Book Review: Wicked Girls

 

Written by: Stephanie Hemphill

Published by: Balzer + Bray, October 1, 2013

ISBN: 978-0061853302

Plot Summary

Wicked Girls follows 7 girls who are "afflicted" with fits that have been caused by townspeople they claim to be witches during the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. The ringleader is Ann Putnam, Jr, daughter of a respected resident of Salem who is a major accuser during the trials. Also in the group are Mercy Lewis, a servant in the Putnam household, Margaret Walcott, Ann's cousin, as well as several other young girls who live in the village and one from Salem town. The motivation for their accusations as well as their indecision about who the leader of their group should be drives the action forward and leads to tension both within the group and in the entire village, as it is split between those who believe the girls' accusations and those who doubt them.

Critical Analysis

The book covers the entire year of 1692, with each month delineated by an opening poem. These lines seem to set the tone for the entries that follow. Each chapter is written in the voice of one of the girls and shows their changing emotions and doubts throughout the year. Each girl is introduced with a brief biography in the opening section. One point of interest here is that they are generally identified in relation to males in their family or household. This speaks to the patriarchal society in which they lived and gives us a glimpse at the potential reasoning behind their accusations. Women, and particularly girls, were rarely listened to in Salem in the 17th century but these girls had the attention of the entire town when they claimed to be afflicted by witches. They wielded power in a way that they never had before. 

The verse for January 1692, simply titled Salem introduces us to a cold and dark place, seemingly the perfect setting for a story about witches. "The cold is gray and fierce, bitter as a widow at the grave. The trees' bare bony fingers point crookedly toward Heaven or Hell or worse than that, toward nowhere."  The words have been carefully selected here to reflect the physical reality of Salem at this point in time but also the fearful place it must have been for its citizens once the accusations began. Then February's poem says that "Something stronger than fever quakes and curls through Village girls . . . 'Tis a sight to behold, distraction from cold." This alludes to the theory that the girls were merely bored and looking for something to entertain them rather than suffering from any malady, whether medical or spiritual. 

When Mercy comes to live at the Putnam house, Ann is immediately entranced by her. She describes her name as a blessing, which has a double meaning since Mercy is a quality that would have been held dear by Ann at that point in time, but is also more interesting than her own name, which she shares with her mother. Mercy's beauty is referenced numerous times throughout the book, leading her to be the subject of both Isaac's attention, and, due in part to that, Margaret's jealousy. Ann begins trying to help Mercy with her household duties, to her mother's distaste. However, when Mercy later decides that they should stop their accusations, Ann quickly becomes vengeful towards her, harming the things that Mercy holds dearest. 

We learn of the fate of Mercy's family in her section titled "A Kin to Whom". Her introduction describes her as an orphan of the French and Indian War, but this passage describes in detail how her family was killed as she hid under the bed. Rhyme isn't used in much of the book, but it is present here, "night comes restless with wind that claws over the roof like trapped cat paws." The sing-song quality of the lines is at direct odds with the serious and tragic nature of the memory they describe. 

Metaphor is used throughout the book and helps to provide an image of the girls. Mercy says that Ann "buzzes in my ear like a barnyard fly" and the reader is able to picture the older girl, hard at work while the younger flits about her, constantly talking. She is seen as a minor annoyance, but not a danger. Later, Susannah is described as a daisy, yellow and tender while Ann is like a puppy running behind the other girls. These comparisons allow the reader to picture the scene and show Susannah as plain and common, as well as weaker than the other girls. Yellow is frequently used as a synonym for cowardly, potentially another meaning behind her description as a daisy. 

Although the girls seemingly start their accusations as a way to entertain themselves, their motivation becomes darker as the book moves through the year. Both Ann and Mercy begin to accuse people who have wronged them in the past. Mercy seeks revenge for her family's murder by accusing John Alden, who sold the weapons that were used to kill them. Mercy and Margaret also nearly accuse Isaac, who has been vocally against the trials as a warning to him to keep quiet. In the end, Margaret's wish to become his wife overcomes her relationship with the other girls and she claims she can no longer see evil. Mercy's own guilt at seeing innocent people hanged causes her to renounce her claims and she sets out to find her aunt so that she can be part of a family again. 

Excerpt

Dissolution

October 1692

Holiday ends. 

Time to unpack your bags and launder

your clothes. 

Some stay on the road,

refuse to reenter

home and resume

regular life,

the sunrise-to-sunset

day of cooking,

spinning, tending, study-

pierced with the dagger of silence. 

Use

There are 12 monthly poems spaced throughout the book and used to mark the passing of time and changing of attitudes along with the weather. Students will work in pairs to present their assigned monthly poem aloud to the class. They can decide if they would prefer an oral presentation or one using other media, such as painting or drawing to best represent their poem.