🎧 Reviewed by LD | Rating: 5/5 | Steam: 🔥 | Standalone
⚠️ This is a full spoiler review. If you haven’t read The Witch yet, go read it first. We’ll be here when you’re done.
The Opening
I went into this one fully expecting witches, ghosts. Like, actual paranormal haunting, things going bump in the night, maybe a candle floating across the room. And Freida McFadden absolutely let me think that was where we were headed, all the way through.
The Witch runs two timelines side by side: present-day Julia, who moves back to her family’s ancestral estate and immediately starts having a very bad time, and 1692 Caroline, who is being systematically destroyed by everyone around her for the crime of being a woman who helps people, also known as being a witch I guess. Both timelines are building toward the same house, the same legacy, and a twist I did not see coming quite the way it came. By the time everything clicked into place, I had to just sit with it for a minute.
This one is also a 5/5 from me. A rare thing.
The Full Summary — Spoilers Included
Julia Arrives at a Place She Swore She’d Never Set Foot in Again
Julia is in a bad spot. Her nonprofit job disappeared when the funding dried up, she kept tutoring kids for free until she ran out of savings completely, and now she has no options. So she’s moving into Pemberton, her grandmother’s massive family estate, a place she has actively avoided since she was a teenager, when something happened there that left her with a white patch of hair and a very firm decision to never return.
Her grandmother Lettie (Latitsha) is rapidly declining. Mick, the elderly caretaker who has been there forever, tends the property. When Julia pulls up in front of Pemberton, she spots someone in a peacock outfit in one of the upstairs windows. Except her grandmother and the butler are on the main floor to greet her. So who exactly is standing up there watching her?
Her great-aunt “Ethel” arrives home cold and unwelcoming. Not thrilled about Julia being there at all. She even drops a cryptic line about knowing the real reason Julia’s parents sent her, implying she knows something Julia doesn’t. Julia is put in Caroline’s old room. Caroline, they’re told, was one of the original inhabitants of Pemberton in the late 1600s, married to Archie, burned at the stake for witchcraft. The only one in Wood Haven burned at the stake rather than hung. Ethel has two instructions before she walks away: nobody is to disturb Caroline’s grave. And lock your bedroom door at night. For your own safety.
Julia also flashes back to why she swore off this place as a teenager. She woke in the middle of the night to sounds and whispering right outside her bedroom door, and by morning she had a white patch of hair that hadn’t been there before. She left and never looked back. Until now.
Back in 1692 — Caroline, Archie, and the Lie That Starts Everything
In 1692, Caroline is married to Archie at Pemberton. He’s fifteen years older than her, and they’ve been trying for a child for three years with nothing to show for it. When Archie tells Caroline about a dream where they have a son and takes it as prophecy, Caroline suspects she is barren, so she lies and tells him she is pregnant. He is overjoyed. She is just trying to make her husband happy.
Their servant Molly figures it out immediately. She does the linens. She saw the blood. She confronts Caroline directly: you are lying to your husband. You are not with child. Then Molly pushes even further — how can it be that you’ve laid beside your husband for three years and are still not with child? Tell him you’re barren. Caroline refuses. And can I just say, Molly is brazen as anything. For someone who works in this household, she has absolutely zero interest in following Caroline’s instructions. She just does whatever she feels like, whenever she feels like it.
Meanwhile, in their town of Wood Haven, three women have been strangled recently by someone called the Night Reaper. Archie is nervous about Caroline going to market.
Present Day — the House Starts Doing Things
The grandfather clock stops every night at precisely 3:41am. Mick’s watch stops at the same time. This has been happening for months, according to Mick. Julia wakes to a room that has gone completely freezing despite being warm when she went to bed, with sounds like someone standing right outside her door. Heavy breathing.
Morning after her first terrible night, Julia tells her grandmother it was just a bad dream. Her grandmother, completely unfazed: “That wasn’t a dream, it was Caroline. Did you move the combs?”
She did move the combs.
Her grandmother is just absolutely unbothered by all of this and is honestly a delight.
Then Henry, the local museum curator, comes by. The museum wants to buy Pemberton. Julia’s dad is apparently very enthusiastic about selling a house that has been in the family for literal centuries, which is suspicious right off the bat. Henry asks Julia to dinner to continue the conversation. He seems nice. Helpful. But I was getting weird vibes from Henry the entire book. He’s talking about preserving the estate, sentimentality, all that, and I just didn’t buy it. Julia tells him about the ghost of Caroline at dinner. Henry chuckles: “Ghosts aren’t real.” Okay, Henry.
