The #1 New York Times bestseller!It’s the Salem Witch Trials meets Mean Girls in this New York Times bestselling novel from one of the descendants of Cotton Mather, where the trials of high school start to feel like a modern-day witch hunt for a teen with all the wrong connections to Salem’s past. Salem, Massachusetts, is the site of the infamous witch trials and the new home of Samantha Mather. … witch trials and the new home of Samantha Mather. Recently transplanted from New York City, Sam and her stepmother are not exactly welcomed with open arms. Sam is the descendant of Cotton Mather, one of the men responsible for those trials—and almost immediately, she becomes the enemy of a group of girls who call themselves the Descendants. And guess who their ancestors were?
If dealing with that weren’t enough, Sam also comes face to face with a real, live (well, technically dead) ghost. A handsome, angry ghost who wants Sam to stop touching his stuff. But soon Sam discovers she is at the center of a centuries-old curse affecting anyone with ties to the trials. Sam must come to terms with the ghost and find a way to work with the Descendants to stop a deadly cycle that has been going on since the first accused witch was hanged. If any town should have learned its lesson, it’s Salem. But history may be about to repeat itself.
“It’s like Mean Girls meets history class in the best possible way.” —Seventeen Magazine
“Mather shines a light on the lessons the Salem Witch Trials can teach us about modern-day bullying—and what we can do about it.” —Bustle
“Strikes a careful balance of creepy, fun, and thoughtful.” —NPR
I am utterly addicted to Mather’s electric debut. It keeps you on the edge of your seat, twisting and turning with ghosts, witches, an ancient curse, and—sigh—romance. It’s beautiful. Haunting. The characters are vivid and real. I. Could. Not. Put. It. Down.” —Jennifer Niven, bestselling author of All the Bright Places
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Books like How to Hang a Witch are why I continue to like YA, even as an adult. From the first page, Adriana Mather pulled me into Samantha’s world. Sam’s father was in a coma, and to pay for his medical expenses, her step-mother had to sell their NYC condo and move to Salem, Massachusetts where they had inherited Sam’s grandmother’s home.
Sam was a very likeable character and would be relatable to many teens. She didn’t have a lot of friends in New York City and didn’t have high expectations for a new small town. She was a New Yorker at heart who didn’t believe in witches or hocus pocus or anything Salem was known for. Sam got off to a bad start in her new high school. Have the last name Mather and being a direct descendant of the Cotton Mather who had initiated the Salem Witch Trials surely didn’t help. (An interesting tidbit… about 1/3 of the way into the novel I realized that the author had the same last name as the protagonist and later found out she really was related the infamous Cotton.)
But when strange things begin to happen and people begin to die, Sam begins to question if perhaps witchcraft and curses and ghosts might be real. And her denial and slow realization make the reader begin to believe, perhaps it is possible.
This book was complete with a lot of tension, high stakes, fun things like secret passageways, and an attraction to a ghost about 400 years old. If this review doesn’t convince you, maybe the book trailer will. It’s on Amazon, however I happened to stumble upon it on YouTube when I was nearly finished with the book.
FYI, I listened to the audio, which was fantastic. But now I’m going to have to read it too after I get it for my daughter.
I’m in the middle of reading this right now. It initially hooked me with its “Mean Girls with a supernatural twist” tagline, but I think my hopes were a little high for it. Part of what makes movies like Mean Girls (or, more appropriately, The Craft) so good is the way they capture the brutal, sometimes cutthroat dynamics of teenagers — and Mather’s conversations feels pale and stilted in comparison. Our heroine, Sam, is awkwardly framed as an adorkable klutz-cum-smartass with an edge — which is totally plausible, but not the way Mather spins it. That said, I’m sticking with this one to the end because the concept is so cool and Mather has set up some interesting prophecy/ghost stuff that I want to see play out.
I really want to read this.
I couldn’t wait to get this book in my hands! If you are curious about Salem and The Salem Witch Trials, this book is for you. This book follows the teenage descendants of the accused Salem Witch’s. It has you guessing all the way to the end. I had a chance to meet the author, Adriana Mather this past October at The Hawthorne Hotel in Salem, Mass. My husband and I travel there several times a year. I am obsessed with any book about Massachusetts. This is a YA novel, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I have!
This book was a solid read! It takes your through present day and as well as historical fiction!
