Customer Reviews

Dorcas Good, The Diary of a Salem Witch

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I knew this was a fictionalization, but I assumed that it would be historically accurate. The true story of Dorcas Good and the other innocents accused of witchcraft, tortured, and executed is facinating and horrible enough. But was Dorcas actually raped by her father? Offered by him to the the entire village as a child prostitute? I don't know, but it seems really, really unlikely, and therefore awfully inappropriate to have portrayed Dorcas as a victim of child sexual abuse. I was disturbed by the extreme explicit nature and abundace of sexual perversion, but even more disturbed by the violation of history this represents. It's just not ok to take historical figures and make up stories with them. If I'm wrong, and if there is documentation that William Good was a pedophile, and if there were additional numerous pedophiles also raping Dorcas, could someone direct me to it?
The typos, as mentioned by other reviewers, are abundant, and the book suffers for it. The publisher absolutely must hire competent copyeditors and proofreaders. Pendleton should be embarrassed by the state of this product.
The writing itself can be absorbing sometimes, but the structure the author chose is a shame: the journal entries are not at all believable. For example, it is known that Dorcas Good was deeply disturbed and would not likely have had the psychological insights the journals imply.
I also did not like the portrayal of Dorcas and Sarah as being actual witches, having supernatural instincts, etc. The women and men accused of witchcraft were most probably sincere, practicing Christians, and to re-interpret them as being actual witches is yet another violation of history.

Well, I would give the actual story a 5 on a scale from 1-10. But considering content... I am 14 years old, and I definitely wouldn't reccomend it to ANYONE under my age, and only a few my age and older.
The plot is okay, it is very moving at times, but with the very graphic sexual scenes and the deaths some might call "scary", it's not appropriate for anyone 13 and younger. Heck, it even grossed me out. Advice: if you can handle sexual descriptions several times, disgustingly graphic hangings, and prostitution, this book is for you. Otherwise, don't even pick it up. PLEASE save yourself from the therapy that I will probably have to go through now that I've finished it.

Purely on a factual basis - the tale of Dorcas Good, a 4 year old driven to insanity by being incarcerated in a dungeon with no light, separated from her mother - would be a good starting point for a novel if kept within reasonable bounds. This book doesn't do that and shames both the author and the memory of a tragically sad little girl.

I agree with the commenter from Utah. The details of abuse were so overdone as to be tedious, never mind that the writer didn't really deal with a good number of the physical ramifications of what she described. The book rambles, and has a goppy, riteous tone to it reminiscent of a Harlequin romance. It does, indeed have numerous and glaring editing errors. It wanders into the realm of New Age philosophy without adding anything meaningful to the topic or even making good use of the subject matter. I felt rather like I was reading the equivalent of a Maury Povich cover of the witch trials. The trials are certainly worthy of review, and could be the basis for some great fiction that attempts to "fill in the gaps" of what we know. This book just isn't up to the task.

Recently we have seen some fine novels that take as their protagonist some peripheral character from either history or a classic work of fiction. This is not one of those. Yes, it does describe fairly accurately the personal and political enmities abounding in Salem in the 1690s; its historical details of names and fates are true; and it quotes accurately from available documents. But its virtues end there. The narrator's voice is not that of the four-year-old she is supposed to be. The story is full of gratuitous ... violence, which in itself is tiresome, but when committed against a four-year-old should offend anyone with either feeling or literary taste. As noted by others, the typographical errors are egregious; I have never seen its equal in any professional publication. Basically, this book is a strange combination of scholarship and ..., with an emphasis on "...." If you want to read something worthwhile about the Salem witch trials, try "A Delusion of Satan," by Frances Hill (credited and even thanked with the author's name misspelled in "Dorcas Good").

To my surprise the copy I received was actually signed by Rose Earhart which makes the book even more special! The story of Dorcas Good brought a river of tears to my eyes.

Absolutely loved this book. I have read a lot of books regarding the witch trials and this is my favorite so far. I rented it from the library first and had to buy it for my collection. This book definitely tugs at your emotions from beginning to end.

When I first bought this book I started to read it right away. It was like something was pulling me to it. I could not put it down and when I had to, I hated it and couldn't wait to wake and begin to read again. It really opened my eyes to things and how Dorcas and Sarah Good was really a legend that is only noticed by the people who read this book. It is very harsh at moments and there are very disturbing details but all in all I loved it. I only hope this book brought peace to Sarah and Mercy Good and Dorcas may rest in peace nowing that her diary was found and read and that the truth was told.

