Customer Reviews

The Diary of Dorcas Good, Child Witch of Salem

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Dorcas Good writes her account of the Salem Witch Hysteria as a catharsas for the evil she suffered during the trial. Dorcas was only 4 years old when she, along with her mother, was arrested and accused of witchcraft in Salem, Mass. The little girl sufferered unimaginable abuse by her captors and even people close to her. Through it all she managed to survive the ordeal though she watched her mother taken to the gallows. At first I was a little confused at the style of writing. The writing is that of an adult and not a small child. Once I realized that Dorcas was a young women by the time she managed to put her story on paper, it all fell into place. This is not a pleasant read; for it deals with the subject of child abuse and evil. The ending is a surprise that leaves you contemplating the story of Dorcas Good for days to come.

Dorcas Good was born into a violent home where every day her father would beat her and her mother, Sarah. Then at the age of four her life was turned around, and life became much worse for her and her mother. A day after her mother gave birth to her second daughter, Mercy, she was accused of witchcraft and was brought to jail. After a few days of Dorcas living with her abusive father she too was brought to jail. Join Dorcas as she tells you about her normal life before jail, her horrible tales of when she was in jail, the sight of her mother's death (the only accused witch in Salem to be hanged without black cloth covering her face), and life after jail when her father brought her to the bar at night and "sold" her to the sailors and other men. Some people say that Dorcas went crazy after she was freed from Salem prison, she even claims to have met the devil himself. I, personally, enjoyed this book. I would not recommend this book to big criers. As I was reading about the part of Sarah Good's death I was crying so much that the words in the book were all a big blur and I had to stop reading. This book will make you cry with Dorcas as she goes through the deaths of her mother, best friends, and even her very own love, Jack Quelch. It will make you believe the unbelievable stories told to you through the eyes of a `Child Witch of Salem'.

I recently finished this book, and frankly, was very disappointed in its content. The story is supposed to be a "diary" of a child's life, but the book fails to realistically portray the events as they would have been seen from a 4-yr-old's viewpoint. Also, Ms. Earhart should invest in another editor. The book is filled with erroneous punctuation and "typos" which distract from its readability. The author does not realistically combine the mysticism of the witchcraze and the realities of 1692 life in Salem. Perhaps she could have researched more what sexually/physically/emotionally/psychologically abused profiles of children looked like and made Dorcas a more realistic and believable character. If you're into fantasy and crazed witch stories, this is a book for you. If you prefer more accurate historical fiction, don't waste your time.

Rose Earhart has a gift for giving characters and settings immediate life. With only a few lines, she creates rich mental pictures of Old Salem and its doomed inhabitants. The story is great from beginning to end, and sparked a desire to read more about Salem and the witch trials. The author walks a fine line quite adeptly between hope and despair, never letting us forget the intrinsic joys of living, even in the midst of terror and death. The only problem with the novel is a confusion about how old Dorcas actually is when she's writing this diary. It is clarified later in the tale, but that clarification seems to contradict what was implied at the beginning. If you can let this slide, you're in for an engrossing experience. In fact, I didn't let it slide, and I still found myself caught up in the tale. Dorcas Good's strength is in its characters and the dark path which Rose Earhart leads us down with them. I'm looking forward to more journeys with this author. Highly recommended for those with a taste for slightly eerie fiction with historical roots.

The horror and terrible ordeals that young Dorcas Good had to endure are horrific to read about, and then the realization that they actually happened to a real little girl sets in and the gut wrenching begins. And it all happened to her in Salem MA, three hundred years ago, by her friends and neighbors. The sherriff and the courts, the people we think of today as protectors of children and women, were the very people who inflicted most of the suffering and torment on little Dorcas and her mother. Even the clergy wasn't devoid of guilt. The so-called "examinations" of the gilrs accused of witchcraft were thinly disguised licenses for the ministers and others to "examine" the bodies of the girls for tell-tale signs of witchcraft. These exams included the probing of orafices. It's not fantasy or fiction, it's documented in records in Salem MA and elsewhere. Rose Earhart did her homework and it shows. The bibliography is extensive and for those willing to read some of the books in it, they'll find the truth even more horrifying than this novel. Ms. Earhart is an excellent writer and stroy teller who made a gruesome tale into a spellbinding novel. Read it.

