To be kind to those who found this book hard to follow and, consequently, did not finish it, I suppose appreciating whether the amount of detail, and yes even conjecture, built into the book is valuable depends entirely on whether or not the reader has a personal attachment to any of those women and men who died because of the hysteria.
However, as one whose family was touched by the Salem Witch Trials, I see the work as more than just characters in a historical novel or play or movie. These were real people living through a real hell for more than 16 months in 1691/92 through mid-1693. Especially when two of the "characters" were executed by hanging and a third barely escaped the same fate because of a change of government when authorities became unsure of how to handle the outcome of the trials and were awaiting instructions from London.
With Rebecca Towne Nurse being my 9x great-grandmother, Mary Towne Estey and Sarah Towne Cloyce being my 8x great-grandaunts, as a reader I was compelled to not only to very carefully read this work but was driven to gather all the materials I could to fill-in the gaps in information contained in the book.
Some criticized the book for too much detail and too much attention to lineage. If those readers took the time to learn more about the events and how they unfolded, they would recognize the need to delve into not only the lives of the victims but those accusers as well.
If you don't come away from this book with more questions than answers, then you were not REALLY reading the book. I found it somewhat inconceivable that a 9 year old and a 13 year old could be such central movers with regard to the trials - I came away wondering whether it was coincidence or conspiracy that specific families and individuals were targeted with only, as it has turned out, a partial glimpse into all of the intrigue that is the backstory of the Salem Witch Trials. Came away obsessed with the need to absorb as much additional material as possible. Read this book carefully and you are likely to do the same.
If you are one whose ancestors were touched by the Salem Witch Trials, I highly recommend reading Ms. Roach's take on the events leading up to the witch hunt and trials.
If you simply an individual interested in Colonial American history, I highly recommend reading this book then continuing on to other books and articles on the subject.
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Well Researched
"Six Women of Salem is the first work to use the lives of a select number of representative women as a microcosm to illuminate the larger crisis of the Salem witch trials. By the end of the trials, beyond the twenty who were executed and the five who perished in prison, 207 individuals had been accused, 74 had been "afflicted", 32 had officially accused their fellow neighbors, and 255 ordinary people had been inexorably drawn into that ruinous and murderous vortex, and this doesn’t include the religious, judicial, and governmental leaders." "By examining the lives of six specific women, Marilynne Roach shows readers what it was like to be present throughout this horrific time and how it was impossible to live through it unchanged." I have read several books on the topic of the Salem Witch Trials and living very close to Salem have done the tourist visits several times. I found Marilynne Roach's take on these events in "Six Women of Salem" to be some of the best. The clearly well researched material in this book gave me insight to things I haven't heard before. Even if you think you have learned all there is to know about this tragic time in New England's history I highly recommend giving this book a try.
