The protagonists and plot of Mercy Short do not appear in any of Farber's other works. Two other authors, however, wrote novels dealing with young women, witches and witchhunts in Puritan New England—Elizabeth George Speare's The Witch of Blackbird Pond (1958), and Ann Petry's Tituba of Salem Village (1964). The protagonists in both books, Tituba, a black slave, and Kit Taylor, a young white woman, dare to be their own unique selves in their harsh, religiously-conformist communities. Their innocent, yet different, actions bring about fear, suspicion, and hostility among the villagers.

They are accused of being witches.

Despite this unjust persecution, they remain steadfast, courageous and committed to their beliefs. In this personagainst-society conflict, they endure in the end.