At the opening of this novel, Fleetwood already finds herself pregnant with the child that could end her life. She feels like a failure. Encouraged by her husband, chastised by her hateful mother, she feels betrayed that her husband would not have shared this news with her. She begins to doubt her worth as the Lady of the manor, of the affections of her husband. She stresses about what the servants and townsfolk are surely saying about her; a Lady of only seventeen who cannot carry a child to term.
When Fleetwood meets the mysterious Alice in the wood near Gawthorpe, things begin to change. The two woman become close, and bound to one another throughout the course of this novel.
You may be thinking that this is not the book for you. Let me bring in the other interesting element that ties this well written novel together - trials for witchcraft. You read that correctly. In case you didn't know (because I surely didn't!), the Pendle Witch Trials are listed among the most famous in English History. This particular books draws in characters that existed in real life, during the time of these trials. While Fleetwood herself is not a work of fiction, there is little known about her outside of that she was indeed the Lady of Gawthorpe. Her companion, Alice Gray? Is documented in these historical works as well (though I won't list anything further in regards to either character's place in history).
I honestly didn't think of The Pendle Witch Trials as being real whilst reading this book.. in all probability because it seems so ludicrous to think people suffered through the fear of these trials and being accused of witchcraft. In some cases, simply for their knowledge of herbal remedies! (If only they could behold the times we live in now, where people are always looking for such natural ways to deal with what ails them! SO many would be tried as witches!) I have read several articles after finishing this book yesterday regarding the trials. There are photographs of proposed sites for Malkin Tower (where the "witches" held their infamous meeting), drawings of these women with the devil, and a fair amount of information for an event that took place so long ago.
As much as I hate that mankind has gone through events such as these historically? They are very interesting to learn about (in my personal opinion. Salem as been on my bucket list since I was a teenager, for that very reason!), and I am sure I will be reading more about the Pendle Witches in the future. The Familiars is definitely an outsider's view on these events, as young Fleetwood deals with her own issues (which turn out, include far more than her pregnancy and impending death), and learns more about these accused witches and the events that brought them to the magistrate's attention in the first place.I'm sorry to be so vague, readers. If you like historical fiction, and events such as the Salem Witch Trials interest you at all, I would for sure add this one to your reading list. Stacy Halls writes with passion, and while it takes a little bit of time to really get into; once you have, you just want to race to the end to see what becomes of Fleetwood, Alice, and the Pendle Witches.
https://historycollection.co/pendle-witches-twelve-steps-gallows/8/ - an interesting link to an article about the Pendle Witches.
**While the book photo is clearly my own, the other images included in this posy are from a Google image search**
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