Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsVery predictable and unfortunate waste of plot potential.
Reviewed in the United States on August 10, 2016
The Witch of Blackbird Pond was a quick read, I finished it in about two days. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't exceptional either. The content seemed watered down, even for being a young adult book.
At first we see the main character as being headstrong and willing to challenge people's ideas of what a woman is, towards the middle and the end of the book I feel that we've completely lost that character. There wasn't any development, just the sudden change to a puritan woman who thinks she wants to marry.
I feel like it is a three star book because there was so much potential to show how puritan society was witch crazy. Instead of shoe horning it in all within the last few pages, the whole book could have been about this. We could have witnessed the struggles of the main character WHILE seeing the witch frenzy take over. Not struggles for the first three fourths and then the elements of witches.
Also, I'd like to pretend that ending never happened.
SPOILER ALERT:
The sailors son she was obviously in love with loves her back. It just took them both the whole book to realize it. Very cliche and overused. Like I said, watered down. The reader could see it coming at the first moment we met both characters. I wasn't even rooting for them to get together because I knew it would obviously happen.