Point of View

This novel is told from three different points of view. Altha’s story is told from Altha’s first-person point of view. Consider the first sentences: “Ten days they’d held me there. Ten days, with only the stink of my own flesh for company” (3). Hart makes it appear as if Altha is telling her own story in the moment to keep the reader in suspense about whether she was found guilty of witchcraft. After Altha has been found not guilty, Hart shares in the narration that Altha has written down her story so that future generations of Weyward women can read it. The sections of the story credited to Altha are the text from her manuscript.

The sections of the novel that contain Kate and Violet’s stories are written from the third person point of view with an emphasis on those characters. For...