Rating: 
Summary: heart wrenching story
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Salem, Massachusetts is haunted.
Review: There have been stories and legends about Salem's ghosts for centuries. Long before Roger Conant led English settlers to the rocky coast of New England, Salem's Indians spoke of spirits, both good and evil, who walked amongst them. Nathaniel Hawthorne was a direct descendant to that old witch hanger, Judge John Hathorne, and a true believer. He actually spent a great deal of time with one of Salem's ghosts. There is an old private library in Salem called the Salem Athenaeum which has been in existence since the early Eithteenth Century. Nathaniel Hawthorne was a member and loved to spend snowy winter afternoons snuggled in a chair by the roaring fire, reading a favorite book, or making notes for his next short story. There was an old gentleman who often sat in a soft leather chair opposite Hawthorne, reading and occasionally muttering something to the young writer. One day Hawthorne noted to the head librarian that he hadn't seen the old man in over a week. The librarian looked at Hawthorne, first in confusion, and then nodded his head. "Oh, that was our ghost," said the librarian with a wry smile. "I suppose he's decided to rest for a while. He comes and goes as he pleases."Nathaniel Hawthorne also believed in witch's curses. The famous curse that his character, hanged witch Matthew Maule, lay upon his chief accuser, Colonel Pyncheon and all his descendants, is the very heart of Hawthornes's wonderful HOUSE OF SEVEN GABLES. Maule points a dying finger at Colonel Pyncheon and cries, "God will give him blood to drink." THE DIARY OF DORCAS GOOD speaks of the actual fact that lies beneath Hawthorne's fiction. It was Dorcas' mother, Sarah Good, who placed the original blood curse on Salem when Sarah said to Nicholas Noyes, "You are a liar. I am no more a witch than you are a wizard, and if you take away my life, God will give you blood to drink. Several years later Noyes died of an internal hemorrhage. He was bleeding from the mouth when they found him. He died as Hawthorne's fictional Colonel Pyncheon died, of the witch's curse. Dorcas was a real little girl, the forth female and first child of Salem to be arrested for witchcraft. Her mother and father, Sarah and William, were also real as were Rebecca Nurse and her sisters and the other women who shared Dorcas' cold, damp cell. The pirate, Captain Jack Quelch, was hanged on a balmy June day in 1704 and left behind his undiscovered treasure. It is said that later there were several silver bars discovered by a Yankee farmer. Who's to say if the story is true? But the farmer did happen to live on a small island off Salem's shores, an island that Jack Quelch knew well. As for the ghosts. There have been many sightings in the City of Salem. Both the History Channel and the Arts and Entertainment Network have documented the souls that still roam Salem's streets. Perhaps the spirit of Dorcas Good will rest easier now that her story has finally been told. I hope so.
Rating:
Summary: Very deep and moving book.
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Very deep and moving book.
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't begin your study of the Salem Witch Trials here.
Review: This is the most poorly edited and proofread book I have ever read. It is full of typographical errors and mistakes in printing. The word processor upon which it was written must not have had a spell checker because it is also full of misspelled words. The content may be valuable but the poor editing is very distracting.
Rating: 
Summary: A good book
Review: THis was a good story detailing all the horrors that happened to Dorcus Good and the people she loved during and ten years after the Salem Witch Trials. I thought that this was an exceleent book but that the ending was a little weak. I would highly recomend this book to any one intrested in the Salem Witch Trials.
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