My daughter saw a video on you tube regarding this book and decided we needed to own it. After she purchased it she showed me the trailer and I figured it was right up my alley. I started reading and I couldn’t stop. The mystery and suspense was too great! The author did a great job with the plot and the characters. I liked that a bit of history about the Salem witch trial was included in this tale. It to me an afternoon to read. I am definitely going to have too check out more from this author! If you like fiction that includes witches, ghosts, and mystery you will also love this book!
A great historical fiction story filled with magic, mystery, chaos, and suspense. Makes one realize how history is always doomed to repeat itself, and how funny it is when it takes unexpected turns. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves Salem, witches, and ghosts.
>“I have to convince a group of people who hate me to help solve a curse that could be killing our families.” – p. 125
How to Hang a Witch (Knopf, 2016) is a YA paranormal novel written by Adriana Mather, an actual descendant of the Salem Witch Trials’ Cotton Mather. The protagonist in this story is Samantha Mather – a fictional descendant of Cotton’s – who has just moved from New York City into her late grandmother’s home in Salem, Massachusetts. Sam lives with her stepmother, Vivian, while her father remains in a coma for unknown reasons.
As soon as Sam arrives to Salem, the town wants her out. Especially a group of goth girls at school, known as the Descendants, who are descendants of the persecuted Salem witches. It doesn’t help that strange and awful things keep occurring to everyone who comes into contact with Sam, almost as if she’s cursing them…when, in truth, it’s likely she’s the one who’s cursed.
In quick succession, Sam meets two guys: the outgoing boy next door, Jaxon; and a seventeenth-century ghost who haunts her grandmother’s mansion, Elijah. Sam is the only one who can see Elijah, and while he wants her gone, he also begins to help her piece together Salem’s true history to uncover why she is cursed, and how to end the pattern of killings in town. I liked the love triangle created between Sam, Jaxon, and the spirit, Elijah. Something about Sam and Elijah’s relationship reminded me of Casper and Christina Ricci’s character in Casper (1995).
This fast-paced YA occult suspense was an absolute delight to read. The chapters are short and punchy; Sam’s narration is to-the-point, sympathetic, and often humorous; and Mather’s supernatural vision of Salem, as well as her fascinating and approachable portrayal of its history, jumps off the e-pages. And we can’t forget the witches in the story – Susannah, Alice, Mary, and Lizzie – who are like something straight out of Mean Girls or The Craft. If you’re a fan of fun commercial YA with some solid, spooky witchcraft, a history-seeped mystery, and a good ol’-fashioned ghost story with a positive and powerful message, you need How to Hang a Witch in your life.
I absolutely loved this book! It was so easy to get lost in, and the story so intriguing, I didn’t want to put it down. I needed to know what was going to happen next.
Samantha Mather has spent most of her life living in NYC with her father and stepmother, under the impression she’s cursed due to all the terrible things that happen to those around her. When her dad falls ill and slips into a coma, and she and her stepmother have to move to Salem, she thinks maybe things will be different, but what she discovers is the curse she imagined she’s under may not be so imagined after all. With the help of a new friend and a ghost, Sam has to figure out how the curse started and how to break it before it’s too late.
How To Hang A Witch straddles a fine line between the parallels of the past and the future, and how history, if left unchecked or challenged, will repeat itself. A lesson Samantha and the other descendants of The Salem Witch Trials learn the hard way through a series of twists, turns, building tension, and one heck of a jaw-dropping moment.
This book easily mashed history, fantasy, and magic together that not only made for one heck of a can’t-put-down-until-I-reach-the-end paranormal story, but also simultaneously served as a lesson in bullying and the crowd mentality that goes along with it to either perpetrate or ignore it, and how standing up and saying something can break the cycle.
Magic, mystery, and a historical past better left buried await Samantha Mather when she returns to her ancestral town of Salem, Massachusetts. A ghost that haunts her grandmother’s home doesn’t make matters easy, either… nor the love triangle with two unlikely boys. Plus, her father is in a coma he may never awake from, and the one who is the cause of it is the most unlikely suspect with a past of their own.
This book was so good! I loved it! The story was so interesting and I was hooked from the very beginning. I loved our heroine Sam! I also loved the side characters! I cannot wait to read the next book.
How to Hang a Witch by Adriana Mather is about us not forgetting the past but about embracing it so it won’t happen again.
Can Sam, with the help of the Descendants, break the curse?