Back in 1692 — Judith Falls Ill and Everything Starts to Unravel
Their neighbor Judith gets terribly ill. Her husband needs Caroline to fetch the doctor. But Caroline’s father died from repeated bloodlettings by this doctor, and she absolutely refuses to trust him. She goes to find her friend Hettie, who makes tonics and remedies, instead. Hettie isn’t where she expected to be. So Caroline comes back empty-handed.
Molly, who overheard the whole plan, completely ignores what Caroline wanted and goes behind her back to get the doctor anyway.
The doctor, Dr. Shalor, quotes prices the sick person’s family can’t possibly afford so they’ll hand over their most prized possessions instead. When Judith’s husband offers his horse to pay for treatment, Caroline steps in and says she will pay the doctor herself. The doctor’s great medical solution is, of course, bloodletting. He cuts Judith and she starts shaking and seizing while the blood flows. The doctor decides she doesn’t need a doctor, she needs an exorcist. Then he eyes Caroline in a pointed, suspicious way and leaves.
Caroline brings Judith’s fever down herself using actual knowledge: lower the body temperature. It works. Judith wakes up.
When Archie arrives, he delivers terrible news: Hettie was arrested last night. Accused of witchcraft. She is to be hung.
The entire town turns out to watch Hettie’s hanging. Caroline can’t watch her friend die. She runs to the front and stands up for Hettie. Hettie tells her to stop before she signs her own death certificate. Then the floor drops and Hettie dies.
Back home, Molly cannot stop talking about how Hettie got exactly what she deserved. That’s it. Caroline is done having this woman in her house.
Then Archie comes over and asks if Caroline has had her blood this month. Because Molly told him, of course. Molly also reported how Caroline “witchedly” brought Judith back from those convulsions. Then there’s a knock at the door. The deputy. She has been accused of witchcraft.
Present Day — Julia, the Attic Key, and What She Finds Inside
Julia wants into the attic, claiming she heard noises. Ethel is strangely defensive — you don’t belong up there, there are no rats, you don’t need to go up there. Grandma has the key but also refuses. On Julia’s way out the door to meet Henry for dinner, she spots the peacock figure in the attic window one more time.
At dinner, Julia asks Henry about Caroline’s history. He makes a deal: he’ll only tell her if she promises to sit down seriously with grandma to discuss selling Pemberton. He tells her that Caroline was accused of witchcraft by Molly, whose testimony was central to her execution. And then after Caroline was burned at the stake, Molly married Archie. Julia says that makes sense: “That’s probably why she’s so mad.” Henry chuckles: “Ghosts aren’t real.”
The next morning, grandma has a confused spell and mistakes Julia for Ethel. Julia makes an executive decision and asks for the attic keys. Grandma reluctantly hands them over.
In the attic, footprints appear out of nowhere. Not coming from the door — just materializing, and they lead straight to a box. Inside the box: a peacock blue teal dress. The exact one she’s been seeing in the window.
She also finds two sealed letters from Ethel to her mother, never sent. The first reveals that Ethel had a secret fiancé who went to war, that she was planning to tell her parents about the engagement when he came back. His helicopter was shot down. And she was pregnant.
Julia barely makes it out of the attic before Ethel comes home. Ethel notices grandma’s keys are missing. Julia admits she had them, lies about why. Ethel’s reaction is not anger. It’s fear. “I don’t want anything bad to happen to you. Promise me you won’t go up there.” Julia promises.
That night, there’s a noose hanging from the big oak tree in the yard. Wasn’t there that day. And then Julia looks at her window and sees a handprint with elongated fingers, like someone pressed their hand against the glass and dragged it slowly down. She is done. “I’m not spending another night in here.”
Back in 1692 — Caroline in Jail
In jail, Jonas Reeves, supposedly the Night Reaper, tells Caroline from his cell that she’s next for sure. They’ll be using spectral evidence: just people saying they saw something strange around her, and that’s enough to condemn her.
The jailer keeps trying to take advantage of Caroline. When he continues to push, her neighbor Jonas throws a rock at the jailer. The jailer beats Jonas unconscious in retaliation.
Present Day — Mick, the Ghost Hunter, and the Pelvic Bone
Julia asks Mick about the noose the next morning. He says he’s seen it too. “Sometimes it even looks like it’s on fire.” Great. This is all completely fine.
Julia finds a ghost hunter named Dixon and convinces Ethel to let him in. His equipment reacts immediately: cold breeze through the room, his detector going off at the grandfather clock, and reading strongest at the portrait of Archie and Molly. Then his equipment light breaks. He leaves a voice recorder, an EVP, to capture any ghost communication overnight.
