Wicked Girls by Stephanie Hemphill

Hemphill, Stephanie. Wicked Girls: A Novel of the Salem Witch Trials. New York: Balzer & Bray, 2010.

ISBN: 9780061853289

“Wicked Girls” by Stephanie Hemphill is a verse novel which fictionally accounts the Salem Witch Trials from the point of view of the girls who were “afflicted”.  Poems are told by three narrators: Mercy Lewis, Ann Putnam Jr., and Margaret Walcott.  The novel is intended for a teen audience and aims to give insight into the minds and motives of the girls who were accusing neighbors and strangers of being witches.  Hemphill carefully crafts the poems to demonstrate the group dynamics of the girls.  She incorporates typical teen emotions and experiences of jealousy, young love, and familial fondness.  Hemphill expertly writes the characters of the girls to retain a sense of humanity when it’d be easy to demonize these young women who were ultimately responsible for the deaths of dozens of innocent people. 

            The poems which comprise the novel are of varying length and free form.  The story is told in a linear format.  Rather than being broken up by chapters, the novel is broken up by a date and a narrator-less poem which seems to set the stage for the following set of poems. 

With Temperature

Margaret Walcott, 17

‘Tis late in the night

I wake in waters like a child.

Ann snores breezy

While I change my blankets.

In the morn I lie

Still in my bedclothes.

“I cannot go to meeting today,”

I say.

Aunt Ann touches my forehead.

“You feel not hot,” she says.

“I did vomit ‘pon myself

While I slept.”

Aunt backs away from the bed.

“Well, then you best remain here.”

“Ann.” I grab my cousin’s arm

After her mother leaves.

“Do tell Isaac to come and visit me.”

Ann nods and eyes me oddly.

“Do this.” My voice be stern.

She shakes loose of my grip. “Fine.”

I wait all afternoon pacing

The floor, peering out the window.

I listen for the pat of his boots,

But Isaac comes not.

I nearly scream at her,

“Did ye forget to tell Isaac

I was not well?”

Ann snipes back, “Aye, I told him.”

“And what did he say? Tell me all.”

I soften my sound and pat the bed.

I plead with Ann to sit down.

Ann crosses her arms,

But she lights on the edge of my bed.

“Isaac did nod and then talked to Mercy.”

First I got no voice to talk,

Then it comes out yelling at Ann,

“About what!?”

“I know not.”  Ann stands and nearly

Takes leave of the room.

I fall to my knees “Please, I am sorry.

Tell me what they did say?” I bite my lip.

“They spoke of riding and what a fine day

It be. I but stood there. It be rather dull.”

The tears river down my neck.

Ann says, “Margaret, you be flushed.

Shall I call mother?”

“No,” I say. I turn my head away.

“Leave me. Just leave me be alone.”

This poem exemplifies the emotions felt by the characters through the novel.  The girls felt things intensely which attempts to explain the unexplainable.  If I were to introduce “Wicked Girls” to a group, the group would need a solid historical understanding of the Salem Witch Trials.  The novel would serve as a way for the students to connect with the history on a deeper level.  Since the novel is chronological, we’d read sections as we study and take an opportunity to humanize historical figures.