More Weight: A Salem Story

More Weight: A Salem Story by Ben Wickey (2025) 532 pages 

I loved the in depth history, mostly in black and white, of the 1692 events. So much more disturbing than Arthur Miller's version of events in The Crucible. The focus on Giles and Martha Corey works well. I also appreciated poets Longfellow and Hawthorne's tour of Salem in the 1860s. It goes in an otherworldly direction, which seems odd, until you realize that this part has been a ghost story all along. The two parts connect because Longfellow had written a play about the Salem Witch Trials focusing on the Coreys and Hawthorne is related to one of the judges with his family living in the Salem area for generations. The Intro and Outro about the aftermath of the witch trials leading to modern day Salem is super dense with litigation from mishandled justice, politics, consumerism, and ongoing fictions and frauds. So much fascinating educational material. It took longer to complete than I expected, but I'm glad I stayed with it.

The Mercies

The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave, 345 pages

In the early 1600s, a storm struck the northern coast of Norway, killing 40 fishermen from the small island of Vardo, leaving the women of the village to fend for themselves. A few years later, a commissioner and his wife came to town, shortly followed by a series of witch trials that were initially meant to ferret out the old ways of the Sami, but soon came to include any women who were doing "unwomanly" deeds. This much is true.

What The Mercies offers is the emotional story of Vardo's women in the days following the storm and into the beginnings of the witch hunt. It's powerful, it's beautifully written, and it focuses on a location and series of events that are unknown to most of the world. It's not a particularly uplifting read, but wow, is it wonderfully presented. Highly recommended.