence. There is scandal and brutality but the author writes with empathy. I can only imagine the amount of research that went into it. I really enjoyed the book and was able to learn so much. I wanted the explanations and understanding. I couldn't put the book down despite the injustices I was reading about. I very much look forward to more books by this author.

This book was interesting but I was engaged by the storytelling for each woman, but I feel a little underwhelmed overall. I feel like I'm missing the 'why' of it all - although it does show the misogyny faced by some of these women in these circumstances (whether they're actually killers or not), these doesn't feel too well illustrated. In the case of some chapters, the women are accused of witchcraft and face unjust death penalties, whereas other chapters the misogyny women faced at the time seem to have little to do with it. Maybe this book will appeal to true crime fans who like a gruesome story, but I wanted the book to have more of a thesis or a point.

Blessin Adam’s comes across as an enthusiastic narrator of true crime from the past. I read and enjoyed an earlier book of his and this outing considers eight very different cases. He places each in the context of their time and details the crime and the outcome. Iits an interesting slant on a particular slice of social history. Women have always been treated in a different way to men and the witchcraft stories are heartbreaking. There are a couple of tales that resonate with the present, which is frightening shows how little, in some ways, things have changed, My only slight criticism is that sometimes his enthusiasm fir his subject lets him get carried away. Some better editing to keep the pace but without quite so much when it leads to repetition of detail.

An enjoyable look at the crimes of women throughout history. I did, however, find it to be a little repetitive. It seemed to lose its way at some points.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for gifting me an early copy of Thou Savage Woman.

In the conclusion of the book, the author states: “I often found myself caught between sympathy and horror”. I feel like this statement covers pretty much perfectly how I felt when reading this book. I would just add enraged, and it would sum it up perfectly.

It is a non-fiction telling the stories of women who were tried and sentenced to death for crimes they either committed or not. The author describes perfectly the context at the time: political, economic-as it plays a great role in the stories- but also in terms of the law and what was deemed acceptable or not.
The treatment of women at that time was horrible and the prejudices around them even more.
It was a great non-fiction book that made me learn more about the perception of women at that time from society, the types of crimes that would be committed and accused them of, but also the role of novels and the ‘press’ in it.
The fact that there are 8 stories that take you each half an hour to read is also great as it enables you to take your time reading it without fear of forgetting what happened before as you can read them independently.

I found the stories super interesting and especially when it got to the witchcraft books, the stories were ones I have just read retellings of in novels. (The last witch of Scotland and the familiars). I did think that the chapters went on a long time and the stories could have been edited down a bit. I also think that all Elizabeth’s from the 1500s were evil after reading this book.
Thanks NetGalley for letting me read and review

This was a fantastic read that I adored way more than I expected. I knew I would enjoy it as I love true crime but I didn't expect it to be as good as it was and I am still thinking about it now. Loved the writing and the format of the book and how the information was put across. Amazing, PLEASE READ

Thank you to Blessin Adams, William Collins, and NetGalley for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely loved this! Essentially written as 8 short stories with an intro and conclusion, Thou Savage Woman covers a wide range of motives and cases concerning female murderers in early modern England. Some of the stories are heartbreaking. I found myself comparing the motives of today’s female murderers with the early modern ones, and came to the same conclusion as the author, especially reading the ‘Do or Die’ chapter. In some respects, almost no progress has been made in the legal system. I will definitely read the author’s backlist.

4⭐️

If you love true crime and early modern British history then this is the book for you.

Blessings Adams covers topics such as witchcraft to poisoning to physical violence. Some of it is pretty gruesome (SA / rape / violence) so it might be triggering for some.

Even though this book is about early modern Britain, I kept thinking of the similarities to this day and age, which Adams also mentions towards the end. Esp. the obsession with true crime and the general shock when murderers are women, rather than men. I also found it extremely interesting that people paid close attention to the behaviour of women when faced with tragedy. If they don‘t react as suspected everyone‘s automatically suspicious. Nothing much has changed since then (think the Amanda Knox case).

Adams wrote about some extremely nasty individuals, but also about some women who were unjustly executed (where the „evidence“ was a rumour). I was glad to see that she showed both.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Collins for providing me with a digital review copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinions.

This is a brilliant collection of crimes and events of the early modern period pertaining to the suspected crimes of women. Adams’ intellectually threads the social and economical state of women’s affairs and expectations from the period she is covering and exposes the breadth of time between the hundreds of years still see similar patterns to modern day crime. Truly horrifying read in terms of the crimes discussed as well as the political landscape of female killers in past and present.

I really enjoyed this true crime historical book about women convicted criminals from early modern Britain.

Some of the women were complete rotters and heartless killers, but others were unfortunately accused of the impossible crime of witchcraft because they were social misfits. The exploration of women's crime in its historical context was very interesting, learning about attitudes of the period and how that played into punishment. The difference between the punishment for men and women was enlightening - for example a man convicted of killing his wife would be a murderer sentenced to be hanged, whereas a woman convicted of killing her husband would be a "petty traitor" sentenced to be burnt at the stake.

A recommended read for lovers of history, especially listeners to Lucy Worsley's Lady Killers podcast.

I often wonder why true crime and murder in particular is a subject I find fascianting, but when books such as this which is so well written tellling the stories of murderers, I do find it hard not to read.

The authir has given the reader a insightful and factual book of several killers, their crimes, their reasons for commiting the crime and a look into the court system.

Highly recommended

Having previously read Blessin Adams’ first book I had high hopes going into this one, and I’m happy to say I wasn’t disappointed. I really enjoyed how each chapter was about a different person, and you saw both the events leading up to their arrest, their trial, and then the punishment. It came across as very well researched, yet it wasn’t delivered in a dry manner. I’d thoroughly recommend