Thank you to Net Galley and the publishers for sending me a copy in exchange for a review.

I have always been obsessed with history and the witch trials in particular so this was right up my street. It was a wonderfully researched look into the lives and deaths of the people involved in the Pendle Witches case of 1612 in Lancashire.
The poverty of these people was put across well, as well as the beliefs of the time which were teetering on the line with what was believed to be "witchcraft" it seems impossible to me for these people to be found not guilty - yet poppets and the like was an everyday thing for so many.
I look forward to other books by this author.

I first encountered the story of the Pendle Witches in a cheap paperback book when I was a kid in the 1970s. This new book by Carol Ann Lee is a far cry from that, putting the story into an economic and gender context. I've read a few books by Lee before, but this is a new high for her. I powered through it in a couple of days and could easily see myself reading it again in future. Its both a cultural history and a sort of true crime book, and the combination of styles works very well to make the story fresh for modern readers. The book seems to tease out fresh information which must be tricky after so long! Long but a quick read, I'd like to see Lee tackle more of these historical 'stories' in future. Recommended.

Something Wicked tells the story of the Pendle Witch Trials, something that has fascinated me for years. Much like The Salem Witch Trials, it is an event that gives a real insight into the mentalities of people at the time which makes it endlessly fascinating to look at.

Lee is very thorough in her narrative. She goes through the events in great detail and brings them to life. There is so much to take in in this book, and Lee really gets into the nitty gritty about how something like this could happen. By starting at the beginning and explaining the background to the trials before going into the trial itself helps to give a complete understanding of the period in which these trials took place.

Something Wicked is a fascinating read. It is very well researched and Lee tells the story with a very compelling narrative that is very pleasing to read as someone who likes history. I would recommend it to anyone who has an interest in the early seventeenth century and those who enjoy reading about witchcraft.

I'm not usually a non-fiction reader but I picked "Something Wicked: The Lives, Crimes and Deaths of the Pendle Witches" by Carol Ann Lee up due to an interest in the subject matter and that we were visiting the Pendle region for a holiday. It reads fairly easily and I did get insight into each of the accused. However, it was a little too long for me. As I said, it isn't my normal type of read but it did give me added depth to the subject which aided me in my visit to the area.

I really enjoyed Carol Ann Lee’s writing style. The story she told is well researched, challenging and sad. I would be interested in reading her other books!

This was all set to be an exciting and interesting book exploring the lives of the famous Pendle witches. Unfortunately it is not written in a particularly readable style, as while the author is clearly very knowledgable about their story, background and geographical setting, she does throw every bit of knowledge she holds at the reader, whether it be relevant to the tale or an aside detailing something vaguely linked to persons or area. Yet, strangely, there were no footnotes to confirm the sources used.

I felt the reader really needed to know the story and characters involved before reading this, as the author makes assumptions that we will know who is linked to whom and what they did. Having read 'Mist over Pendle' which is a fictional account based on fact, I at least had some knowledge and persevered and did enjoy the plethora of information about witches, trials and the area that is offered.

Overall it is a detailed, well researched account, although there were a couple of errors, most notably talking about ousting 'Queen Elizabeth from her throne and replace her with Mary, her Roman Catholic sister'. I suspect the author meant her cousin, Mary Queen of Scots, since Elizabeth did not become queen until the death of her sister Mary.

Definitely a book to read if you have an interest in the witches in Lancashire, but I'd advise doing a little pre-reading first and brace yourself - its a fairly turgid read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bonnier Books UK for allowing me access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The topic of this book is right up my street - and I really enjoy deep diving into the history of the 'witch' throughout the years all over the world.
However, I found this book really difficult to get through. Lee's writing style was very intricate and I really struggled. It was very dense.
Not for me.

This was very good. I had never heard of the author before but Carol Ann Lee does a great job at examining records, presenting the evidence, trying to give a bit of flesh to people who have left no records themselves. I thought I knew roughly what happened during the Pendle witch trials, but it was actually a lot more complicated than I expected, partly because a lot of the characters have the same first names (mothers and daughters often do), the same last names without being exactly related, and because there's a lot going on, with characters all linked through various ways - so and so's daughter's goddaughter was the neighbour of so and so, who accused the former's sister in law, etc. It can be hard to follow at times, but Carol Ann Lee also did an excellent job at giving a context I didn't have - I read a few other books on witchcraft the past couple of years so I knew what books had been published back then and what the legal system said, but she also goes at length about the religious context and the persecution of Catholics. There's a chapter about the White Pater Noster that the Device family used as a "charm" and its regional variations, and the suspicion that fell on anyone who may be a papist, with your neighbours watching you and using it against you. She's also very detailed when it comes to the abject poverty that people experienced. Overall I think I had come to think of witchcraft solely or mostly as a feminist theme, and she made it about this and about economic inequalities and religious persecution.

Free ARC sent by Netgalley.

An interesting book covering the Pendle Witch Trials of 1612, going into as much detail as is possible given the time past and records available (if anything, it goes into a little too much detail and that slows it down at times). The author also uses imagination and supposition to fill in some gaps, especially around how people ‘must’ have been feeling, which is always a little jarring to me but she is obviously passionate about the subject and it shows.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy in return for an honest review.

An interesting , if sometimes rambling, account of the Pendleton Witches . I watched the recent television programme featuring Suranne Jones about the same subject and that piqued my curiosity. Unfortunately I felt that that the tv programme did it better (that is almost sacrilegious in this book loving family) although there were some interesting points made in the book.

Sadly couldn’t finish it. As a descendant of one of the Pendle witches I was interested in how the author would present her, but sadly the writing style was so poor that I just couldn’t finish the story. The author likes going off at tangents which detract from the overall theme, and make the reader lose both their interest and stream of thought. A good example of this is at the beginning where the author spends about a chapter in retelling about her childhood holidays and programs she used to watch.