Sam Mather
Samantha “Sam” Mather has come back to Salem, Massachusetts, because of her dad’s medical bills becoming too much. I, first thing, feel the same things for Sam since I know how it feels to be starting a new school. Sam is a great kid that just has had the worst luck keeping anyone with her. There is a lot of things that I like about Sam, and one of them is that she embraces the weirdness that she has seen and is trying to deal with the fact that they might be cursed. This curse is around this group of people. She is a strong character, and I think that we probably would be friends if she were real.
The Descendants
The Descendants are a group of five kids that are descended from the accused party of the Trials. They are four girls and one boy. They dress in all black and only hang out together. Well, until Sam comes into town needing their help to break the curse. I like Susannah, Alice, and Mary the best. I like them the best, mostly because they give Sam the benefit of the doubt regarding what she says about evil. Lizzie and John, I didn’t care for. Until the book changed my mind about them. Sam might finally have found a group of friends.
Five Stars
How to Hang a Witch by Adriana Mather is a beautifully written book about how what happened back then could easily relate to something that is happening now. Sam is new to town, and it doesn’t help that she’s a Mather. Another thing that doesn’t help is the deadly cycle. That only happens when a big group of the descendants of the Witch Trials is in Salem. One of the many things that Ms. Mather does with this book is to teach us that high school bullying in a way is like being apart of the Witch Trials. Especially in here. I am giving this book five stars and recommending it.
Thank you for dropping by! I hope you enjoyed this review of How to Hang a Witch by Adriana Mather.
Until the next time,
Karen the Baroness
If you would like to see other reviews like this one, check out BaronessBookTrove.com.
Given my grade school obsession with the Salem Witch Trials, this novel was both nostalgic and refreshing. History lined the pages of this book but was also modern enough for today’s young adults. Much like the Salem of today, cloaked in history but with a Starbucks and pumpkin lattes.
This is an excellent YA book than most people will like. It is a tale of witches and spirits and the Salem Witch Trials written by a descendant of Cotton Mather, the judge of the trials. It is also the story of a new girl in town who has a terrible time being accepted at her new high school and so relates to bullying today. There is an afterword by the author who explains how she came to write the book. the audiobook was read by the author who did an excellent job.
Love it, really looking forward to reading book #2.
A modern day witch hunt in a high school setting, and all once more taking place in famous Salem. There are witches (of course), ghosts, magic, secrets, mystery, suspense, and a little bit of romance. And can’t forget the history of the town and descendants. A truly brilliant read for young adults and adults.
Read October 2, 2017
I loved the book and the story line and history that it brought. It felt like i was there. i could not put the book down. i recommend to buy this book.
I loved this book! I couldn’t put it down! I loved the characters and the story. It left me wanting to read the next one.
Suspenseful and full of mystery, with a great historical feeling that I fell in love with.
The Salem Witch Trials and Witches have always intrigued me. So when I read about this book I was very interested. Mean Girls meets Salem Witches. Why not give it a whirl?
Sam Mather has to move back to her family hometown, Salem. Soon Sam is introduced to a world that she thought was only real in the movies. Witches, spells, curses, and ghosts soon all become a normal thing. When Sam arrives, deaths start to increase and her family history begins to unravel. With the help from the boy next door Jaxon and Elijah (a ghost who lived during the trails) Sam fights to break her family curse.
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I can honestly say that my curiosity for witches and Salem is what kept me to keep reading this book. It didn’t capture me right away. The beginning of the book was slow, clunky and dull. Sam the MC is your stereotypical 15 yo awkward, clumsy, can’t trust anyone, dull teenager. Sam being the pov makes the book read like a middle school book, it doesn’t flow effortlessly or even a bit intelligently. It’s very cliched filled with every YA stereotype. You have the love triangle-the boy next door and the handsome ghost; the mean group in high school that everyone is afraid of (The Descendants); the awkward new girl that everyone teams up against (except for the hot guy); the sick or dead parent that the MC was very close to that helps with her trust issues; the evil stepmother. The book has it all.
The book wasn’t all bad. I did love the storyline and plot. Each character had its role and played it. I couldn’t put the book down because of my curiosity. It wasn’t the best-written book but it did have a good story-tie in about The Salem Witch Trials. How the author linked her ancestry to the book is quite incredible and intriguing. I think this book would make a good Halloween movie for teenagers and young adults that like witches with a little romance.