Smashbomb

Search

Search results

All (5000)

Content

ClareR (6106 KP) rated The Hemlock Cure in Books

Apr 6, 2023

The Hemlock Cure

Joanne Burn | 2022 | Fiction & Poetry

8.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

The Hemlock Cure was a fascinating insight into the lives of ordinary people during the Black Death (Bubonic Plague) epidemic of 1665-1666. The plague is very much in the background of this story for most of it, though.

The real evil isn’t a disease, it’s being shut in with people who clearly do not have good intentions.

The village of Eyam is well known for the decision to shut itself off from the outside world when its inhabitants started to become ill and die. They understood that the only way to halt the spread of the disease was to isolate themselves - a selfless act.

This novel looks at some of the families and their relationships inside and outside of their family units. The local apothecary and his daughter Mae, are one such family. Mae is desperate to be her fathers apprentice, but this isn’t a time in history where it’s safe for a woman to be working with herbs. So Mae studies with the midwife and a local wise woman (who are both also skating on thin ice, truth be told).

The plague wasn’t a constant in London it appears, and we travel there with one of the main characters. The contrast between the country village and London was quite something to read. I could almost smell the difference off the page!!

I enjoyed the pacing of this book: in Eyam the time crawls, whilst in London everything is all hustle and bustle.

The slow reveal of the terrible secrets in Mae’s family are not so much shocking as terrifying. Wulfric, Mae’s father, is not a well man. It seems to be a race against time for Mae.

I would most definitely recommend this book to historical fiction fans - and if you like a mystery, you may well like this as well.