3.5 Stars

CW: horrific slut shaming, sharing and doctoring of nude images of young teen, death of father from cancer, teen abortion.

I am still in a state of sick shock after reading this book. I can't fathom the level of horrific bullying that took place and the school's absolutely unacceptable response. I have worked in a few high schools in New Zealand as a teacher and as a librarian and I have seen and dealt with some horrible bullying incidents, but the severity of the vitriolic hate filled attacks in this book are mind blowingly horrendous. Let's not be bystanders to bullying. We all need to call it out when we see it.

He waka eke noa - we are all in this together (Māori saying). ( )

Powerful. Honest. Brutal. A novel about the damages of Social Media and how it can destroy one person's life. One wrong post is one massive Burn. It reminded me of a modern-day twist on the Salem Witch Trials, blaming one based on false pretenses. The book showed how easily a teen girl can be manipulated by promises of "love". All teen girls need to read this book, so they can understand that it's OK to stand up against bullies; that it's ok to say NO. The final scenes of the book blew me away... ( )

This book seems so interesting, definitely reading it soon! 5 star for the cover, description and theme xx ( )

You know a book is going to be amazing when the quote on the back cover reads: “We are the granddaughters of the witches you could not burn. And we are not putting up with it anymore.” Technically, the quote is changed a bit from that in the text proper, but either way it is a powerful manifesto that is a welcome introduction to the major themes of the book. Author Laura Bates pairs the contemporary story of a highschool girl named Anna who has uprooted her life and moved to Scotland with her mother for a new beginning and that of a young girl in the past named Maggie who was accused of witchcraft in the village that Anna has moved to. Anna and her mother have moved to Scotland to escape the vicious rumours about Anna after she sent some nude photographs to her boyfriend (who subsequently leaked them), but their newfound safety does not last for long as Anna’s “friends” from back home find out where she is now living and make it a point to let her new classmates in on her past. Obviously the situation is an unfortunate one, which is all too common in the current age of social media where rumours and tasteless information can easily be spread, and paired with the story of the Scottish witch hunting craze readers are sure to see similarities in the ridiculousness of unfounded accusations, the mania of rumours and gossip, and the cruelty of communities that continue in new forms as they did historically. In light of the social justice movement that turns the consequences of poor behaviour back on the perpetrators (Anna and Maggie are the wronged parties here, make no mistake, even if they did not make perfect choices), this novel is one with a strong message wrapped up in an engaging story that needs to be told and told again until we live in a more enlightened world. ( )

This book does exactly what the author intends. It takes a mistake by a fourteen year old girl, made when she gives in to her boyfriend's demands and sends him a photo of her breasts, and lets it become a raging online fire, one that can't be outrun. That's what Anna and her mom try to do when they move from England to Scotland. At first Anna thinks things will be okay, especially when she starts to make two new friends, but it's not long before someone at her new school learns about the picture...and worse. Laura Bates blends Anna's situation with the painful life of Maggie, a fisherman's daughter who lived 400 years before, who after being sexually assaulted and impregnated by a nobleman's son, was tried for witchcraft. The mixing of the two girls' experiences is superbly done.
This is a book that deserves not only to be in most libraries, but should be read and discussed in classes as well because it has a powerful message. ( )