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    How to Hang a Witch
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    How to Hang a Witch
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    How to Hang a Witch
    Audiobook10 hours

    How to Hang a Witch

    Published by Penguin Random House Audio

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    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. 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.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJul 26, 2016
    ISBN9780147521088
    Unavailable
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    Reviews for How to Hang a Witch

    4/5

    108 ratings12 reviews

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    • 3/5
      How to Hang a Witch follows Sam who recently moved to Salem with her step-mother, Vivian, after he dad falls into a coma and is moved to a hospital in Boston. Sam has grown up in NYC, but the financial burden of her dad's medical bills causes them to move to her deceased grandmother's home in Salem. Sam hopes that this move will be a fresh start. She has always had particularly bad luck, especially with people. People always seem to get hurt around her. When she moves to Salem, she is immediately targeted by a group that calls themselves The Descendants. They are the original descendants of the group of "witches" from the Salem Witch Trials. Sam is also a direct descendant of Cotton Mathers, one of the men who spearheaded the trials. The Descendants immediately want Sam gone, not only because of her last name, but also because of the tragic events that start occurring as soon as she moves to town. With her dad in the hospital and Vivian self medicating with wine, Sam feels more alone than ever. Luckily she has Jaxon, the handsome neighbor boy, and his mom, Mrs. Meriweather, on her side. She soon finds out that she also has an unlikely ally in an angsty spirit named Elijah.. But as the story progresses and things go from bad to worse, Sam doesn't know who is friend or enemy. She has to rely on herself more than ever to uncover things that have been right in front of her face the whole time.

      There are a few plot holes, but the story itself is fun to read. Sometimes things just.... conveniently happen, but I was still able to just roll with it and take the plot for what it is. For example, the Descendants talk about how they have been friends since they were children, so were their parents and grandparents. They're all tied together by being a descendant. No one in all those generations didn't want to be involved? They just went with the whole wearing black and witchcraft thing? A little unbelievable, but again, I just rolled with it. Also, it is never really revealed where John and Lizzie fit into the descendant part. We find out more about Mary, Alice, and Susannah, but I was left with a big question mark about John especially. He just seemed to be in the story for convenience.

      I don't know much about the history that is brought up in the story, so I can't really comment on the historical accuracy. Even if it isn't accurate, it is what it is when it comes to fiction. I love historical YA fiction, so it doesn't bother me when the author takes the bones of a story and makes it their own. I really like that the author is personally connected to this story. She writes a good bit about her ties in the Author's Note at the end of the book.

      I think younger YA or even MG would enjoy this story since the main character is fifteen. There is a little bit of profanity, but certainly nothing that I didn't know when I was that age. I do think it is a little odd that the "love triangle" (if you can really call it that) is between the MC and a 17 year old and a 19 year old. Personally, I don't have anything against it, but I can see where it would make some parents uncomfortable. The Descendants thing just felt like a group of your normal high school mean girls at first (until you learn the real story), so I think teens can definitely identify with that.

      I wish there was more development between the characters in the book. Sam spends most of her time with Elijah, but it feels like there is some missed opportunities in not diving in deeper with Jaxon or Susannah, for example. Even with Elijah, we really only find out what he tells us about himself and Abigail. On Goodreads, this book is labeled How to Hang a Witch #1, so hopefully in the rest of the series we will get the relationships that this one lacked.

      I also wish Sam's dad was more in the story before he got sick. When hear a lot about him through Sam, but I think I would've felt closer to him and cared more about what happens to his character if I could have learned more about him.

      Overall, I enjoyed this book. I love historical YA, ghosts, and witches, so it was just a complete recipe for success for me. If you are a fan of Kendare Blake's Anna Dressed in Blood, then I think you will also enjoy this book. I picked up the book on a whim after getting it at BEA, and I'm glad that I did.