Rose Earhart's Dorcas Good, the Diary of a Salem Witch is on any scale the worst book I've ever read. The historical fiction is supposed to be in diary form, told from the perspective of four year old Dorcas Good. There are several problems with this. For one thing, I doubt that a four year old girl living now could read and write well enough to keep a diary, let alone a four year old girl in 1692. Even if she could, most diarists write about feelings and observations . . . not pages upon pages of dialogue. Also, a four year old would probably not be able to understand the political background of every one of her neighbors. Certainly a four year old girl would not refer to a nine year old as "little," but the narrator of this book repeatedly calls Betty Parris "little Betty Parris." The novel is unnecessarily and overwhelmingly perverse. One of the most ridiculous aspect of the novel is that it is written in modern language. I cannot, in two pages, possibly describe exactly how much I hate this 376-page waste of paper, but at least I will try.
The novel lacks structure. As if the author sat at her typewriter once a week, feverishly typing whatever meaningless phrase that popped in her head, the book lacks a comprehensible plot. There are no high points and low points; there is no climax.
By reading Dorcas Good, the Diary of a Salem Witch, one would think that every man is a child molester. Four year old Dorcas is violently raped, not only by her father, but by every man in town. Every reverend, every merchant, every sea-man and politician is a lecherous pedophile who wants nothing more than to stick his penis in a baby. William Good, Reverend Nicholas Noyes and Thomas Putnam are only a few of the innumerable child molesters in this trashy novel. After Dorcas is released from prison, her father dresses her in red velvet, takes her around the town and makes her a five year old whore. Given, child rape and incest is something that happens. It happens now; it's probably always happened. However, such perversity is a mental illness and I find it hard to believe that an entire village would have the same disease. I find it even harder to believe that such behavior would be tolerated under Puritan law.
With less class than a Harlequin Romance, uses every opportunity to graphically describe something sexually twisted. Any page that does not include a violent rape or molestation scene has an incest scene, or a lesbian eroticism or sado-masochism scene. For instance, Dorcas witnesses twelve year old Ann Putnam and seventeen year old Mary Walcott, cousins, perform oral sex on one another. Sex, throughout the novel, is always accompanied by beatings.
Earhart made a little notation, claiming that the book is written in modern language and narrated not really from a four year old point of view because "the words of Dorcas Good must be spoken in the clearest way possible so that her message will ring true and not be lost in the vagaries of a child's wandering speech."
I argue that the author merely lacks the imagination and initiative to take upon the challenge of constructing a diary from a four year old, seventeenth century Puritan's perspective. Rose Earhart holds degrees both in philosophy and psychology. My advice for her is to go back to grammar school and obtain some literacy, and perhaps use her psychological knowledge to work through her personal issues before attempting to write again. Earhart pathetically ended her novel with an extensive bibliography, as if such a list could convince readers that she actually incorporated research into her writing. If such a book as Dorcas Good, the Diary of a Salem Witch can actually get published, I am convinced there is hope for all amateur writers, even those who cannot spell.

The hard cover version of this got better (more accurate) reviews. It's a good story and not deserving of the low ratings I've read here. It is a sad story about public opinion being easily manipulated and then working against those with no power. It is difficult not to see the analogy with present times. Almost 400 years later and we think we're beyond that, but are we really ?
This is one of a very few books that I didn't buy at Amazon.com. I picked it up and started reading it in a bookstore while they checked to see if the book I was looking for was in stock. Needless to say it came home with me and was pretty much a real page turner.

As has been suggested by others - this may not be "High Literature", may have some typos and at times may stretch the bounds of believability- but it is still a damn good book! The author notes that she is an "activist for children's rights" and therefore I expect that is why there is such graphic (highly disturbing) attention to the tormenting of this poor child. Dorcas Good and the other "Witches" could very well have suffered exactly as she describes in her book- or not, either way innocent people certainly did suffer at the hands of those with power and/or money. The book combines her knowledge and love for the place as well as a no-holds-barred statement of the gritty reality of the times. ("The Pirate Hunter: The True Story of Captain Kidd" is a very good documentation of life and politics in the 1600's and the speculations in "Dorcas Good" are on the same lines)

The book piqued my curiosity on the subject of the witch trials and has left me with an appetite to learn more. If you are considering this book and have doubts, pick up a copy at a bookstore, open it anywhere in the story and start reading it. You will soon know.