This book explains the heartbreak and the true horror of the Salem Witchcraft Trials. It tells the story beginning with young Dorcas Good, an abused child thanks to her father. Her mother, Sarah Good is Dorcas's only comfort in her hard life. When Sarah is accused of the sin of witchcraft, Dorcas is faced with incredible courage. I suggest that you buy this book for yourself or for others. You will not regret reading a piece of literature so well written.

Rose Earhart has captured the flavor of life in the era of the Salem Witch Trials. She has the ability to make one feel that they're living alongside young Dorcas and her mother,Sarah, and witnessing all of the horrors and abuse heaped on top of them. I felt that I were witnessing the actual condemnation and suffering that both Sarah and Dorcas were subjected to. Ms Earhart has a very special talent and I'm looking forward to her future books. I usually don't read a book in one sitting, but this one kept me up until 3:00 AM. Highly recommended.

I have researched Salem for many years now, and have a great deal of respect for the hell many of the victims went through. I am also a victim of childhood rape and incest. With this background, I think I have a unique perspective from which to review this book.

My take? Ninety-nine percent of what the author has included is nonsense. As far as I can tell, she used a historical event, horrific in itself without embellishment, to proselytize her own points of view regarding women's and children's issues today. There is no historical accuracy or even pretense at it. The characters do not ring true, none of them. The bad guys are unbelievably bad, and the child Dorcas and her mother are clearly based more on modern victims of domestic violence than they are on colonial pariahs. This was bad enough, but the cherry on top was the poor level of writing, including even spelling errors which would have been simple to catch with a good spellcheck and proofreading.

The silver lining: books like this make me much more confident that yes, someday a publisher will buy one of my novels. If they publish tripe like this. . . well, my tripe is surely better!

For those interested in the true history of Salem, go out and read Carol Karlsen, Mary Beth Norton, or the brilliantly objective timeline put together by Marilynne K. Roach. Read Frances Hill. Read Marion Starkey, even -- more historically accurate and entertainingly readable than this book was, though somewhat out of date. For those interested in child abuse, there are a million books out there both more informative and more entertaining than this one. Just avoid it.

What an incredible waste of time and paper. I wish I could say something good about this book, but that would be dishonest. The characters are wooden, the dialogue ridiculous, the writing simply awful.

The story appeals to the sordid, the salacious, and the perverse. Don't bother unless you think it's cool when suicide bombers blow themselves up.

DORCAS GOOD WAS STRONGER THAN ANY 20TH CENTURY WOMAN, YET SHE WAS ONLY A CHILD WHILE ENDURING MOST OF HER HARDSHIP. EARLY SETTLERS TO THIS NATION WERE GULLIBLE TO ANYTHING FROM ALMOST ANYONE OF STATURE. FREEDOM WAS NEARLY NON-EXISTENT.WITCHCRAFT ACCUSATIONS WERE FAIR GAME FOR THE TIMES. THIS BOOK CLEARLY EXCITES THE IMAGINATIONTO THE LATE 17TH CENTURY EXISTENCE IN OLD SALEM.TO A CERTAIN EXTENT, YOU CAN LOOK AT BACKWARDS DEVELOPING NATIONS TODAY, AND SEE HOW MIS-INFORMATION TO THE POORLY EDUCATED CAN LEAD TO TRAGEDY AND DESPICABLE BEHAVIOR. THIS IS A VERY INTENSE BOOK THAT MAKES YOU FEEL LIKE THINGS CANT BE ANY WORSE ...ANYWHERE. VERY COMPELLING