Review: Slewfoot: A Tale of Bewitchery

Slewfoot: A Tale of Bewitchery by Brom
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

2.7 stars 

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. 

Sutton, Connecticut, March 1666 

At seventeen, Abitha's father sold her to the government to be shipped off to the colonies and become the bride of a Puritan man named Edward. For a girl who has a temper and has no problem spouting profanities, living in a Puritan society has been difficult. Even though he is ten years her senior, Abitha and her husband Edward get along and even are working at growing close to one another. Edward's brother Wallace, however, often tries to take advantage of Edward and this pits Abitha and Wallace against each other. When Wallace can't pay off a debt, he tries to take Edward's farm instead of losing his own and this sets off a tale of murder, spite, revenge, and fantasy and human devils trying to claim the land. 

“Angels must often do dark deeds in the name of the Lord.” 

Slewfoot was a story that combined fantasy horror with historical fiction. The colonial Puritan setting already provides it's own chills as their history in the 1600s is well known and with each charm Abitha makes for a fellow woman in the village, the tension creeps further in as you know how deadly this path could end up for her. I didn't expect the fantasy horror part to play such a large part, it sometimes felt like a separate story at times and wasn't until the last 20% that I thought those two components cohesively gelled. 

“Even the Devil does not wish to be the Devil. [...]” 

The fantasy horror part involves some inspiration from various pagan lore to create the “wildfolk” and their “father” who they wake up by luring a goat and then Edward into a pit and having father feed off their blood. As the goat was Abitha and Edward's, named Samson, this father goat beast becomes Samson. He's physically described to resemble a 1600s devil and this is what characters who see him call him but he's confused as to who , what, and why his purpose is. Samson dealing with his existential crisis provides a track for the author to explore nature vs human themes while Abitha's story fades to the background a little bit and she slowly gets put on a collision course to battle with Wallace. 

As at least cruelty was a thing that could be pointed out, confronted. But this belief, this absolute conviction that this evil they were doing was good, was God’s work— how, she wondered, how could such a dark conviction ever be overcome? 

With Abitha making charms for the other woman, we get some backstory that her mother was a “cunning woman”, a pagan healer, this works to bridge her to Samson as she works to convince herself that he isn't merely the devil but one of the gods, faefolk perhaps. At 40% the two sort of join forces as Samson helps her grow her crops to save her farm and she gives him a purpose other than murdering humans that are encroaching on the land. This upsets the wildfolk as they want to fully reclaim the land and the dichotomy of “good” nature vs “evil” humans gets played with as the wildfolk aren't altruistic and Abitha actually finds friends in a Reverend and his wife. 

The Devil has come for me! 

The middle, with Abitha and Samson, slowed down for me but at 60% we have the creeping witch hysteria finally come to fruition and the focus shifts to that horror as Samson exits the story for a while. The author does a great job of showing how spite and misogyny started the accusation against Abitha from Wallace and then how sweeping fear and cravenness fueled the townspeople. There's some torture scenes and then the last 20% brings together the witch hysteria historical fiction with the fantasy horror and I thought the two finally gelled together and created a murderous revenge celebration. 

“If it is a witch they want,” she hissed, “then a witch they shall have.” 

The beginning had a nice creeping tension feel to it, the middle slowed for me with the Samson fantasy thread not fully gelling with Abitha's historical fiction, but then the ending brought the two together to create some satisfying horror as the devil take their due. The epilogue will probably hit readers differently but I always enjoy a good happily ever after.

View all my reviews