Then Julia’s grandmother goes missing. Julia eventually finds her in the backyard, slumped over, crying, holding what looks like a human pelvic bone. She’s apologizing to Ethel. Julia takes the bone to Henry to get it carbon dated.
Back in 1692 — the Trial
At the trial, Caroline is forced to sit and listen to people she thought were friends lie about her to the court. Molly walks in wearing Caroline’s favorite peacock dress. Archie is present but won’t look at his wife. Then Molly sits down beside Archie and he places his hand on her knee, and Caroline looks more closely and realizes: Molly’s stomach is visibly swollen. Archie and Molly have been having an affair. Not only has Molly done everything she can to get her killed, but she has also been sleeping with her husband and is pregnant with his child.
When Archie is asked if he’d like to say something on Caroline’s behalf, he declines. He has just condemned his wife to death with his silence. What the hell, Archie.
Present Day — the Second Letter, the EVP, and Everything Falls Apart
Julia knows she has to read the second letter. It has a date, and Ethel was seven months pregnant exactly two months before Julia’s dad’s birthday. The revelation: Ethel is Julia’s grandmother. Those unsent letters were written by her actual grandmother.
Julia approaches Mick with a name she’d come across: Celia. He denies knowing anyone by that name. Julia knows he was once engaged to a woman named Celia. He’s lying badly.
Dixon comes back to collect the EVP recorder. They play the recording. In the middle of the night, there’s talking: “No. Stop. See, see, see.” Dixon slows the tape down. It’s actually saying: “Celia. Celia.” Ethel completely loses it and throws Dixon out of the house.
Julia takes grandma out for a haircut. When they get back, Ethel is seething. Adult Protective Services showed up while they were gone, and whoever called knew details only Julia would know. Ethel accuses Julia. Julia denies it. It was Henry. Ethel throws Julia out.
Henry calls to ask Julia out. She calls him out on the APS call. He admits it. Julia is packing to leave, but she has to put the pelvic bone back in the ground first.
On the grounds, she finds crude writing scraped into the dirt: “Julia, get out now.” She goes to bury the bone, and then suddenly, she gets cell service. Henry’s missed calls come flooding through. She calls. Henry tells her: the DNA test came back with no familial match. Not even partial. He doesn’t know who “Ethel” is, but she is absolutely not related to Julia.
Back in 1692 — the Escape, and the Night Reaper
Jonas tells Caroline the truth from his cell: he didn’t kill the woman he’s accused of murdering. They were in love, planning to marry. He fakes a seizure, the sheriff comes in, and Jonas clocks him over the head with a rock. They run.
Jonas sets fire to the jail with the sheriff locked inside. The plan is for the townspeople to believe they both died in the fire. Jonas’s plan is to go to Pemberton to get money from Archie. She sneaks into the house, and as she puts the key in the desk lock she hears a woman scream from upstairs.
She runs up. Molly is there, naked, very visibly pregnant, and Archie is choking her. And he looks excited about it. He seems to be in a trance. He finally lets go. Says he couldn’t help himself. He can never help himself. And Caroline understands: Archie is the Night Reaper. Her husband has been the one strangling women in Wood Haven. He admits he killed his first wife too. Caroline had always been told she died of a fever.
When Archie sees Caroline has broken out of jail, he pivots immediately: she bewitched him. She made him do all of it. He can’t let her go now. He grabs her throat.
And Jonas walks in and shoots him.
Caroline thinks they should go to the sheriff and tell the truth. Jonas says nobody is going to take the word of someone accused of murdering women and practicing witchcraft. He has another plan. They’re both officially dead, supposedly killed in the jail fire. What if Archie and Molly are said to have decided to leave town out of shame over the pregnancy? Jonas and Caroline take their identities. They bury the bodies of Archie and Molly, and they walk away.
Present Day — Celia
Julia is digging to put the bone back when two flashlight beams start moving across the yard toward her. Ethel and Mick. Ethel is talking about how Julia found Ethel’s body. And then Mick says: “Celia, let’s go inside and talk about this.” This is not Ethel.
This is Celia.
And everything crashes into place. Celia admits she killed the real Ethel. She talked Ethel into giving birth at home, and once the baby came, she smothered Ethel and told Ethel’s sister she’d died in childbirth. Julia’s grandmother Lettie/Latitsha raised Julia’s father as her own. Julia’s dad is Ethel’s biological child, never knowing his real mother was murdered.