      Find this review and more at Bumble Bee Books!
    • 2/5
      Great premise but super boring story. This story about Salem, the witch trials, and the current descendants of the parties involved in the trials is great fuel for a great story. This one really fell short for me. Didn't prompt much discussion at our book club.
    • 3/5
      Samantha Mather goes to live in Salem with her stepmom whilst her dad lies in a coma. Sam is not welcome and becomes the target of the Descendants, a group of girls who are ancestors of the Salem witches. To complicate Sam's life she has a resident ghost, Elijah.This book appealed to me bacause of the Salem Witch trials and the author herself is a descendant. I'm not always a fan of YA books but will give them ago if the story is for me.I found some of this book interesting. I enjoyed the history of the witch trials and how they are weaved into the story. The book started off really well and I liked the premise. The story for me was typically teenage and it did go a little slow in the middle. I did however get a little frustrated at times. The reason being I think is that it is YA. If I had read this book when I was sixteen many moons ago now I would have loved it. I enjoy witchy books and did not dislike this one but just felt it is aimed at younger person and not for me. However I enjoyed the witchy parts and the history in the story.
    • 3/5
      The first two thirds of this book are painfully melodramatic. Everything just feels so contrived and inauthentic. And the foreshadowing was painfully heavy handed. The big-bad was pretty obvious from the first chapter they were introduced in.
    • 5/5
      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.
    • 4/5
      When Sam moves to Salem into her grandmother's home, she's instantly an outcast thanks to the descendants and her last name. The descendants are the teen agers who are descendants of the people involved in the Salem Witch Trials. She's a Mather, as in Cotton Mather. Turns out when all the main players are back in Salem, deaths of surviving family members spike. Soon Sam finds herself threatened, haunted, and compelled to try to break the curse that has been haunting the descendants for hundreds of years. With the help of ghost Elijah, neighbor Jacxson, and even the descendants themselves, Sam risks it all to save her dad, herself, and everyone else.
    • 5/5
      Actual rating: 4.5/5*Excellent weaving of history and contemporary without being it solely all about a speshul snowflake.*I really like Samantha - a main character whose story (and character) I cared about and her being the MC without it being gauche, tiring and cliche.*The storyline plot was solid and interesting. I would love to know more about the minor characters' stories - the Descendants, Sam's father, her grandmother, her mother, etc.*Jaxon was okay...*...But really why do you all evil authors make me care about a person who's going to leave/cannot be like... Kartik, Amon, Jesse, Elijah... You know what I'm talking about. I just... WHY???
    • 4/5
      The cover, title and the premise intrigued me so I gave it a shot. I have always been a sucker for witch stories and this one is written by a descendant of the Salem witch trials, so you knew I had to read it. While definitely teen angsty, I am glad I gave it a chance. Story-line is fast paced, darkly funny and just an enjoyable story to lose yourself in for a while. I found myself up at 1am just so I could find out what happens and that to me is the sign of a good story. As a 46 year old Mom some of the angst made me roll my eyes and the pseudo romance with a ghost is just kinda icky, but other than that I really enjoyed it. Oh and the description of the library room left me once again dreaming of living in a house that had an old fashioned dark wooden bookshelf with a fireplace. I also enjoyed the analogy of the witch craft trials being like high school -- no seriously that actually makes incredible sense to me. Oh one other thing, I now have added visit Salem to my bucket list.
    • 3/5
      AudioI really enjoyed the story, it held my interest and had me guessing at the how and what. But... The main character was a stereotypical annoying teenager with bad acting. Acting ? Yes, her character felt like an act, I just couldn't get her to fit well in my mind. She almost took the book into the DNF pile several times. I stayed for the mystery and it was worth it. The ending was a blast to finally get to with a nasty little cliffhanger for one of my favorite characters. I need to decide if I care enough to try more in this series.The authors note at the end was a nice little bit. this is based on the history of her family. How cool is that ? Hopefully the MC wasn't. LOL
    • 5/5
      Well written and a fun read. Hard to put down once you get into the story. The author is decended from Cotton and Increase Mather of the infamous Salem witch trials, which she researched for the book. it reads like historical fiction.
    • 3/5
      In order to combat my reading slump, I’ve been binge listening to a lot of audio books. Yesterday, I finished How to Hang a Witch by Adriana Mather. I didn’t see the term historical fiction used to describe it, however I feel that it’s a suiting genre considering what the author reveals to us in the afterward.

      How to Hang a Witch is read by Mather as well, and I find her voice to be quite suiting for the main character. Then again, the main character seems to be an version of herself that is relevant to the story. With characters that are primarily in high school, it works quite well. I will admit, and this has affected my rating a bit, that it takes some time to get used to Mather’s voice.

      Read more at The Ghastly Grimoire.
    • 3/5
      Paranormal YA is not really my kind of book so if you do like that sort of thing, you would probably give this a higher rating. I did find the parallels between the historic Salem witch trials and present day high school bullying compelling if rather heavy handed.Adriana Mather, the author, did the narration and did a fine job (not always the case of author-narrated books).