Celia has been living as Ethel ever since.
And the haunting? All staged. Celia knew Julia believed Pemberton was haunted, so she weaponized it. Mick played recordings outside Julia’s room at night. He pumped cold air in. The noose, the handprint, the freezing room: all manufactured to drive Julia away before she could figure out the truth. But Celia is done with Mick now. She shoots him. Though the thread is left open that perhaps it was the ghost of Ethel who left Mick’s clues, not Mick himself.
Celia forces Julia at gunpoint to dig the hole bigger. She’s planning to bury Julia and grandma both in it. Julia throws dirt and runs. Gets to the house — door locked. Celia catches up with the gun.
And then: Celia goes down. Standing over her, holding a shovel, is grandma Latitsha. “You’re not going to kill anyone I love ever again.”
Henry called the police when the call dropped. They arrive and arrest Celia.
When they question grandma, she says she didn’t go outside at the same time as Celia. She says Ethel woke her up and told her to grab the shovel and go outside. They say, “You mean Celia?” Grandma says: “No. I mean Ethel. It’s Ethel’s ghost.”
Julia is certain. There really is a ghost of Ethel roaming Pemberton.
The Resolution
One year later: Celia is tried and convicted on two counts of murder. The museum buys Pemberton. Henry and Julia move in together. When police dig up the yard, they find not just Ethel’s body, but two more graves. The one with the 300-year-old pelvic bone, and one they weren’t expecting: Molly’s.
And for Caroline — twenty-five years after that fateful night, Caroline and Jonas return to Pemberton. She’s living as Molly, he’s living as Archie. They were married shortly after leaving the first time. They had four children together — so she was not barren after all. They hung their portrait in the house. It hangs there to this day. Though that is the portrait everyone thinks is Archie and Molly.
The Character We Loved to Hate
Molly. Absolutely no contest. This woman had the audacity to go behind Caroline’s back at every single turn: getting the doctor when Caroline explicitly didn’t want the doctor, reporting Caroline’s infertility to Archie, testifying against her at trial, and showing up to watch Caroline be condemned while wearing Caroline’s own favorite peacock dress. For a servant, she had a breathtaking level of confidence in her right to do whatever she wanted. She is toxic, and she knew exactly what she was doing at every step.
And then there’s Archie, who sat in that courtroom and declined to defend his wife. Who was the Night Reaper the entire time. Who killed his first wife. Who got Molly pregnant and then started choking her in the same breath. What the hell, Archie. What the actual hell.
The Steam Rating Breakdown
🔥 / 5 — Zero steam. No romance arc, no heat, just gothic tension, dual-timeline mystery, and three hundred years of injustice to unpack. 🔥 means no steam, and The Witch earns that rating honestly.
The Ending Explained— Satisfied or Disappointed?
Satisfied. Very much so. The dual-timeline payoff hit hard — realizing the portrait that kept registering on Dixon’s equipment was actually Caroline and Jonas, not Archie and Molly at all. Finding Molly’s grave in the yard. Understanding the entire family legacy was built on a cover story and a survival plan made by two people the town left for dead.
I also want to say: I went into this fully expecting paranormal. The teal figure in the window, the clock stopping at 3:41am, the freezing cold room. It turned out to be mostly staged, except maybe for Ethel. I liked that. It didn’t feel like a cheat. It felt like the right version of the answer.
And I’ll be honest, I kept waiting for the shoe to drop. Because a lot of Freida McFadden’s books do not have happily ever afters. And this one does. For everyone involved.
Would I Reread It?
Nope — this one is a one-and-done for me. The mystery is the whole ride, and once you know how it all comes together, there’s no reason to go back. Read it once, love it, and move on.
Who Is This For
If you love dual-timeline historicals, gothic estates, the kind of mystery where the haunting turns out to be something far more human than supernatural, and Freida McFadden doing what she does best — stacking secrets until the whole thing collapses into a reveal — this one is for you. No steam, no romance arc, but a deeply satisfying story of injustice and survival across three centuries.
Where to Get This Book
📖 Physical Book
Amazon US | Amazon CA | Bookshop.org
🎧 Audiobook
Audible US | Audible CA | Libro.fm
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Plot Twisted. 🔥
🎧 | Standalone | Genre: Gothic Historical Mystery/Thriller | Steam: 🔥
More from Freida McFadden
- The Intruder (A 12 year old covered in blood, hiding in her shed with a knife, dual timeline, murder, hoarding, abuse and more)
- The Safe Room (Stalker, trapped in a room..)